The Loving Spirit Page 15

‘Then let us go to London and do what must be done.’

  He hesitated. ‘I wonder if you realize exactly what there is to be done. You, too, will be making your first appearance in society.’

  ‘But I’m no debutante.’

  ‘You needn’t go about too much if you don’t wish, but I think it would be best to observe the formalities.’

  ‘Well, I certainly don’t want to be left out,’ Kate said, adding with feeling, ‘that would please Millicent far too much.’

  He grinned. ‘You’re really at daggers drawn with her, aren’t you? She didn’t behave well to you over our marriage, but her ideas are conventional and I believe it shocked her very much. Can you rub along with her tolerably well for a while, do you think?’

  Kate turned her head a little and regarded him wryly, realizing that Justin knew little of Millicent’s true character. During the few months she’d lived at Farringdon Park during Amelia’s lifetime, she’d concealed the worst of herself from him, and Amelia had never complained. Justin regarded Millicent as a difficult woman, constantly making trouble over trifles but, Kate realized, he was the kind of man who regarded most women as difficult, save the chosen few in his heart.

  ‘I’ll manage,’ she told him.

  ‘And you won’t be left out, because I won’t allow it. How pleasant to be able to force you to spend some money on yourself.’ This was a bone of contention between them.

  ‘Do you really want me to spend money?’

  ‘A king’s ransom.’

  An imp began to dance in her. ‘I could make you regret saying that, My Lord.’

  ‘You can try.’

  ‘Thus giving Millicent the chance to tell everyone I married you for your money.’

  He pushed aside the silk of her nightdress and dropped his head to brush his lips against her bare shoulder, making her shiver with delight. ‘Do you really care so much for her opinion?’ he murmured.

  `No, I care only for yours,’ she whispered, trying to speak against the tide of warmth and excitement that was rising in her.

  ‘Then come to bed, and let me show you what I think of you.’

  She laughed softly and took his hand, letting him lead her to paradise.

  *

  She did as Justin had suggested and appointed a new governess. Miss Bayldon was middle-aged, comfortably plump, and more distinguished by her kind heart than her learning. Kate engaged her without hesitation.

  As they prepared to leave for London, Kate was in two minds about the trip. Part of her felt as Amelia had, that true happiness was to be found here. But nature had given her a bolder character than her friend, and although she’d had to suppress it for years, her growing feeling of freedom was letting it flower again. If Millicent wanted a fight, then Kate would give it to her. Justin’s declaration that she must spend money was like a call to arms. She ordered several outfits for travelling to town, saving the bulk of her purchases for London, where she could find a fashionable modiste.

  As the day for departure drew nearer she became aware that her husband’s mood had changed. He grew quieter and a darkness seemed to have settled over him. In answer to her anxious questions he would smile and reassure her, but his sleep began to be troubled.

  She hoped the brief visit of Sir George and Lady Fairley would lighten his mood. They were a middle-aged couple who spent most of the year in Devon, but travelled to London every autumn to visit their daughter and her husband.

  Kate found them delightful and unpretentious, content with their provincial life but eager for a few weeks’ excitement, and naively delighted to have married their daughter to a viscount.

  ‘Our dear Louisa will have all the latest crim cons for us,’ Lady Fairley confided to Kate. ‘I’m so excited I can’t wait.’

  ‘Crim cons?’ Kate asked innocently.

  ‘Criminal conversations,’ Lady Fairley said in accents of horrified delight. ‘Society is full of them. My dear...’ she turned to her husband, ‘do you recall what Lady Castlereagh told us about Lady Elfinton and the Honourable Sydney Parkin and how the Sellfords’ last child...’

  ‘My love,’ her husband protested, ‘we agreed not to heed gossip that might be unfounded.’

  ‘But Louisa says that everyone knows...oh dear, have I said too much?’ Like a guilty child she covered her mouth and looked around the table.

  Justin was smiling. ‘One day, Sarah, you’re going to discover that London isn’t half as wicked as you thought. And how disappointed you’ll be!’

