The Gamble (10 page)

I opened and closed my fingers, trying to relax them from the fists that they had clenched into at Lady Winterdale’s words.

“He is the son of the local squire near my home in Sussex. Frank and I have known each other forever and he has wanted me to marry him ever since he returned from the Peninsula. But I cannot drag Anna around from one military post to another, and so a marriage between us is impossible.”

“I see,” he said. His face was inscrutable.

There was a light knock on the door behind him and he turned to open it. Catherine and Anna stood upon the threshold.

“I have picked out the room next to yours, Georgie,” Anna said as she came into the room. She gave a little skip before she got to me. “It is very pretty.”

Lord Winterdale said to Nanny, “Do you usually sleep close to Miss Anna, Mrs. Pedigrew?”

“Indeed I do, my lord,” Nanny replied. “The poor lamb has nightmares sometimes, and I like to be near.”

“Then I will instruct my housekeeper to prepare the bedroom on the other side of Anna’s room for you,” Lord Winterdale said.

“Philip!” The outraged voice came from Lady Winterdale. “You cannot put a servant on the same floor as the rest of us.”

“Nanny is not a servant,” I said stoutly. “She is family.”

Lady Winterdale gave me a withering look. “That, my dear Georgiana, is about as outrageous a statement as I have ever heard, even from you.”

“If you do not wish to sleep on the same floor with Mrs. Pedigrew, then you are perfectly free to leave Mansfield House, Aunt Agatha,” Lord Winterdale said pleasantly. “Perhaps that house in Park Lane is still for rent for the Season?”

Silence descended upon the drawing room.

How he must hate his aunt,
I thought. First he took me in and now he was taking in Anna and Nanny, and it was all done to annoy Lady Winterdale.

“Nothing is for rent anymore, unless one wants to go into the outer reaches of the suburbs,” Lady Winterdale said at last. “You know that perfectly well, Philip.”

“Well then I suggest that you learn to accept Mrs. Pedigrew, Aunt Agatha, because she is staying,” Lord Winterdale said in a hard voice.

Anna pressed herself close to me, upset by the harsh tones of the voices in the room.

“Is everything all right, Georgie?” she asked me in a frightened voice. “Why is the man angry?”

I saw Lord Winterdale take a deep breath. He said in a much milder tone, “I am not angry with you, Anna, and I am sorry if I frightened you.”

She gave him a timid smile.

“Are you hungry perhaps?” he asked even more gently. “Would you like something to eat?”

“Oh yes,” she replied eagerly. “Do you have hot buttered muffins, my lord?”

Hot buttered muffins were one of Anna’s favorite foods. She could eat them any time of day.

“I am sure that we must,” he said. “I shall ask Mason to consult with cook. In the meanwhile, why don’t you let your sister help you to change your dress, and when you have done that your luncheon will be ready.”

Anna beamed.

The door knocker sounded once more, and this time it was Lord Henry Sloan come to collect Catherine and me to go to his mother’s concert. It did not take a great deal of persuasion on my part to convince Catherine to go without me, and if Lord Henry was disappointed that he had only Catherine to escort, he concealed it beautifully. My estimation of him went up as he drove off with Catherine to the duchess’s afternoon concert while I devoted myself to taking care of my sister.

The journey from Sussex had tired Anna out and after she had eaten I persuaded her to lie down for a nap. When I came back downstairs again, Lord Winterdale was waiting for me.

“Let us go into the library, Miss Newbury,” he said. “I think that we need to talk.”

“Yes,” I sighed. “I suppose that we do.”

We took our usual places, Lord Winterdale behind the desk and I in the chair on the other side of it.

“Why did you never tell me about your sister?” he started out by asking.

I gave a small shrug. “I never hid from you the fact that I have a younger sister for whom I am responsible. I never mentioned Anna’s . . . problem . . . because I didn’t think it was relevant.”

“It is relevant in one way,” he returned. “Much as I dislike agreeing with my aunt on any subject, I am afraid that she is right about one thing. A younger sister in perfect health can be expected to marry one day and leave your protection. Obviously, this is not the case with Anna. She will be your responsibility for as long as she lives.”

“I don’t mind that,” I said hurriedly. “I love her. She is not a burden to me.”

“Of course she is a burden,” he said impatiently. He held up his hand. “Now, don’t get all heated up. I am not saying that you don’t love her. But my aunt is right when she says that Anna is going to make it more difficult for you to find a husband.”

