CHAPTER FOUR
Because of his presence at Lady Althorpe’s ball, Daniel was invited to social events in homes that otherwise would never have been open to him. The thinking clearly was: if he’s good enough for the Althorpes, he’s good enough for us. And he has all that money.
To the irritation of the ladies, who were not unmoved by his beauty, Daniel did not use his sudden acceptability to grace the dance floor. Instead he passed his time in the card room, evaluating the usefulness of the men who invariably inhabited this space. Now that the factory was almost finished, he was ready to begin on the next phase of his grand plan.
He finally settled on Lord Neviss as being his best bet. Neviss was a pleasant man in his early forties whose younger brother had gone out to India about the same time as Daniel. Consequently, Neviss knew more about Daniel’s Indian career than any of the other men in London, and he had kept quiet about it. Daniel appreciated this, and decided he was a man to trust. So he invited Lord Neviss to join him one afternoon in the suite of rooms he had hired at the Pulteney Hotel in Piccadilly.
“I gather you’ve come home to stay, then?” Lord Neviss asked, as the two of them sat in Daniel’s large three-room suite sipping the hotel’s fine brandy.
“Yes. India was an experience I shall never regret, but when the Maharajah’s eldest son made it clear that I would be wise to leave while my heart was still beating, I decided to take his advice.”
“Got too chummy with his Papa, eh?”
Daniel shrugged. “It seems he thought that way. I managed to get out with most of my assets and took ship for home.”
“And now that you’re here, what are your plans? I understand you’ve built a cotton mill in Lancashire.”
Daniel gave a wry smile. “I have, and it seems to have caused a great deal of notice.”
Lord Neviss simply said, “You’re a man with a great deal of money. Of course people are interested in you.”
Daniel put his glass down. “What I want to do now is buy a house. An historic house that has land.”
Lord Neviss regarded the younger man with surprise. This was not an answer he had expected. He weighed what he should say next, then decided to be honest. “There is gossip going around that you are the bastard son of an English nobleman. Are you aware of that?”
Two level black eyebrows lifted. “How did a rumor like that get started?” The flexible voice was suddenly chilly.
Lord Neviss shrugged. “How does any rumor get started? Someone hears something from someone and passes it on, and soon it takes on a life of his own.”
What Neviss did not say was that Daniel Dereham’s face shouted his heritage. There was only one nobleman in Britain who had black hair and black lashed crystalline blue eyes that were identical to the ones of the young man sitting across from him.
“I am not interested in discussing my parentage.” The voice now was cold and dismissive. “I am my own man.”
“If you are your own man, why not just build a grand house that will be your own? Why does it have to be an historic house?”
“I like history,” came the brief reply.
“Hmmm.” Lord Neviss took a sip of his excellent brandy.
Daniel was silent and Lord Neviss regarded him with respect. This was not a lad who was easily plumbed. He said, “Do you have plans to marry as well?”
“Eventually, yes. Once I have my estate I shall want an heir.”
Lord Neviss appreciated that he was being taken into a close-held confidence. The boy was serious. Very serious. And he wasn’t placed to know what he needed to know, which is why he was asking for Lord Neviss’ help. For this reason, his lordship felt flattered.
“The difficulty with finding an historic home and property for sale is that such estates are almost always entailed,” he explained. “An entail insures that by law the property must go to the nearest male heir in order that it will never pass out of the family. Consequently, even owners who are desperate for money are unable to sell their property assets, however much they may wish to do so.”
“I understand that,” Daniel said. “But I would be most appreciative if you would be kind enough to inform me should something become available.”
“Do you have any preference for location?”
“The north would be best, but I understand I can’t afford to be choosy.”
There was something about this young man that told Lord Neviss he usually got what he wanted. So instead of discouraging him, Lord Neviss said that he would be happy to keep his ears open.
The two men finished their brandies and parted with mutual good will.
# # #
Anne, who had lived like a hermit at home, began by enjoying the social life in London. But after a month of balls and musicales and routs and breakfasts and stately rides in Hyde Park at five in the afternoon, city life had begun to pall. She didn’t like the dirt of London. She didn’t like the ragged children she saw everywhere, begging for money, sweeping horse manure from the streets when they should be home with a family. The majesty of the opera dimmed when she stepped outside and was confronted with desperate girls trying to sell her flowers. And London smelled bad. She found herself longing for the fresh, clean air of the countryside.
In short, Anne was homesick. She missed Grex. She missed her mare and her dog and all her favorite haunts on the property. More than anything else, she missed the quiet.
Aunt Julia kept telling her that one or the other of her ‘suitors’ would come up to scratch, but so far none of them had. Aunt Julia never said, but Anne knew from Jeremy, that the families of her various beaux were not happy about a match with a penniless girl, no matter how ancient her pedigree.
“You just have to stay the course, Anne,” Jeremy said to her early one morning, as they rode through Hyde Park. “I know for certain that Abbey is working on his papa. And Margaret is helping. Martin really cares for you, you know.”
A squirrel dashed across their path and Oliver threw up his head. Anne patted him reassuringly and said, “Martin talks about his parents’ house in Sussex quite often. If I married him would I live there? It sounds as if it’s very pretty.”
This was not a question Jeremy had considered. “Don’t know, Anne. Why don’t you ask him?”
