Jack Chiltern's Wife (1999) (21 page)

‘Why did he never tell me all this?’ Kitty asked. ‘It would have explained so much.’

‘‘E is a proud man,
chérie
. And you must not tell him of this conversation. ‘E would see it as betrayal. No doubt ‘e will tell you ‘imself in time.’

‘It does not matter. Now you have told me I understand.’ She could understand why he found it so difficult to love, to give his heart to someone else. When he came home, she would make a special effort to be loving, to make him see that he could trust her and she would not fail him.

‘I am so pleased ‘e ‘as found you,’ her ladyship said, squeezing her hand. ‘‘E deserves a little ‘appiness.’

Kitty stared down at their two hands, one heavily ringed and the other with none at all, wondering if she ought to tell this dear, kind lady that the marriage was no more than one of convenience, that her husband disliked her and that, if it had not been for that one terrible night, it could have been annulled. She looked at her and smiled wanly, but remained silent.

‘I can see you are still tired after your ordeal,’ her ladyship said. ‘We will forgo our visits today and go ‘ome so that you
can rest. And, Kitty, I know Jack could not buy you a proper wedding ring, but I think you ought to wear one. I will find one for you, until Jack comes ‘ome and can buy you one.’

Kitty could hardly thank her for the tears which choked her.

A week passed in which she grew closer to her mother-in-law, learned the names of all the servants and was accepted by them and bought a wardrobe of new clothes, more than she needed or felt she ought to have, but the Countess would not listen to her protests. ‘You must dress befitting your rank, my dear,’ she said. ‘There is no question that Jack can afford it. And it will please me.’

She gave in and allowed the Countess to help her choose gowns, pelisses, cloaks, undergarments, shoes, boots, shawls, even things like fans and feathers and jewellery. ‘Of course, you will one day come into the family jewels,’ she told Kitty. ‘But, for now, I think a few pearls and simple gems will suffice, don’t you agree?’

‘Most assuredly I do. I am not used to so much.’

‘But you deserve it for making my son ‘appy.’

Kitty felt a fraud. She had not made Jack happy. He had shown no sign of being happy. Oh, he did not show his aversion to her in front of his parents or anyone else, but she knew it was there and it broke her heart.

Three days later, a letter arrived from her uncle. It was a long and loving letter. Jack had been to visit them and explained everything. They approved of the marriage and of course she was forgiven and the sooner she paid them a visit the happier they would be.

James and Nanette had arrived and were looking for a home in London. They had been most graciously received by Viscount Beresford, who had helped to find a publisher for James’s account
of his travels in France, and now James was planning other works.

‘Jack has been to see Uncle William,’ Kitty told Lady Beauworth.

‘Well, naturally ‘e would,’ her ladyship said. ‘‘E would want to obtain your guardian’s blessing, even if it is a little late, and ‘e would want to smooth the way for you to go ‘ome for a visit. I would have expected nothing else from ‘im.’

The letter and Lady Beauworth’s comments cheered Kitty immensely and she began to look forward to making a visit to her old home. But not before Jack returned. Surely he would not have gone to see her uncle if he did not mean to remain her husband?

She began to watch for him every day. He would come home and they would make a fresh start. If she wanted her marriage to work, she must fight for it. She would risk a rejection and tell him she loved him, offer herself to him, tell him she asked nothing of him, but his good will. Love had blossomed from much less.

Her hopes were dashed when a letter arrived from Jack. She was in the breakfast parlour with her ladyship, when a servant brought the mail on a silver salver. The Earl had already left the house for the stables. One of his mares was foaling and he was particularly anxious over it.

Kitty turned the letter over in her hand, puzzled that Jack should write to her when he was expected home any day. But he wasn’t coming home, she discovered when she broke the seal and began to read.

‘Jack’s gone back to France,’ she gasped. ‘Oh, why did he do that? I can’t believe the War Department would make him go again.’

‘Oh,
ma chérie
, I am so sorry,’ her ladyship said. ‘‘E was always doing that to me, rushing off without a by-your-leave,
but I never thought ‘e would do it to you. It is most inconsiderate of ‘im.’

‘And it’s dangerous,’ Kitty said. ‘If he’s caught …’

‘Oh, you must not think of that. ‘E will not take risks, not now ‘e ‘as you to come ‘ome to. We must be patient.’

