Читать книгу The Regency Season Collection: Part Two - Кэрол Мортимер, Кэрол Мортимер - Страница 20

Chapter Eleven

‘Get on with it, man,’ Lord Leckhampton, Virginia’s old friend and one time suitor urged querulously, ‘we haven’t time or inclination for an oration.’

‘I need to be on my way before night draws in, I suppose,’ Mr Poulson said with a frown that told them a master craftsman was being told to botch a job as if he was a mere day labourer.

‘Not at all, Poulson, you must stay,’ Lord Farenze said with a hard look at Chloe to order she confirm his hospitality.

‘Your bedchambers are prepared and we have a footman very happy to act as valet for the evening, gentlemen,’ she agreed, hoping Carrant hadn’t scorched their linen in his eagerness to take up a career as a gentleman’s gentleman.

‘You are very kind, Lord Farenze, ma’am,’ Mr Poulson said with a seated bow Chloe thought old fashioned and charming, even if Lord Leckhampton snorted as if heckling a fine performance. ‘But to proceed, since it is a complicated document and needs some explanation—Lady Virginia leaves the residue of her fortune to Miss Winterley, but her ladyship made a series of unusual bequests to all of you...’ He paused to gauge the effect of his words.

‘Don’t need a penny of her blessed money,’ Lord Leckhampton said.

‘Just as well, my lord. Her ladyship left you the contents of all the bins in her late husband’s inner wine cellar,’ the little lawyer told him and Chloe saw an impish smile on the elderly peer’s face.

‘That’s Virgil’s finest burgundy and the best cognac. God bless her. I’ll think of them both whenever I tap a bottle,’ he said and blinked determinedly. ‘Dare say you don’t need me any more, then?’ he said with much harrumphing and a pretend cough into a black-bordered handkerchief.

‘If these other beneficiaries refuse to take up their parts of the estate, you are to administer Miss Winterley’s fortune until she marries or attains the age of five and twenty, my lord, but if you wish to leave, no more of this unusual document purports to you,’ Mr Poulson replied.

‘Good, good, something in my eye, y’know?’ Lord Leckhampton said and left the room to come to terms with that proof of Virginia’s deep affection.

‘Now, Mrs Wheaton and gentlemen, we come to the core of her ladyship’s will and most eccentric it is as well, but it was what she wanted. Lady Virginia has left a series of letters to be delivered to four people one by one. The first letter is to be handed over today, the second when that first gentleman has fulfilled his request from Lady Virginia or handed it back to the trustee and so on, until the last letter has been given out. Each stage of these tasks is to take no more than three months of your time and, on completion of the quarter of the year allotted to it, the next task will begin. I trust you understand so far?’

‘Dashed if I do,’ James Winterley said with a glance at Chloe that told them he would not come out with such a mild expletive if she wasn’t here.

‘Lady Virginia thought we needed to keep out of mischief, Jimmy,’ Lord Mantaigne said with a careless shrug.

‘I’m a busy man,’ Lord Farenze muttered grumpily and Chloe wondered if that was the reason her late mentor demanded he spend three months not being the viscount in possession.

‘Hence a provision her ladyship made for the time each of you will spend on your allotted task,’ the lawyer replied smoothly. ‘Peters here will be available so each of you can put his talents to good use in turn. In your case, Lord Farenze, perhaps he could turn land agent so you can concentrate your energies elsewhere. My junior partner has accomplishments I cannot always approve of, but he recently assisted the Duke of Dettingham with a series of confidential investigations as well as managing to bring the perpetrators of the Berfield outrage to justice.’

‘You must be very unpopular in certain quarters, Peters,’ Lord Mantaigne observed with a gleam of respect behind his easy smile.

‘Only if they know about me,’ he said with a long look at his senior partner that made the little lawyer shift in his chair.

‘I’m sure no whisper of it will leave this room,’ Mr Poulson blustered, but from his blush was conscious he’d let himself be carried away by a desire to impress.

