Colonel Fitzwilliam's Dilemma (14 page)

“For my part,” Joshua said, “I intend to persuade Mrs. Bingley to confide in me. I have a great desire to know how the play ends and discover which lady gets her heart’s desire.”

“Oh no, I could not possibly tell.” Mrs. Bingley smiled an apology. “I would never be forgiven if I gave the ending away.”

“Who wrote the play, Asquith?” Joshua asked. “Perhaps there’s a copy in Darcy’s library and I can look it up.”

“Don’t spoil the surprise, Colonel,” Mrs. Darcy said, smiling. “Just like the rest of us, you must contain your curiosity until the players are ready to perform.”

“You ask a lot.”

After dinner, the card tables were placed. Joshua found himself partnering Anne, thanks no doubt to Lady Catherine’s influence. He anticipated a dreary time with Anne barely saying a word, but actually rather enjoyed the game. Anne’s new sense of self-worth manifested itself and she proved to be engaging company. Joshua forgave her for constantly stealing glances at Mr. Asquith who was seated at one of the other tables, partnering Georgiana.

“Well done,” Joshua said when the game came to an end and he and Anne triumphed.

“We were lucky,” Anne replied.

“My advice, for what it’s worth,” he said, helping her with her chair and speaking softly so only she could hear him, “is that one ought to make one’s own luck.”

Anne looked at him with confusion. “Whatever do you mean?”

Joshua glanced at Asquith. “I think you know.”

“Oh.” Colour invaded Anne’s cheeks. “Colonel, I do assure you…besides, Mama would never permit—”

“What are you speaking to Anne about?” Lady Catherine demanded loudly from an adjoining table where the game was still in progress. “I must know why you feel the need to whisper, Fitzwilliam.”

Lady Catherine appeared to have overlooked the fact that young people who were attracted to one another tended to do a great deal of whispering. By drawing attention to it, Lady Catherine could have been accused of hampering Joshua’s campaign, had he decided to launch one.

“We were discussing our strategy at whist, ma’am.”

Joshua inclined his head to Anne, offered her the ghost of a wink, and strolled away to join Darcy in front of the fire. By reminding him of her autocratic, interfering manner, Lady Catherine had just eradicated any lingering doubts Joshua might otherwise have entertained regarding his decision not to become the master of Rosings.

***

The following morning was blighted by heavy clouds and overcast skies. There was no rain but it wouldn’t hold off for long and the already sodden ground would become more like a bog. Joshua didn’t care. He would ride to Briar Hall even if his horse sank hock-deep in mud and he became soaked to the skin in the process. The players were again hard at work in the ballroom, fully engrossed in their activities, and Lady Catherine had not yet shown herself. Joshua made his escape while he could.

Mrs. Sheffield and Lady Briar received him with great civility. Lady Sheffield’s countenance showed signs of strain and there were dark circles around her eyes. She clearly had not slept well for the second night in succession. Seeing her so discomposed renewed Joshua’s determination to win her trust.

“Celia told me you planned to call this morning, Colonel, but I did not expect you to keep the engagement in such appalling weather.”

Wild horses could not have kept me away.
“I am a soldier, Lady Briar,” he replied, sending Mrs. Sheffield a brief, reassuring smile. “Weather conditions seldom deter me when I make up my mind on a course of action.”

“How is everyone at Pemberley, Colonel?” Mrs. Sheffield asked.

“They are all in the best of health, I thank you. Speaking of which, I come with an invitation for you all to dine in six nights’ time. As you are aware, the young people are combatting the inclement weather by putting on a play.” Joshua smiled. “We are to be the audience, if you can bear it.”

“It would be our pleasure.” Lady Briar clapped her hands. “I once enjoyed play-acting myself when I was younger and possessed some aptitude as an actress, though I do say so myself.”

“Are you not taking part, Colonel?” Mrs. Sheffield asked. “I can just see you as a dashing hero, riding to the rescue of the hapless heroine.”

“I hesitate to disappoint you, ma’am, but my services have not been offered, nor are they required. They can manage very well without me. I gather there are three heroines and I lack the courage to take all three of them on at once.” Joshua shuddered, making the ladies laugh. “Give me an enemy regiment to face on the battlefield instead. That is a situation over which I might be able to exert some control.”

