VIscount Besieged (9 page)

‘
Dora, you do like him,’ Harriet accused.

‘
Like
him?’ echoed Isadora, jumping up the better to face her friend.
‘You must be mad, Harriet. I am well on the way to disliking him
intensely.’

She might as
well not have spoken for all the notice Harriet took of her words.
Eagerly, she asked, ‘Is he married?’

‘
Harriet, you are as bad as Fanny.’

‘
But
what else is there to know about such a gentleman? We know he is a
viscount. You have yourself confessed that he is agreeable, and
attractive, and,’ she went on very firmly as Isadora opened her
mouth to respond, ‘his eyes smile.’

‘
Yes,
I know, but—’

‘
What
is more, he is less than thirty. He must be quite the most eligible
gentleman to come your way in all these years.’

‘
Come
my way? Just what—?’

‘
And
if you are not the fool I take you for, you will at once cease to
prate about this nonsensical dislike you say you have taken to the
man and be at pains to attach him immediately.’

For a long
moment, Isadora merely gazed at her friend in utter stupefaction.
Had Harriet run completely mad? She to set her cap at Roborough?
She would rather die. What, was she to be counted a traitor, to
take the usurper of her home to husband? A traitor not only to the
family, to Papa’s memory, but also to her own ambition. Besides,
she had every expectation that they would find him to be married
after all. Not that she cared. It made no difference to
her.

‘
Harriet,’ she said at last with a calm born of astonishment,
‘you have quite taken leave of your senses.’

‘
On
the contrary, Dora, you must be counted quite crazy if you cannot
see—’

‘
Fudge. Even were such a thing remotely possible, I should not
marry Roborough—not if he were the last man in the world. I dare
say I shall never be married. Not, in any event, to anyone of that
social standing.’

Harriet eyed her
ominously. ‘I suppose I need not ask what you mean by that remark.
Now, Dora, you must listen to me—’

‘
Not
if you mean to prose on at me about marrying Roborough, for a more
stupid—’

‘
Dora, you have got to stop this nonsense about going on the
stage. I know that is what you think you may do, but you are living
in a fantasy. This is real life, Dora. There is only one life for
you—just as there is for me, and—’

‘
Well, then, why don’t you marry Roborough?’ cut in Isadora,
exasperated.

‘
I am
betrothed to Joseph,’ Harriet reminded her with dignity. ‘Besides,
I am only thinking of your future, Dora.’

‘
I
know, and I do wish you would not,’ said Isadora despairingly. ‘I
have my future well in hand, Harriet. Besides, you know me well
enough to know that I will not be deterred.’

‘
Yes,
I do,’ agreed Harriet. ‘But, Dora, I cannot and will not stand by
and let you ruin yourself without a fight.’

Isadora laughed.
‘Well, believe, my dearest Harriet, that there will be a fight.
Particularly if you mean to try and marry me off to the Errant
Heir. I only hope the wretch is married already. That will put your
ideas firmly to bed.’

‘
I
wish I could remember,’ Harriet said, frowning. ‘Only I never did
meet him, for all we must have been attending the same parties. At
least—what was his name before he came into the title?’

‘
I
haven’t the least idea. Nor do I care.’ Isadora moved to the door.
‘However, since you are so determined to find out all about him, I
will introduce you and then you may question him to your heart’s
content.’

‘
I
shall do nothing of the kind,’ Harriet protested as they left the
little parlour together.

‘
Well, you need not refrain on my account,’ said Isadora
frankly. ‘For my part, I will be only too happy if you plague him
beyond bearing.’

‘
I
was thinking of his account rather than yours,’ retorted her
friend. ‘I would not be guilty of such a piece of presumption as to
question him about anything at all. I only hope you will not put me
to the blush by quarrelling with him in my presence.’

‘
Never fear,’ Isadora told her with mock-meekness. ‘I shall be
as good as gold—just for you. But if—’

She broke off,
halting suddenly in the middle of the hallway. Harriet, almost
bumping into her, began to ask what was the matter.

‘
Hush!’ said Isadora urgently. Had she heard what she thought?
Voices in the library. Men’s voices. Yes, there they were
again.

She saw by
Harriet’s face that she was hearing them too now. The low tones had
filtered through just as they were passing the library door on the
way to the main staircase. Creeping on tiptoe, Isadora sneaked
closer and put her ear to the woodwork, ignoring Harriet’s shocked
look.

Yes, it was
Roborough and Thornbury. She could hear them clearly
now.

‘
You
are sure there is no alternative?’ the lawyer was saying. ‘It must
be the estate?’

‘
I’m
afraid a sale will prove inevitable.’ That was Roborough.
Apologetic, but determined. ‘Perhaps you could begin by putting out
some discreet feelers. I do not wish it generally known just yet
that the property is on the market.’

He was going to
sell the estate! Isadora reeled in shock, moving away from the
fateful door without even being aware that she did so. He was going
to take their home from under them and pass it on to strangers. How
could he be so cruel?

‘
Dora, what is it?’

Harriet’s
concerned tones brought her a little out of the oddly unreal
sensation she was experiencing, as if she were not actually
there.

‘
He
is going to sell,’ she said blankly.

‘
What
? What do you mean?’

‘
Roborough. He is going to sell the estate.’

Harriet stared.
‘Sell this house?’

‘
Yes,
I tell you. He is just instructing Thornbury.’

Without
thinking, she put her ear back to the door.

‘
Dora, for God’s sake,’ hissed Harriet.

‘
Hush!’ whispered Isadora again, for she had just heard her own
name spoken. What more? Great heavens, what more?

‘
You
have some query concerning Miss Alvescot, my lord?’ asked
Thornbury.

