The Husband Season (13 page)

The contrast with the dark and sombre night was the light and cheerful evening at Ranelagh, but even here there had been undercurrents. For all she denied it, he knew Miss Cavenhurst had manoeuvred Miss Malthouse to sit next to him, forcing him to be polite to the empty-headed girl. He had only been half listening to her as he’d watched Sophie from across the table. She had been more subdued than usual, as if she had been scolded, and he wondered what about. Could it possibly have been over being called a hoyden and a flirt? She might have a little of the tomboy in her, but he didn’t think she was a flirt. Only someone who felt put out by her would say that. Miss Cassandra Malthouse? He smiled. That was what it was all about, she had said as much, but if either young lady thought he would play their game, they were mistaken. Besides, it was time he paid the promised visit to Mark and then went home to Yorkshire.

Chapter Seven

S
urprisingly Teddy was at the breakfast table when Sophie went down next morning. He was morosely stirring a cup of cold coffee.

‘You are up betimes,’ she said, helping herself from the dishes on the sideboard and taking her plate to the table to sit beside him. ‘Could you not sleep?’

‘No. Too much to think about.’

‘Oh, that means you are in a scrape.’ She poured herself a cup of coffee from the pot on the table.

‘You could say that.’

‘Well, out with it. I assume it is a gambling debt.’

‘More than one.’

‘Oh, Teddy, will you never learn?’

‘I’m sorry, sis.’

She sighed. ‘How much?’

‘A few thousand.’

‘Why do you do it, Teddy? Why put yourself and everyone who loves you through so much worry time after time? It isn’t fair.’

‘I don’t do it on purpose. I can’t seem to help myself. I tell myself I am not going to gamble, but then the opportunity for a big win comes up and I find myself taking a chance...’

‘And losing.’

‘I don’t always lose.’

‘More often than not. You promised Papa...’

‘I know I did. I meant it at the time. I always mean it. I can’t tell him, Sophie, I can’t.’

‘Are you thinking of going to India again?’

‘No, it is not so easy to make a fortune that way now. Besides, I don’t have the blunt to get there.’

‘What are you going to do, then?’

‘I don’t know. I suppose I’ll have to talk to Mark, but Jane will slay me.’

‘And I don’t blame her. Have you so easily forgotten what very nearly happened to her? She was prepared to sacrifice herself to Lord Bolsover to pull you and Papa out of the mire. If it hadn’t been for Mark and Drew and that brave Portuguese gentleman it could very well have happened.’

‘Drew!’ he said suddenly. ‘Do you know where he is?’

‘No. In her last letter Issie said they were going to Singapore.’

‘Oh, he won’t serve, then.’ He paused. ‘Sophie, if you were to find a very rich husband...’

‘Teddy!’

‘Well, you could,’ he said defensively. ‘That’s why you came to London, isn’t it? Take Viscount Kimberley, for instance.’

‘Teddy, I will not take Lord Kimberley, as you so crudely put it. He has no interest in me...’

‘You could change his mind.’

‘I will not even try.’

‘Then you will find me in some back alley with my throat cut.’

‘Do not be so melodramatic. Who would kill you because you can’t pay your debts? That’s not the way to recover them.’

‘It’s the way Toby Moore works.’

‘I knew that man was a bad influence on you. Why, oh, why do you play with him?’

‘For revenge, sis. He was one of those who forced me to go to India and I have not forgiven him. I was winning at first and thought I could ruin him as he ruined me...’

Her laughter was more hysterical than amused. ‘Teddy, when will you realise your gambling not only ruins your own life, but the lives of all those who love you? You will break Mama’s heart.’

‘I know.’ He was in tears. She had never seen him weep before; he was always so ebullient. It tore at her soft heart. She left her seat to go and put her arms about him.

‘Don’t cry, Teddy, please don’t cry. We’ll think of something. I don’t know what, but we will. But you are never to go anywhere near a gambling club again, not even a card table at a private party. Do you hear?’

‘I hear.’

‘And you are not to see or speak to Captain Moore ever again.’

‘He will want his money.’

‘Then he will have to wait for it. I think you should go home to Hadlea.’

‘But your Season...’

‘What of it, Teddy? You have ruined it already.’

‘Oh, Sophie...’ His tears were renewed.

‘If someone has to marry wealth,’ she said, ‘why not you?’

‘Because I have as good as proposed to Lucy.’

‘Good heavens! When did you propose?’