“Really, Colonel, do you expect us to believe that?” Lady Briar asked, smiling.

“You ought to ma’am. The players are rehearsing in strict seclusion in the Pemberley ballroom. Even so they have managed to turn the place on its head. No one except Mrs. Bingley, who has bravely offered her services as chaperone, knows how the play ends and she refuses to give a single hint.”

“I should think so.” Mrs. Sheffield laughed, and some of the wariness left her eyes.

“Then you will come?”

“Certainly we shall. Please thank Mrs. Darcy for including us and assure her we would not miss it.”

The conversation turned more general as tea was served. When Lady Briar finished hers, she excused herself on some pretext and at last Joshua found himself alone with Mrs. Sheffield. As soon as their gazes clashed, an air of expectancy sprang up between them and she abandoned all pretence of normality. She looked so crestfallen that Joshua impulsively reached for her hand.

“I cannot bear to see you looking so unhappy,” he said passionately. “Will you not tell me what has overset you so? You can be assured of my secrecy.”

“What is the point?” She flapped the hand he wasn’t holding. “There is nothing you can do.”

“I may not be able to act, Mrs. Sheffield, but I am very resourceful in all other respects. I have yet to encounter a situation that cannot be resolved with a little guile or, if necessary, brute force.”

She managed a wan smile. “Always the soldier.”

“No, not in this situation.” His fingers closed more firmly around her palm, and she made no attempt to pull her hand free. “I am simply a man who wishes to be of service to a lady who has attracted his interest.”

“You would do better to go back to Pemberley and pay court to your cousin. I am an entirely lost cause.”

“Hang my cousin!” Joshua fixed her with an intense, probing look. “It is you whom I wish to serve, and unless I mistake the matter, you have seldom had greater need of a confidante and friend. Whatever troubles you, you have not told your sister or Lord Briar about it, have you?”

“No.” She shook her head. “They cannot help me and I would not worsen my sister’s nervous disposition by visiting my problems upon her.”

“Always putting others ahead of yourself.” Joshua drilled her with a look. “Do you not trust me? Perhaps I am being presumptuous but I thought there was something between us and that you felt the connection every bit as much as I do.”

Mrs. Sheffield moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue, clearly trying to come to a decision. Joshua said nothing more. He had all but declared his feelings for her, and she had not laughed in his face. Encouraged, he waited her out in silence.

“My husband’s brother is claiming that my estate in Buckinghamshire is rightfully his,” she said with a heavy sigh. “And as things stand, I am unsure how to refute that claim.”

Joshua wasn’t entirely surprised. Her unwillingness to return to Buckinghamshire because her brother-in-law was in residence there and her obvious dislike and mistrust for the man had set him wondering.

“What does your solicitor suggest?”

Mrs. Sheffield’s despairing look gave way to one of anger. “That I should leave the negotiations to him, because as a feeble woman I cannot be expected to understand these things, or words to that effect.”

“There is absolutely nothing feeble about you.”

She offered him a humourless smile. “I believe Mr. Higgins is now aware of that fact.”

“The man sounds incompetent. What made you choose him?”

“I did not. He was engaged by my husband when he purchased the estate and took care of Albert’s interests in this country while we were in Jamaica.”

“That was to be my next question. If the estate was not previously in your husband’s family and was only purchased after your marriage, then presumably your dowry paid for it.”

“Well, no.” She looked away from him and spoke evasively. “We only acquired the house after we had been married for several years. His work in Jamaica was sufficiently profitable to make the purchase possible.”

“And I imagine his brother was a-party to that work, which makes him think he now owns the estate?”

“Yes, that is precisely what he thinks.”

Joshua sighed. This was clearly not as straightforward as he had at first imagined and his suspicions were on high alert. “Did your husband leave a will?”

“Yes, I am his sole beneficiary. His brother is not mentioned.”

“Then he has no claim.”

“That is what I tried to tell Mr. Higgins but of course he disagrees.”

“Then you had better tell me everything from the beginning.”

Mrs. Sheffield glanced out of the window. The intermittent rain had been blown away by a strong wind that caused tree branches to bend against it and sent a scattering of leaves bowling across the recently cut lawns. “Can we walk outside and talk about this? I feel trapped in here, restless and…oh, I don’t know. I think better out of doors.”

