Marrying Harriet
Authors: M.C. Beaton
M. C. Beaton
is the author of the hugely successful Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth series, as well as a quartet of Edwardian murder mysteries featuring heroine Lady Rose Summer, the Travelling Matchmaker and Six Sisters Regency romance series, and a stand-alone murder mystery,
The Skeleton in the Closet
– all published by Constable & Robinson. She left a full-time career in journalism to turn to writing, and now divides her time between the Cotswolds and Paris. Visit
www.agatharaisin.com
for more.
Praise for the School for Manners series:
‘The Tribbles are charmers . . . Very highly recommended.’
Library Journal
‘[M. C. Beaton] again charms and delights; a bonbon for those partial to Regency romances.’
Kirkus
‘The Tribbles, with their salty exchanges and impossible schemes, provide delightful entertainment.’
Publishers Weekly
‘[Beaton] displays a fine touch in creating an amusing set of calamities in her latest piece of frivolous fiction.’
Booklist
Titles by M. C. Beaton
The School for Manners
Refining Felicity
•
Perfecting Fiona
•
Enlightening Delilah
Animating Maria
•
Finessing Clarissa
•
Marrying Harriet
The Six Sisters
Minerva
•
The Taming of Annabelle
•
Deirdre and Desire
Daphne
•
Diana the Huntress
•
Frederica in Fashion
The Edwardian Murder Mystery series
Snobbery with Violence
•
Hasty Death
•
Sick of Shadows
Our Lady of Pain
The Travelling Matchmaker series
Emily Goes to Exeter
•
Belinda Goes to Bath
•
Penelope Goes to Portsmouth
Beatrice Goes to Brighton
•
Deborah Goes to Dover
•
Yvonne Goes to York
The Agatha Raisin series
Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death
•
Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet
Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardener
•
Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley
Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage
•
Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist
Agatha Raisin and the Wellspring of Death
•
Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham
Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wyckhadden
Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryfam
•
Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell
Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came
Agatha Raisin and the Curious Curate
•
Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House
Agatha Raisin and the Deadly Dance
•
Agatha Raisin and the Perfect Paragon
Agatha Raisin and Love, Lies and Liquor
Agatha Raisin and Kissing Christmas Goodbye
Agatha Raisin and a Spoonful of Poison
•
Agatha Raisin: There Goes the Bride
Agatha Raisin and the Busy Body
•
Agatha Raisin: As the Pig Turns
The Hamish Macbeth series
Death of a Gossip
•
Death of a Cad
•
Death of an Outsider
Death of a Perfect Wife
•
Death of a Hussy
•
Death of a Snob
Death of a Prankster
•
Death of a Glutton
•
Death of a Travelling Man
Death of a Charming Man
•
Death of a Nag
•
Death of a Macho Man
Death of a Dentist
•
Death of a Scriptwriter
•
Death of an Addict
A Highland Christmas
•
Death of a Dustman
•
Death of a Celebrity
Death of a Village
•
Death of a Poison Pen
•
Death of a Bore
Death of a Dreamer
•
Death of a Maid
•
Death of a Gentle Lady
Death of a Witch
•
Death of a Valentine
•
Death of a Sweep
Death of a Kingfisher
The Skeleton in the Closet
Constable & Robinson Ltd
55–56 Russell Square
London WC1B 4HP
First published in the US by St Martin’s Press, 1990
First published in the UK by Chivers Press, 1992
This paperback edition published by Canvas,
an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd, 2012
Copyright
©
M. C. Beaton, 1990
The right of M. C. Beaton to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.
A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in
Publication Data is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-78033-316-8 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-78033-471-4 (ebook)
Typeset by TW Typesetting, Plymouth, Devon
Printed and bound in the UK
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
You will and you won’t – You’ll be damned if you do – And you’ll be damned if you don’t.
Lorenzo Dow
Miss Harriet Brown sat at her desk and pulled a blank sheet of paper towards her. When she was troubled, she wrote down her thoughts, putting the benefits on one side of the page and the problems on the other.
