Chapter Fourteen
Hope had never been the one to break rules. If questioned, either of her sisters would have declared her the one least likely to disobey and most likely to tattle on those who did. But after last night, she had to admit that being good was not nearly as much fun as being bad.
Lying with a man before marriage was something that a nice girl should never do. But not only had she done it, she’d learned that there was more to it than just lying still. In fact, sometimes she had done no lying at all. One could do things that were very improper while sitting, or standing, or kneeling on a mattress and clinging tightly to the bedpost while the man behind her whispered unspeakable suggestions in her ear.
Worse yet, she had done those things in a bed that was not hers, with the pride of the Comstock entail thumping furiously against her naked breasts. It was almost a relief to know the stones were paste, for she would have been afraid to do the things she’d done while wearing nothing but a small fortune in diamonds.
And she would do it all again, the minute she could get Gregory Drake alone. It was a shame that the object of the trip had been to collect Charity and take her back to London. If her sister had not been here, Hope might have made up some spurious excuse about beginning the inventory of the house. Then they might spend the week together, alone.
Of course, there would be no hope of finding the diamonds if they stayed at the manor. She did not think it would be possible for Gregory to figure out where they had gone, but she would enjoy seeing him try.
She came down to the breakfast table to find Charity already seated, a book spread on the table between her cup and her plate. Normally, she would have lectured her sister about reading at the table, but it was far too nice a morning to fret over trivialities. She took the chocolate pot and toast rack from in front of her sister, who did not even bother to look up from her work, and served herself.
‘Good morning, Charity,’ she said. When her sister said nothing, she answered for her. ‘Good morning to you, Hope. Did you sleep well?’
Charity held up a finger to indicate that she was almost done with the passage she was reading. Then she slipped a ribbon between the pages as a marker and closed the book. ‘I can speak for myself, thank you. Good morning, Hope. Did you sleep we...?’ She’d looked up, the word trailing off into empty air. ‘Well, well, well.’ She cleared her throat. ‘I mean, did you sleep well?’
The question was innocent, but the look on her face was anything but.
‘Yes,’ Hope replied, suddenly afraid to say anything more.
‘That is good to know. And how did Mr Drake sleep?’ Charity asked, with an arch look.
‘You will have to ask him that. Or don’t. Please,’ she said. As usual, Charity knew more than she should. Was there something in her face that gave it all away? Was there some sort of brand that had appeared on her forehead to signal to the world that she had forbidden knowledge?
‘Do not worry so, Hope.’ Her sister held her cup out to be refilled. ‘You look exceptionally well rested this morning.’
‘Oh.’ It was some consolation to know that the patronesses at Almack’s would not bar the door against a fallen woman, should she have reason to return there. But it did not make this moment any easier.
And now the morning would be even worse. The door to the breakfast room opened and Mr Drake entered. He offered a respectful bow to her and a smile to Charity. He looked as he always did, deliciously perfect. Even with no valet, his suit was freshly brushed and his cheeks clean shaven. The gloves peeking out of his coat pocket were immaculate. ‘I have been speaking with the coachman. He will be ready to depart at our convenience.’ He was much better at hiding the activities of the previous night than she. There was nothing in his face or his posture to indicate that he’d gone to sleep with the rising of the sun, or spent time in a bed other than his own.
Charity smiled back at him with none of the sly awareness that she had used on Hope and offered him a plate of buns and teapot. ‘Thank you so much for your help in this matter. The box is almost prepared. It should not take more than a few minutes once we are ready. Shall we say, twenty minutes?’
The perfectly composed Gregory Drake choked on his toast. It took a sharp slap on the back from Charity and half a pot of tea before he was able to catch his breath and answer, ‘There is no reason to rush. I will call for the carriage at one.’
‘And I will arrange for the kitchen to prepare a hamper so we might take tea on the road. Country air always gives me an appetite.’
At this, the poor man went pale, as if the mention of hunger put him in mind of something that had nothing to do with food.
‘That is an excellent idea,’ Hope said, glaring at her sister. ‘Now perhaps you would like to go back to your book. We do not wish to keep you from your studies.’ The sooner they were free of Charity, the better. The family had long since accepted that the youngest sister was the smartest one. But it sometimes felt like they were mice in a cage, the victims of her insatiable curiosity rather than the beneficiaries.
Before her sister could retort, there was a commotion in the front hall. Hope could hear her grandmother greeting the servants and calling for her luggage to be brought in from the carriage. Even more unexpected than that, the activity was accompanied by a flurry of high-pitched barking.
Then the Dowager appeared in the doorway. She was wearing a new travelling gown and had a small black and white dog tucked under her arm that yipped continually as he tried to wriggle free of her.
Gregory sprang to his feet in a show of respect, but the Dowager waved him back into his chair with her free arm. ‘Please sit, Mr Drake. I am the one interrupting your breakfast. I have been in a rented carriage five long hours and my legs need a good stretch.’
