Do you know him well?
No, though he has a reputation for playing deep. I had no idea he was so low in the stirrups.
You dont think Bentwater will hold him to their arrangement, do you?
Oh, no doubt of it, though how long shell last I have no idea. Hes been through three wives already, all of them wealthy. The first died in childbirth and the infant along with her. Rumour at the time had it he was mad as fire because it was a boy. Wife two died in an accident with a coach and wife three was murdered by an unknown assailant who has never been caught. Her brother maintained at the time Bentwater himself was the culprit, but no evidence was found and it was put down to the mans grief. Naturally, his lordship has been finding it hard to persuade a fourth to take the trip to the altar.
He could not imagine any young lady of twenty years, with an ounce of spirit, agreeing to marry Lord Bentwater. The man was positively repulsive. Nor would any mother worth her salt allow her daughter to be used in that waySir George had said as much. What do you suppose will happen if she cuts up rough and refuses the old rake? They can hardly drag her to the altar.
No idea. Presumably Sir George will have to find another way to redeem his vouchers.
If we had not agreed to play, the situation would not have occurred.
If we hadnt played, they would have found someone else, if not tonight, then some other time. Ill wager Bentwater didnt just think of that on the spur of the moment, he has been planning it for some time. And I fancy anyone trying to thwart him will find he has made a mortal enemy. If you are thinking of intervening, Malvers
Not I. I do not have twenty thousand pounds to throw away. Why did everyone assume that, because he had inherited a title, he was a wealthy man? It was far from the case.
You wouldnt be throwing it away. You would be gaining a wife and, according to Sir George, she has a fortune. I say, you arent married, are you?
No, never had the time. Ive been soldiering all my adult life. The late Viscount had had very little time for his younger son, whom he considered soft and too attached to his mother. He had packed him off into the army to harden him up and make a man of him. The life of a soldier had certainly hardened him, had taught him not to shudder at mans inhumanity to man, to deal with wounds and indiscipline in a measured way, but under that hard shell the core of him remained what it had always been: sympathetic to the plight of others, especially those not able to defend themselves.
He had been known to give up his own billet for a soldier who was ill, but should that same man let him down his wrath could be terrible. Being an officer, it had sometimes been his duty to order punishment for misdemeanours among his men, even when he felt sorry for them, but showing it would have been interpreted as weakness and he would have forfeited their respect. He was not to be duped or crossed, but anyone with a genuine grievance would find in him a ready listener. He could fight ferociously, but at the end of a successful battle could spare the life of an enemy, when others would have slaughtered him with no compunction. The two sides of his naturethe hard, somewhat cynical soldier and the compassionate, caring manwere often in conflict with each other, which made him something of an enigma to those around him.
So, have you only recently come into your inheritance?
Last year. My elder brother died and my father only a week later, of the shock, you know. Lawrence, seven years older than Alex, had been the apple of his fathers eye, a hard-riding, hard-drinking autocrat, and his death in a hunting accident had caused their father to collapse of a heart attack from which he had not recovered.
My condolences.
Thank you.
Your brother had no heir?
No. Lawrence had married as society and family convention dictated, money and rank being uppermost in the arrangement, and that had been a disaster. Lawrence had found himself trying to satisfy a wife who would never be satisfied. As far as Constance was concerned, she had married a title and the fact that her husbands pockets were not bottomless carried no weight with her. The more he tried to please her, the more she demanded.
Why did you marry her? Alex had asked him after one particularly acrimonious dispute over her extravagance and the disreputable friends she encouraged.
Because it was expected of me. As the elder son I must have a wife in order to beget a legitimate heir to carry on the line.
He knew that. But why Constance? Why not someone else?
She seemed eminently suitableold established family, good looksand she set out to charm me. Once the ring was on her finger, I realised how false that charm was. Too late. Just be thankful you are a second son, Alex, and can please yourself.