But patience was not one of Kitty’s strong suits. She endured two days of idleness and then announced she was going to London. ‘I must find out why he went,’ she told Lord and Lady Beauworth. ‘I need to know what is so important that none but Jack may be trusted with it. It isn’t fair. He has already done enough.’

His lordship looked from Kitty to his wife, a question in his lifted brow. She nodded.

‘I think I should also like answers to those questions,’ he said. ‘I will accompany you. They will be more forthcoming with me at Horse Guards than with you. We will set off tomorrow.’

‘Take Rose to look after you,’ Lady Beauworth said. ‘I will go and tell ‘er to pack.’

On Jack’s instructions, the coachman had returned with the empty coach two days previously and it was soon made ready for the journey, with grooms sent ahead to arrange for changes of horses along the way.

The next day Kitty left her mother-in-law and Chiltern Hall, wondering if she would ever see them again.

Jack had obviously decided to absent himself so long as she was there and she could not be so selfish as to deprive him of his home. Her grand plans to welcome him back with love and forbearance, to be a proper wife to him, had fallen about her ears. There would be no reconciliation.

She sat in the corner of the comfortable coach, staring out of the window, hardly noticing the countryside they passed. Her mind was filled with Jack, going over and over things he had
done and said on their travels through France, remembering the way he had protected her and made it possible for her to return to her home with her reputation intact. Her eyes filled with tears.

‘Oh, my dear, do not grieve,’ his lordship said. ‘He will come safely home.’

She fumbled for a handkerchief in the pocket of her gown and scrubbed at her eyes, unable to tell him the true reason for her tears. ‘Yes. I am sorry.’

‘Nothing to be sorry for,’ he said, patting her hand. ‘We will soon be there and then perhaps I can persuade the War Minister to recall him, eh?’

They stopped only to change the horses and have something to eat, and arrived at Beauworth House in Hertford Street late the same night. The Earl kept a number of servants there even when he was not in residence and their rooms were soon prepared and a meal put before them.

‘Tomorrow I shall go to Horse Guards,’ his lordship told her, as they ate. ‘You will want to visit your uncle and stepmama. Take the coach. I can hire a chair.’

‘Thank you, my lord,’ she said, wishing Jack could have been there to accompany her. She needed his support. But visiting her old home would take her mind off what might be happening at Horse Guards.

It certainly did that. She dressed in the finest of her new gowns, a pale lemon silk with a deep fringe at the hem and a wide yellow-and-amber striped sash at the waist. The narrow sleeves ended in a deep frill and her shoulders were draped with a gathered scarf pinned above the cleft of her breasts with a large ornamental brooch. It was one Lady Beauworth had persuaded her to buy in Winchester and was only moderately expensive. Her hat had a tall crown and was trimmed with curling feathers. An amber-coloured pelisse, satin pumps and fine yellow kid gloves completed the outfit.

She smiled to herself as the Earl’s carriage drew up at the rectory door. That would set her stepmother in a flurry and she would be dashing about giving orders about how her illustrious caller was to be received, not realising who it was.

Kitty was unable to suppress a smile when she saw the thunderstruck look on the maidservant’s face when she opened the door. ‘Miss Kitty!’

‘Lady Chiltern,’ Kitty corrected her with a smile. ‘Would you please tell my uncle I am here.’

‘Yes, miss—I mean, my lady.’ The door was flung wide. ‘I’ll fetch him. Don’t go away.’ And she went running off to the rector’s study, quite forgetting to show Kitty into the presence of Mrs Harston.

Alice, unable to contain herself in patience, came out into the hall to see an elegant young lady dressed in the height of fashion, standing alone peeling off her gloves. ‘Oh, forgive me, ma’am. Where has that stupid girl gone? She should have brought you straight to me. Servants these days are so useless, one is in despair of finding one who knows what is expected of her. Do come in. Oh …’ Her voice faded in shock as Kitty turned to face her. ‘It’s you.’

‘Yes, Stepmama, it is Kitty. And Annie has gone to fetch Uncle William.’

‘Oh, then you had better come into the drawing room. He will be down directly, though you are lucky to find him in. He is more often than not at Beresford Hall. Your grandfather has asked him to catalogue the library, you know.’

