Chapter Nine
Loyal friends are a rare thing indeed. It is difficult to know if a person can be trusted with secrets of the heart or any sort of confidence, and only time and experience can give this to you. If anyone, particularly a man, attempts to gain your confidence and you do not feel assured of this trust, you are in no way obliged to tell him anything. In fact, it would be better to give him nothing at all, or to even lie. A woman’s trust is a sacred thing.
-The Spinster Chronicles, 10 February 1816
“I don’t understand why I cannot be there on Writing Day.”
“Because they are private writings.”
“That are then circulated about London days later?”
“They are private when we are writing them. Then we read them to each other and get approval, and then they are circulated.”
“So why may I not give my approval?”
Georgie sighed and discarded a card from her hand, giving her partner a scolding look. “Because you are a man.”
Tony looked back at her, shaking his head. “That is not my fault.”
Grace coughed a surprised laugh and took a quick sip of the lemonade beside her. “That’s true, Georgie.”
Georgie glared at her. “Not helpful. Discard, if you please.”
She did so with an apologetic shrug at Tony, who only barely glanced at her, keeping his gaze steady on Georgie. “Am I to be punished for a circumstance over which I had no control?”
“Discard,” Izzy reminded him, her smile growing.
“Circumstance?” Georgie repeated with a short laugh. “Is that what you’re calling the fortunate nature of belonging to your sex?”
Tony laid down a card and smirked a little. “I am not about to get into a debate about the benefits or consequences of being a man or a woman, Georgie.”
“That’s a relief,” Grace muttered, widening her eyes as she examined her cards. “I think you would lose.”
He looked at her in disbelief. “What? Why would I lose?”
“Don’t!” Izzy warned with a laugh. “Don’t say another word, Tony.”
Grace smirked at him, fluttering her lashes playfully. “Because you cannot see clearly how very much better your lot is in life than ours, and until you can, you will never understand the discrepancy.”
Tony blinked at her, then looked at Georgie and Izzy. “I understand that there is a discrepancy, and I know where it lies as well. I’m not an idiot.”
“Well, thank heavens for that,” Georgie told him.
Izzy shook her head and laid down a card. “I’m going to have to separate the pair of you to save us all an argument.”
Tony chuckled, sitting back in his chair. “Grace took part, too.”
“Then we’ll separate her, as well.” Izzy shrugged without concern. “I’ll not have anybody quarreling at my card party.”
“That’s never stopped anyone before,” Georgie reminded her fondly. “Somebody always quarrels when the Lamberts gather.”
Izzy threw her a scolding look. “It is not that bad.”
She laughed once and gestured to the room in general. “Do you see who is here? Give them ten minutes, Izzy. Your brothers alone would be cause for concern, but with Charlotte and Grace’s brothers? Not to mention…”
“All right,” Izzy overrode, her cheeks coloring a bit. She huffed a little sigh and turned to Tony. “My brothers are not easy-tempered and have strong opinions. Charlotte’s brother enjoys starting debates of any kind with them, says it is always an adventure to see which brother will take which side, but really it is just very loud and blustery. And Grace’s brother…”
Grace groaned and set her cards down. “James is so high and mighty, one would think he had already inherited the title, and it’s not even a very grand one. No one can tolerate him for five minutes, not even me.”
Georgie laughed easily and looked at the over-trimmed Mr. Morledge, engaged in an animated conversation with Izzy’s father, who had taught his sons everything they knew about argument, though he had more restraint than any of them.
“So, the spirited nature of your group is hereditary,” Tony mused aloud. “What a comfort.”
Izzy snorted, and Grace rolled her eyes. “All except for Izzy, you forget. She’s never fought with anyone in her entire life.”
“Not true!” Georgie and Izzy said together, making the rest laugh.
“Please tell me there are stories,” Tony begged, leaning forward to rest an arm on the table. “I am desperate to know when Izzy lost her temper.”
Izzy hooted a laugh and looked at Georgie expectantly. “Would you care to disillusion the dear captain, or shall I?”
