Amberley Chronicles Boxset I: The Impostor Debutante My Last Marchioness the Sister Quest (Amberley Chronicles Boxsets Book 1) (9 page)

Chapter 16

After finishing the last of several house calls, Dr. Richard Seymour turned his gig homewards, to partake of luncheon with his wife, and tell her all that was happening in the little town of Burchford. He followed this custom whenever his medical duties made it possible, about two days out of every three.

Though hardly larger than an overgrown village, Burchford had proudly born the name of town since medieval times. Richard Seymour was the only doctor residing there, and despite the healthy Yorkshire climate he was kept very busy, as several adjoining estates and hamlets also depended solely on his services.

Their own cook had prepared a simple but hearty meal; the delicious poppy seed cake and apricot pudding of the sweet course had been sent over by the cook of Brinkley Manor, currently underemployed in the absence of the ladies of the house.

After telling Belinda that he suspected Mrs. Peters to be carrying twins, - again – he noted a slight hesitation in her.

“Is anything the matter, sweetheart?”

“No, not at all. I just have a request. This morning I received a letter, presumably from Charlie, and I’m on tenterhooks to know what she writes. Could you read it to me now, before going back to your practice?”

“Certainly, unless she wrote you a whole novel.” Richard knew that Charlotte had travelled to London to look into their legal situation, and it seemed only natural that she should report to her sister.

Belinda took the letter out of her pocket and held it out to him.

“It is directed to Mrs. Richard Seymour, at our address,” he said. “Not sealed. Hmm. Not too many people know of our marriage.”

“Open it!”

Richard went to get a sharp knife from a drawer, and did so.

“Well, it certainly looks like Charlie’s handwriting,” he observed, and began to read.

“London, May 23
rd

My dearest Bel and Richard,

I hope you are well and all is in order both in your cottage and at the Manor. I cannot help wishing I was still there, instead of this huge and noisy city. The dust, the mass of a million bodies, and the dirt and smells of some areas are quite overwhelming.

I reside in a far more respectable neighbourhood, of course, so am sheltered from the worst sights. However, I have had occasion to see St. Paul’s Cathedral and several other monuments already, and passed through some very diverse areas on the way.

The ladies and gentlemen of fashionable society are no different from the rest of us, as I had always suspected, except in their ineradicable conviction that they are superior. And in the enormous importance they attach to their clothes, hats, shoes, and always being in the latest fashion. I am told that a single lapse in taste is rarely forgotten.”

Richard glanced at his wife. She seemed absorbed in the letter’s contents, and so far, unworried.

“I am going to your solicitor’s office tomorrow, Bel, and hope to have more information about your inheritance soon. Your cousin James, the Earl’s younger brother, is taking me in his phaeton – a most fashionable, very high vehicle indeed, painted in glossy black and silver, and drawn by a pair of magnificent greys.”

Richard paused. “You didn’t tell me that she was planning to meet your relatives, Bel. I’m not at all sure that involving them is a good idea.”

“She is actually staying with Lady Amberley, Richard.”

He was surprised and concerned. “How did that come about? From your description of your Aunt Amberley, I took them to be very high on the instep. And Charlie, though of course we all love her, is no relative of theirs, and in any case – err – not an entirely legitimate member of the family, or at least that is how they would see it.”

“Yes, well,” Belinda looked a little guilty, “I’m afraid they think she is me, Richard. When Lady Amberley invited me, to marry me off to some dull Lord or other, I persuaded Charlotte to go instead.”

“Bel! Please tell me you’re joking!” Richard could not believe what he was hearing.

Belinda bit her lips before going on. “Well, it all seemed so providential – the carriage to be sent, and the invitation coming just as we were both at our wits’ end how to get hold of my inheritance. Since the Amberleys have no notion of Charlie’s existence, and she could easily pass for me, it seemed a neat solution.”

Dr. Seymour was speechless, as much at his wife’s matter-of-fact tone as at the information she conveyed.