Matters went from bad to worse, until the prospect of a career in the army was a welcome escape from the tensions in the house. The men under his command had become his family. They lived, ate, played and fought together and his care of them was repaid with staunch loyalty. He had seen some of them die, seen courage and stoicism and cruelty too. He had watched those women who had been allowed to accompany their men combing the battlefield after every encounter with the enemy, ready to tend their wounds. He admired their devotion, their stoical acceptance of the hard and dangerous life in order to be with their men, to endure heat and drought, rain and snow, to cook for them at the end of a days march, tend their wounds, even carry their kit if they were too exhausted to do so. He had found himself comparing the steadfastness of these ragged uneducated women with some of the officers wives who considered it their God-given right to ride in carriages, take the cosiest billets and the best of whatever food was going. And their men, fools that they were, pandered to them, just as Lawrence had done. It hadnt made Constance love him any the more; Alex suspected she despised him. In his opinion, it was the miserable state of Lawrences marriage and his wifes inability to give him a child that had led to his brothers heavy drinking and ultimate demise. Alex was determined not to let that happen to him.
He had come home after Waterloo to find his mother in mourning, his sister-in-law run off with her latest lover and the estate struggling to pay its way. But hed be damned if hed marry for money, which was what the family lawyer had suggested. He had taken over Lawrences mantle, but he was determined not to fall into the same trap his brother had. If he ever married, and he was certainly in no hurry to do so, he would need to be very, very sure
So, what are you doing in London? Maddoxs voice interrupted his reverie.
I had business to transact. He had to bring the Buregreen estate back into profit, but, since his father had never allowed him to have anything to do with the business of running it, he knew next to nothing about how it could be done and he needed the help of a good steward. He had come to London with that in mind and had already engaged a man who had been recommended by his lawyer. And my mother had an idea a little town bronze he added with a wry smile.
Then why not come to Almacks with me on Wednesday? Its the place to be seen if youre hanging out for a wife. We could take a peep at Sir Georges stepdaughter.
I am not hanging out for a wife. I would as lief not marry at all.
But every man must marry, Maddox said. Any man of substance, that is. It is his duty to find himself a wife to carry on the line, someone from a good family of equal rank and with an impeccable reputation. That is of prime importance. Of course, it helps if she is also decorative
Duty? Alex queried. I did my duty as a soldier.
So you may have done, but there are other kinds of duty, dont you know? What would happen to all the great country estates if there were no sons to inherit? Theyd go to distant cousins, thats what, and eventually be dispersed. Who would run the country then, eh? Mushrooms, jumped-up cits, men without an ounce of breeding. It wouldnt do, my dear fellow, it simply would not do.
Alex had heard that argument from both his mother and aunt since he had come back from Waterloo. I did not expect to inherit, I wasnt brought up even to think of it. And what Ive seen of marriage does not dispose me towards venturing into it.
You sound as if you have been bitten, my friend.
Not me, but I have seen what can happen. Misery for both.
So you wont come to Almacks?
The only time I went to Almacks, back in my green days, I hated it. It was too stiff and formal, all that dressing up in breeches and silk stockings and not a decent drink to be had. Besides, I cant. I have a prior engagement. I promised my aunt I would accompany her to Lady Melbournes soirée.
Maddox laughed. That sounds as exciting as drinking ditchwater.
A promise is a promise and it will be preferable to standing in line with a crowd of young hopefuls, dressed like a popinjay, hoping to be noticed. I am too long in the tooth for that. Besides, the chits who are paraded at places like Almacks are too young and silly for my taste. And if you have some crazy notion to throw me in the way of Sir Georges stepdaughter, then I advise you to put it from your mind. I have no intention of shackling myself to someone I have never met and do not know just to give you something to dine on for the rest of the Season. It would be the worst possible start to a marriage.
I wasnt thinking anything of the sort. It was curiosity, thats all, just to see what shes like. Why, a man would be a fool to jump into matrimony because he felt sorry for the girl. She might turn out to be a real harridan.
Quite, Alex said, thinking of Lawrence. Away with you to your bed, young un. I am going home to mine.