  Lady Fairley gave a trill of laughter and the moment passed. The rest of the evening was spent pleasantly, and it was as though nothing had happened. Only Kate had noticed the strain beneath Justin’s smile.

  That night she awoke to find him awake and staring into the darkness. She touched his face.

  ‘Tell me,’ she said softly.

  After a long silence he said, ‘There are no words...or none that I can use. I’d give much not to have to go to London. It oppresses me.’

  ‘Is it really as wicked as Lady Fairley thinks?’

  ‘More. Infidelity is a way of life. Never mind the grief it causes to the innocent. Call it a ‘crim con’ and laugh it away.’

  ‘Are you talking about your mother?’ Kate asked quietly.

  ‘Yes, my mother who could never spare me a moment from her lovers. I grew up knowing that every man in the world was more important to her than I was, from the Prince of Wales downwards.’

  ‘Did you hate her?’ Kate asked.

  ‘I hated her...and I loved her. This will sound strange to you, but her death was almost as terrible to me as...’ A shudder ran through him. ‘Because then it was too late. I only heard about it afterwards. She hadn’t sent for me on her deathbed, not a message, not a word, nothing. And then I knew there would never be a word.’

  ‘Oh, darling...’

  He gathered her to him and they lay in silence while the cold dawn grew lighter. There was nothing to say.

  She had one final task before she left. The roses were over for the year, but the arbour was still a pleasant place in the warm sun of late afternoon, and she sat for several minutes, drinking in its peace.

  ‘Don’t worry, I’ll take care of him,’ she promised. ‘I’ll bring him back here as soon as I can. I can make him happiest here, just as you did.’

  She closed her eyes, trying to feel Amelia’s presence as she had done so often before. Yet somehow it was harder. There was an unease about the gentle spirit that glided past her. Amelia, whose love was so unselfish that she had given her friend and her husband to each other, was troubled now.

  ‘What is it?’ Kate asked silently. ‘What worries you, my dearest?’

  But she already knew the answer that Amelia couldn’t give her in words.

  ‘All will be well,’ Kate tried to reassure her. ‘It’s true that things aren’t quite as I would wish. I think sometimes, if only I could tell him everything, about Tom’s father...but I can’t. He wouldn’t understand. After all that happened... his mother...he judges these things so harshly. It is better if he doesn’t know. All will be well. I promise you, all will be well.’

  The only answer was the soft murmur of the wind in the trees.

  *

  Farringdon House was situated in Grosvenor Square, right in the heart of fashionable London. It was a huge mansion, adorned with every luxury, yet for some years it had presented a sad appearance: a house whose great days were behind it.

  Justin’s mother had been Lady Farringdon to her fingertips. Daughter of a duke, she had deigned to marry a mere earl for the sake of his vast wealth, and never a day had passed without the world being reminded of Her Ladyship’s condescension. From her husband she had demanded, and received, a king’s ransom in jewellery and a blind eye turned to her actions. That was the price he must pay for her glorious connections.

  The list of men she was reputed to have slept with started with the Prince of Wales. Even in those days he’d been outrageously fat, a grotesqu
e figure whom few women could have desired for himself alone, but Lady Farringdon could never have held up her head unless she’d bedded Prinny. And so, bed him she did, and succeeded in holding his volatile fancy for six months.

  During that time her son had been stricken with scarlet fever and lain near death. But to have deserted London just then would have meant surrendering her place to one of a dozen rivals, so Her Ladyship suppressed whatever motherly agonies she might have felt, and clung to her post. And events proved her right, for her son recovered without her aid, as he himself had once observed, although in a tone it would not have pleased her to hear.

  She gave a hundred parties to enthral her royal lover, lavishing a fortune on trifles to catch his attention. Night after night, the house glittered with lights, music poured from its windows, and every bedroom was full of rutting nobility.

  But Lady Farringdon had been dead for several years, and her son seldom came to London, for neither Justin nor Amelia had enjoyed society. For their brief visits the house was opened up, and then soon closed again when they escaped back to the country. Those who had worked there longest sighed and regretted the passing of the glory days.

