Margaret Moore (27 page)

Arabella folded her arms over her chest. “I want to go home to Grantham.”

“Oh.” Lady Lippet frowned. “This is not a hopeless tragedy, my dear. You are not the first woman to find her affections misplaced, you know.” The older woman’s eyes turned hard and cold as marble. “We give our love, and it renders us weak and capable of being used and discarded. You have little cause to think yourself more ill used than most, for you are luckier than most. You have beauty. If you feel the need for pity, save it for women who have none.”

Again Arabella heard that note of bitterness, but a remnant of her pride made her speak. “I did not ask to be beautiful.”

Lady Lippet smiled sympathetically. “No, no, of course not. And fortunately, the king will not mind if you are … experienced. So, you see, there is no need for you to go running back to Grantham.”

“I want to go home, Lady Lippet.”

“That would be the very worst thing to do!”

“I do not think so.”

“Arabella, in London what you have done is not the sin it is in Grantham,” Lady Lippet explained, as if Arabella was a particularly dim scholar. “And if you run away, who has won then?”

“This is not a game to me, my lady,” Arabella replied. “I have no wish to stay in London. I have my inheritance. That is more than enough to live on.”

“Do you?” Lady Lippet asked pointedly.

“What do you mean? The earl told me my father bequeathed me ten thousand pounds.”

Lady Lippet was all pity and commiseration as she slowly shook her head. “He told you that—and me and Sir Thomas and everyone else he met in London—to attract the right sort of husband. But your father left all that he had to the church.”

“That cannot be!”

If she had money, she could manage, perhaps even be able to overcome the scandal, if she was generous enough. But penniless? Or beholden to the earl, whose son had ruined her? The earl should have protected her better from Buckingham and the king and Neville, too.

Lady Lippet’s smile grew. “So you see, my dear, the king’s offer is most fortuitous.”

“But my lack of fortune would surely have
been discovered when it came time for a marriage settlement to be drawn up.”

“Well, my dear, Wattles planned to use some of his own money and claim all the rest was in investments. Once you were married, he would have explained to your husband that the dowry wasn’t terribly important, because the earl was bequeathing him a fortune.”

“That fortune should be Neville’s.”

“To fritter away? Oh, no. Wattles is quite right, you know. He is the wastrel son of a selfish, spoiled mother. Neville would simply spend it all to amuse himself.”

Arabella heard the outer door open downstairs and then her guardian’s familiar, if slightly muted, voice. At once she hurried to the hall.

“Arabella!” Lady Lippet called after her, but she did not stop.

She ran down the steps and into the withdrawing room, slamming the door behind her as she confronted the earl. “My lord, is it true that I have no inheritance from my father?”

“Where did you hear that?” he demanded.

“Lady Lippet has just told me.”

The earl flushed. “She should not have. Is she still here? Where the devil is she?”

Arabella would not be distracted.
“Is it true?”

“Your father, good man though he may have
been in some respects, was a fool with his money.”

“If he was, he was not the only one.”

“What does that mean?”

“Did my father leave his money to the church?”

“Yes,” he replied with obvious reluctance. “Nothing at all for me?”

“He left you a little money.”

“How much?”

He cleared his throat. “You’ve spent it.”

“I? I
have spent it? On what?”

“The gowns, the maid, the ribbons.”

“Because I thought I had ten thousand pounds! Oh, how could you have lied to me like that?” Her eyes narrowed accusingly. “Indeed, you are not like your son, for at least he saved your fortune and did not encourage someone in his care to spend theirs!”

“He did not save my fortune! That is a lie, and he has persuaded the bankers to he, too! He can twist people around his fingers like yarn, as you should know! His mother was the same.” He struck his hands together, as if his anger must find physical release. “I have been seriously deceived in my bankers—but no more! They will not get another penny out of me!”

“You have been to see them?”

“Of course! Neville told me some nonsense last night about saving my estate. I’ve never
heard anything more ridiculous! He lives to spend my money!”

“What did they say? Are you in serious arrears because of your son?”

“That is not the point! They did not have my permission to give Neville anything.” He scowled darkly. “Are you some kind of inquisitor that you would question me in this manner? I think not!”

She flushed but would not be silenced. “He told me that when he arrived in London, you were nearly bankrupt. That your bankers were suggesting mortgages and retrenchment. Is that so?”

“They made a few suggestions, but I—”

“Then the suggestions stopped?”

“Maybe they learned how to do their job better.”

“Or perhaps because it was no longer necessary. Is it so impossible that Neville could and would do everything in his power to keep you solvent?”

“If I were bankrupt, he would have nothing, too.”

“He could marry well,” she said, and not without some bitterness.

The earl began to pace. “He is a spendthrift. A wastrel. All of London knows of his decadent habits. He would not help me unless there was gain in it for himself. He hates me.” He halted and turned a suspicious eye on her.
“Why do you now rush to his defense, after what he has done to you?”

Arabella straightened her shoulders. “I only seek to know the truth. Can’t you see that if he has saved your fortune, it gives him more cause to want to destroy me? I’faith, my lord, if he didn’t hate you before that, he would have hated you after hearing of your plan, and he would despise me, too.”

“If I had not said what I did, you would not have had a chance of catching a courtier.”

“Can you not understand, my lord?” she demanded. “I did not
want
a courtier. I wanted a man who loved me! Now no honorable man will have me after my disgrace.”

The earl seemed to shrink a little. “I have done nothing wrong. He can’t have saved my fortune.”

“Why do you find this so hard to believe? Why do you hate him so?”