‘
It
is rather a delicate matter, Thornbury. I only wondered if there
might be a local suitor.’

‘
A
suitor?’ echoed the lawyer, evidently surprised.

‘
Yes.
Surely it is not a strange idea that Isadora could well be married
off in the near future?’

Isadora,
listening behind the door, very nearly burst into the room on the
instant. Married off?
Married off?

‘
So
that is what he intends, is it?’ she said aloud, her tone wrathful.
‘We’ll see about that.’

But Harriet,
seeing her reach out towards the door-handle, seized her wrist and
began to run back the way they had come.

‘
Harriet, let me go!’

But it was plain
that Harriet had taken fright, and nothing would do for her but to
bundle her friend back into the little parlour, shut the door
firmly—but quietly—and lean against it, half panting with
effort.

‘
Harriet, come away from that door!’

‘
No!’

‘
Harriet!’

‘
Dora, I know you. You will say dreadful things and this
Roborough of yours will be furious and your poor mama will be
distracted and everything will be terrible.’

She ended this
rattling speech on a rising note that in itself gave Isadora pause.
But it did not assuage her fury. She swung away across the
parlour.

‘
That
man!’ she raged. Oh, but she would like to murder him with her bare
hands. ‘How dared he? How
dared
he?’

Harriet relaxed
away from the door, though she remained in front of it, as if she
suspected Isadora might make an unexpected dash to get
out.

‘
Dora, calm down,’ she pleaded. ‘You have not even told me what
he has said to cause you such distress.’

‘
Distress?’ echoed Isadora, whipping about to face her. Could
not Harriet see what was the matter with her? ‘I am not distressed,
Harriet, I am livid. Do you know what he said?’

‘
No,
I don’t,’ Harriet snapped. ‘I have just said so.’

‘
He
asked Thornbury if I had a suitor,’ Isadora told her, biting out
the words. ‘Because, if you please, he wants to parcel me off in
marriage.’

‘
He
said that?’

‘
Well, not exactly that.’ Really, why must Harriet quibble? She
knew what she had heard. ‘But it is what he meant, you may take it
from me.’

‘
That,’ said Harriet sceptically, ‘is what it seems to me I
can’t do. I know you, Dora. You always manage to make something out
of nothing. What exactly did he say?’

‘
How
in the world should I remember it exactly?’ exclaimed Isadora
impatiently. What did it matter, in any event? She knew what
Roborough was about.

‘
It
is plain enough what he intends. He means to sell the estate. That
much I did not mistake, I assure you. And if I don’t miss my guess
he is looking to marry me off as soon as he may, and so be rid of
the whole concern of us.’

Harriet blinked.
‘Dora, what are you talking of? How could he possibly get rid of
all of you by your getting married?’

‘
Easily,’ Isadora responded evenly. ‘My husband would assume
responsibility for the rest of my family, would he not? In the
circumstances, he could scarcely refuse. That is, of course,
presuming the existence of this local suitor Roborough has invented
for his purposes.’

All at once
Harriet’s eyes widened. ‘Oh, Dora, you don’t suppose Thornbury will
tell him about Edmund, do you?’

‘
I
should not be at all surprised.’

‘
But
Edmund could not possibly afford to take responsibility for your
family.’

‘
No,
and I would not wish it on him either, be sure.’

For a moment or two Harriet gazed at her friend, an
appalled expression on her face, while Isadora paid no heed,
instead pacing to and fro about the little parlour, her mind full
of Roborough’s iniquities.

Now she
understood why he had been so pleasant to them all. He was trying
to curry favour, to put himself in a situation of sympathy with the
family, that he might the more easily persuade them to accept this
hideous decision to sell off the only home they had all of them
known.

Such duplicity!
Such a barefaced, unmitigated liar! He did not know what he would
do. It must depend upon circumstance. Yes, on the circumstance of
finding someone stupid enough to wish to buy this ugly old
house.

Well, let him
try. She would be very much interested to see what he would do when
he discovered that no one in their right mind would give him so
much as a penny piece for the place. She had almost forgotten the
presence of Harriet until her friend, dropping into the nearest
chair, spoke at last in accents of reproach.

‘
Really, Dora, you are dreadful. You are making me think as
absurdly as you do yourself. As if you have any real idea of what
Roborough intends. You cannot take a few words overheard through a
shut door and assume an entire history upon them in this
way.’

‘
I
don’t see why not. And if he did not wish me to make such
assumptions he should have told me to my face what he intends—as I
asked him to.’

‘
And
what did he say?’

‘
He
would not tell me, of course. Now I see why.’ She nodded in a
determined manner. ‘Well, he will find he has made a very serious
mistake.’

‘
Yes,’ agreed her friend drily, ‘when he discovers that there
is no suitor—except Edmund. And he must guess at once that he
doesn’t count.’

‘
I
don’t mean that. It is plain enough that he does not wish to take
responsibility for us all. He may or may not be planning to foist
it all off on to me. But I shall spike his guns, see if I don’t. My
plans may serve the family just as well as his.’

Harriet groaned.
‘Your plans? God help them all!’

‘
They
will be safer in my hands than in Roborough’s.’

‘
I
strongly doubt that. What do you suppose you can do? In any event,
you cannot stop him selling the estate if he chooses to do so, you
know.’

Isadora tossed
her head. ‘I may not be able to stop him selling the estate, but I
can, and will, stop him selling me.’ She moved purposefully towards
the door.

Harriet jumped
up. ‘Where are you going?’

‘
Have
no fear, I am not going to thrust myself into his meeting with
Thornbury. There will be time enough to tell him what I think of
him. But I am not going to let the family remain in ignorance of
his dastardly intent.’