‘When we were walking in Ranelagh Gardens. It was such a lovely night and she was hanging on my arm and we were alone.’

‘And she accepted?’

‘Yes, straight away. She doesn’t know anything about this, Sophie. I couldn’t tell her. She was so happy and said she would speak to her parents. No doubt I shall get a grilling from her papa and what I shall say to him I have no idea.’

‘Oh, Teddy, what are we to do with you?’

‘Wash your hands of me.’

‘I can’t do that. You are my brother, you protected me when we were children, made sure I was safe, fought anyone who bothered me, and I love you.’

‘Oh, sis...’

‘You had better go up to your room and make yourself presentable before Aunt Emmeline comes down. She must know nothing of this.’

He scrambled to his feet and disappeared, leaving her lost in thought and very near to tears herself. Her brother had never really grown up. Although six years older than she was, he behaved like her junior, looking to her as he had to his other sisters to pull him out of the scrapes into which he sank. But how could she? Could she sacrifice herself as Jane had been prepared to do? Even if she did, she had to be sure any husband she chose was not only rich enough, but prepared to use those riches to pay Teddy’s debts. She began mentally ticking off the possibilities: Reggie, Richard, Lord Gorange, Vincent Malthouse... Mr Malthouse would not do. He would have no money until he inherited, but the others, all three well up in the stirrups, all three wanting to marry her. What she could not understand was why. She shuddered. So much for her dreams of a love match.

* * *

There was something wrong with Sophie, Adam decided, when he called later that day to tell everyone that he was leaving London. Her face was pale, her blue eyes puffy and red, her whole demeanour subdued. She had been quiet the previous evening, but nothing like this. She was behaving as if she had received a body blow. Who or what had done this to her?

‘Miss Cavenhurst, are you not well?’ he asked gently.

‘I am perfectly well, my lord. A little tired perhaps.’

Other people came and went and Lady Cartrose received them exactly as she always did. She was not unfeeling, so he could only surmise that whatever was wrong had been kept from her. Sophie had got herself into a scrape and it must be very serious to put the light out in those lovely eyes and make her move so listlessly. He felt an unaccustomed urge to take her into his arms and comfort her, and if there had been no one else in the room he might well have done so. He forgot why he had come in his determination to find out what it was and help her if he could. To do that he needed to speak to her alone.

The polite time for an afternoon call came to an end and everyone made to leave. He hung about to be the last. ‘Miss Cavenhurst,’ he whispered while Lady Cartrose was bidding farewell to Mrs Malthouse. ‘I must speak with you alone.’

She had been looking at the floor, but now lifted her head to look at him in surprise. ‘My lord, no.’

‘No? What do you mean, no?’

‘It is not proper.’

In spite of himself, he chuckled. ‘When have you been so concerned with what is proper? That is not the Sophie Cavenhurst I have come to know. I am not about to offer for you, if that is what you are thinking. You have made it abundantly clear you would not entertain the idea. Friends, you said. It is as a friend I wish to speak to you.’

‘Oh.’ Too late she realised Jane had been right when she said falling in love was not something you could order, nor could you be sure that your love would be returned. The few times he had touched her had been acts of chivalry, not an indication of any deeper feelings for her. He behaved in the same way towards other ladies, young and old. She was no different. She had found the man to equal Mark, even surpass him, but Adam’s own words echoed in her brain.
‘I am not about to offer for you.’
‘It is as a friend I wish to speak to you.’
A friend—that was all she was to him. It was a painful revelation.

‘What are you two whispering about?’ Lady Cartrose demanded. Mrs Malthouse had gone and he was the only one left and her deafness had prevented her from hearing their conversation.

‘I was asking Miss Cavenhurst if she would care to come riding with me tomorrow morning,’ Adam told her, raising his voice a little.

‘I am sure if she wishes to go I have nothing against it,’ the lady said. ‘No doubt Edward will accompany her.’

‘Will you?’ He addressed Sophie. ‘In the morning before the sun becomes too hot.’

Teddy had suggested she could make him change his mind. But how could she? He seemed impervious to women’s wiles, and she would not demean herself by attempting it. On the other hand it would be churlish to refuse him. ‘Very well, I shall be pleased to.’

‘Good. I will call about nine o’clock and will bring a mount for you.’

‘Thank you.’

He picked up his hat from the hall table. ‘Cheer up. It won’t be half as bad as you think,’ he murmured, settling the hat on his head.

