A Shameful Secret (2 page)

“Mama has agreed, but . . .” Hester’s gaze flew to her mother’s face. She knew very well that her father had forbidden such pleasures for his daughter, and she had not expected her mother to relent so easily. There must be more to this than she was being told. “I am not sure that I ought to accompany you, Charlotte, though of course I should like it above all things but . . .”

“You will not refuse me?” Charlotte asked, an air of hurt innocence about her now. “I have been unwell, Hester dear, and need someone to look after me, run little errands and make sure I do not neglect myself, which I shall surely do if I am left to my own devices.”

Hester looked at her doubtfully. Cousin Charlotte had always been kind to her, and though she was aware of Hester’s shameful secret, she had never reproached her for her sin. Indeed, it was because of Charlotte’s intervention that she had not been entirely banished from her home. If her cousin truly needed her, then she would be unkind to refuse.

“Mama?” Hester looked to her mother for guidance.

“I have given my permission,” Araminta said with a faintly conscious glance at her hands. “Charlotte believes that you will do her some good, and since she has shown us many kindnesses in the past, I think you should oblige her.”

“Of course, I should be happy to oblige you, cousin,” Hester said, still doubtful and yet wanting to believe that it was actually happening. “If you are both sure.”

“Perfectly sure,” Charlotte told her, seizing the moment. “Had you refused me I am not sure that I could have gone alone.” She gave a little cough behind her gloved hand. “But with you to watch over me and the excellent waters at the Pump Room, I am certain of affecting a complete cure.”

Hester gave her a fleeting smile. She had the oddest feeling that she was being lied to, but as she could not see why either her mother or cousin should lie about something like this, she dismissed the notion as mere fancy.

“I am very grateful for the opportunity,” she said, and then, with a tinge of pink in her cheeks. “I promise I shall do nothing to shame you—or Mama.”

“I am perfectly certain that you will not,” Charlotte replied. “You are a delightful girl, Hester, perfectly behaved at all times, and I hope you know that I am extremely fond of you?”

“Thank you.” Hester felt the first flicker of excitement. It seemed almost unreal that she was to be given such a treat. Her wickedness had led to a cancellation of the season that had been planned for her eighteenth year, and for some time, she had been excluded from the discreet and rather dull dinners that her parents gave for their neighbors, though after a while she had been permitted to attend. She had gradually been allowed to visit ladies whom her mother approved, but only in Araminta’s company. She had been excluded from any entertainment that might include young men, and when one of their neighbors’ daughters had invited her to a little dance to celebrate her eighteenth birthday, Hester had been forced to pretend to illness. The offer to accompany her cousin to Bath was beyond her dreams. “This is very good of you, cousin.”

“I am only too happy that you have consented to bear me company,” Charlotte said, a little, satisfied smile about her mouth. In her youth she had been a beauty and the toast of her year, and now she was still what people termed a handsome woman, her dark hair showing no signs of dulling or turning grey, her eyes as bright as a young girl’s, and just now they were sparking with mischief. “I daresay you may find it a little dull, my dear, but we shall get on very well together.”

Find it dull to be in Bath with Charlotte? Hester could not imagine anything more calculated to lift her spirits, which had been sadly low since her brother Robert had gone to town. He had promised that he would persuade their mother to bring her to join him, since he was now the head of the family, but two months had passed, and nothing had been heard from him, not even a letter to tell them how he went on.

“I don’t think I could be dull in your company, dear Charlotte,” she assured her and then caught the hint of mischief in the older woman’s eyes. Of course, her cousin was teasing her! Hester was unused to being teased, for her mother seemed to spend her days in a perpetual gloom, and it was only a few of their friends who ever had a pleasant word for Hester. “It will be a pleasure to me to run as many errands as you wish.” She turned to her mother. “The vicar thanks you for you invitation to dine next Friday, Mama. He says he will be pleased to accept.”

“Had I known you were to leave me, I daresay I should not have bothered with a dinner at all,” Araminta said and sighed. “I shall have all that trouble for nothing now.”

