The Regency (80 page)

‘
It may be different when they're on their own ground,
defending themselves against invasion,' Brummell said. 'A
man naturally fights best when he has something he values to
protect.’

Lucy smiled. 'You sounded quite sensible then, George.'

‘
My dear ma'am, it was the merest oversight. Let me
instantly become properly frivolous again. What can I tell you
of real moment? Ah yes, I am quite settled in my new
lodgings, at Chapel Street, with all my pretty things about me;
except for my favourite sweetmeat dish — you know the
flower-encrusted one, with the entwined cupids on the stem
— which a villainous brigand masquerading as a footman
dropped on the stairs! Your enterprising cousin, Lady
Greyshott, has begun a new intrigue with Sir Geoffrey
Cavendish. He keeps a miniature portrait of her right eye in
his breast-pocket — quite a horror, I assure you! Puts one
in mind of a fishmonger's sl
^a
b. And I have just had the most
delicious new waistcoat delivered from Guthrie's — grey
toilinette, with a remote-purple stripe — which I shall wear to
Mrs Kirklington's crush tonight, so I hope you will be there to
see it.'

‘
Oh — I don't know — I hadn't thought —' Lucy said
vaguely.

‘
Dear ma'am, you must think! Now you are back in Town,
you must escort your protégées, or there will be despair and
probably suicide amongst the young men of the
ton.
It would
be quite a crime to nip in the bud such a promising inclin
ation as that between Lord Harvey Sale and Miss Haworth,
and Miss Morland's admirers are legion.'

‘Hippolyta and Harvey Sale?' Lucy said.

‘
He courts her assiduously,' Brummell nodded. 'It's quite
pretty to see them, for she puts the rest of womanhood to shame for modesty and propriety, and Sale has aged fifty
years in manner. He has become quite courtly — Versailles
come to London, you know.'

‘
I feel as if I have been away a very long time,' Lucy said,
shaking her head.

‘You have,' said Brummell solemnly. 'Too long.’

*

June became July. No news was forthcoming of Africa's
whereabouts, and Parslow returned to London, leaving the
continued search in the hands of Lucy's agents. Through her
friends in the Admiralty, enquiries were put in hand to
discover if she had been found aboard any of the King's ships,
but such enquiries would inevitably be long in answering.
Meanwhile there was nothing to be done but to wait, and
hope, and in Lucy's case, to feel wretchedly guilty and anxious.
Mr Brummell, Miss Trotton and Parslow continued to try
to convince her that Africa must be safe somewhere at sea;
but the image would haunt her mind of a body tumbled
somewhere in a ditch.

The news came that Bonaparte had indeed invaded Russia,
crossing the river Nieman on 23 June with the largest army
ever assembled in Europe, over six hundred thousand men,
more than half of whom where Prussians, Poles, Italians, and
other allied troops. News also came that the Congress of
America had declared war on England on 19 June, despite the
fact that the Orders in Council, against which they were
largely protesting, had already been revoked. It was a war without a point before it even began, but it meant that the
American navy of sixteen large frigates and a hundred and
sixty-five gunboats were now hostile vessels, and sufficient
to prove a serious nuisance to the British merchant ships'
carrying trade.

One afternoon in July, Harvey Sale waited on his brother
in his house in Bond Street. Wyndham liked to keep up a
certain ceremony in all his doings, which did not quite suit
Lord Harvey, who lived in plain but convenient lodgings in
Ryder Street. Wyndham kept him waiting just long enough to
emphasise the difference in their rank, and then came bustling
in, arrayed in a dressing-gown of startling design.

‘Good God, George, what are you wearing?'

‘
What, this?' Wyndham feigned a casual surprise. 'Haven't
you seen one like it before? It's Chinese, or Indian, or some
thing of that sort. I believe Prinny has one something the
same.'

‘
It's perfectly devilish. Don't tell me you put that on when
you first get up in the morning? The colours are enough to
drive your eyes back into your head.'

‘
Yes, well, I didn't ask you here to discuss my clothes,'
Wyndham said hastily, 'I was talkin' to Fleetwood this
morning, and he asked me about you and Miss Haworth.'

‘
Fleetwood talks too much,' Harvey said. 'And if he's so
interested in my affairs, he might as well talk to me about
them.'

‘
Well, naturally he didn't think there was any harm in
asking me. Dammit, I am your brother!'

‘
So you are, George. And what did you want to see me
about?'

‘I've told you — Miss Haworth. Fleetwood asked me if itwas a case between you and her. Put me in a damned awkward position, I can tell you! I didn't know what to say!’

Harvey controlled his temper. 'You might have told him to
mind his own business, I suppose. Or told him that it was
none of yours.’