“Because he is just like his mother! Everything he does reminds me of her. His looks, his expressions, his words—I can scarce stand to be in the same room with him. I tried to curb the qualities in him that were like her, but I might as well have tried to hold back a flood or stop the sun from rising.”

“No, he is not like anyone else in the world. And she abandoned him, too, my lord.”

“I know that better than you!”

“You loved her very much, didn’t you?” Arabella
asked after a moment of heavy silence.

The earl stared at her, then shook his head. “No, I did not.”

“Why else would you hate her so when she betrayed you? And I think you feared that Neville would betray you, too. Better to force him away and save yourself from heartache.”

The old man felt for a chair and sat heavily.

“He would have offered you comfort if you had not driven him away. Yet despite all this, he was your dutiful son, for when he found out how things were, he did not leave you to suffer deprivation. Indeed, my lord, he was a better son than you a father.”

“You speak your mind very decidedly for a woman, and a young one at that. Although he has stolen your honor, you defend him.”

“Would you tell me I am wrong?”

The earl’s gaze faltered, and suddenly, he seemed very old and very tired. “You loved him, as I loved his mother,” he muttered.

“Yes, I loved him. I trusted him. But if I have cause for regret, it is because
I
was weak and immoral. He could not have shamed me if I had not chosen to be with him. I must bear responsibility for my act, and so I will. I shall make my own way in the world without you or your son.”

“Surely you cannot be serious!”

“I have never been more so.”
Except when I told Neville I loved him.

“As your guardian, I forbid it!”

“As my guardian, you have failed,” she said bitterly. “As I have. Do not trouble yourself over my fate, my lord. I choose it, just as I chose to be with your son.”

“You cannot live on your own! It would be scandalous!”

She turned to leave the room. “I did not say I would be living on my own.”

She opened the door, to find Lady Lippet anxiously pacing outside it.

“Nettie, talk to this chit!” Lord Barrsettshire commanded from the withdrawing room. “She says she will live alone in London.”

“Utter nonsense! You must both stay here, at least for the present,” Lady Lippet said. “Sit down, the pair of you. I declare I am disgusted with you both.”

“I don’t know what the world is coming to,” the earl snarled, “or women, for that matter. How can she stay here? She is disgraced, thanks to my son, but no one in Grantham need know—”

“Sit
down
, Wattles!”

The earl grudgingly did as he was bid.

“If you will pardon me, Lady Lippet—” Arabella began.

“No, I don’t pardon you,” the older woman said. “Sit!”

Arabella felt she had no choice but to obey or else the whole household would hear them.
She closed the door firmly before taking a seat.

“So, Wattles, you think she should go back to Grantham in disgrace?”

“Yes.”

“I thought you wanted her to marry a courtier. How will she be able to do that in Grantham?”

The earl continued to scowl.

“Now, Wattles, we have got to think of Arabella’s future. I think perhaps the best thing would be for her to come and stay with me.”

“With you?” the earl demanded.

Arabella did not feel any more pleased with this plan than he did.

Lady Lippet nodded and fixed a steady gaze on the earl. “She should be seen to be parted from you and therefore from your son. Otherwise, people might think you were encouraging Neville with an eye to obtaining Arabella’s inheritance.”

“Good God, I had not thought of that.”

“I told you spreading that tale was a mistake.”

“But I don’t have an inheritance,” Arabella observed.

“This is not the time to tell people!” Lady Lippet cried. “Good heavens, most certainly not the time.”

“I should continue living this lie, then?”

“Don’t be such a little fool! Of course you must. And you must come home with me directly.
Then tonight, we shall go to Whitehall just as if nothing at all had happened.”

“I will not.”

Lady Lippet clenched her teeth. “You must, or Neville will have everything
his
way. He can say what he will, and there will be no one there to contradict him.”

“Nettie, I think we should go back to Grantham.”

“You
think,” Lady Lippet said sarcastically. “It is your thinking that has got us all into this mess.”

The earl rose in outraged majesty. “This is
my
house, and I will not be spoken to in such a manner.”

“Please, do not quarrel!” Arabella exclaimed, tired of the bickering. Tired of everything.

“I will not be party to anything dishonorable,” the earl warned.

“Wattles, stop being so selfish.”

“Selfish? If that is how you are going to speak to me, there is the door.”

Lady Lippet rose haughtily. “You are the most stubborn man I have ever met. If Arabella stays with you, she
will
be ruined. Come along, my dear, we are leaving.”

“Arabella, if you leave this house now, don’t think you can come back.”

Arabella regarded her former guardian coldly. “I don’t want to come back. Do for me
as you did for your son. Send my things to my new abode.”

Then she left the earl standing alone in his withdrawing room and followed Lady Lippet out the door.

With a beaming smile on her homely face, Lady Lippet watched as Arabella sat down on the cushioned seat opposite her in her coach. “I am so glad you are being sensible about this, my dear. There is no reason at all to treat last night’s adventure as the end of the world. I assure you, it is not.”

Lady Lippet might believe that, Arabella thought as the coach lurched into motion, but her world, the world she knew and the world she had dreamed of with Neville, was completely destroyed.

She could only hope she had the courage to make her way in a new one and forget everything about honor and morality she had ever been taught.

And she would pray that God would forgive her for being so weak that even now, she loved the man who had so callously seduced her.

Chapter 19

“N
eville? Neville, is that you?”

Neville raised his head about five inches off the battered table in the tavern and squinted his bleary eyes as he tried to see who dared disturb him. Three empty bottles of sack blocked his view, and he slowly shoved them out of his way. One fell to the ground and shattered, making him wince. His reaction had nothing to do with the loss of the bottle; the sound made his head ache more.