  But now it was time for Charmaine’s debut, and the servants were thrown into a frenzy of cleaning and restoring. Each room must be turned out and polished until it was as clean as a new pin. Every chandelier must be brought down and every individual facet washed. And when Millicent made her grand entrance, with Charmaine in tow, it was easy to believe that the old days had come again.

  London was filling up with the cream of society. In Grosvenor Square, Cavendish Square, Berkeley Square, Brook Street, one by one the great houses came back to life as their owners arrived to embark on a round of good living and find advantageous matches for their offspring. The Prince Regent returned and the lights went on in Carlton House, his luxurious home in the Strand, and the centre of all pleasure.

  When news came that Lord and Lady Farringdon would soon arrive, the house was abuzz. Everyone knew about the new countess, a brazen, vulgar creature who’d taken advantage of the earl’s grief at his true wife’s death. Lady Thorpe, who had been there and seen everything, had told the terrible story to a few confidantes, who lost no time in spreading it.

  The steward and the housekeeper prepared for the message that was bound to follow, that Lady Farringdon’s apartment must be completely refurbished. For a new wife naturally wanted to banish memories of her predecessor.

  But the message never came, and the news went round that the countess herself had declared that the rooms must remain as they were.

  Lord and Lady Farringdon arrived in Grosvenor Square one evening in September. To Kate’s relief, neither Millicent nor Charmaine were there to greet them, having left to attend one of the small private parties with which the girl was finding her feet in society, prior to the ball and presentation that would mark her official come out.

  Kate had known Farringdon House was large, but its sheer scale astounded her. When the great front doors were thrown open she found herself in a huge marble hall, circular in shape, with oak doors leading off on every side. From the centre of the hall, a broad marble staircase ascended to a landing and divided into two, continuing up on either side.

  High up between the two staircases, seeming to dominate the whole house, was a portrait that held Kate’s attention. It showed a woman dressed in the stiff silks and satins of twenty years earlier. The low-cut gown exposed almost all of her breasts, revealing a flawless, creamy skin, the perfect setting for the heavy emerald and diamond necklace. Matching bracelets and rings weighed down her hands, and a diamond aigrette adorned her elegant, white-powdered, wig.

  Despite her astonishing beauty there was something about her face that Kate found disagreeable. Perhaps it was the calculation in the eyes, or the way the curved mouth was set in hard lines that even the seductive smile couldn’t hide. Kate felt a shudder of instinctive repulsion.

  ‘My mother,’ Justin said, watching her. ‘Painted by George Romney. Some people say it’s his greatest work.’

  Now she knew why the painting made her shudder. Amelia had met Justin’s mother in the days of her courtship.

  ‘She hated me,’ she’d once told Kate. ‘She wanted him to marry a duke’s daughter. She cared for nothing but money and position, and she did everything she could to come between us. I’m afraid it’s wicked of me, but I was so glad when she died of smallpox.’

  Looking at that cold, worldly face, Kate understood what had moved the gentle Amelia to say something so out of character.

  For dinner she changed into one of her new fashionable gowns, a Grecian robe of white crepe, embroidered up the front and around the hem with a fancy border of green chenille. It had an antique bodice of green velvet, trimmed with Vandyke lace, and the short full sleeves were finished with bands of matching green velvet. She was shod with satin slippers adorned with silver roses, and about her neck she wore the Farringdon emeralds.

  The kitchen staff had strained every nerve to impress Her Ladyship with her first meal. After the good but simple repasts of the country she found herself faced with pheasant a la braise, sole with wine and mushrooms, oyster loaves, stuffed calves’ ears, orange ice cream and lemon jelly. Justin laughed at her face, and guided her through the dishes that were new to her, but with which she must now appear to be familiar. She began to feel a little dismayed.

  ‘Perhaps you may now regret marrying a governess,’ she mused. ‘I was never in society, or even educated for it. I don’t know how to go on.’

  ‘You’ll be called on to do very little,’ he assured her. ‘We’ll have to attend some functions together, you’ll be expected to make an appearance at Charmaine’s ball. And, after all, you know how to dance.’