Chloe flushed under the combined gazes of four interested gentlemen. ‘Of course I shall not reveal a word,’ she promised, wondering why she was here again.

‘Which brings us to your role, Mrs Wheaton,’ the lawyer said as if he’d read her mind. He pushed his eyeglasses up his nose and glared at the parchment in front of him as if will-power alone might change the words on it.

‘Lady Virginia left you her personal jewellery not already covered by bequests to family or friends and all her personal effects not likewise left elsewhere.’

Chloe allowed herself an audible sigh while she fought the urge to weep over such a magnificent gift. As a housekeeper she could never wear the exquisite pieces designed for a famous beauty in her scandalous prime, or use the delicately wrought objets d’art Virginia’s lord delighted in showering his love with, but owning them meant so much.

‘How kind and generous of her,’ she said, puzzled why she’d been allowed to hear so much before being told this, then dismissed.

‘Stay, Mrs Wheaton, I am not done,’ Mr Poulson said and she sank back into her chair and looked quizzically back at him. ‘There is a gatekeeper for this odd affair of one gentleman, then the next, taking up Lady Virginia’s quests. That person controls the allotted monies and letters for the next twelve months and will receive a generous stipend in return. I am to tell you that you have the role and must not argue.’

‘Me?’ Chloe managed faintly.

‘If you would take a look at this part of the document and confirm your true identity?’ he asked and Chloe sat open-mouthed.

‘How did she know?’ she managed to mutter numbly.

‘Your confirmation, if you please?’ he prompted, pointing to a passage in the closely written script that said Lady Virginia’s housekeeper-cum-companion was the Lady Chloe Bethany Thessaly, eldest daughter of the seventh Earl of Crowdale and late of Carraway Court in the county of Devon.

Numbly she nodded, then realised that wasn’t enough for the law. ‘Yes, that is my name,’ she affirmed and raised her chin, ‘What else did her ladyship tell you?’ she let herself ask.

‘Only that she had been very slow at putting two and two together and couldn’t imagine where her wits had got off to. Indeed, who knows what she knew and didn’t know about any one of us? I should not like to hazard a guess.’

‘Do either of you intend telling me who has been housekeeper here for the last decade?’ Lord Farenze demanded crossly.

‘Not now,’ she said.

‘Later, then,’ he promised, or was it a threat?

‘Who is the lucky recipient of Virginia’s first bombshell?’ Lord Mantaigne drawled.

Chloe was beginning to see past his assumption of lazy indifference and sensed he was both diverting attention from her and adjusting his own expectations in case he must start Virginia’s year of imposing her will on her favourite gentlemen.

‘Lord Farenze is first on Lady Virginia’s list, but he is at liberty to delay his task until later if he needs time to settle his affairs,’ Mr Poulson said with a glint of what looked like humour in his eyes.

‘I have no need; what is my so-called quest to be?’ Luke demanded and Chloe let tenderness quirk her lips into a betraying smile at the scepticism in his deep voice that he could be anyone’s hero.

Luckily the rest of them were watching him as if not quite certain if they were sharing a room with a primed incendiary or an occasionally uncivil nobleman.

‘You forget I’m not in charge of that part of the instructions, my lord. No doubt Mrs Wheaton will inform you of your task, once she has read Lady Virginia’s letter to her and understands her own role in this business a little better.’

If I ever do, Chloe added under her breath, trying to shrug off the feeling too many powerful males were focused on her as she tried not to squirm in her seat.

‘It might prove difficult to maintain a disguise with us happy band of adventurers to keep in order, Mrs Wheaton,’ Mr James Winterley cautioned with a wry smile she found rather charming when she caught echoes of his elder brother in his grey-green eyes.

‘Nevertheless, I am Mrs Wheaton for now and ask you all to respect my privacy,’ she made herself reply steadily, dread of the scandal if she made her true identity public making her shudder.

‘Am I never to know?’ Lord Farenze asked, frowning as he bent to stir the fire into a blaze.