I scowled. “I don’t see why. You have seen her, my lord. She isn’t
violent
, for heaven’s sake. She is just like a four-year-old child.”

“Yes, but she is not four, Miss Newbury. How old is she anyway?”

“She is seventeen,” I said reluctantly.

“Seventeen, with the mind of a four-year-old. There is a stigma attached to such a childlike creature, Miss Newbury, no matter how lovely she may be. Look at this cousin of yours, calling her a booby to her face.”

“I would like to kill that man,” I said fiercely.

“Yes, that was perfectly obvious from the expression on your own face when Mrs. Pedigrew told you of it,” he said dryly.

I drew in a deep, ragged breath. “He must have made life exceedingly unpleasant if Nanny felt that she needed to take the drastic step of removing Anna from Weldon. Please let me tell you, my lord, how grateful I am to you for allowing Anna and Nanny to stay here.” I rubbed my forehead and eyes, which had begun to ache. “For years it has been my greatest fear, that I would not be able to provide a home for Anna.”

The brilliant blue eyes were steady upon my face. “Your father did not leave you with any means of support?”

I gave him a crooked smile. “No. He left the estate, which is both entailed and mortgaged, to my cousin. There was nothing left for Anna or me.”

“Is your cousin married?”

“No, he is not. I must admit that he has shown signs of interest in me, but the thought of being married to a man like that, of being forced to submit to his embraces . . .” I shuddered. “When I found the evidence of my father’s blackmailing scheme, I determined that I would rather try that instead.”

One eyebrow quirked. “This is the cousin with a mouth like a fish?”

“Yes,” I said.

He leaned back in his chair. “What men have you met in London so far whom you do like?” he asked bluntly. “Lord Henry Sloan?”

“He seems very nice,” I agreed. “He lacks a certain seriousness, perhaps, but he is certainly a very agreeable companion.”

He drummed his fingers on the arms of his chair. He had beautiful hands with short and immaculate nails. I always noticed nails because I bit mine.

“Sloan is not wealthy, but he is expecting to inherit a decent little property from an uncle, I believe,” Lord Winterdale said.

“That is what he told me,” I confessed.

The fingers drummed some more.

“What about Borrow?” he asked next. “He is quite well off, and he made a point of getting Lady Sefton to let him waltz with you.”

“Lord Borrow is too big,” I said firmly. “He would intimidate Anna.”

Once again up flew an eyebrow. “Precisely how big is the gentleman you are looking for?”

“Well . . . about your size, my lord,” I said. “Big enough to be reassuring but not big enough to intimidate.”

He looked briefly amused.

Then, “What about Stanhope?” he asked. “Didn’t I see him dancing with you twice last night?”

“Yes,” I said, my mind going to the two dances he himself had danced with Mr. Stanhope’s sister.

“Stanhope has a nice little fortune,” Lord Winterdale told me.

“I thought he seemed rather cold. Anna needs someone who will show warmth to her.”

“
You
can show her warmth, Miss Newbury,” he said. “Your husband need only be pleasant and provide her with a home.”

He must have seen my disagreement on my face, for he added bluntly, “You can’t afford to be too choosy, you know. Girls who have no portion and who are encumbered by a permanent dependent are not likely to be snatched up on the marriage mart, no matter how pretty they may be.”

It was a brutal thing for him to say and a brutal thing for me to listen to. Unfortunately, it was the truth.

I felt my lip quiver and I put my hand to my mouth and pretended to cough so that he should not see how close I was to tears.

He straightened some papers piled on the desk in front of him and changed the subject. “I saw Charlie Howard at Almack’s last night with his wife. Did he seek you out by any chance?”

I bit my lip. “Unfortunately, he did.” I told him all about my conversation with Mr. Howard over the stale cake in Almack’s supper room. “It seems that you were right, my lord, and I made a grave mistake in burning that evidence. But there is nothing I can do about it now. The deed is done.”

He scowled at me. “What is your schedule of activities for the rest of the week?” he demanded.

I told him.

“You’ll meet Marsh when you go to the ball at Wrenham House,” he said with certainty. “Lady Marsh and Lady Wrenham are bosom bows, and the Marshes will be sure to be there. What night is that ball again? Monday?”

“Yes, my lord,” I returned.

“I’d better come along,” he said. “Marsh is a nasty piece of work, and I don’t want you running into him by yourself.” His eyes glittered. “Not that there is much that he can do to you surrounded by half of London’s most elite society, but I still think it would be better if you met him while you were in my company.”

