Louise Allen - Regency Pleasures and Sins Part 1

‘Appoint Jenny housekeeper.’ It was the first thing that came into his mind and it worked magic.

‘Oh, yes, Nick, how clever of you. Between us we can manage, I am sure of it.’ Suddenly she was relaxed and happy again, threading her hand through the crook of his elbow and urging him towards the front door. ‘We must go back now, I have so much to think about.’

Nick let himself be hustled out, suppressing the grin that was threatening to break out. It was a secret, dangerous delight being managed by his wife. The trick was to ensure this lasted a lifetime and not a mere twenty-four days.

‘Jenny!’ Katherine whirled into her bedchamber, causing her maid to jump and to drop a pile of freshly laundered chemises.

‘Look what you’ve made me do now, Miss Katherine,’ she grumbled, stooping to pick them up again. ‘I’d just folded them all as well … What is it? You look so happy.’

‘I have seen the Dower House and we will be moving in there tomorrow. Oh, Jenny, it is delightful. And I would like you to be housekeeper. Will you do that? On an appropriate salary, of course.’

Jenny made a little flapping movement with her hand, dismissing the money. ‘For how long, Miss Katherine?’

‘Oh,’ she said flatly. ‘Oh, just the remainder of the time I will be here—twenty-four days.’

Jenny was refolding underwear with an exasperated snap and slap. ‘But that’s how long the master said you must wait before he would agree; it will take goodness knows how long after that. Where will you go then?’

‘I do not know,’ Katherine said wearily, all the fizzing excitement of her ride and the Dower House ebbing away. ‘I must think of something. And, Jenny, I do not know how I will be able to keep you and John on either. I am so sorry. I will quite understand if you want to start looking for a new position right away.’

Curiously Jenny flushed a rosy pink. ‘Don’t you worry about that, Miss Katherine, we’ll be all right. Now, let’s get you out of that habit. Did you have a nice ride?’

Katherine was still subdued and preoccupied when she came down to dinner. Earlier she had waylaid Heron and enquired which newspapers the household received. “The Times, the London Recorder and the Leeds Intelligencer, my lady. Plus, of course the various journals to which his Grace and Lord Robert subscribe. Would you wish me to place an order for some ladies’ journals, my lady? La Belle Assemblée, perhaps?’

‘No.’ Katherine hesitated, then recalled what Nick had said about the extent of the servants’ knowledge of what was going on. ‘Heron, I would like to take you into my confidence.’

The butler bowed slightly. ‘I would be honoured, my lady. Might I suggest we step into the Blue Salon?’

Once in private, Katherine clasped her hands together and sought for words, feeling far more like an errant chambermaid than the lady of the house. ‘Heron, you are aware that his lordship and I are seeking an annulment?’

He inclined his head, but did not comment.

‘When I leave here I must seek employment as I have no resources.’

Now he did look shocked. ‘But, my lady, his lordship will naturally provide for you.’

‘I know that, but I do not wish him to, Heron. Now you understand why I need to see the newspapers; I wish to scan the employment vacancies.’

‘I will secure the daily papers as soon as his Grace has finished with them, my lady. I will also place an order for the local newspapers that we use when advertising for staff. Those, that is, which advertise positions of a genteel nature.’

‘Thank you, Heron, I appreciate your assistance.’

‘My lady, I can assure you that anyone in this household would do their utmost to be of help to your ladyship.’ He bowed stiffly and went out, leaving Katherine somewhat taken aback.

Now, entering the Chinese Salon, a further uncomfortable thought struck her. Could she hide her marital history from a potential employer who would very likely consider it shocking? And what about references? She could hardly ask Nick or the Duke for a recommendation. A sudden bizarre notion flashed into her mind and she could imagine Nick penning a letter to some elderly lady who had wanted a companion.

I can recommend Miss Cunningham most highly as an accomplished pursuer of highwaymen. She is skilled in assaulting magistrates and is capable of conversing with such varied members of society as the Governor of Newgate prison and Will the Fly …

‘You are looking very cheerful, my dear Katherine,’ the Duke remarked as she entered.

‘Good evening, your Grace. Just a foolish thought that entered my head.’

‘Not so foolish if it can bring a smile to your lips. Now, my dear, allow me to introduce you to two members of our household who have been away from home visiting the Bishop. Mr Crace, our learned archivist …’ Katherine exchanged polite bows with a tubby little man who beamed at her ‘… and the Reverend Rossington, our equally learned chaplain.’ A large, rather shambling man with bushy eyebrows and bulging pockets.

‘Mr Crace, Reverend. I do hope you had a pleasant journey back from Bishop’s Auckland.’ She smiled, inwardly wondering what, if anything, his Grace had told the two men about her position in the household.

The Duke took her elbow and steered her towards a chair by the fire, murmuring, in uncanny echo of her thoughts, ‘Mr Crace is also our lawyer and Mr Rossington will be able to advise on the ecclesiastical aspects of your proposed course of action, Katherine. I have already apprised them that you are considering an annulment, and they stand ready to advise you and Nicholas at any time. I thought you might be more comfortable knowing exactly what the extent of their knowledge was.’

‘Thank you, your Grace,’ she said. That at least solved the problem of seeking legal advice, which had been exercising her greatly. If Nick chose to be difficult, she shrank from the thought of revealing such a sensitive matter to a strange lawyer.

Nick and Robert entered on the thought, both of them with the vaguely guilty air of schoolboys late for dinner. After greeting the other men, Nick made his way over to her chair. ‘And what, madam wife, is causing you to smile your cat at the mousehole smile, might I ask?’

Katherine tipped back her head to look at him. ‘You and Robert looked about fourteen coming in just now, as though you had been out playing and had come in late for dinner.’

He grinned. ‘True enough. One of the things that can still fill me with a healthy dread is Father’s wrath at unpunctuality.

And, yes, the two of us have been out schooling that grey horse, Xerxes.’

‘Did you enjoy yourselves?’ ‘Very much. Robert fell off three times, I fell off—’ ‘I have been thinking,’ the Duke announced with a sublime confidence that every other conversation in the room would cease. ‘And I have decided that, to announce to local society that my elder son has returned, I will hold a ball.’

‘A ball?’ Nick echoed his father icily. ‘And exactly how do you expect to introduce my wife to society at the moment, sir?’

‘As Miss Cunningham,’ his Grace suggested with equal froideur. ‘That leaves all Katherine’s options open, I believe.’ He smiled benignly at her.

‘And how do we account for the fact that an unmarried lady is living unchaperoned in an all-male household? Sir,’ Nick enquired with a politeness that did not convince Katherine for a moment.