‘If it ever seems safe for me to be other than a housekeeper, you will be among the first to know, my lord,’ she said briskly. ‘Now could I have my letter?’

The little lawyer bowed respectfully. ‘Here you are, ma’am,’ he said gently, offering the sealed letter as if it was a crown jewel. ‘I’m told this will cover the most salient points and expect any details can be discussed later.’

‘There’s one you managed to skirt round,’ Luke said with a long hard look Chloe admired the man for not flinching under.

‘My lord?’

‘Who is your fourth Knight of the Round Table, or do you intend keeping him secret until we spot some fool dashing about searching for dragons to slay for my late great-aunt’s heavenly amusement?’

‘I fear I cannot tell you who he is at the moment.’

‘Say you won’t rather and why not for heaven’s sake?’

‘Because I don’t know myself,’ the lawyer said.

Chloe thought he was telling the truth, but given Mr Poulson’s acting skills it was difficult to tell.

‘Then it will be impossible to recruit him to Virginia’s happy band of heroes.’

‘I was given four envelopes, my lord. Three have your names on and they will be handed to Mrs Wheaton when she asks for them. Lady Virginia included one with a question mark on and told me Mrs Wheaton will tell me who is to have it when she has instructions to begin his part of the task. You will be the first to have that secret in your keeping, ma’am, and I’m sorry to hand you so much responsibility,’ Mr Poulson said with a frown of what looked genuine concern.

‘Lady Virginia would never leave me with a task I couldn’t carry out.’

‘She did insist you would succeed in any venture you set your mind to,’ he admitted.

Lord Mantaigne laughed, then smiled wryly to invite her not to take offence. ‘I suspect that’s a tactful way of saying you’re stubborn as a mule and sharp as a knife, Mrs Wheaton,’ he said with a knowing nod at Lord Farenze’s thunderous frown.

‘If I was that clever, I wouldn’t be working as housekeeper here, Lord Mantaigne,’ she told him with a repressive frown, but he let his smile stretch into a mocking grin and shook his head.

‘Nobody found out you were here though, did they?’ he said as if that was an achievement in itself. Chloe supposed it was and held her head a little higher.

‘Never mind fawning on her, man, let Mrs Wheaton read Virginia’s letter so I can get this fiasco over and get back to everything else I should be worrying about instead,’ Lord Farenze grumbled, but his eyes met Chloe’s with a myriad of complex emotions under the cool control he was trying to show the rest of the world.

‘And the sooner I read my letter, the sooner you can have yours, my lord.’

‘Eager to be rid of me?’ he murmured as he rose to walk past her, indicating to the others it was time to let her and Mr Poulson begin this rackety affair.

‘Of course,’ she said with eyebrows raised as if it was obvious.

‘Liar,’ he whispered so intimately she felt his tongue flick shockingly into the intricate curls of her ear before he stood watching with all sorts of threats and promises in his darkened grey gaze.

‘I know,’ she let herself mouth once he’d finally left the room with his half-brother, his best friend and the mysterious Mr Peters in his wake.

‘I shall leave you to read this missive, Lady Chloe,’ Mr Poulson said with one of his best bland looks. ‘I trust you will not be disturbed.’

‘Little chance of that,’ Chloe muttered as the echo of the door softly closing behind the little lawyer died and she eyed the thick packet dubiously.

No point sitting here and hoping the whole business would go away if she avoided it long enough. She broke the familiar seal of Virgil and Virginia’s entwined initials and peered at the closely written missive, half-longing for and half-dreading whatever her late employer had to say to her.

‘Dearest girl...’ it began, in Virginia’s familiar, elegant hand and tears blurred Chloe’s eyes until she forced them back and made herself concentrate on what her late employer and friend had to say, instead of missing her so deeply a gulf yawned inside her that would never be filled.

You have become the daughter of my heart, or perhaps I should call you my granddaughter as you are so much younger than I am. I never could give my Virgil a child, but with you and Verity in the house these last few years it has felt as if he approved of your presence here. Would he was truly here to play great-grandfather to your daughter, for he would have delighted in her quickness and mischief even more than I have done.