I smiled at him. “Thank you, my lord.” I laughed a little unsteadily. “I seem to be saying that a great deal lately, don’t I?”

“It makes for a pleasant change,” he replied blandly. “It is not a phrase I have heard very often in my life.”

He stood up, an unmistakable and rude signal that our interview was over. “Please don’t hesitate to ask my housekeeper for anything you might need for Anna.”

“Yes, my lord,” I said stiffly. I stood up also. “Thank you,” I repeated, and turned to leave the room. I glanced back at him once, just before I went out the door. He had sat back down at his desk and was looking at the top paper on the pile that was stacked there. Again I had that powerful impression of his solitariness that had struck me before.

I closed the door quietly behind me and made my way upstairs to look in on Anna.

CHAPTER
ten

C
ATHERINE CAME BACK FROM THE CONCERT
practically radiant. She confided in me that Lord Henry had told his mother that Catherine was a musician and that the duchess had insisted that Catherine perform for the assembly.

This didn’t surprise me, as it was I who had told Lord Henry to ask his mother to do just that.

“You can imagine how horrified I was, Georgie,” Catherine told me. “I had nothing prepared. I haven’t practiced in weeks. I was certain that I would disgrace myself.”

“I am sure that none of those things happened,” I said.

“Well, I most certainly did not play my best, but people were very kind,” she replied. Behind the spectacles, her eyes were like stars. “In fact, they made me play another piece.”

I smiled at her. “What you need, Catherine, is to become a part of London’s musical society. That is your natural milieu.”

She heaved a despondent sigh. “Yes, but unfortunately Mama doesn’t see things the way you do, Georgie. She wants me to be fashionable.”

“Were there any eligible young men present at this musicale?” I asked hopefully.

Catherine shook her head. “The only men under the age of fifty were the duchess’s sons.”

As the only one of the duchess’s sons I ever saw at
ton
parties was Sir Henry, the other son must be very young. This was not promising news, and I sighed.

Catherine brightened. “The duchess is having another musicale next week, however, and she invited me to come and play.”

“That is wonderful,” I said warmly. I thought that even Lady Winterdale would allow Catherine to play the piano if she was invited to do so by a duchess.

The next few days went by relatively smoothly. When I was at home Anna stayed very close to my side, and I realized how much her sense of security had been shaken by this unaccustomed change in her residence.

Lady Winterdale had decreed that she did not want Anna to appear in the downstairs drawing room during the morning hours when Catherine and I entertained visitors, and I did not try to gainsay her on this subject. I did not feel that I had the right to do anything that might stand in the way of Catherine’s making a good match, and so I told Nanny to make certain that Anna remained out of the way during the hours between eleven and one.

Three days after Anna’s arrival, however, she appeared in the doorway of the drawing room accompanied by Lord Winterdale.

“The weather is very fine this morning and I am going to take your sister to see the milkmaids and the cows in Green Park, Miss Newbury,” he said to me. “We will not be gone for long.”

The four gentleman in the room had gotten to their feet and were looking at Anna with dazed admiration. I made a quick decision to dispense with introductions.

“How lovely,” I said warmly. “You will like the cows, Anna. They are particularly pretty.”

Anna’s eyes lit upon Catherine. “I left a surprise for you in your room, Catherine,” she said. Her beautiful blue-green eyes sparkled. “Something I made for you myself.”

“Did you, Anna? How wonderful,” Catherine said. “I can’t wait to see what it is.”

A voice from the hallway said, “The carriage is waiting, my lord.”

“Come along, Anna,” Lord Winterdale said. “I can’t keep my horses standing, you know.”

To my amazement, Anna skipped happily over to his side. She nodded wisely. “I know. That is what Frank always says.”

He took her elbow to turn her toward the door, but she artlessly slipped her hand into his. I could hear her asking him a question about the cows as they went out the front door.

There was a horribly embarrassed silence in the room after they had gone. Lady Winterdale looked thunderous.

Once again, Lord Winterdale had managed to make his aunt furious. I was quite certain that his appearance with Anna had been deliberate.

Catherine broke the heavy silence by saying, “I wonder what it was that darling Anna could have made for me.”

“Good God,” said Lord Borrow. “Did you say that she is your
sister
, Miss Newbury?”

“Yes,” I said.

