The Irish Duke (30 page)

Louisa slid out of bed and turned up the lamp. “Are you going to throw up?”

“No, I don’t think so.” She shivered. “I’m in pain . . . I hurt all over.”

“You’re cold. Get into my bed. It’s nice and warm.” Lu took the chamber pot from the cupboard in the night table. “Just in case.”

Georgy lay down and pulled up the covers. She moaned softly to ease her misery. All at once, she bolted upright. She pressed a fist against her mouth to smother a scream, as a sharp pain tore through her belly. She felt a tearing sensation, followed by a gush of warm wetness between her thighs. She threw back the covers and saw that she was bleeding.

Louisa’s eyes went wide. “O my Lord, you’re having a miscarriage!”

“Thank God! Thank God! What shall I do?” she whispered frantically.

Blood was spreading everywhere, drenching Georgy’s nightgown and staining the bedsheets.

“Is the pain unbearable?” Lu was terrified for her sister.

“The agonizing pain has stopped.” She panted with relief and with fear.

For an hour they sat together while Georgy cramped and bled into towels Louisa had brought. When the cramping eased, Louisa helped her sister from the bed. “Here put this towel between your legs and squeeze them together.”

Three towels later, the bleeding subsided. Louisa cut a fresh towel into smaller squares. She removed her sister’s soaked nightgown, then brought water and washed her. “I’ll get you a fresh gown.” Lu pulled the crisp white nightgown over Georgy’s body and handed her the squares of towel. “Here, use these as pads.”

Georgy was weak with relief but still shaking with fear of discovery. “Promise you’ll keep my secret, Lu?”

“I promise no one will ever know. I’ll burn these sheets tomorrow and put fresh ones on the bed.”

“Swear to me you won’t tell anyone.” Tears streamed down her face. “I’ll kill myself if anyone ever finds out I was with child!”

“Georgy, I swear on my life I will keep this secret. Surely you know you can trust me? No one will ever know.” Lu looked down at herself and saw her nightgown and hands were covered with blood, just as in her nightmares. Her nerves were stretched to the breaking point and she let out a sob.

Suddenly the door opened and their mother walked in. “What on earth—”

The three females stood staring at one another.

“Oh, my darling.” Georgina closed the distance between them and enfolded Louisa in her arms. “My poor, poor, darling. You’re having a miscarriage.”

“No . . . Mother . . . I—” Lu saw her sister’s face, pale as death and she couldn’t betray her. Georgy had tried to kill herself once and she would do it again rather than face the shameful scandal.
I’m stronger than Georgy.

The duchess stripped the sheets from the bed and put on fresh ones. Then she took a clean nightgown from the drawer and gently eased the blood-stained one from her daughter’s body. “You will need to rest.” She led Louisa to the bed and glanced at Georgy. “I want you both to listen carefully. No one must ever know about this. Not even your father—
especially
not your father.” She bundled up the bloodied nightgowns, sheets, and towels. “I’ll tell the servants that I had the miscarriage. I’ve had them before. We will keep this secret between the three of us. No one else must know.”

The duchess saw that Georgy was swaying on her feet. “Go back to your own bed, dearest. I’ll look after your sister now.”

She bent and placed a tender kiss on Louisa’s forehead. “These things happen, darling. We’ll get through this together.”

 

 

“The name is the destiny,” Dowager Duchess Louisa murmured as she watched her daughter, Georgianna Susan, move toward her through the throng of guests.
I named her after my sister Georgy, never dreaming that my baby girl would turn out to look exactly like her aunt. Never mind, darling. Your plain face didn’t stop you from becoming the Fifth Countess of Winterton.

Louisa smiled a secret smile.
I could have been the Fourth Countess of Winterton. Earl Winterton panted after me and I might have succumbed if he hadn’t been such a boring cricket fanatic.
“Georgy, darling. Do you have something of import to impart?”

“Yes, Mother. The press wants permission to take photographs for the newspaper.”

“My vanity compels me to grant permission. Pass the word and gather everyone together . . . my sons and daughters first, then my grandchildren, and then my great-grandchildren. Make sure no one is overlooked, Georgy.”

As Louisa gazed after her daughter, she felt a tug on her heartstrings.
She is the spitting image of my dear sister, Georgy. The devastating night my sister miscarried is indelibly stamped in my memory as if it just happened.

“H
enry! Beth! I wish you a Happy Christmas, and many more to come.” The Duchess of Bedford greeted her dearest friends warmly. “Don’t tell me Teddy isn’t coming!”

Beth threw an apologetic look at Georgy and Louisa. “He’s gone to Horsham in West Sussex. He said he felt duty bound to visit his constituents while Parliament is in recess.”

“How very noble of him,” Louisa said sweetly.

“Actually,” Lord Holland confided, “we are extremely pleased that Teddy has begun to take his responsibilities seriously.”

“Uncle Holly, you always manage to make me laugh.” Louisa glanced at her sister and gave her a reassuring smile.

Georgina lamented, “With George Grey and our sons Edward and Charles off serving their country, there will be a shortage of bachelors to celebrate Christmas with us this year. I made a special point of inviting James Hamilton and his brother, but apparently they’ve gone to Ireland.” She glanced at Louisa and saw her blush.

Mother is annoyed that Abercorn won’t be coming, but I’m relieved. If he were here, she and Father would aid and abet him in his pursuit of me.
“Johnny arrived yesterday and Jack has volunteered to be Lord of Misrule.” Lu smiled at her brother. “He’ll make sure everyone has a good time.”

“Why don’t I organize a hunt for this afternoon? We have no snow yet, and I’m sure the ladies would enjoy a good gallop.”

“Organize it for just the men, Jack. You forget that Georgy is recuperating from that dreadful bout of fever.” The duchess glanced at Louisa with concerned eyes. “Your sisters are helping Johnny write a Christmas play they are going to perform.”

