Maggie MacKeever (19 page)

Alas, none of these diversions had been successful in preventing Lady Grey from, as her abigail succinctly put it, fretting her guts to fiddle strings. She knew she had grown quite haggard. Not that it mattered; there was no one to see her, nor would there be anyone again. Gus was done with romance. Did she recover from her heartbreak, she would devote herself to good works.

Footsteps sounded in the hallway. Augusta looked eagerly at the door. Truth be told, she was growing tired of her own company, and would welcome an opportunity to set aside the various literary works with which she had halfheartedly been improving her mind.

Mr. Sanders walked into the room: So very grim was his expression that his sister realized immediately that something was seriously amiss. “Vivien! Whatever is the matter?” she whispered.

He did not answer her directly, but flung himself into a chair. “I should have known what she was from the beginning!” he muttered. “No respectable female would have stayed unchaperoned in an inn filled to the rafters with sporting gentlemen.”

August wondered if her brother might not benefit from some restorative pork jelly. She did not make the offer, knowing all too well what he thought of her quackery. “You are in need of some refreshment, Vivien.” She rang for a servant and, when her summons was answered, gestured toward her cup. “Another, please!” Then she turned back to her brother. “What inn? What female? Although I am certain you are correct in your assessment of the situation, Vivien, it sounds very queer to me.”

“I wish I might be so certain.” Vivien ran his fingers through his hair. “The devil in it is that she
does
look and act like a respectable female. But she cannot be, or she would not be mixed up in this odious business. I vow I don’t know what to think!”

Nor did Augusta, who had never before seen her brother take a distempered freak. “Who?” she asked again. “Not Mrs. Quarles?”

Vivien laughed harshly. “Correct!
Not
Mrs. Quarles! The truth is, Gus, that I was properly hoodwinked by a pernicious little tart.”

“A—er!” In her perturbation upon hearing such language, Lady Grey picked up her newspaper and used it as a fan.

Vivien was oblivious of his sister’s discomfort. “I suppose it was no more than I deserved that a straw damsel should trick me into thinking she fancied me.”

Lady Grey fanned herself harder. “Should you be telling me this, Vivien? It does not seem proper that you should speak with your sister about your liaisons with females of that sort.”

“The devil with your propriety!” retorted Vivien. “There was no liaison, anyway. It was all a hum, and I was properly taken in.” He frowned. “Though I still am not certain as to what end.”

August was uncertain also, and additionally perplexed. “I didn’t know you were acquainted with Mrs. Quarles.”

Again that sarcastic laugh. “I’m not! But I’ve known a hundred of her sort. Selfish, heartless hussies who care for nothing but to feather their own nests.”

August thought back to her own meeting with Mrs. Quarles. Something about her brother’s remarks did not ring true. “I hold no brief for the creature,” she said, “but she seemed a great deal more concerned with Geoffrey than with herself.”

Vivien had not considered this. Now that he did so, he could only conclude that Elphinstone had been involved not only with Mrs. Quarles but her sister as well. “Degenerate! Positively
depraved!”
he said.

“You refine too much upon it, surely!” Augusta was growing increasingly confused. “I do not mean to defend Mrs. Quarles, but it is Geoffrey who is at fault, surely; she is scarce more than a child. When I spoke with her—”

“You didn’t speak with her!” interrupted Vivien. “You-”

“Well, really, Vivien!” interrupted Augusta, in her own turn. “Even though I may be prey to nervous upsets I am
not
subject to disorders of the mind. I know perfectly well that I
did
speak to her and in this very room, and for you to infer otherwise is exceedingly unkind!”

Vivien was currently on the verge of a nervous disorder of his own. “Lay all those bristles!” he advised. “I wasn’t inferring anything, except that the female you spoke with wasn’t Mrs. Quarles.”

“Wasn’t!” Augusta blinked. “But she said—”

“Whatever she said, you may be sure it wasn’t true!” Vivien drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair. “Before this accursed business, I thought myself a knowing one. Now I wonder if I’m not a flat! I suspect I’ve been royally diddled—perhaps we both have. And I’d pay a pretty penny to find out why. I’ll stake my oath the wench had no intention to publish until I put it into her head.”

“Publish?” Lady Grey echoed weakly, reaching for her vinaigrette.
“You—”

“Not on purpose!” Vivien protested. “I thought that was what she intended all along. The devil, Gus! Don’t go off into your high fidgets now. We were only trying to help you, after all.”