The situation she found herself in was this. Her mother had died giving birth to her. Her father, a Methodist minister, had recently died. Her aunt, Lady Owen, a Scarborough
grande dame
who had cut off her own sister, Lydia, when she had stooped low enough to marry plain Mr Brown, had decided to take care of Harriet – or rather to arrange care for her. To that end, Harriet was being sent to London to live with two professional chaperones, the Tribble sisters. These sisters were to school her in the ways of society and find her a husband.
On the plus side were the following facts: She, Harriet, had practically no money. The very house she was sitting in belonged to the church and would fall into the hands of the new minister, due to arrive the following week. Marriage was the only future open to her. Although highly educated, she had not the necessary accomplishments expected in a governess – that is, knowledge of Italian, of water-colour painting, dancing and pianoforte playing. Therefore she should be grateful to her aunt for giving her this opportunity and supplying her with a modest dowry. In London –
even
in London – there might be some worthy, decent man to marry.
On the problem side lay the Tribble sisters. Harriet read the London newspapers in the circulating library and had heard of the Tribbles. They were remarkably successful in finding husbands for ‘problem’ girls. Harriet had been designated a problem by her aunt because she lacked refinement and at twenty-five had considerable experience of good works and none of the ballroom or saloon. Amy and Effy Tribble seemed a shocking pair, however successful they might be. They had punched each other openly at a ball, a murder had been committed in their house, and there was a malicious tale in one of the columns of gossip hinting that Amy Tribble had dressed up as a man and challenged the Duke of Berham to a duel. The fact that this duke had eloped with the Tribbles’ latest charge, a Miss Maria Kendall, did not reassure Harriet. It looked as if both Miss Kendall and the duke had been fleeing the Tribble sisters.
Harriet returned to the plus column. Her father, with her help, had managed to save many brands from the burning. If the Tribble sisters needed saving, then it was Harriet’s duty to do so.
She was to travel alone on the mail coach from York, Lady Owen’s carriage taking her only as far as there. Nor had Lady Owen found it necessary to supply Harriet with a maid or any female companion for the journey. That was definitely a plus, thought Harriet. She could pass the time reading, something she had had little chance to do in recent years with all the work of the parish.
Telling herself she felt much better, Harriet firmly read over what she had written, tore up the paper and dropped it in the waste-paper bucket at her feet. All she lacked was courage and that would come from God.
But as she climbed into Lady Owen’s carriage the next day, she felt a lump rising in her throat. Not one of her father’s old parishioners had come to see her off. Harriet did not know that the father whose memory she loved and respected had been a highly unpopular man whose harsh, autocratic brand of charity had been accepted out of sheer necessity. She felt very lonely and lost, as if she had no roots anywhere. Behind her stood the grim, cold, uncomfortable house in which she had spent her life to date, closed and shuttered as if it, too, was glad to see the back of her. Ahead of her lay unknown London.
The carriage made its way first to Lady Owen’s. Lady Owen came down the steps of her mansion as Harriet stepped down from the coach to say her goodbyes. Lady Owen was a sour, petulant woman with great bushy eyebrows under the eaves of which a pair of pale, cold eyes looked with disdain on the world in general and Harriet Brown in particular.
‘Good heavens, child!’ exclaimed Lady Owen. ‘Is that all you have to wear?’
Harriet flushed. She was wearing mourning: black wool gown, large black bonnet and thick-soled boots.
‘These are my mourning clothes,’ she said quietly.
‘Never mind,’ sighed Lady Owen. ‘Those Tribbles have been instructed to furnish you with a new wardrobe.’ She gave a sour laugh. ‘At least you will not be troubled by any warm attentions from the gentlemen on your road south.’
‘My father always said, “Handsome is as handsome does,”’ said Harriet.
‘Well, he would, wouldn’t he?’ sniffed Lady Owen. ‘And more fool he.’
For one moment, Harriet’s eyes sparkled and then she quickly reminded herself of her situation. Besides, her father always used to say, ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names can never hurt me,’ although, thought Harriet with a first flash of disloyalty, there were some remarks that left you feeling physically abused.
‘Now restore the name of Owen by marrying well,’ admonished Lady Owen.
‘My name is Brown,’ pointed out Harriet.
‘The name of Brown was but a hiccup in the famous line of Owen,’ said Lady Owen severely. ‘On your road, and write to me every week. The Tribbles will frank your letters, for I am paying them enough as it is. You may kiss me.’