“But the dinner is for Aunt Jane’s sake,” Hester reminded her. “She will be here the day after tomorrow, Mama.”

“So she will,” Araminta said, perking up a little. “I daresay it will be no trouble for Jane to arrange the menus with Cook. She does not suffer with her nerves as I do.”

She gave her daughter a glance, which told Hester that her mother’s nerves were entirely her fault. Her wickedness, her shame had destroyed their family, and she would never be allowed to forget it.

“Excuse me, Mama, Charlotte,” Hester said, reminded of her duties. “I must speak to Mrs Belamy and make sure that your bed has been properly aired.”

Hester was thoughtful as she made her escape. This visit with Charlotte was a treat to be savored, but she must remember always that her punishment could not be ended so easily. Her father had commanded that she should be made to feel her shame for the rest of her life, and it was unlikely that her mother would ever forgive her. But if this visit to Bath was the only one she would ever make, she would do her best to forget the dark cloud that hung over her, at least for a while.

* * * *

“So you found your way then?” Josh Farnham looked at his friend, his right eyebrow quirked in mockery. “I had begun to think you lost in the wilds of Norfolk.”

“I hardly think it in the English countryside,” Paul Crawford replied. He was accustomed to his friend’s mockery and ignored it. “If I can survive life with Old Hookey in France, I daresay I can find my way here. Mind you, I did take a wrong turning once, but a young woman soon set me straight.”

“Was she beautiful? Have I no reason to seek further for an explanation of your delay? I expected you here yesterday, Paul.”

“I took a slight detour,” Paul replied and frowned. “You know my mission. I was told that I might find a clue to the riddle I seek to solve at a certain estate not too far distant.”

“And did you?”

“I learned that the Earl expects his grandson home in the near future—but of the rest, nothing.”

Josh Farnham nodded. “You may find the trail has gone cold now. It was more than a year past, Paul. Perhaps it is time to let it go.”

“Six men died in that blast,” Paul said. “And there were others whose deaths I did not witness personally, good soldiers who died from the same cause. Those six were men who had served with me on the Peninsular before this last engagement. You don’t simply let go of something like that, Josh.”

Josh was the younger by several years than his friend. He was also the slighter of the two, though he was above average height, but Paul was a large man, muscular and authoritative. Josh was also the more attractive of the two, his hair as fair as Paul’s was dark, his eyes a merry blue that twinkled when he had cause. There were other differences, for though Paul was a seasoned soldier, the campaign in France had been Josh’s first and, he fervently hoped, his last. He had seen enough of shattered bodies and men dying of terrible wounds. Their cries haunted his dreams even now.

But the worst thing was that some of the deaths had not been inflicted by the enemy, but by faulty cannon. A senior officer on Wellington’s staff, Paul had been in charge of the munitions supplies for a while, and it was he who had ordered the new cannon from a firm based in the north of England. They had been splendid pieces to look at and allegedly capable of firing more accurately and at longer distances than those they had been accustomed to. Unfortunately, of the twenty pieces delivered, nine had been damaged goods, exploding and killing or maiming the men who had fired them. Paul had taken the outrage personally, vowing to trace the person who had sold the faulty cannon to the army and see him punished.

“I know how you feel,” Josh said after a moment’s reflection. “But life moves on. You have a home to go to and an estate to run.”

“My mother’s words exactly,” Paul said and grinned at his friend in his lazy, good-natured way. Sometimes Josh thought he resembled a sleepy bear, but there was nothing sleepy about him when he went into action, either on the field of battle or off it. “I have been told that it is my duty to the family to marry and get myself an heir.”

“Yes, well, at your age, there isn’t much time left,” Josh said and ducked the playful blow aimed at his head. “You are seven-and-thirty, Paul, and in direct line for the title. It is little wonder that the marchioness thinks you should settle down now that Boney is back in his cage.”