“Charlie didn’t really want to do it,” Belinda went on, “but I persuaded her. You know that the estate is in desperate need of capital. If we are not to see our tenants starve, we had to do something, and this chance just fell into our laps.”

“But it places Charlie in an impossible situation – didn’t you see that? If the Amberleys find out that they have introduced the wrong girl to the highest society, it must cause a terrible scandal. Charlie can always come back here, but they’ll also be humiliated. I know you dislike them, and they have unjustly ignored you, but surely they don’t deserve that?”

“Would it really be so dreadful, Richard?” Belinda sounded a little daunted.

Richard was about to expostulate farther, but remembered that Belinda, for all her outward assurance, did not have any extensive experience of society. Her gradual blindness and the mourning year for her father had led her to live a very retired and in some respects sheltered life, and even now, she was only twenty-one.

“Sweetheart, I’m sure you meant well, but you don’t know enough about the world to judge the possible consequences of this ill-judged manoeuver.”

Hearing her husband’s serious tone, Belinda was crestfallen. “But – Aunt Amberley is the kind who deserves a little humiliation, Richard. You should have heard the stories mother told us about her youth. Still, if you think it was so badly done, we should write back and tell Charlie to depart as soon as she can.”

“I suppose it is mostly my fault”, Richard said gloomily. “I should have taken more interest in your problems and inheritance myself. As your husband, it really is my duty, not Charlie’s.”

“You already have so many duties, Richard. We quite understood that you did not want to assume that burden.”

“I should have found a way.” He sighed. “Let’s see what else this letter says.”

“There is one unforeseen complication. Yesterday for the first time I attended a ball in the residence of Lord and Lady Sefton. It was a terrible squeeze, not nearly as pleasant I had hoped, and would have been torture in less comfortable shoes.

Among the guests I recognized Mr. Conway, whose existence I had happily contrived to forget until that moment. He immediately knew me, of course.

“Good God!” Belinda cried, paling. “What terrible bad luck!”

“Conway?” Richard asked. “That’s the absentee husband?” Charlotte’s husband had left the neighbourhood long before Dr. Seymour took over the local practice, but he had heard the gossip.

“Yes, an awful bounder. If father had not pressured her, she’d never have married him. I only met him a few times, apart from their wedding, but I know he is a dangerous weasel of a man. Of course he would know right away that she was not me.”

“Unfortunate, that,” Richard commented, trying in vain to put himself into the shoes of a man who met his abandoned wife at a fashionable ball, under a different name.

“What can we do, Richard?”

“We cannot allow this situation to take its natural course, Bel, it will surely end in a scandal that can do terrible harm to your sister. Poor Charlie, - though she at least should have had better sense than to do something so risky.”

“I’m afraid I dared her, Richard. She always finds it hard to say no to me.”

“She should have done so this time. But what’s done, is done. I think the best thing may be to write to Amberley himself, and request him to discreetly disentangle the matter. It will be a lot better if this information comes from you, his cousin, than if he found Charlie out for himself.”

“I don’t see how he could find out. In most respects we are practically the same girl.”

“Not to me,” Richard said, with feeling. “And you didn’t expect Charlie to meet her husband at the very first ball she attended in London, either. Inexperienced plotters like you and Charlie are extremely likely to be found out. I speak from experience.”

“But Amberley’s on his wedding trip, in Scotland, according to Miss Everly. He won’t want his wedding trip interrupted with such news.”

“He’ll want even less to return to London in the middle of a scandal. Have you his direction in Scotland?”

“The family owns a castle in the Highlands, I suppose that’s where he’ll be. But what if this letter should go astray? I would hate it to fall into the wrong hands.”

“We’ll send your groom from the manor, Jacobs, with instructions to give it only into the Earl’s own hands.”

“Oh, all right,” Belinda gave in with poor grace. “And we’ll write to Charlie at the same time, warning her to depart before things come to a head. I feel guilty giving her away like that to Amberley, after sending her in the first place.”

“Next time maybe you could consult me before putting Charlie in jeopardy, Bel.”