Lady Grey looked warily at her brother.
“We?”

“Perry went with me. He knows the wench.” No longer able to remain seated, Vivien rose to pace the floor.

“Perry knows Mrs. Quarles?” Augusta was astonished. She had thought Mr. Smithton too much the dandy to view females in the ordinary way.

“Not Mrs. Quarles, but the other one,” said Vivien. “The female you met. It seems the pair of them are at loggerheads. Mrs. Quarles wishes to bleed Elphinstone dry, and the other wishes she will not.”

Augusta dropped her vinaigrette. “Then Geoffrey didn’t ruin that poor child.”

Vivien gazed into the fireplace. “As to that, I couldn’t say. At any rate, she’s not Mrs. Quarles.”

Color bloomed in Augusta’s cheeks. “This Mrs. Quarles, she is older, then? Than the female who was here?”

Vivien, intent on his own unhappy thoughts, was unaware of the intensity of his sister’s interest. “At least ten years, perhaps fifteen or more.”

“Ha!” cried Lady Grey, with such exultation that Vivien turned to stare. “Then Geoffrey isn’t one of the wicked, after all!”

Lady Grey’s mind was clearly overheated. Vivien surveyed the various medications on the table by her side. Since he could not guess which would prove most effective, he offered common sense instead. “What the devil is this nonsense, Gus? Just because you met the wrong female doesn’t mean the situation has changed. It’s a very nasty business and promises to get even nastier. Your betrothal to Elphinstone was common knowledge, which means that your name must also be bruited about on every tongue.”

Augusta was not paying strict attention. “Oh, fudge!” she said. “Perry may be a slow-top and a fribble, but surely he may be trusted not to tell tales.”

“I am not referring to Perry.” Vivien spoke very slowly so that his sister might understand. “I am referring to Mrs. Quarles’s determination to publish Elphinstone’s love letters. That must make a dreadful scandal, Gus.”

Love letters? Sir Geoffrey had written no such stuff to her. Lady Grey felt very sad. Perhaps she would sink into a fatal decline and thus spare herself the embarrassment that such publication must cause.

The servant returned then with a second chocolate cup, which Augusta presented to Vivien. Though Vivien had stronger refreshment in mind, he did not wish to be rude. He took a sip of the beverage and grimaced. “What the devil is
this?”
he inquired.

Lady Grey gazed blankly at the cup. Her memory had been adversely affected by the several shocks she had so recently received. Then she recalled her concern over her brother’s health. “It is very good for you!” she said sternly. “I find it most beneficial. But if you do not want it, Vivien, pass it over here!”

Without comment, Vivien did so. Augusta sipped from the cup. She recalled what her visitor—and if not Mrs. Quarles, who
was
the girl?—had said about Sir Geoffrey’s health. “Poor Geoffrey!” she said aloud “His nerves will never stand the disgrace.”

Poor Geoffrey? Vivien thought his sister’s afflictions, imagined and otherwise, must finally have turned her grain. “You waste your pity!” he said curtly. “Elphinstone brought this down upon himself. Damned if I know what possessed you, Gus, to take up with a cursed profligate.”

This was too harsh, surely? Lady Grey eyed her brother over the top of her chocolate cup. “I can perfectly understand why I am out of charity with Geoffrey, but I do
not
understand why you have taken him in such dislike. Gracious, Vivien, you have not even met the man!”

Vivien could not explain to his sister what he did not fully understand himself. “How can you defend him?” he countered. “It is no more than Elphinstone deserves that his doxy should demand that he meet her price.”

“No more than he deserves?” Even from a beloved brother, this was too much to be borne! “This from
you,
Vivien? Why, I daresay you have had a great many more doxies in your keeping than poor Geoffrey has! Indeed, if he were more experienced, this probably would not have come about!”

This from his so-proper sister? Vivien scowled. “What’s got into you, Gus? You had nothing good to say for Elphinstone, just days past.”

“Yes,” said Augusta, quite reasonably, “but as it turns out, he didn’t seduce that child! I have been thinking and thinking, and it seems to me now that you were correct and I
was
a great deal too quick to judge. Gentlemen must have their little, er, indiscretions; it is the way of the world! I believe I am sufficiently large-minded to forgive a minor peccadillo! Yes, and so I must tell Geoffrey!” She flung aside her shawl.