“I can’t see the old boy popping off just yet,” Paul said, though he frowned at the idea. “God forbid! No, my father is good for a few more years yet, thank goodness. And I have this business to sort out. I made myself a promise, Josh. We were sold faulty goods, and I think it was a deliberate fraud. It might even have been more than that.”

Josh stared at in him silence for a moment, then said, “You think that those cannon could have been spiked to cause confusion and mayhem in our ranks?”

“If we had not withdrawn the remainder of the batch and reassured the men, who knows what might have happened? Lesser things have started a mutiny, and even doubt or confusion at the wrong time could have lost us valuable ground. You know as well as I do that Wellington’s skill as a commander and the sheer guts on the part of officers and men won us the day out there. Anything could have tipped the balance in Bonaparte’s favor. If we had not tested those cannon before we went into battle, they might well have caused mayhem amongst the ranks.”

“But surely the man who sold us the cannon was an Englishman? What was his name? I forget now, though you have spoken of him by name before.”

“Jonathan Hanwell, he called himself, and he was undoubtedly an Englishman. An Englishman who, by the deep bronze of his skin, looked as if he had spent some years abroad,” Paul said. “A man who disappeared after the contract was signed and the gold handed over—a man who might be a traitor to his country . . .”

“Good grief!” Josh was astounded, feeling a growing sense of outrage now. This alters things considerably, Crawford. A fault in manufacturing is one thing, an act of sabotage by a traitor quite another. The fellow deserves to be brought to justice.”

“My feelings exactly,” Paul agreed. “Of course, the name he gave was quite false. Jonathan Hanwell of the Hanwell Manufacturing Company of Sheffield. The company is genuine enough, but the cannon did not come from there, though it bore their stamp. Apparently, they had a robbery some months earlier and believe that the tool may have been stolen at that time.

“Mr. Edward Hanwell was most disturbed that this impostor used his family name to sell faulty goods to the army. He believes that the cannon came from an inferior firm, and has promised to make his own inquiries as to where they might have originated, though the two that were originally demonstrated to us were undoubtedly from Hanwell’s company. However, he denied having been given the order and showed me his records of all manufacturing during that period, and I believed him honest.”

“This is a serious business,” Josh said, his brow creasing in thought. “We have Boney clapped up right and tight. He shouldn’t cause us more trouble, but a traitor is a traitor.”

“I intend to trace him and do my best to bring him to justice.”

“If I can be of help to you, Crawford, you have only to say.”

Paul nodded, his expression grim as he looked at his friend. “I shall ask but only if it is really necessary. This is a dangerous business, Josh. I have some stalwart friends, men who served with me out there, and they are as anxious to bring the traitor to justice as we are, perhaps more so, for they know any of them could have died. I daresay I shall need them for I believe someone took a pot shot at me on my way here.”

“Good grief!” Josh looked at him in concern. “Then things are even worse than I imagined.”

“It missed me fortunately,” Paul said with a slight smile, his blue eyes warm with amusement. “I daresay I have a charmed life—or a sixth sense, more like. It comes from all those reconnaissance forays for Old Hookey. You had to know when someone was likely to be waiting to ambush you. However, the incident on my way here has made me more wary, and I shall make sure that I do not travel alone in future. But I came here for reasons other than this foul business, my friend. What is this I hear from my mother? Are you indeed thinking of taking the plunge?”

“If you mean am I in the petticoat line,” Josh said with a grimace. “It looks as if I may be. Lucinda is a beauty, Paul, and a honeypot. Not only that, she is an heiress and my mother likes her.”

“Then I shall wish you happy and hope to dance at your wedding.”

“I fear you will all too soon,” Josh said with a gloomy sigh. “So much for my plans to enjoy myself on the town for a few years. Between them, my mother and Lucinda will have me bound hand and foot to the estate before you can spit.”

Paul laughed for he knew his friend’s humor of old and was aware that nothing would make Josh do something he did not wish to do. Clearly, he had fallen hard for the young woman in question.