“I hate it when you try to always have the last word, Richard.”

“But you don’t hate me, I hope,” Richard retorted, putting an arm around her hips and drawing her close for a kiss. “We’ll get through this, too, darling. Don’t worry.”

Chapter 17

James immediately liked Henry Beecham, the young solicitor whom his friend and partner Jonathan had sent to his rooms in the Albany. After discussing Beecham’s qualifications and experience, - in which discussion James felt a bit of a fraud, since they clearly exceeded his own – he told Beecham all he knew about the Yardley inheritance tangle.

“This is most irregular and unfortunate,” the solicitor commented. “Your cousin could probably have resolved the whole thing long ago, had she immediately retained her own legal adviser. By now the estate should be in probate, and the question of a possible entail settled. But even if you get the will and all other papers from this man Phimes’ chambers, I cannot act on behalf of your cousin without her own, or rather her husband’s authorization.”

“I can see that, but I told you she is almost blind, and resides in Yorkshire. Nobody understood what was holding up the normal procedure. Even now I’m not sure what to make of Phimes, except that he is clearly not all there.”

“I think I would have to travel to Yorkshire to be retained by Doctor and Mrs. Seymour, before I can do anything decisive. Then we can get the Chancery court to act, if necessary, and sort out all these issues in – at least, we can hope - short order.”

“I see. I will bear the expenses for your trip, and your time, if you could depart as soon as possible. In the meantime I’ll do my best to get hold of the will.”

“I’d rather not know how you are going about that,” Beecham said quickly.

“Don’t worry, no crime is involved. However, independently of my cousin’s inheritance, I’d like to retain you as my own solicitor, when the need arises.”

“I’d be honoured to work for you, Sir.”

They quickly came to an agreement.

“I’ll start off tomorrow morning, then,” Beecham finally said. “How will your cousin and her husband know that I am trustworthy, though?”

“Well, the husband is a doctor, and not blind, so I daresay he will be able to tell after he talks with you. I’d give you a letter, but they don’t know me from Adam, I’m afraid.”

“Even so, I would like to bring a short letter of introduction from you. As Mrs. Seymour’s relative, and her sister’s confidant, your word may carry some weight.”

“Very well, then,” James said, sitting down at his small escritoire and dipping a quill into the inkwell, “if you think it may help.”

Dear Cousin Belinda,

Though to my regret we have never met, I have heard much about you and your husband from Charlotte, and I am anxious to serve you in any way I can.

Charlotte and I have visited the chambers of Phimes and Ffolliott, and found that the principal partner, who originally wrote to you, has unexpectedly died since then. His nephew, a very strange fellow, still does not dare touch those files reserved by the late uncle, including that pertaining to your family. 

I am told that the best way forward would be for you to retain your own legal counsel. Mr. Beecham has been recommended to me as reliable, and I am sending him to Yorkshire so that you and your husband can decide if you want to put the inheritance issue into his capable hands.

Please do not worry about legal expenses for now. I am willing to underwrite Beecham’s efforts until they bear fruit.

I greatly look forward to waiting upon you in person, as soon as Charlotte is free to leave the capital. There are some other issues that must be dealt with first. Please do not write to your aunt, my mother, before consulting with Charlotte.

With deepest respect and best wishes,

Your Cousin

James Ellsworthy.

He was not quite satisfied, but it would have to do. After sanding the paper, he folded, directed and sealed it, and handed it to Beecham. One more thing done – but the list before him was getting longer and longer. How soon until he was through?

“By the way,” he asked the young solicitor, “are you familiar with the law on bigamy?”

The young man looked surprised. “Only in general, what every law student would learn; so far I have never had to deal with the subject directly.”

“Well, read up on it when you get the chance. There is another case where I may need your legal advice, but it can wait until you’re back from Yorkshire.”

Alone again, James rang for his valet and enquired if any information about Conway’s Bloomsbury household had yet arrived; however, it seemed that the boys were scheduled to report later in the evening, not before ten. He had to curb his impatience, and console himself with the written directions of the house in Half Moon Street, and Mr. Bessemer’s city offices. 