Georgie scowled at her. “It was always my fault,” she admitted reluctantly. “Izzy would only defend herself, or me, as the case usually was.”
Tony moaned in disappointment, shaking his head. “I knew it. I just knew it.”
“I beg your pardon?” Georgie demanded, grinning outright. “What did you know?”
“That it was your fault,” he replied at once. “It would have to be, wouldn’t it? You’re you, and Izzy is Izzy.”
“And I am gracefully escaping wherever this conversation is headed,” Grace interjected as she scooted her chair back, making them all laugh again.
Before she could rise, however, Prue appeared at their table, looking almost sickly.
“Prue?” Georgie moved to get up, but her friend waved her back down gently.
“Miss Westfall, are you ill?” Tony asked as he rose, his face a mask of concern.
Prue shook her head quickly, giving him a faint smile. “No, Captain, I am well. I’ve just…”
“Little lamb, what is it?” Charlotte came up and took Prue’s elbow. “I saw your face when you came in, and it quite terrified me. Was your mother insufferable again?”
“No m-more than usual,” Prue managed, stammering a little.
Izzy gave her a warm smile. “That’s the first time I’ve heard you truly admit that she is so.”
Prue swallowed with a small nod. “It’s fairly o-obvious, isn’t it?”
Georgie frowned at that. It wasn’t like Prue to be cynical in any way, and yet there was a bitter edge to her words that unnerved her. “What is it?”
Prue laid a hand on the card table, her mouth tightening. “We’ve had word from my aunt and uncle Howard. They are bringing Eliza into town at the end of the m-month.”
Georgie, Izzy, and Charlotte hissed in pain and Georgie covered Prue’s hand with one of hers at once.
Grace looked bewildered. “Who?” she asked them, her tone apologetic.
“Prue’s cousin,” Izzy explained, rising from her seat and going over to Prue. “She makes everything infinitely more difficult for Prue out of spite. I can’t think of a single redeeming quality about her.”
Coming from Izzy, that was quite a damning sentence.
Grace’s eyes widened, and she looked at Prue almost wildly. “Darling, I am so sorry.”
Prue nodded quickly, letting Izzy hug her. “I d-didn’t think they were coming this y-year. And I was s-so pleased…”
Izzy and Charlotte looked at each other over Prue’s head, and turned her away from the rest, leading her to a quiet corner. “It’s all right, lamb,” Charlotte soothed in a very motherly tone. “Don’t fret yourself.”
Grace put a hand to her head with a soft moan. “Are these Howards people of importance in any way?”
“Some,” Georgie replied, suddenly feeling mildly unwell herself. “Her mother is sister to Mrs. Westfall, and they are very similar in nature and appearances. But her husband was a member of Parliament before he was replaced last year, and he’s never stopped making noise about it. They seem to be absolutely everywhere when they are in London.”
Grace muttered something under her breath that made Tony jerk in surprise. “That means I’ll have to admit them into my association, and undoubtedly invite them to our ball.” She made a noise of disgust and rose quickly. “I’ll have to speak to James about this immediately. If I can persuade him to take my side, perhaps we can convince Mama not to include them.”
Georgie looked up at her in surprise. “Would they intentionally cut someone like that?”
“Papa wouldn’t,” Grace said with a shake of her head. “But he’s on the Continent for who knows how long. Mama is less determined, and rather indulgent of her children. There is a chance. Not much of one, but I have to try.” She nodded to them both, then swept away with more elegance than Georgie could have managed in her life.
Tony looked at Georgie then, fiddling with the cards absently. “Is it really going to be so bad?”
She looked across the table at him. “You remember what I said about Mrs. Westfall?”
He nodded, saying nothing.
“I would rather endure Mrs. Westfall every day for a year then spend five minutes in Eliza Howard’s company,” Georgie informed him without any hint of shame.
He gaped at that for a moment, then shook his head. “I have difficulty imagining that.”