She led the way into the drawing room. ‘As you see, nothing has changed. Sit down. When your uncle comes we will have tea. I must say, you have done very well for yourself. How did you manage to persuade Viscount Chiltern to take you on, I wonder? You had nothing to commend you. I never would have believed it if I had not met his lordship himself.

‘Such a gentleman,’ she went on, giving Kitty no opportunity to reply, not even when Annie came in with the tea tray and set it on the table at her side. She waved the maid away and continued without pause. ‘He and the Reverend spent a long time closeted together in the study, though what they had to talk about, I cannot imagine. There could be no question of a dowry. You had left home, cut yourself off …’ She looked up as the Reverend came into the room. ‘Ah, here is your uncle.’

Kitty rose and ran to her uncle, dropping him a full curtsy. ‘Uncle William.’ She was too choked to go on.

‘Get up, Kitty, do. And give your uncle a kiss.’

He was holding out his arms. She flung herself into them. ‘Oh, Uncle, it is so good to see you again. I am truly sorry if I hurt you. Please say you forgive me.’

‘Of course I forgive you. You are my niece, though why James should write to you of his problems and not to me, I do not know. And to swear you to secrecy! I have given him a very great scold.’

Kitty had no idea what he was talking about, but dare not say so. ‘Oh, but you should not blame James.’

‘No, for some of it must be put at the door of young Chiltern. Spies, agents, I never heard the like. If James needed money for his clandestine work, why did he not ask me for it? He should have known you would have to borrow it.’

She was beginning to see daylight. ‘I think he did not want to trouble you, especially as you do not approve of war and fighting. And I don’t suppose he thought I would be so foolish as to take it to him myself.’

‘So he said.’ He sighed. ‘Ah, well, we will say no more of it. Edward Lampeter has been repaid and you have come back married. Are you happy, child?’

‘Yes,’ she lied.

‘Who wouldn’t be, married to the heir to an earldom?’ Alice put in, pouring tea. ‘That can’t be bad. I am so thankful I advised
your uncle against that match with Edward Lampeter. After all, he is nothing but a sea captain and his father a mere baronet.’

‘He is also a very nice man, Stepmama,’ Kitty said. Her stepmother did not change; she was still manipulating the truth to suit herself, forgetting that she was the one who had wanted to send Kitty away. Now it pleased her to think she had been instrumental in marrying Kitty off so advantageously.

‘Yes, of course. Now, drink your tea and we will go up to the nursery to see Johnny. I wonder if he will remember you. Children forget so easily, do they not?’

Johnny had not forgotten her. He showered her with kisses and exclaimed rapturously over the toy soldiers she had brought him as a present, asking her if she was going to stay.

‘No, my love, but I shall visit you again and you may come and visit me soon.’

She took her leave and returned to Beauworth House, thankful to escape Alice’s sharp tongue. How her uncle bore it, she did not know. Even if she and Jack never lived together, if the marriage came to an end, she would not live at home again. Too much had happened and she knew Alice would never let her forget her infamous conduct, whatever her uncle said; there would be hints and innuendo and cruel taunts, just as there always had been. Whatever happened, she would keep her hard-won independence.

Her father-in-law had only in the last hour returned from Horse Guards. ‘All day I’ve been there,’ he complained to Kitty, as soon as she had taken off her pelisse and hat and joined him in the withdrawing room. ‘Everyone seemed intent on passing me on to someone else. They were too polite to tell me to go away, but too cautious to tell me what I wanted to know. I had to go right to the top, the Minister himself.’

‘What did he say? Is he going to recall Jack?’

‘He said he could not. He said communication was so bad, he could do nothing until Jack himself sent word.’

‘But what is he doing in France? He cannot save the whole French nobility single-handed.’

His lordship smiled a little grimly. ‘No, but he might try to save one in particular, someone extra special …’ He paused.

‘The Queen?’ she queried. ‘The young King?’

‘I am sworn to secrecy,’ he said enigmatically, but she knew she was right by the look in his eyes.

‘It is, though, isn’t it? Oh, how could they ask it of him? Surely her Majesty is closely guarded?’

‘Undoubtedly she is. We must pray for a successful outcome.’ He paused and reached across to take her hand. ‘I have been told that the
Lady Lucia
with Captain Lampeter on board is standing by off the coast of Brittany to take them all to safety.’