Beth took a seat next to Georgy. “How are you feeling after your illness, my dear?”

“Sometimes I get a little tired.”

“Yes, you appear much thinner than you did before you went to Scotland,” Beth said with sympathy. “You gave us quite a scare, my dear.”

An hour later, Earl and Countess Grey arrived, and the conversations were repeated.

That afternoon, Jack included his younger brothers Henry and Cosmo in the hunt. Even Alex was given permission to accompany the men, though for everyone’s safety he was allowed no weapon.

The ladies gathered in the Duchess of Bedford’s blue drawing room, where they indulged in Christmas confections, champagne, and gossip.

The prime minister’s wife, Mary, kept them enthralled with stories of King William’s illegitimate offspring. “Though Queen Adelaide accepts them without a qualm, the Duchess of Kent, Princess Victoria’s mother, does not. John Conroy has informed the king that his bastards should be banned from Court, to protect the morals of young Victoria. Can you imagine such bare-faced hypocrisy, when all London knows Conroy is the Duchess of Kent’s lover?”

“Because she has no children of her own, Adelaide enjoys young Victoria’s company,” Georgina remarked. “The queen will be devastated if she is deprived of her niece’s company.”

“William and Adelaide are the king and queen for God’s sake,” Lady Holland declared. “They should rule the Court as they bloody well please!”

“It’s because Princess Victoria is heir to the throne that the Duchess of Kent acts so high and mighty. She pretends her farts smell of roses,” Mary said vulgarly.

Beth laughed. “When the season begins you should throw a masquerade ball and invite the Duchess of Kent and the king’s by-blows. Think of the fun we’d have when the masks were removed at midnight!”

Louisa kept a watchful eye on Georgy. When she began to look fatigued, Lu set down her glass and made their excuses. “We’d better find Johnny and finish writing the play. We’re going to give Rachel a walk-on part.”

When they left the drawing room, Louisa urged her sister to go up and lie down until it was time for the Christmas Eve dinner.

 

At the evening meal the conversation naturally gravitated toward politics. It was Lord John’s opportunity to discuss the reform bill with the prime minister away from Parliament and get the input of both his father and Lord Holland, who fully supported it.

“Though I’ve tried often enough to introduce a bill to reduce election bribery, I’ve never been successful,” Johnny said ruefully.

“That’s because it would reveal too many skeletons in too many closets,” Holland remarked. “Present company excepted, of course.”

“I have a feeling the time is ripe to get the reform bill passed in the coming session,” Johnny declared.

“There will be no problem getting it through the Commons,” Earl Grey assured them. “It’s the damned Tories in the Lords who will be the stumbling block.”

The Duke of Bedford warned both his son and the prime minister, “You shouldn’t send it on to the House of Lords until you are absolutely sure it will get enough votes to get it passed. I will go to London in January and rally support for it. Henry will help me. It won’t be the first time we’ve used our influence to bring about much needed change.”

The Duchess of Bedford smiled at the prime minister. “Your son’s friend Charles Bennet is a Tory. I’m sure Lord Ossulston will give you his vote. I should have invited him for Christmas. When we visited you at Howick, he was quite enamored of Georgy. And of course you can count on our dear friend Abercorn’s support.”

Johnny threw a glance at Louisa. “I’m so sorry James Hamilton decided to go to Ireland for Christmas. I was looking forward to his company.”

The Duke of Bedford nodded. “As soon as he returns I’ll be in touch with him. I’ll invite him to sit with me in the Lords when they debate the reform bill.”

Louisa finished her dessert and sighed.
O Lord, not long after Parliament is in session, the season will start and once again Georgy and I will be put on the marriage market.
She closed her eyes and made a wish.
I hope Georgy receives a proposal, and I hope that I escape the marriage trap!

 

For Louisa, the Yule festivities seemed to go by in a flash. Jack, as Lord of Misrule, made sure the days were packed with fun and games. Christmas morning was taken up by the exchange of presents and followed by the traditional presentation of gifts to all the people who served Woburn. Jack made sure that the servants enjoyed themselves every bit as much as the Russells and their titled friends. In the evening there was the customary feast, followed by Christmas carols.

On Boxing Day, the Russell siblings performed their annual play for their parents and friends. They used old scenery that Edwin Landseer had once painted, reproducing the Old Bailey. Lord John, with a thick German accent, acted as the judge, while his brothers and sisters were brought before him on various charges of breaking the law.

Louisa, wearing a policeman’s hat and a mustache and wielding a truncheon, brought in the culprits, while Georgy played ominous notes on the harpsichord.

Henry and Cosmo had been arrested for being drunk and disorderly, and were still inebriated when they arrived at Court. The judge could see nothing wrong with their behavior. “Zey look pervectly normal to me. Caze dizmizzed!”

The audience cheered the verdict.

Alexander, carrying a doctor’s bag and a stethoscope, was charged with practicing medicine without a medical degree. The judge held up his hand. “I have ze cold and ze cough. What do you prescribe, Doktor?”

Alex put the stethoscope on the judge’s chest and then, stroking his long beard, declared, “An enema every hour on the hour. A dripping bum is the only antidote for a dripping nose.” He opened his bag and pulled out a rubber syringe. “Bend over.”

“Guilty as charged!” roared the judge. “I zentence you to a doze of your own medizine.”

Louisa confiscated the syringe and hauled Alex behind bars. When the prisoner held his hands over his bottom, the audience was helpless with laughter.

Next, Louisa escorted Jack before the judge. He was wearing a farmer’s smock and a floppy bumpkin’s hat. Under his arm he carried a mounted stag’s head purloined from his father’s library. Louisa read the charge: “Hunting game out of season.”