“You will see for yourself soon enough.” Georgie made a soft noise of amusement as she stared at Tony for a moment. “She’s going to try for you, you know.”
That seemed to take him by surprise. “You think so?”
She nodded with confidence. “Oh, yes. Eliza is a very conniving creature and being a handsome captain with a rather respectable fortune will be all the enticement she needs. Don’t secure a house for yourself yet, that would set her quite firmly on your scent.”
Poor Tony looked thunderstruck and a bit horrified at the prospect. That would only grow worse when he actually became acquainted with the wretch.
But then Tony smiled slyly, and it caught Georgie in her chest, surprising her with the pleasure-pain it invoked. “What?” she demanded, trying to tamp the sensation down.
“I didn’t know you thought I was handsome,” he told her in a rather smug tone.
Georgie groaned and shook her head, rising from her chair. “Don’t do that.”
“Do what?” he asked as he rose as well.
“Pretend not to be fully aware of your own appearance.” She glared at him and started a slow turn about the room. “It is most unbecoming in a man.”
Tony was at her side quickly, hands clasped behind his back. “I would never pretend at false modesty, but I also cannot admit to anything. The trap of being a gentleman.”
Georgie rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the room in general. “I’m not going to listen to you complain about your difficulties in life, Tony. I acknowledge you probably have some, but they are not that dire.”
“I cannot see that yours are at present either,” he informed her in a light tone. “You are well cared for by your aunt, your parents have set you up well, and no one is casting you off.”
Was he really so dense as that? Or was he trying to provoke her yet again? She looked at him in suspicion, and he returned her look easily.
Dense it was, then.
“I receive a letter from my mother no less than once a month telling me what a disappointment I am,” Georgie informed him in a quiet voice. “She despairs of my ever amounting to anything useful and cannot see why she ever bothered with my education and accomplishment considering the way I have turned out.”
“What?” Tony’s voice was a little too loud, and she shushed him, looking around quickly. Only Charlotte seemed to notice, and she gave Georgie an odd look, but went back to her conversation with Prue.
“How long do you think my aunt will continue to be generous?” Georgie hissed to Tony, now watching her intently. “Or Izzy? How long do you think we have until we must do something with ourselves, or seclude ourselves in the country in a small cottage that our parents will reluctantly provide?”
Tony stared at her, eyes wide, not even a sound of response from him.
“Or perhaps I could become a companion to my mother,” she went on, letting all her pent-up derision seep into her words. “I have no doubt she would see my uses then, as I would be free for her every criticism and forced to endure her ordering me about to avoid being sent away.”
“Georgie…” Tony tried, his voice rough.
“There is no place for a spinster without a fortune or title,” Georgie snapped, looking at him again. “I am not as fortunate as Grace or Charlotte. I have endured the world’s pity and its scorn, knowing that the one purpose I am supposed to fulfill in my life is kept from me, though God alone knows why. I will never be able to become the sort of woman Lady Hetty is because the world would not look as kindly on me if I were in her position. I would have nothing but its disdain, a burden to all who had any concern for me. That is the nature of my difficulties, Tony. Will you complain about yours now?”
He said nothing, and Georgie felt herself seething, the anger rolling off her skin as a billowing cloud.
“What can I do, Georgie?” he finally inquired in a low tone. “Tell me.”
His sincerity quieted her distress and allowed her to draw an easy breath again. She even managed a smile, breathing deeply once more. “Forgive me?” she suggested. “I seem to be lashing out more than usual lately, and it’s not becoming.”
“Georgie, you have every right to your feelings,” Tony insisted kindly, “and nothing to apologize for. I can take a lashing, if you must call it that, but it’s my own fault for being careless with my words. I don’t understand your position, but I should like to. I don’t know how to put this except bluntly, but I should like to be your friend in truth, not just in name and because of our connections.”
Georgie smiled without having to force anything at all. “We are, Tony. We are. Which is why I really must apologize for my behavior. One does not treat friends this way.”