Just as James was about to call for a bath, preparatory for the evening’s activities, one of the Mount Street footmen arrived with a note from his mother, requesting him to come to her without delay. The matter sounded urgent, almost alarming, especially as it was most unlike his mother to call to him for help. He set out immediately.

To his surprise, he found not only Charlotte, but also his sister Minerva and her governess, Miss Montague, waiting for him in his mother’s salon. Lady Amberley looked as though she had bitten into a sour fruit. Charlotte was deeply worried but trying not to show it, Minerva and Miss Montague merely a little perturbed, if he was any judge.

“Ah, good, here you are at last, James!” his mother greeted him. Bowing, James inquired about the reason for the urgent summons.

“It’s not quite clear to me exactly what happened and how serious this is, but it is going to cause talk,” Lady Amberley pronounced, with an accusing glare at Charlotte. “Your cousin was accosted by a madwoman in the park today, in full view of half our acquaintances, including Lady Jersey.”

At this point Miss Montague and Minerva described the scene in the park, but were clearly mystified as to the strange woman’s identity and motives.

“And what do you want me to do about it?” James asked when they finished.

“Why, find out the name and identity of this mushroom and ensure that she can do no further harm,” Lady Amberley stated, fretfully. “Oh, if only George were here!”

James turned to the unusually silent Charlotte. “And you, cousin, have no idea who this woman could be?”

“I am quite sure I have never seen her before in my life,” she replied, “but the man she was with earlier looked somewhat familiar. After thinking it over, I think he may have been a Mr. Conway, with whom I danced one country dance at the Sefton ball. He was presented by Lady Morville, and made no particular impression on me. I haven’t seen him since.”

“That may be helpful,” James replied, his eyes sending Charlotte a silent acknowledgement,
message received,
before he turned back to his mother.

“I have heard of insanely jealous wives who imagine that every pretty woman her husband ogles is a rival,” he said. “This sounds like a similar case. For all we know, the husband is really straying, and she mistook our cousin here for someone else. As long as she is a nobody and we carry on with head high, I think the social damage is containable.”

“Of course she is a nobody,” Lady Amberley said impatiently. “No woman of breeding could have made such an ill-advised and humiliating scene as that.”

“Well, it’s time Lady Minerva and I returned to the nursery,” Miss Montague said, signalling to her charge. “Always a pleasure to see you, James.”

James took his leave of the governess and winked at Minerva as she left, before turning back to address his parent.

“If George were here, Mother, he would advise you to immediately go out with our cousin and tell everyone how sad it is that the park is apparently overrun with under-bred mushrooms, then proceed as though the matter had never happened. It is essential that you both attend the events to which you sent acceptances, maybe even some others.”

“I
know
that, James, now you are lecturing me on how to handle gossip?” Lady Amberley still sounded out-of-sorts.

“No, of course I wouldn’t presume, - you always know best, Mother.” He tried to ignore Charlotte’s incredulous look. “Were you going out tonight?”

“We have accepted two invitations for tomorrow, but tonight was to be a quiet evening at home,” Charlotte supplied.

“Then I advise immediately putting on your most elegant gowns and using the family box in Covent Garden. It’s essential that you are seen right away.”

“I didn’t know about the family box,” Charlotte said. “It’s available all the time?”

“Yes – and you don’t need to be there for another couple of hours, there should just be time.”

“But what about dinner?”

“Your reputation is more important than dinner. You can have a sandwich first, and supper when you come back.”

Lady Amberley had listened to this exchange with growing exasperation.

“James, what business is it of yours when and how much Belinda gets to eat? You two are getting much too familiar, I’ve told you before. We’ll go to the opera, I suppose it is necessary, though the caterwauling in Italian always gives me a headache. But never mind that, James, your job is to find out who this strange woman was, and spike her guns.”

“I’ll get to that then,” James said, bowing to both ladies, and making his escape.