Chapter Thirty-Two
Somehow Charlotte must convince Miss Susan she had made a terrible mistake in trusting the cur. She hoped her friend had some ideas. A footman assisted the girl into the Mertons’ large traveling coach. Dotty was talking to her husband, and Con stood next to Charlotte.
“Do you know her last name yet?”
“Merryville. She is very trusting. By the time we reach Richmond, I shall know her life history.”
“I’ll leave it to you, then.” Raising her hands to his lips, Con kissed them. “If you can figure out a way to return her to her home, I’d be thankful.”
She climbed the steps into the coach. “I shall do my best.”
Charlotte made a point of sitting next to the girl in the coach as they waited for Dotty.
For the first time the girl showed signs that she might not be as ready to trust Charlotte as she’d thought. “Will Sir Reginald know where I have gone? Perhaps I should remain here.”
“No, no, we must depart immediately,” Dotty said, taking her seat across from Charlotte and Susan. “Merton has ordered luncheon and does not wish to be late.” She cast her eyes to the roof of the coach and sighed. “He is an absolute bear if his meals are late. We simply cannot delay our return.” After settling her skirts, Dotty directed her attention to Susan. “Lady Charlotte, who do we have here?”
“I would like to introduce you to Miss Susan Merryville. Miss Susan, I shall make you known to my dearest friend, the Marchioness of Merton.”
“I am pleased to meet you.” Dotty smiled graciously at Susan.
The girl’s jaw dropped. “I-I never dreamed I would meet a marchioness. I mean, I know Sir Reginald is part of the ton, but I did not know he had such friends.”
Charlotte’s gaze met her friend’s and she grimaced. “Susan—may I call you Susan?”
“Oh, yes, my lady.”
“Thank you. As I was saying, Susan has been telling me how she met her beloved. It is a most romantic story. We have just got to the point that her grandmamma does not approve of his age, and how she did not come directly from Bath, but from Gunter’s.” Charlotte glanced at the girl. “How did you decide to do something so daring?”
“Oh, wait,” Dotty said, thankfully picking up on Charlotte’s pose. “Do not tell me that your grandmamma poisoned your lover to your parents? That would be too bad.”
“That is exactly what she did.” Susan nodded. “When I tried to tell Mama and Papa about him, they refused to even receive him. We had to use my maid and his valet to exchange letters.”
Dotty clapped her hands together. “Ah, billets doux. How romantic!”
Susan glanced at Charlotte, confused. “It is French for love letters,” Charlotte explained. The girl nodded. “But where is your maid? Would she not have wanted to come with you?”
“She did not dare. My mama would have turned her off without a reference. Once the men put me into the coach, and we started to leave, she began to scream so that no one would blame her.”
Dotty leaned forward a little. “Lady Charlotte lives on Berkeley Square. Is that where you live as well?”
“No, I live on Russell Square. We used to live in Cheapside, but my parents decided it was time to move. That is the reason I was at my grandmamma’s.”
“Russell Square is quite lovely,” Charlotte said, “and a much better neighborhood than Cheapside. Although, there is nothing wrong with the area.”
“My best friend is still in Cheapside.” Susan’s tone was glum and her mouth drooped. “I miss her a lot.”
Charlotte wondered if her friend’s counsel would have kept Susan from making such a disastrous mistake.
Dotty’s eyes widened. “I am sure that you do, but I must know, who is this man of which we speak?”
“Sir Reginald Stanley.” The girl practically breathed his name. “Do you know him, my lady?”
“Sir Reginald.” She tapped her cheek and after a few moments smiled. “Why, yes. I was introduced to him. After I married, of course, and very much by accident. He is not received in Polite Society, you know.”
Susan’s face fell, and Charlotte could see all the girl’s dreams of moving in the ton start to wobble. “N-not received?”
“He has a reputation of being a rake and an inveterate gambler. That is not the type of gentleman ladies want around their daughters.”
“But rakes can reform.” The girl rallied. “Once they are wed, of course.”
“Yes, indeed they can. In fact, some claim that reformed rakes make the best husbands, but first he must marry.” Dotty’s brows drew together. “My dear, how thoughtless of me. You are planning to marry him?”
The girl’s countenance brightened again. “Yes, my lady. We are to travel to Scotland.”