“I already gave you full leave to give me whatever verbal beatings you see fit,” he replied. “Stop apologizing before I grow vexed and tire of your company.”
She chuckled and stopped at a window that looked out over the back garden of her aunt’s house. “Consider it done. I would hate to truly become disagreeable to you.”
Tony nodded sagely and took up position on the other side of the window. “It is enough to bear with your temper, I couldn’t imagine what you’d be like as disagreeable.”
She pretended to kick his shins, and he pretended to wince at it.
“Why aren’t you married, Georgie?” Tony asked without any preface, his dark eyes almost speculative. “I’m not being insensitive, but you are a handsome woman with no small amount of charms, no matter how spiteful your temper can get.”
She narrowed her eyes at him for that, which made him smile.
“And I understand that your fortune is respectable…” he went on.
Georgie made a face. “That would be putting a favorable light on it.”
“It’s not off-putting,” he reminded her. “Certainly not enough to make you a poor prospect. So why?”
“That is the question of a lifetime,” Georgie sighed. “One many people have asked, including my mother, though not with your curiosity.”
“Don’t put me off, Georgie,” he scolded, lowering his voice. “Come on now, why are you unmarried?”
Why, indeed. She’d asked the same question hundreds, thousands of times over the years. She’d wondered what she lacked, how she could improve, and why there had never been any interest in her. She’d done everything right, the same way every other girl had, and yet she had come up lacking.
She’d asked everyone, including her mother and her cousin, and each of those inquiries had proven utterly useless.
Why was she unmarried?
“I don’t know, Tony,” she admitted frankly. “The best response I can give you is that nobody ever asked.”
Her answer didn’t seem to surprise him at all, and he watched her still, looking at her as though he could see something that intrigued him. What that could be, she couldn’t possibly say, but she could not say that she minded. After all, he was a rather handsome man, and she did not have one of those staring at her often.
“But the answer I usually give is that I’m naturally unpleasant,” she quipped, suddenly feeling a mite breathless.
Tony chuckled at that. “Well, there is that, yes.”
Georgie scowled, wishing she felt more outrage at his lack of refute than she did. “You could defend me, you know. A gentleman would have.”
He shrugged one shoulder. “I’ve never seen the need to rise up in defense of a woman when it was her own words that provide the reason. Counterproductive, I find it.”
She fought the urge to laugh again at his extraordinary statement. He was always saying things like that, no doubt for the shock effect as well as for amusement, and his timing was near perfect every time.
Georgie was growing quite used to that. She and Tony had not spent much time together since their walk in Hyde Park the other day, it was simply not possible to do so without raising suspicions. Neither of them wished to have rumors start about them, so they had to be mindful of opportunities and settings.
Here at her cousin’s home, it was much safer. They had invited only close friends and associates, so they could converse without speculation.
Of course, he still called on them when the Spinsters were gathered, but not every time, again for the sake of reputation.
He’d said that he would not mind anyone speculating on his having an attachment with Izzy or Georgie if it would help, but they’d assured him it would only make him more of a spectacle.
That had made him pause, and the subject had never been brought up again.
“Any further thought on…?” he prodded, leaving the thought unfinished.
Georgie was grateful for that. The room was not large, and with all the girls here, they could easily be overheard. It was a small mercy that Elinor had not come, as she would have undoubtedly been trailing behind Georgie the entire time.
She shook her head in response. “Not really. I mean, it is always on my mind, but nothing has changed since we spoke last. You?”
He considered that, his head tilting slightly in thought. “Some. Nothing definitive, but it might help to parse out what exactly you no longer enjoy about it. Is it the girls?”
She scoffed at that. “No, not at all. I adore them. They are true friends, undoubtedly for life. You saw how we all banded together for Prue just now, and nothing’s even happened yet.”
Tony nodded, smiling over at Prue, who was seated next to Izzy, though not engaging in conversation. “There is a special bond among you all, that is obvious. Was it always that way?”