Vivien, alas, had also suffered a change of heart. “You’ll do no such thing! Have you failed to understand the situation? Even if Elphinstone buys the creature off, there is bound to be a scandal, Gus!”

Lady Grey took another sip of her restorative pork jelly. “Why?”

Vivien stared at her. “Why what?”

“Why will there be a scandal? If Geoffrey buys her off? The purpose of which surely would be to prevent a scandal taking place?” Augusta was used to thinking her brother needle-witted. Apparently she had been wrong.

Vivien thought his sister was being deliberately obtuse. It was very bad of her to provoke him at this time. “Mrs. Quarles is bent on mischief. Take my word on it,” he replied. “I’ve informed her she shan’t be permitted to get away with it, even if it requires taking the whole business into a court of law.”

“A court of law!” Lady Grey thrust aside her chocolate cup with such force that pork jelly splattered onto the sofa and the floor. “Have you taken leave of your senses, Vivien? Wouldn’t
that
give the gossip mongers a field day! Moreover, what business is it of yours whether or not Geoffrey pays off this Quarles female?”

Vivien flushed with anger at this sisterly ingratitude. “It was you who asked me to involve myself! As your brother, of course I must protect your interests.”

Had
she asked Vivien to involve himself? Augusta could not properly recall. “I have changed my mind!” she said with dignity. “I see now that this is something Geoffrey and I must ourselves resolve. Too many cooks spoil the broth! And so I thank you for your efforts, Vivien—though it seems to me you have made things worse instead of better!—and ask that you henceforth refrain.” She rose from the couch.

Vivien did not take kindly to this dismissal. “Where the
devil do
you think you’re going?” he asked.

Lady Grey opened her eyes wide. “Why, to Geoffrey, of course!”

What was it about Elphinstone that inspired such misplaced loyalty? Exasperated, Vivien grasped his sister’s shoulders and forced her to sit down. “You are not,” he said very clearly, “to go to Elphinstone! You are not to see him, or to speak with him, or to communicate with him in any manner until this business is done, and perhaps not even then. If you will not be sensible, then I must be sensible for you. Do you understand me, Gus?”

She could hardly fail to do so. Vivien’s fingers were digging very uncomfortably into her arms. “Yes, Vivien!” said Gus.

“Good!” He released her and stepped back.

Augusta rubbed her bruised arms. She disliked her brother’s expression and the purposeful manner in which he moved toward the door. “Vivien! What are you going to do?” she cried.

“I’m going to see this business resolved one way or another!” On this ominous note, Vivien slammed the door.

Lady Grey breathed a deep sigh of relief. She was not afraid of her brother, but it was exhausting to be around someone in such a dreadful rage. Gracious, but Vivien had been angry! Not since childhood had he treated her that rough way. Augusta recalled how he used to order her about. But they were not children now! How dare he try to tell her what she might and might not do? It was very aggravating. Yes, and so was the odious way in which Vivien spoke of poor Geoffrey, as if he had not more than once blotted his own copybook.

Geoffrey! Augusta blanched as she recalled that she had asked Vivien to call Geoffrey out. She had not meant it, naturally, had spoken out of grief and rage. But such was Vivien’s frame of mind—and his parting words could well have been a threat.

Lady Grey sprang to her feet, tugged violently at the bell, ran to the door and flung it open, and dashed out into the hall. “Grimsley! Grimsley!” she called, as she sped up the stairs. Geoffrey must be warned, before it was too late. “Grimsley! Whatever shall I wear?”

Chapter Twenty-one

Ermyntrude sat sulkily on the window seat. As result of her most recent escapade, she had been forbidden to leave the house. Ermyntrude thought it very bad. Finally she had contrived to pique St. Erth’s interest, and her pa would not allow her to take advantage of that fact. Perhaps if she asked him once more, ever so prettily, or flung herself upon his mercy and explained that it must be a nunnery for her if she could not have St. Erth— surely Sir Geoffrey could not consign his favorite daughter to such an awful fate. Ermyntrude knew she must be her papa’s favorite daughter; who could prefer Drusilla to herself?

Drusilla had been whiling away the time with a desultory game of patience. Now she threw down her cards. “Where are Tabby and Lambchop? Tabby should have been back ages ago! Perhaps she sneaked in without us seeing her. I’ll just go and see!”