“Well, naturally, if you are to wed, that would change everything.” She glanced at Susan again. “How old did you say you are, my dear?”
“Fifteen,” Susan pronounced as if it was a great age.
“Fifteen?” Dotty asked, her voice full of doubt. The girl nodded. “No. That will not do at all. One must be sixteen to marry in Scotland. Unless you have your parents’ permission, that is.” She let the silence stretch for a few moments. “But you do not.”
Susan clasped her hands together in her lap and stared at them. “N-no, my lady.”
“Lady Merton,” Charlotte said, “are you quite sure it is sixteen?”
“Indeed I am. Do you not remember the couple who eloped earlier this Season?” She did, but she was equally sure that was not to whom her friend was referring, but she nodded anyway. “She was not even out. They reached the border two months before her sixteenth birthday and were turned away. Naturally, she will never be allowed a Season, and she is ruined forever.”
Charlotte covered her mouth and gasped. “Oh, yes. I remember now. How horrible it was!” She slid a look at Susan, whose eyes were wide with horror. “My dear Susan, how fortunate you did not go to Scotland.”
The girl promptly burst into tears. Charlotte wrapped her arms around the child and took out her handkerchief, pressing it into the girl’s hands. “There, there. We are here to help you.”
“I doubt Sir Reginald could afford the journey to Scotland,” Dotty mused. “He does not have a feather to fly with.”
Well, that ought to clinch the matter.
Susan began to sob even harder. “W-what will become of m-m-me?”
Charlotte and Dotty shared a glance. Whatever the answer to the girl’s question, the result was likely to be much better than what Miss Betsy and Sir Reginald had planned for poor Susan. Thank God they had been able to rescue her. The question was how to find the man and see him punished before he could harm another girl.
* * *
Con rode next to Merton, discussing what they were going to do with the young lady. Neither of them were experts on the subject, but agreed that she could not be out yet.
“I’ll be interested to hear what Charlotte and Dotty say,” Con said.
“Augusta seems older, or at least more mature,” Merton replied, referring to Charlotte’s fifteen-year-old sister.
“And more sensible.” They fell silent for several minutes, before Con said, “I had wanted to remain at the Star and Garter tonight, but I am of the opinion that we should return to Town.”
“You’re probably correct. The question is what to do with the girl.”
“I have every confidence our ladies will have an address for her parents by the time we sit down to luncheon. I overheard some of the conversation Charlotte was having with her, and apparently, she has decided to play the compassionate lady. I was told specifically not to speak badly of Sir Reggie.”
“That won’t be hard for me,” Merton said. “I’d never heard of the man before you told me about him.”
“No, you wouldn’t have. He’s run with a fast crowd for years,” Con said. “Miss Susan must be an heiress.”
“Do you know her surname?”
“Merryville.” He had never heard of the family and hoped Merton had.
“There is a Merryville in the City who is involved in trade and shipping. I recently invested in a project where his name was mentioned.”
“If they are Cits, they wouldn’t have heard about Sir Reggie. That would be the reason her parents didn’t have her under lock and key. I wonder if extortion and not marriage is his game.”
“We may never discover what it is if the man can’t show his face in Town.”
Con thought that might be the best resolution to the problem. “With Miss Betsy gone, he won’t know where the girl is. He might even think that she was not abducted.”
“And she will believe he never came for her,” Merton mused.
“She will be heartbroken, but only for a short while, not for a lifetime.” Marriage to a bounder like Sir Reggie would be hell, if that was all he had planned for her.
Merton urged his horse faster. “The sooner we return her to her family, the better.”
Con agreed wholeheartedly.
When they arrived at the Star and Garter, Charlotte whispered to him that luncheon must be ordered without Miss Susan’s knowing it had not already been done. “It is the excuse Dotty used for our leaving as soon as we did. She had started having doubts about going with us. We have won the girl’s confidence, but if she catches us in the least little lie, we run the risk of losing it.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Con said as the Mertons led Miss Susan into the inn. “We have decided to return to Town today.”
“That is for the best. We will not have more time alone together, but we must get her home. I imagine her parents are beside themselves.”
“How old is she?”
“Fifteen. That cur told her they would marry in Scotland, but does she not have to be sixteen?”
Con nodded. “For a runaway marriage, yes.”