It was Lady Winterdale who rushed into words to explain that Anna’s childishness was the result of an accident, not heredity.

“She is such a beautiful girl,” Lord Henry Sloan said to me. “What a pity that such a thing should have happened to her.”

“Yes,” I said. “It is something we have had to learn to live with, however. And she is really no trouble. She is like a perpetual four-year-old child, that is all.”

He had come to ask me to drive out with him in Hyde Park that afternoon, and since he had seemed so sympathetic to Anna’s plight, I suggested that perhaps we might include her in our outing. I had been worrying that Anna was not getting enough fresh air.

Lord Henry was not comfortable with my idea.

“You know how people stop to talk to one another during that hour,” he said. “It will be impossible to keep your sister from being a topic of gossip if we take her driving through Hyde Park. Really, Miss Newbury, I do not think that it is a good idea.”

He must have read the look on my face.

“Besides,” he said hastily, “there is not room in my phaeton for three people.” He brightened as an idea struck him. “I suggest that your sister take her outing in the Winterdale town chaise. That way there will be plenty of room for her and she will be able to see the parade of the
ton
without feeling uncomfortable about having to talk to people.”

“Perhaps that is a good idea,” I said expressionlessly. “Anna does not cope well with a lot of new people all at once.”

“May I pick you up this afternoon at five, then?” he asked eagerly.

“No,” I replied. “I rather believe that I will go with Anna.”

At four-thirty in the afternoon, when I was entertaining Anna by playing spillikins with her in the upstairs yellow drawing room, Lord Winterdale came into the room wearing the drab coat with three tiers of pockets, huge pearl buttons, and blue waistcoat with yellow stripes that signified a member of the Four House Club.

He looked at me in surprise. “It is a fine spring afternoon, Miss Newbury. I felt certain that you would be driving in the park.”

“Lord Henry invited me, but I decided not to go,” I said coolly.

He looked at me consideringly. I had a feeling that he guessed what had happened between Lord Henry and me earlier. However, all he said was, “Have you been indoors all day?”

I repressed a sigh. “Yes, I am afraid that I have.” Lady Winterdale had taken the town chaise to make some visits with Catherine, and I had not desired to accompany them.

“Well, if you will be ready in half an hour, I will engage to take you and your sister driving in the park,” he said pleasantly.

Anna jumped to her feet. “May I drive your horses, my lord? Like I did this morning?”

“Perhaps,” he replied. “But first you must change your dress.”

“I’ll go find Nanny,” she said eagerly, and left the room in a hurry.

I got to my feet, leaving the spillikins spread out across the baize-covered games table. I had been rethinking my earlier proposal to Lord Henry, and now I said, “I don’t know if it is such a good idea to take Anna to the park during the fashionable hour, my lord. I don’t want people staring at her.”

He replied soberly, “The word about her affliction cannot yet have spread very far. People who notice her this afternoon will notice her because she is an extremely beautiful girl. And that is why I think it is important that she be seen, Miss Newbury. You do not want the misinformation to go around that she is some kind of deformed freak.”

“Of course she isn’t a freak!” I said hotly.

“It is important for people to see that. That is why I took her to Green Park this morning and that is why we are going to drive in Hyde Park this afternoon.”

I was conscious of a stab of disappointment. I had been hoping that he had taken Anna to the park that morning out of kindness.

“Very well, my lord,” I said quietly. “Perhaps you are right.”

“Then go and change your dress, and I will have the carriage at the front door in half an hour.”

We took the barouche to the park rather than the phaeton, as the phaeton seated only two and the barouche would seat four. Lord Winterdale drove instead of a coachman and Anna sat next to him and every once in a while he pretended to let her hold the reins. I sat opposite to the two of them, in a seat that had my back to the horses.

As usual, the park was filled with a glittering array of horseflesh and humanity. Anna’s beautiful eyes grew huge as she took in the spectacle.

“Look at that man with the little doggie!” she cried with delight, pointing to a dandyish man driving his phaeton with a poodle perched beside him.

Lord Winterdale looked disgusted at the precious sight but he made no comment as Anna craned her neck to follow the man and the dog as he passed beside and then behind us.

“Nanny made me leave my dog back at Weldon,” Anna said sadly as she turned to face forward once again. “I hope
that man
isn’t mean to him.”

“You can be sure that Harris will take good care of Snowball,” I assured her.

Harris was our butler and had been at Weldon forever.