She stared at her granddaughters. ‘Of course, I would not have needed a post-chaise if the Comstock carriage had been available.’
‘I am sorry, Grandmama,’ Hope began. ‘But Charity...’
‘I read your note,’ she said with a firm smile. ‘I was impressed by your ability to single-handedly deal with an emergency that occurred during a time when I was not home to accompany you.’ There was something in her eyes that said she had calculated the timeline to the minute and knew full well that the problem had been discovered long before they had set out and solved long before breakfast.
The dog let out another miserable whine and the Dowager signalled the footman hovering in the doorway. ‘Take care of Pepper, Jenks. I am sure he would like to stretch his legs as well. One of them, at least. Once he is done, you are to bring him straight back into the house. He will be living here, now, and must get used to behaving inside.’
‘Grandmama,’ Hope said, with a warning tone. ‘He cannot be coming to live here because we are not sure how long we will be staying.’
‘Do not be ridiculous, Hope. Pepper can stay as long as he wishes.’ Her grandmother smiled. ‘He does not belong to me, you see.’
‘You have no right to bring a strange dog into the place. Does it belong to your sick cousin?’ Hope threw her hands in the air. ‘I do not understand.’ It was bad that Charity had returned, but now the whole family was back where they did not belong and had grown by one.
The Dowager stared at her as if she were being unforgivably dense. ‘Have you not guessed what has happened? Did you not realise why I had gone to Bristol? The seas were rough. The poor fellow has not had a decent meal in weeks and kept down little of the food he did get. He needed time to recover before travelling on to London.’
‘Your cousin is...’ Hope raised her eyebrows. ‘That cousin?’
‘When I returned to London and found that you were both gone, I did not want to waste the time on a letter. The news is so amazing.’
There was a sound of distant barking and then the sudden yip of a dog that had attempted to chase something more inclined to fight than run.
The Dowager gave a worried look out the window. ‘I hope Jenks has not let Pepper too near the stable cats. The Earl wanted someone to bring the little fellow to his new home and I volunteered. I am assured that he is normally a sweet-tempered creature. Pepper, that is, not the Earl.’
She smiled. ‘But Miles is a sweet-tempered creature as well. The pair of them have been cooped up in a small cabin for weeks. A dog needs to feel grass under his feet and there did not seem to be enough of it in London to suit him.’
‘Miles?’ Hope had heard but one in ten of the torrent of words in her grandmother’s rambling discourse. But she had understood enough to realise that they had run out of time. She could not seem to take a breath. It was as if all the air was pushed out of her lungs, leaving her nothing to respond with. ‘You saw him?’
‘I escorted him back to London, where he will be for some time.’ She gave the girls a disapproving look. ‘I should never have given you such free use of the carriage, for he should be riding in it when he goes to the palace. Although he said it was not necessary to stand on ceremony. At least not until the formalities have been dealt with. There is a need to prove his identity, beyond doubt. Then there will be a Letter of Patent to transfer lands and title.’ The Dowager waved her hand. ‘It is all very tedious. Especially for Pepper, who did not like the town house at all.’
‘Never mind the dog.’ Now that she could manage to get a word in, Hope had to struggle to keep from shouting. ‘Tell me about the Earl.’
Her grandmother waggled a finger at her. ‘You are not still thinking of him, are you? It is very shallow of you to throw Mr Drake aside before even meeting your cousin.’
She turned to Gregory with a somewhat sterner smile. ‘The two of you will be marrying, of course. After what happened last night, I expect you will want to do so as soon as possible.’
‘What happened?’ Hope said, trying to sound as though she did not know the answer to the question.
Her grandmother frowned and shook her head. ‘Lord save me from poor liars and silly young girls.’
Was there no way to hide the truth of her behaviour, even for a moment? Charity had been lying when she’d said that the change in her was not that noticeable. It explained why girls were taught to protect their innocence at all costs. But like many strict rules, obedience had been more important than understanding. Of all the things Gregory had taught her last night, why had he not explained that there could be no turning back because, once she returned to London, everyone would know exactly what she had done?
Worst of all, Grandmama was not her usual, flippant self. She was more stern than Hope had ever seen her and, rather than telling an amusing anecdote about her misspent youth, she was giving them both dark looks and talking of marriage as a fait accompli.
‘Nothing of interest happened last night,’ Hope blurted. Gregory’s mouth, which had opened to speak, closed with a frown.
She continued. ‘Charity can assure you of that, for I retired early and the two of them stayed up until all hours, playing chess. And I am not throwing anyone over for my American cousin, who is probably too old for me and married.’
‘Old and married?’ Her grandmother released a silvery laugh. ‘Whatever gave you such an idea?’