“And why meet her east of London and not somewhere on the Great North Road?”
“That may have been Miss Betsy’s doing. Unless she has a house north of Town as well.”
“I do not believe he intended to wed her at all.” Concern echoed in Charlotte’s voice. “I think they had something much more nefarious planned. I wish I knew what it was. Selling the girl into prostitution would not provide him the money he needs.”
No, but an auction would, and that was not something he was going to mention to her. “I do not think we need to worry about that now.”
“You are probably right. Although, I wish we could find that blackguard and punish him. There is also Burt. The miscreant that got away.” She rubbed her forehead. “We still have a great deal of work to do rescuing the other victims.”
“I agree, but we do not have to do it all ourselves.” Con was relieved she had changed the subject. “I have not yet introduced you to my excellent secretary. He will be happy to have a project that will challenge him.”
She tucked her hand into the crook of his arm. “I’m feeling peckish.”
“We can’t have that,” he said in a dramatic tone.
“You think you are funny.” She scowled. “I assure you that I am not at all nice to be around when I’m hungry.”
“If that’s all I have to do to keep you happy, my life will be pure bliss.”
Charlotte lowered her lids. “Well, there might be one or two other things.”
May had taken charge of Susan Merryville, and when she joined them in the parlor her good humor had been restored. She talked the whole way through luncheon. By the time they had finished eating, and were getting ready to depart, Con knew everything he had wanted to know and much more. The chit had no discretion at all. No wonder she had been such an easy target for Sir Reggie.
Jemmy had joined them, and more than once, Con had found himself in complete sympathy with the boy, but obliged to chastise him for criticizing the girl. Not only that, but he had a feeling the lad was just a little jealous of Miss Susan spending time with his heroine.
When they rose from the table, he pulled Charlotte aside. “Sweetheart, will you ride back to Town with me? It will be our last chance to be alone for several days.”
She glanced at Miss Susan, who was playing with Cyrille, Collette having had the good sense to hide in her basket. “I’d love to. Even if Dotty tires of the girl, Cyrille will keep her occupied.” Charlotte gazed up at him, a line marring her lovely brow. “I detest lying to her, yet I do think the story Dotty came up with did the trick. She is much too trusting. I only hope her parents will try to understand how she could have fallen under the cur’s spell.”
“I knew you wouldn’t like this pretense. Still, telling her a faradiddle was the best thing you could have done. If it makes you feel any better, Merton has heard of her father and sent a note to your brother to find the Merryvilles.”
“Thank you for telling me.” The news made Charlotte feel much better. “She is very young. In many ways, much younger than Augusta.”
Even the twins and Madeline had more sense than their charge. “I cannot see any of your sisters doing anything as ill-advised as this.”
“I agree, but we should not discuss it here.” Charlotte already had the feeling that Susan knew the gentlemen were not as much in sympathy with her as Charlotte and Dotty were. “I’ll get my bonnet.”
They were halfway to Mayfair when Constantine suggested there must be something wrong with his phaeton, necessitating an overnight stop at an inn he knew was just up the road.
Charlotte was trying not to laugh, when Jemmy piped up, “I don’t see anything.”
After that she went into whoops. “He has you there. Sweetheart, we will be married soon.”
“But how soon? When my sisters wed, it seemed as if the poor chaps had to wait for an age.”
She almost told him that in four days they would be saying their vows, but, wanting it to be a surprise, she held her tongue. “At least gentlemen do not have to buy new clothing.”
“No.” He slid a look at her before returning his attention to the horses. “Tell me why young ladies have to dress in pastels? Wouldn’t it be easier to allow them to wear what they want?”
“You mean the colors that suit them best. It would. It would also be considered fast, and the ladies who rule Almack’s would refuse to give them vouchers, and other ladies would refuse to invite them to entertainments. All in all, it is less expensive to play by the rules.”
“You always look lovely.”
“I am fortunate that I can wear some pastels well. However, many ladies cannot.”
“Once we have wed, you may shop for whatever you like.” He sounded so magnanimous. She wanted to go into whoops again.
“Thank you, I shall.” This was another secret she was keeping from him. Encouraged by Grace and Lady Kenilworth, Charlotte had already ordered a new wardrobe. Her conscience gave her a twinge about her mendacity. All she could do was pray it would all turn out well in the end.