They parted on the corner of Mount Street and Alex strode down its length to the house on the corner of Park Lane where he was staying with his aunt, Lady Augusta Banks. He was very fond of his aunt, but he knew she had been asked by his mother to help him find a wife and she was determined to discharge that commission to the best of her ability. Already she was planning to put him in the way of every unmarried young lady in town, but searching for a life partner in that cold-blooded way went so much against the grain he had not been co-operative. It was why he had gone to Brookss, in order to escape yet another soirée, although he had promised to escort her to Lady Melbournes. There were often men in government in her ladyships drawing room and he had a mind to sound some of them out about a pet project of his.
He wanted to do something to help discharged soldiers coming home from the war without employment, which had been on his mind even before he became the new Viscount. It was employment they needed, not charity, and his idea was to set up workshops and small manufactories and provide them with tools so that they could make their own way and provide for their families. He could not do it alone, which was why he wanted to talk to men with influence. If he took his place in the Lords, he might be able to make a noise about the scandalous way the men had been treated. They were in dire need, which was something that could not be said of a chit worth thirty thousand a year.
Nevertheless, it was a long time before he could sleep, though he blamed it on the noises in the street from the increased mornings traffic in the road outside his window as the business of the day progressed.
Chapter One
Lady Emma Lindsay looked at herself in the mirror, not out of vanity but simply to assure herself that the gown she wore would pass muster. It was made in pale blue mousseline de soie, with tiny puffed sleeves, a deep boat-shaped neckline edged with a darker blue satin ribbon, and a high waist marked by the same ribbon. The skirt stopped just short of her feet and revealed satin slippers. Her maid had arranged her dark brown hair à la Grecque, held with a coronet of tiny silk flowers.
There! You look very fine indeed, Rose said, as she helped Emma on with her velvet cape, handed her a fan decorated with a woodland scene and stood back, smiling at the picture she had helped to create. You will have all the eligibles falling at your feet.
Too late, Rose, too late. I shall soon be one and twenty, almost at my last prayers. She was unusually tall, but then all the Lindsays were tall, so it was hardly surprising. What with her height and her age, she despaired of finding a husband, at least not one she could love for himself and who would love her for the woman she was. And that was the problem. It was not finding a husband because her dowry was enough to ensure that, but finding the one to set her heart beating faster. Did such a man exist?
Mama said love did not come into it and she should not consider it, that a fortune and a pleasant temperament were of far more use, which was strange considering Mama had married again less than two years after losing her first husband and Sir George Tasker had neither a fortune nor a pleasant temperament.
Emma had been preparing for her come-out in the spring of 1813, when her father, Earl Lindsay, died suddenly and threw her into deep mourning. Naturally her trip to London had to be cancelled, but in truth Emma, grieving for her dear papa, had been in no mood for frivolity and had been content to spend her time quietly in the country at Pinehill, the family home in Hertfordshire. But one morning a year later, woken by bird song and the sun streaming through her bedroom window, she had suddenly realised that spring had arrived and life was passing her by and she ought to do something about it.
Mama must have had the same thought, because later that day, she had suggested taking Emma to London for her delayed coming out. The Duke of Ranworth, her mothers brother, had offered them the use of Ranworth House in Hanover Square and they had done the rounds, attending balls and tea parties, but in the end it had not been Emma who found a husband but the dowager herself, though calling Mama a dowager was a jest, considering she had not been above forty at the time and still comely.
Lady Emma, thats just the right age to be, Rose said, answering her last comment. Though you are still young and beautiful, you are past the age of being thought an empty-headed schoolgirl that no one need take seriously. Some gentlemen would value your maturity.
Emma laughed. Thank you, Rose. What would I do without you? It is ridiculous when you think that a lady is not expected to dress herself, to do her own hair, or allowed to go out alone. But it is not only the dressing and looking after my clothes I value you for, it is having someone to talk to. I can say anything I like to you.
My lady, I am sure you would manage. She paused and then took a deep breath before going on. My lady, I have to give notice. My mother is having another baby and she needs me to look after the other little ones. There are seven now.