  ‘How did you know that?’

  ‘Amelia told me about the dancing lessons you had at school.’ He grinned suddenly. ‘I gather all the girls had to dance together unless some gentleman turned up unexpectedly. She said there was great excitement if someone managed to produce a visiting brother. Careful, my dear!’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, surveying the delicate porcelain cup that had fallen from her fingers and crashed to the floor. ‘I can’t think how...’

  ‘It’s no matter,’ he assured her.

  Already a footman was hurrying over to clear it up. Justin was shrugging it aside, the moment passed. But the ugly lurch of her heart as the casual reference to a man joining the schoolgirls’ dancing class had brought her fears shrieking to the surface. She controlled them, however, and managed to smile.

  After dinner they sat together in the library for what he assured her, with a slight twinkle in his eye, was a suitable time. They were both relieved when a suitable time was over, and they were free to retire.

  As Kate rose he took her face between his two hands. ‘Let me look at you.’

  ‘You look at me all the time,’ she said in wonder.

  ‘I can never tire of gazing at your face...or of kissing it.’

  He suited the action to the words, kissing her mouth, her eyes, her mouth again, murmuring soft, slightly incoherent words that told of his love more truly than eloquence. He had no skill with words, but when they lay together tonight in the darkness, then she knew he had the skill to prove his love again and again. Her body was already warming in anticipation of his intimate caresses, and she surrendered happily to his embrace, letting her head fall against his shoulder.

  Then she saw Millicent.

  Lady Thorpe had entered the room quietly and now stood in the doorway, transfixed by the scene that met her eyes, her face a mask of shock and chagrin. By the time Justin turned his head, Millicent had rearranged her expression.

  ‘My dears,’ she declaimed, stalking into the room with her hands outstretched, ‘so delightful to see you at last.’

  Justin accepted her greeting with calm pleasure and kissed her cheek.

  ‘You must forgive us for taking you unawares,’ he said.

&nbs
p; ‘I ordered the servants to be ready for you at any moment.’

  ‘And they were. Your arrangements have been excellent, my dear Millicent.’

  ‘But now your wife is here and it’s time for me to retire into the background,’ Millicent gushed, enveloping Kate in a scented embrace.

  ‘I’m sure the background could never be your rightful place,’ Kate said courteously. ‘I only hope I do as well here as you have done.’

  ‘Well, perhaps I’ve had a little more experience at being the mistress of a great house, but it will come to you. My dear Kate, it’s such a pleasure to me to see you looking so well. And so fashionable. I declare, I hardly knew you.’

  ‘Only to do my husband credit,’ Kate replied. ‘I don’t aspire to be as fashionable as you, Millicent.’

  Lady Thorpe was magnificent in a dress of ruby velvet over an under-dress of red embroidered satin. On her head was a turban dotted with small rubies and sporting two Bird of Paradise feathers. Her fan was matching red silk, glittering with spangles.

  Despite her apparently friendly words, Kate knew that Millicent had not warmed to her, but was making a clever pretence. She was a crude and obtuse woman, but when it came to intrigue she had a shrewdness that had nothing to do with intelligence. The sight of their passionate embrace had told her everything about Kate’s altered status, and she had instantly decided on a subtler game.

  The next moment Charmaine danced into the room. Kate had to admit that she looked enchanting in a robe of peach blossom satin, shot with white, trimmed with silver rose buds. An overdress of silver net and a pearl necklace completed the picture.

  ‘Uncle Justin!’ she embraced him eagerly. ‘And...and Kate? Why, you look so beautiful now.’

  There was no malice in her astonishment. Indeed, there was no malice in the girl at all, Kate thought, and if she could but separate her from Millicent’s influence, she might yet turn out well. Just now Charmaine was at her most delightful, bubbling about her wonderful evening, and the success she was having.

  ‘Just a very small party,’ Millicent said, as the four of them sat over coffee, ‘so that dear Charmaine will be at ease when she’s ‘fired off’.’