Wyndham mottled. 'It certainly is my business, if my
brother is paying enough attention to a girl to make people
think he means to marry her.'

‘
Perhaps I do mean to marry her,' Sale said, 'though what
it's got to do with you I can't imagine.'

‘You're my brother, damnit!'

‘So you have said already.'

‘
And when the Guv'nor hangs up his tile, which won't be
long, I shall be head of the family. It's very much my business
when my brother and heir presumptive thinks of marrying
and don't even consult me!'

‘Consult you?'

‘
Look here, Harvey, this Miss Haworth — perfectly nice
girl, and all that, but who is she? Nobody! Nothin' against her father — sailor hero and all that — but he ain't one of us, and
neither is she.'

‘
What are you talking about? Her connections are more
than good. She is first cousin to the Earl of Aylesbury.’

‘
Only on the distaff side.'

‘
Miss Haworth is a gentlewoman by birth and education,
and I'll thank you to keep your tongue to yourself,' Sale said
dangerously. His attentions to Hippolyta had not, until then,
been made with any very serious intention. He thought her
the prettiest girl in London, without necessarily intending
more than to pass an agreeable Season flirting mildly with
her; but his brother's interference set up his bristles, and
made him begin to think that to marry Miss Haworth might
not be a bad idea at all.

Wyndham breathed heavily through his nose. 'Don't get on
your high ropes, old fellow. As I said, Miss Haworth's a
perfectly decent sort of female —'

‘
She's the most beautiful girl in the world,' Sale said. 'And the most modest. Her gentleness, the excellence of her under
standing —'

‘
Yes, yes, yes,' Wyndham said, waving all that away, 'but
the fact remains she ain't out of the top drawer; and she's
dowry worth speakin' of. It won't do, Harvey, and that's what
I asked you here to tell you. You can't marry her, and that's
that.’

Sale reddened with anger. 'And how do you propose to stop
me?’

Wyndham looked unhappy. ‘Damnit, Harvey, I don't want
to come to cuffs with you. Can't you see it's impossible? You
could have anyone you want, any girl in London —'

‘I don't want any girl in London. I want Miss Haworth.'

‘
What about the reversion? You know I ain't in the petticoat
line. The Guv'nor's always looked to you for the son-and-
heir bit, and damnit, I have too. Pick the right filly, and
I'll back you all the way. But this Miss Haworth — you can't
see her as Marchioness of Penrith, now can you?'

‘
Whether I can or whether I can't, I ask again, how do you propose to stop me from marrying the woman of my choice?'
Sale said.

Wyndham's expression hardened. 'If you mean to make a
fight of it, Harvey, you'll soon find out. I can get the Guv'nor
to stop your allowance to begin with. You'd find that pretty
damned uncomfortable. There are your debts of honour —
you've been having some pretty deep doings lately at Watiers,
so I hear, and if they are called in and you haven't a feather
to fly with —'

‘
You may go to the devil,' Sale said ferociously, and
stormed out, slamming the door behind him. Wyndham
stared at the closed door for a while, deep in thought, and
then called for his manservant.

‘
Have the carriage brought round, will you, Rundell? I'm
goin' to pay a call on Lady Aylesbury.’

*

Lucy was not entirely surprised to receive a visit from the
Earl of Wyndham. After Brummell's hint to her about Lord
Harvey Sale, she had watched him and Hippolyta at various dances and assemblies, and had seen that he preferred her to
any other girl of the Season. She was a little surprised at Sale's choice, for a young man in his position could have
looked higher as far as rank was concerned; but she was ready
to admit that Polly was an excellent young woman, and
though her dowry would be small, she would make any man a
fine wife. She thought it would not be very long, therefore, before his family wished to discuss the matter.

The Earl began in his usual way with formal compliments
and heavy circumlocutions, and having endured as much of
this as she could, Lucy cut through it all briskly.

‘
Had you something in particular you wished to speak to
me about, Wyndham?’

He blinked, but managed to take it in his stride. 'Well, yes,
ma'am, in fact I have. The best subject in the world, I
believe,' he added with ponderous humour, 'to a mother with
a daughter in the marriage-mart.’

Lucy raised an eyebrow. 'A daughter?'

‘
Yes, ma'am — Lady Flaminia has been enjoying her first
Season, I hope?’

She looked at the stout young man, whose stiff shirt-points
served to emphasise the fullness of his jowls. In his late twenties,
he already looked ten years older, and he had long been
supposed, from his way of life, to be indifferent to females; but his father, the Marquis, was known to be in poor health,
so perhaps Wyndham had decided it was time to do his duty.