Chloe blinked and stared blankly out of the window for several minutes until she had control of her emotions and could carry on reading.

I knew you were born to a higher sphere than the country vicarage you admitted to when you first came to the Lodge. Since I disliked all the other candidates the agency sent me, I overlooked the fact you were clearly lying and settled down to be amused by you and your babe, when Verity came back from the wet nurse. That really was a giveaway, by the way, my darling Chloe, since you would never let your child be nursed by another woman unless you had no milk yourself and you certainly didn’t have any of that, now did you?

Again Chloe had to stop reading with a shake of her head at the turmoil her late employer’s words sent racing in her head. She’d suspected Virginia had doubts about her made-up ancestry at times, but never Verity’s.

You have been very wary about giving me the smallest clue to your true identity and it wasn’t until I took notice of a tale Lady Tiverley whispered to me a few months ago about Rupert Thessaly’s outrageous brood that I realised who you really are. Now, if I happened to be a good woman, I would have delved deeper there and then and found a way to force your brother to admit he and his father and that milksop brother of his conspired to throw his own flesh and blood to the dogs three times over, then make restitution to his surviving sister and niece. I fear I am not that noble and have come to love you and your supposed child far too much to find the idea of living without you at all comfortable, so I managed not to see how I was compounding damage already done to you both for as long as I could.

During the last few weeks I have come to realise how deep an injury I did you by not doing or saying anything to restore you to your true place in life. I love you and my great-nephew as far as I am capable of loving anyone, but apparently I love myself more than both of you. I can see you shaking your head and refusing to believe Luke has anything to do with you even now, my dear, but take a deeper look into your stubborn heart and I pray you’ll see there what you two have ignored far too long.

Since Chloe was shaking her head at the very moment her late employer accused her of being stubborn, she stared round the room as if her wraith might be watching. If Virginia was born in another age to poorer parents, she might have been accused of witchcraft, she decided with a shudder. Dare she look hard at her feelings for Luke Winterley? Something told her she might have to soon, but for now she had the distraction of Virginia’s letter to shake her head over instead. Not that it did much good, since every other word seemed to be of him.

If you ever do decide to lay down that stout armour of yours and consider what you and dear Luke could be to one another, please forget the petty details and seize your happiness at last, my dear Chloe. It is for your brothers and the Thessaly connection to talk their way out of what they did, or didn’t do, by leaving you to raise your sister’s child as your own. Such things have been managed well enough in other noble families for centuries. Since it sounds as if you two girls were left to more or less bring yourselves up, such neglect was sure to end in trouble.

I hope your brothers have spent the last ten years feeling deeply ashamed of themselves after you proved better and stronger than either of them, but somehow I doubt it. You have a tender conscience and a good heart, Chloe, and the rest of the Thessaly family were ready to commit murder by leaving poor Verity on a freezing doorstep well away from their own nest. I’m quite sure they would have done so if you hadn’t stolen away like a thief in the night as well.

Penelope Tiverley is a sad rattle-pate, but she was your sister’s godmother and I’m sure she has told her tale to nobody else. She only wanted to ease her conscience by telling her mother’s old friend how uneasy she felt about the affair. My years seem to bring confidences, whether I want them or not, and please don’t think the story is common currency in society. I know it is not so and have kept the promise I made Penelope not to repeat it. Given she did not see who was under her nose, I doubt you were ever close to your sister’s godmother, but I wish your mama had picked one for you who might have helped when you had to disappear.

Chloe impatiently undid the strap that held her fussy cap in place then threw the constricting thing into a dark corner and rubbed her temples against the headache it had caused. She looked ruefully at a red-gold curl escaping from her tight chignon and wondered if its colour explained the differences between her and her angelically blonde twin sister. Even her mother must have decided Daphne needed a sweet-natured godmother and Chloe could make do with a chilly and puritanical distant cousin, who disowned her as godless and ungovernable long before she walked away from Carraway Court with Verity in her arms.