Anne said with exasperation, “Jeremy, I can’t ask a man who hasn’t proposed to me where I would live if I married him!”
“I suppose not,” Jeremy conceded grudgingly.
They had been walking their horses during this discussion and now the drum of galloping hooves sounded behind them. They moved their horses to the side of the path and watched as a black horse shot by, churning the dirt of the path in his wake. Anne’s horse was startled and reared. She brought him down, once more patted his neck, and said to Jeremy, “Oliver is a little spooky today. Why don’t we walk quietly until he settles down?”
They moved back to the middle of the path and were preparing to ride on when they saw the black horse returning at a trot. The rider pulled up in front of them and said to Anne in a pleasant tenor voice, “I apologize for blowing past you like that. We usually ride earlier, and I’m accustomed to having the park to myself. I didn’t mean to startle your horse. Is everything all right?”
Anne had recognized Daniel Dereham when he passed them, and she replied calmly, “Oliver was a little spooked, but everything is fine.”
“Well,” he repeated, “My apologies.”
Anne said, “Your horse is gorgeous.”
“Thank you.”
“Our thoroughbreds are beautiful creatures, but there’s something about that Arabian face I just love. It’s so… so…”
“Intelligent?” Daniel said.
She smiled. “Perhaps that’s it.”
He glanced at the sky. “I must be getting back. Again, apologies for my rudeness.” He didn’t seem to move at all, but the Arabian instantly set off at a ground-covering trot.
“Well,” Jeremy said, as he watched the figure disappear from sight. “That’s twice we’ve met him in the park, and twice I didn’t say a word.”
“Did you want to say something?” Anne inquired.
“I did.”
“What did you want to say?”
“I don’t know.”
Anne started to laugh.
“There’s something daunting about that fellow,” Jeremy complained. “I don’t know exactly what it is, but it’s there all right.”
“Shall we canter?” Anne asked. Her cousin agreed, and the conversation was dropped.
# # #
Two weeks after this meeting in the park, Daniel Dereham had a visit from Lord Neviss. They met once again in Daniel’s suite at the Pulteney.
“I had an interesting conversation with Lord Grex a few days ago,” Lord Neviss began, as Daniel took a sip of his brandy.
“Lord Grex? That’s an odd name for an English lord.”
“The Grex family is one of the oldest in the country,” Lord Neviss explained. “There have been Grexes at Grex from the time records began to be kept. The present Earl of Grex, however, has not been a good steward of his family’s history. He is deeply in debt, as is his son and heir.”
Not a muscle moved in Daniel’s face as he listened politely to this recital. Lord Neviss placed his brandy glass on the Queen Anne table in front of him and continued. “This is the situation as was told to me: the estate is entailed, but Lord Grex promised his son the money to pay his debts if Percival would legally relinquish his right of inheritance. That is the only way an entail can be broken, if the heir, who must be of age, signs papers relinquishing his right to the entailed property. Grex’s son signed such papers. Unfortunately Lord Grex, who had expected to win the promised money on a race that was a ‘sure thing,’ lost the race and so didn’t have the money. To pay his son, he took his daughter’s dowry. Then, a few weeks ago, both the earl and his son once again lost large sums of money at Newmarket.”
Lord Neviss looked at Daniel’s impassive face and sighed. “So - to sum up this pitiful story - the Earl of Grex is willing to sell you his home with all its attending property. Also, as part of the bargain, he wishes you to marry his daughter, Lady Anne Grex.”
“I wish everyone I did business with was as efficient as you,” Daniel said with admiration. “An historic house, property, and an aristocratic wife all in one package. I’m impressed.”
Lord Neviss grinned. “Do you think I have a future doing this sort of thing?”
Daniel laughed. “You might want to think about it. How did you find Lord Grex?”
Lord Neviss picked up his brandy and took another swallow. Still holding it in his hand, he said, “Everyone knows Grex is done up. He owes the banks, he owes the money- lenders, he’s sold everything of value he owns. And his son is just as heavy a gambler, and just as poor a judge of horseflesh. In short, he’s desperate. I asked him what he would need to pay off his debts.”
“And?”
Lord Neviss named a sum and Daniel slowly shook his head. “I didn’t think anyone could be that bad a judge of horseflesh.”
Lord Nevis finished his brandy and replaced the glass on the table. “What do you think? Are you interested?”
“Yes, I’m interested. But I would like to see the place before I make an offer.”
“What kind of offer are you thinking about?”
“I’ll certainly cover his debts. What else I might add will depend upon what I see when I view the place.”
“Fair enough. I imagine you want to meet with Lord Grex personally?”
“Yes.”
“Lord Neviss stood up. “I’ll go and see him and let you know what he says.”
Daniel, who had risen with his guest, held out his hand. “I am very grateful to you, Lord Neviss, for your assistance in this matter. Is there any way I can show my gratitude other than by my thanks?”
Lord Neviss took the slender hand held out to him. “Friendship can’t be bought with money, my friend. It’s given freely. And I’m enjoying myself.”
Daniel smiled. His smile was rare, and when it came it was beguiling. Lord Neviss smiled back and walked to the door. Before he departed he turned and asked one more question, “What about the girl? Do you want to marry her?”
“I’ll have to see her too,” Daniel replied, and this time both men laughed.