“Almost,” Georgie replied, thinking back on it. “There was Emma and Izzy and I, obviously. And Charlotte was a good friend of ours. We adopted Prue almost at once, she was so timid, even then. Grace has only recently joined us, but she adds so much to our group.”
“And you never included anyone else?” Tony straightened against the wall, looking around. “Surely there are more spi… that is, unmarried women about.”
Georgie smiled at his correction. Since their conversation in Hyde Park, he had never called them spinsters again, unless indicating the capital S. It was really very sweet, though she wished she had not scolded him for it.
She was entirely too sensitive on the subject, and it would only further damage their fledgling friendship.
“No, we never thought to widen our circles,” she confirmed, smiling at Charlotte, who was attempting to put off Grace’s brother from conversing with her. “We didn’t even think to replace Emma when she married.”
“No designs to take the Spinster Chronicles to the entire country?” Tony teased with a laugh.
Georgie shuddered and pushed off the wall, seeing the speculative look in her aunt’s eyes as she watched them. “Heavens, no. Walk with me, my aunt grows suspicious.”
Tony looked where she indicated, then nodded once, gesturing for her to lead the way. “Shall I look cross to throw her suspicions into disarray?”
“I would be most grateful, yes,” she replied, only half in jest.
He immediately furrowed his brow, his mouth forming a perfect frown.
Georgie had to force herself not to laugh. “Very good. So convincing.”
“Too much?” he asked, shaking his head slowly as if Georgie had said something wrong.
“Rather perfect, actually.” She managed to look over at her aunt again, who looked almost exasperated. “I’ll be hearing about this for days.”
“You have experience with this.” It was not a question, nor did it have any tone of disapproval in it.
Georgie gave him a sidelong look as they walked. “Most men tend to wear that expression in my presence. I have yet to determine why.”
“You cannot think of a single reason?” he persisted, a brow rising in disbelief.
“Oh, all right,” she blustered a little, frowning without having to pretend. “I speak to most people the way I do with you, but only when provoked. I can be very well-behaved when I wish to be.”
“I’m sure you can,” Tony replied in the most unconvincing voice she had ever heard. “Though I imagine hating men has something to do with it.”
Georgie turned to him, her hands on her hips now. “I do not hate men! I like them quite a lot!”
“Don’t announce that too loudly,” he suggested, looking around them.
“I do!” she insisted. “I simply hold them to a high standard.”
He looked doubtful. “Do they know that?”
“They would if they asked,” she quipped, “but none ever do.”
“It’s not the sort of question one asks a lady,” he pointed out, forgetting to furrow his brow.
She shrugged her shoulders easily. “Then I suppose I will have to write about it in my next column.”
That caught his attention and he nodded in thought. “I shall have to give my approval to the article. As a man with a vested interest in the column and its successes, you must allow me that.”
Georgie shook her head at once, smiling smugly. “Not a chance, Tony. It was a good try, though.”
He scowled at her in earnest. “Come on, Georgie. Let me help.”
“Not with the column. If you want to help, find out what the gossip really is about it, and me, and then report back to me.” She gave him a daring look, wondering what he would say to that.
Tony straightened up, then stared her down. “I will. And I won’t protect you from what I find, Georgiana Allen. If you want me to do this, if you really want to know, I will tell you exactly what I hear, word for word.”
Clearly, he thought this would intimidate her, but she was made of stronger stuff than that. Years of practice had given her a far thicker skin than anyone expected. Necessity had dictated she must gain that, at least.
“I accept.” She stuck out her hand, as a man might have done. “Are we agreed?”
Tony looked down at her hand, then back into her eyes. He reached out and clasped her hand. “We are,” he replied simply before drawing her hand up to his lips for a quick kiss.
She barely had time to gasp at the bold gesture before he was gone, sitting down at the card table with Charlotte and two others.
Georgie looked around quickly, praying no one had seen that, for there would be no easy way to explain it. No one marked her, so she seemed safe. She rubbed her hand almost absently as she moved back to the window, suddenly feeling rather warm.
Much, much too warm.