Lord Winterdale said, “Do you see the carriage coming toward us, Miss Newbury? That is Sir Henry Farringdon and his wife.”

I turned my head and stared at the gaudy yellow equipage that was approaching our barouche. The tall man who was driving was elegantly dressed in a blue coat, fawn trousers, and Hessian boots. The woman seated beside him was short and plump, and she wore a carriage dress with far too many frog fastenings down the front. The feather in her hat was too long and too curly and too blue.

This was the fifth man whom Papa had been blackmailing besides Lord Winterdale, Mr. Asherton, Mr. Howard, and the Earl of Marsh. Sir Henry was the only one of the lot whom Papa had not caught cheating at cards; he was the one who had been caught cheating on his wife.

When Sir Henry caught sight of Lord Winterdale he slowed his carriage. My head was still turned in his direction and I could feel Sir Henry’s eyes burn into my own. He looked back to Lord Winterdale and signaled to him to stop. Lord Winterdale drew up his horses.

“Hallo, Farringdon,” he said. “I haven’t seen you in a while.” He nodded to the plump, overdressed little woman who sat beside her husband. “Lady Farringdon. May I introduce my wards, Miss Newbury and her sister, Miss Anna Newbury.”

I nodded and produced the required smile. Anna was staring at Lady Farringdon’s feather in utter fascination.

Nature had not been kind to Lady Farringdon and unfortunately she had done nothing to help along the good points that she had been blessed with. Her peacock blue carriage dress was truly dreadful.

Sir Henry was looking at me with an extremely strained expression on his face. I sighed to myself. Here was another one who was obviously worried about what I might be able to hold over his head.

I gave him a reassuring smile.

His eyes looked even more strained than before.

Lord Winterdale said abruptly, “I don’t like to keep my horses standing for more than a minute. Good day to you, Farringdon, Lady Farringdon.”

“So nice to meet you,” I said.

“I like her feather, Georgie,” Anna said as we drove off. “Do you think I could have a feather like that one?”

“You can have a feather to play with, not to wear,” I said.

Anna turned to Lord Winterdale. “That lady’s dress was the exact same color blue as your eyes, my lord,” she said. “It was pretty. Too bad she was so fat.”

“Anna,” I said despairingly, “how many times have I told you that it is not polite to talk about the way people look.”

“I didn’t say it in front of her, Georgie,” Anna said indignantly. “I said it to you and Lord Winterdale.”

Lord Winterdale said, “We are coming to a nice straight stretch of the path now, Anna. Would you like to drive the horses again?”

“Oh yes!”

He handed her the ends of the reins while he himself kept ahold of them farther up. Anna slapped the ends and clicked her tongue and looked extremely happy.

I smiled. “What a good driver you are, darling,” I said. “You make me quite jealous.”

We returned home in time to change for dinner. Lady Winterdale had tried to get Anna banned from the dinner table as well as from the downstairs drawing room, but once again Lord Winterdale had overruled his aunt. As there was nothing wrong with Anna’s table manners, Lady Winterdale had found nothing concrete to complain of to her nephew. This annoyed her excessively.

After the unusually domestic morning and afternoon he had passed, I had been hoping that Lord Winterdale would join us for dinner. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case. His place at the end of the table was empty as usual.

After dinner Lady Winterdale, Catherine, and I went to an unusually boring rout at some friend of Lady Winterdale’s. We were home and in bed by midnight.

On Friday night we went to a ball at the Castletons’. As usual, my dance card was filled, but Lord Winterdale’s strictures had made an unwelcome impression on me and as I evaluated the men I danced with as potential husbands and protectors for Anna, I began to have serious doubts as to their suitability.

Very few of them inspired me with any confidence in their steadiness or in their concern for more than themselves and their own amusement.

I also began to wonder how many of them were interested in me beyond my being an entertaining and pretty girl to dance with at a ball. As Lord Winterdale had so tellingly pointed out, I was scarcely the most desirable prize on the marriage mart.

Lord Winterdale was not present at the Castleton ball.

On Saturday night we went to a ball at the Pomfrets’. I danced with many of the same men as I had the night before, as well as Mr. Asherton, the first one of Papa’s victims who had sought me out.

Mr. Asherton asked me directly about Anna, so word was evidently getting out.

“I am not going to blackmail you so that I can take care of my sister, Mr. Asherton,” I said fiercely as we swung around the room in a waltz to the tune of his creaking corset. “You must believe me. I do not have any evidence!”