She watched him striding easily down the front steps and off along the road and her heart felt fit to break.

* * *

Somehow she got through the rest of the morning, conversing with her aunt, picking at her food at nuncheon and declining to go out. Even her aunt was worried about her. ‘Are you not well, child?’

‘I am tired, Aunt. I am not used to such a continuous round of engagements.’

‘Oh, is that all? We will have a day at home and you shall rest.’

Rest she could not. She picked up a book and pretended to read, but her thoughts were whirring round and round in her head and going nowhere. She tried some embroidery that her aunt had started but never finished, but after a few stitches, she let it drop into her lap. Outside the sun was shining; the garden invited her. She took a parasol and ventured out to pace up and down, turning Teddy’s problems over in her mind, and they became all mixed up with her own huge problem. She had fallen in love and it was a state of affairs that could have no happy ending.

Teddy would probably say that was the best thing that could have happened. He would tell her to make a push to win the man, make him change his mind about not marrying again and they would both benefit; a man like Viscount Kimberley could easily afford a few thousand to pay off his debts. Even if she could change his lordship’s mind—and how did one go about that? she wondered—she would be using him. That would be dishonest and would stand in the way of any chance of happiness. Far from making it easier, it made it more difficult, impossible. Teddy would never see that it was out of the question. Where was her brother? She had not seen him since breakfast. Surely he had not gone gambling again?

The person most to blame was Captain Moore. Teddy would not ask him for more time to pay, but she could. Where could she find him? The only place she thought he might be was White’s, but ladies certainly could not go there. She thought about this for some time as she paced up and down, then, making up her mind, went indoors and made her way up to Teddy’s bedchamber.

Her brother had eschewed the services of a valet. At Greystone Manor he relied on his father’s valet to help him with his toilette and the servants to tidy up his clothes. In London, it was Bessie who tidied up after him. She had even been known to tie his cravat for him. Hoping her maid was not in the room, she opened the door gingerly. There was no one there. It only took a minute to extract a suit of clothes, a shirt, cravat, hose and a tall hat, and then she was speeding along to her own room to change into them.

She made a passable boy, she decided as she surveyed herself in the mirror over the night table and stuffed most of her hair up into the crown of the hat. She could not wear Teddy’s shoes—they were far too big—but she put on her own riding boots and tucked the breeches into those. She opened her door carefully and peered along the landing. There was no one about.

Two minutes later she was outside and strolling along the street, apparently without a care in the world. If it were not for the fact that her errand was so serious, she would have been enjoying herself. She met no one she knew on the way to St James’s Street, so her disguise was not tested, but none of the strangers who passed her gave her a second glance, so she thought it must pass muster.

St James’s Street was busy. Several of the gentlemen’s clubs were situated there and patrons came and went, on foot and in cabs and carriages. The only women she saw were a couple of dubious characters.

She was stopped by the doorman when she attempted to enter White’s. ‘Members only, young man.’

‘I am looking for Captain Moore.’ She tried to deepen her voice. ‘I have an urgent message for him.’

She was told to wait while the captain was fetched. As she stood, wishing she had never come, several people passed her and eyed her with curiosity. From farther in the building she could hear men’s voices, shouts and laughter. And then she saw the captain coming towards her and her nerve almost deserted her.

‘You want me?’ he queried, stopping in front of her.

‘Yes.’

‘I don’t know you, do I? What’s your name?’

‘It doesn’t matter what my name is. I need to speak to you in private.’

‘Then, let us take a stroll.’ He led the way into the street. ‘Now, what is it that you have to tell me? I left a lucrative game and would return to it.’

‘Is Mr Cavenhurst with you?’

‘Cavenhurst? No, I have not seen him today at all.’

She breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Good. I believe he owes you a considerable amount.’

‘He does that. What has it to do with you?’

‘I am his friend. I come to ask you to give him more time to pay.’

‘He is a coward as well as a welsher, sending a stripling to plead for him.’ He paused and laughed. ‘Of course, you are no stripling, are you, Miss Cavenhurst?’ He reached out and pulled off her hat, making her hair cascade about her shoulders. ‘You make a lovely boy, my dear, but I would have to be half-blind to be deceived.’

‘It was the only way I could get near you.’ People were looking at them and smiling. She grabbed her hat from him and put it back on, pushing her hair up into it. It wouldn’t go back as well as it had when she’d had a mirror to help her, and strands of it escaped.