‘You, Charity and everyone else in the family,’ she replied. ‘Perhaps I have finally accepted what the two of you have been telling me all along. It would be too great a miracle for him to be young and unmarried. It is far more likely that he is old and has a wife and several children.’
‘Then miracles do happen,’ her grandmother said, stepping forward to pat her on the shoulder. ‘He is barely thirty and single. He has nothing but Pepper to claim as family. Even now, the Crown is impressing on him his responsibilities and the need for an heir.’
‘But I would never assume a man was right for me without even meeting him,’ Hope said, staring down into her plate and trying to contemplate the magnitude of the mistake she had made. ‘He might be miserly and foul tempered,’ she added. ‘He might not care about our family at all.’ He might not be the sort of man she could love as she’d thought she loved the silent Gregory Drake.
‘On the contrary, he is the kindest gentleman in the world.’ Her grandmother was near to simpering over the newly arrived Comstock, who was, apparently, exactly the man Hope had expected him to be. ‘Miles greeted me as long-lost family and expressed his intent to see that there is a settlement in place for the repair of the dower house and my expenses. I took the liberty...’ She spun to display her new gown.
‘You went shopping with his money,’ Hope said with a sigh.
‘He encouraged me to do it. He is writing a letter this very afternoon to thank Mr Leggett for his help in settling the family. And he enquired after you and your little sister. He did not say as much, but I am sure he means to see the both of you are well settled.’
‘He does?’ Her plan might not have been wise, but it had not been hopeless at all. Instead, she had abandoned it and thrown herself away on a man who did not want her until she had all but forced herself upon him.
‘I think he was asking about you girls with a particular reason in mind.’ Her grandmother giggled again. ‘It is too late for you, Hope. But perhaps Charity...’
‘Do not involve me in your schemes,’ Charity said, without looking up from her book. ‘I have no intention of marrying a man I have not met. And any man I do want to marry will have to fit certain criteria before I consider him a suitable husband.’
‘He is young, rich and an earl,’ the Dowager said. ‘How much more can you expect from him?’
‘Stop!’ Hope rose so quickly that her chair tipped backward, hitting the carpet with a thud that echoed her word. Her napkin, still clutched in her hand, waved like a flag of surrender as she pointed to the shocked faces around the table. ‘Stop it this instant, both of you.’ She turned to Charity. ‘Not another word of this nonsense about standards so high that a peer will not suffice. If he offers, you will marry him and that will be that.’ Then she turned to her grandmother. ‘And not as much as a breath about it being too late for me.’
‘But I assumed that you and Mr Drake...’
‘You assumed incorrectly,’ she said, glaring across the table at the man who had let her ruin herself. ‘Mr Drake is nothing to me. And I am nothing to him. Once he has finished his job for our family, I never want to see him again.’ She narrowed her eyes. ‘If he were in any way decent, he would be gone already.’ Then she threw her napkin to the ground and ran from the room.
* * *
Was he a fool or a coward? Gregory could not decide how to explain what had just happened to him. He’d sat in silence and let Hope do all the talking, amazed that she was so quick to deny him. After swearing there would be no one but him, it had taken one censorious glare from her grandmother to turn her mind and her future back to a marriage with her cousin.
Now that she was gone, the room fell silent. Charity returned to her book as if nothing had happened. The Dowager stepped forward and took an empty seat at the head of the table. At a glance in the direction of Jenks, the footman, a cup and plate appeared in front of her. Tea was poured and food offered.
She sipped, then looked over the rim of her cup at Gregory. ‘Young man, I must know one thing before I decide what to do with you. You will answer in honesty. I will know if you do not.’ She stared at him.
He nodded.
‘Did you break her heart intentionally, or was it accidental?’
Charity looked up from her book. ‘Grandmama, he—’
‘I did not ask your opinion, girl.’
He gave her a brief nod of thanks, then turned to the Dowager. ‘If I hurt her, it was without intent. Since we met...’ How could he explain what had happened when he did not understand it himself? ‘I have not been myself.’
‘And who are you, when you are at home?’ the old woman asked with the glare of a countess addressing someone of insignificance.
‘Before I met your granddaughter, I thought myself a man of honour, good sense and moderation,’ he admitted.
‘And since?’
‘I have been both better and worse than I ever thought I could be,’ he said. ‘I thought she had committed her heart to me. I had intended to speak to you about her future, as soon as we returned to London. But I had not thought it would be over breakfast.’
The Dowager relaxed and took another sip of tea. ‘Your explanation is sufficient. I will tell neither Mr Leggett nor Comstock what has happened, unless Hope requests it of me. You have one week to either settle the situation with my granddaughter, or settle the matter of the entail. If either is incomplete at the end of seven days, I expect you to disappear from our lives, just as quickly as you arrived. Is that understood?’
‘Yes, your ladyship.’ As he stood and left the table, he could already feel the clock ticking.