“I understand completely. Go and fetch a warm cloak. I shall wait for you in the vestibule.”

Five minutes later, they strolled along the gravel walkway that surrounded Briar Hall and headed for the reflecting pools. Even though it was such an overcast day, their images were still cast back at them in the water’s surface, as was the edifice of the house itself. The Pemberley estate had similar pools, but on a grander scale, and they had always fascinated Joshua as a boy.

Mrs. Sheffield placed her gloved hand on Joshua’s proffered arm and they proceeded walking at an easy pace. He said nothing, sensing the fresh air would galvanise his fair companion, and she would speak when she had taken a moment to gather her thoughts.

“Albert and his brother had a signed partnership agreement regarding their work in Jamaica that I knew nothing about until yesterday afternoon,” Mrs. Sheffield said after a prolonged pause.

“That seems rather strange, if you don’t mind my saying so. Surely your husband would have mentioned the arrangement to you, even just in passing?”

“He didn’t ordinarily tell me anything about his work, but I agree with you. He should have told me at least that much.”

“You think the agreement is bogus?”

She lifted her shoulders. “I don’t know what to think. Albert’s signature looks genuine but I am no expert on such matters.”

“Let us leave aside the validity of the agreement for now and consider your brother-in-law’s claim. I imagine he says he was not paid monies owed to him and so plans to take the estate instead.”

“Something like that.” She screwed up her features into an expression of disdain. “Out of Christian charity he claims I can still live there if I so wish.”

“How very obliging of him.” Joshua was consumed by a murderous rage, well able to imagine what this vile-sounding individual had in mind once he had Mrs. Sheffield beneath the same roof as him. Outwardly, he remained perfectly calm. “We will not allow that to happen. You will live there again of course, but your husband’s brother will have to find alternative accommodation.”

She gasped. “You make it sound so straightforward but how can you be so sure?”

“Let us start at the beginning. Excuse me for asking such personal questions, but I was under the impression that your dowry was quite adequate enough to enable the purchase of an estate.”

“And so it should have been.” They turned at the end of the walk and took a different direction, further away from the house. “What my father did not know until we were married and it was too late to do anything about it, was that Albert had very large debts to discharge. Not of his own making. Albert was many things, most of them disagreeable, but one thing he was not was careless with money. Quite the opposite, in fact. Unlike his father, he never went near a gaming table nor did he squander money unnecessarily. When his father passed away Albert inherited his debts, which he felt honour bound to settle.”

Joshua grunted. “I want very badly to dislike your late husband, Mrs. Sheffield, and you are making it difficult for me.”

“Oh don’t worry, he was not a kind person and I can tell you plenty of things about him that would validate your dislike. However, I was attempting to be fair. He ought to have explained those debts to my father before he gave Albert permission to address me. That was remiss of him and I dare say Papa would not have entertained his suit if he had known about them.”

“Which is precisely why he didn’t tell him.” Joshua found a bench beneath an ancient oak that was in the lee of the wind and steered Mrs. Sheffield towards it. “Your husband’s father did not own an estate of his own.”

“He did at one time, but—”

“Let me guess. He gambled it away.”

“Precisely.”

“And so after Sheffield discharged his father’s debts, there was not much of your dowry left and you were obliged to rent lodgings.”

“Yes. We were in London but didn’t show ourselves much in society. There was no money to spare for that. Besides, Albert would have considered it money wasted. He was not afraid of hard work and established himself as a commodities broker. He opened an office close to the docks and found markets for products that were brought in speculatively by independent vessels. You can have no idea how many such ships there are, and he did reasonably well at it, although his gains were nothing exceptional.”

“I suppose that is where he got the idea for going to Jamaica?”

“Yes. His brother Percival worked with him when the fancy took him, but he is cut from the same cloth as their father. Albert wasn’t one to tolerate shirkers but he had a blind spot when it came to Percival, I know not why, and the same rules didn’t seem to apply to him. Basically, he did as little as possible and claimed a great deal of the profits. Albert once referred to an event in their childhood; I don’t know what happened, but I think Percival somehow saved Albert from a life-threatening situation. Albert felt obligated to Percival because of it and allowed him to do more or less as he pleased.”