Mary Nichols - Scandal At Greystone Manor

‘I thought you already had someone,’ Jane said, turning towards him. He was almost as tall as Drew, but slimmer and his urbane good looks contrasted sharply with the weathered look of his friend.

‘So I did, but he has been called away and when I met Drew in London, the solution to my problem was obvious.’

‘How fortuitous for you.’ She turned back to Drew. ‘So, you came to see how we all go on in Hadlea, Mr Ashton. We are a quiet community, little changes here.’

‘Except we all grow older and wiser,’ he said.

‘That is true, of course.’ Was that some reference to their youth ten years before or was he telling her his old passion had died a natural death, as surely hers must have done?

‘Jane, I need to have a quiet word with you,’ Mark said. ‘Perhaps Drew will excuse us for a moment?’

‘To be sure,’ Drew said. ‘I will amuse myself exploring the village.’ He bowed to Jane. ‘Good day, Miss Cavenhurst. I shall look forward to renewing my acquaintance with the rest of your family while I am here.’

She bowed her head in acknowledgement. ‘Good day, Mr Ashton.’

She watched him stride away, then turned back to Mark. ‘He is much changed and yet he has not changed at all.’

‘Except he is richer,’ Mark said with a laugh.

‘What is it you wanted to speak to me about?’ She did not want to talk about Andrew Ashton. His sudden arrival was something else she had to deal with. Would he mention the past or would it be a closed book? She hoped the latter. She did not want to be reminded of it.

Mark’s smile died and he seemed to be reluctant to go on, which was so unlike him that she wondered what it could be. ‘Jane, I met Lord Bolsover while I was in London. Drew and I had a hand of whist with him and a friend of his at White’s.’

‘Oh, surely you are not a gambling man, Mark? Gambling is an insidious evil.’

‘I only play for amusement now and again and never for high stakes. You play yourself of an evening, do you not?’

‘Yes, when we have company and then for counters, not money. But do go on.’

‘Bolsover is not a man I would normally associate with, but Drew wanted a game.’

‘Mark, you are beating about the bush. You are going to tell me Teddy owes him money, aren’t you?’

‘You know of it?’

‘I am the first person my brother comes to when he is in trouble.’

‘I believe he owes Lord Bolsover a substantial amount—will you tell me how much?’

‘Mark, I know you mean well, but Teddy would not like me to divulge the figure, not even to you. Why do you want to know?’

‘Lord Bolsover is putting it about that Teddy is a welsher and he will have his money by hook or by crook. He even hinted he would have the Manor.’

She gasped. ‘It is not so large an amount, Mark. He cannot do that, can he?’

‘Not while your papa is alive, but when Teddy inherits, that will be a different matter. Isabel will be with me, of course, but I am concerned for you and your mother and Sophie. Can Sir Edward settle the debts?’

She hesitated. To her shame, she had already told one untruth that day and she did not want to tell another, especially to Mark, but he had truly frightened her with his tale that Lord Bolsover had bought up all Teddy’s debts, the full extent of which she did not know.

‘Come, Jane, I am soon to be family and would help if I could. I will not repeat what you tell me.’

‘Whether Papa can or cannot is not to the point, Mark. He simply refuses.’

‘Oh, dear, does he know how deep in Teddy is?’

‘I do not know, Teddy may have told him, but if matters are as bad as you say, Papa would have a struggle to settle, I think. Like everyone he has been badly hit by taxes and poor harvests. I shall do what I can for Teddy with my own money and that may hold his lordship off for a time.’

‘Jane, you cannot do that. Your money is your dowry.’

She gave him a crooked grin. ‘I am never likely to marry, Mark, and we all know it.’

‘Nonsense. You would make someone a splendid wife and I know that you love children. I have seen you with them in the village.’ He laughed suddenly. ‘If I were not already taken, I might offer myself.’

She could not help it, the tears spilled from her eyes. It was so unlike the down-to-earth Jane, he became alarmed. He put his arm about her and pulled her to him, so that her head nestled on his shoulder. ‘I didn’t think that would make you cry, Jane. I beg forgiveness.’

Angry with herself, she pulled away from him. ‘Oh, it wasn’t that. It was...’ She gulped. ‘It was the thought of Teddy’s debts bringing us so low.’ She dried her eyes and managed a laugh. ‘I could cheerfully beat him.’

‘So could I.’

‘Isabel knows nothing of it, so please do not say anything. We mustn’t spoil her wedding. I have no doubt we will come about.’

‘I will escort you home.’

‘No, please don’t. I shall be fine. Go back to Mr Ashton; he is obviously waiting for you.’ She nodded towards Drew, who was idling on the other side of the green.

* * *

It was typical of Jane, to be so unselfish, Mark thought as he rejoined Drew. She always thought of others before herself and that blinkered family of hers took her for granted. Even Isabel, while singing her praises, took advantage of her. As for their brother, he was a scapegrace without an ounce of conscience or good sense and to apply to his sister whenever he was in trouble was the outside of enough. He could pay the debt for them, but he was quite sure Sir Edward would be too proud to accept it, though he did not doubt Teddy would take it eagerly and then go on as before. It would be like throwing money into a bottomless pit. Teddy needed to be taught a salutary lesson. But what and how? It needed some thought and he would do nothing until after the wedding.

‘If I did not know you better, I would think you were a little too fond of your future sister-in-law,’ Drew said as they turned to walk back to Broadacres.

‘Nonsense. I am afraid I unintentionally upset her.’

‘Didn’t look like that to me.’

‘Looks can be deceptive and it is none of your business anyway, Drew.’

‘True, and neither is it true of those old biddies standing by that garden gate, but I have no doubt they will make it so.’

Mark glanced in the direction of Drew’s nod. Mrs Stangate and her crony, Mrs Finch, were standing at the former’s garden gate, watching them. ‘Oh, no, the two biggest gossips in the village. They will add two and two and make five.’

‘Whatever did you say to her? It must have been something very telling for you to abandon your usual sense of propriety.’

‘I expressed the wish to beat her brother.’

Drew laughed. ‘Oh, I assume you told her of our meeting with Lord Bolsover.’

‘Yes, but she already knew some of what Teddy had been up to but, I suspect, not the whole. It makes me angry the way everyone in that family leans on Jane and expects her to fetch them out of whatever bumblebath they have tumbled into.’

‘Is that so?’

‘Yes. She has given up everything for them and is now proposing to use her own money to pay off Teddy’s debt.’

‘Does she know how much that is?’

‘I don’t think so. Nor do I think she has enough. According to Isabel, their grandmother left each of the girls a little money for a dowry. Isabel has already spent hers on her trousseau, so it cannot have been a great amount.’

‘Tell me,’ Drew said thoughtfully. ‘Why did you choose Isabel over Jane, when you so clearly have a high regard for her?’

Mark hesitated before replying, trying to find a satisfactory answer. ‘A high regard is not love, is it? Jane has much to commend her, but I did not think of her in that way. Everyone, and that includes me, simply accepted that she was not going to marry and it became easy to think of her as Isabel’s unmarried sister. Unfair, perhaps, but that is the way of it.’ How unfair he was only now beginning to realise.