Page 44 of A Marriage is Arranged

They had received an invitation from Lord and Lady Barnstable to a supper party with cards. Louise was surprised, for generally a card party was offered after a dinner. This seemed very paltry.

“Oh,” explained the Dowager when Louise mentioned it, “Everyone knows Lord Barnstable is all but done up and his poor lady can’t afford to give a dinner party. The tradespeople won’t extend them credit any more. Instead she offers supper and cards. It’s a charity to accept, so you should. But don’t play with his lordship, my dear. He will fleece you unmercifully. I’m afraid he uses these evenings as an opportunity to pay his bills.”

The day before the event, the Earl came into the drawing room with a note in his hand.

“I’m afraid I have to go to Overshott immediately. Something has come up I need to deal with personally. We’ll have to miss the Barnstable supper, I’m afraid. I’ll send a note.”

Louise had been looking forward to playing cards again and was incensed her husband should automatically assume she would not go without him.

“No,” she replied. “I wish to go. I shall stay here. I shall write to present your excuses and go alone. It would be churlish for both of us to stay away. Lady Barnstable might think we are avoiding her because of her circumstances. Your grandmother told me about it all. ”

“If you wish,” said her husband, irritated that his wife should be as happy without his company as with it, “but it will be an insipid evening, and stay away from the host. He’ll take your last sixpence if you give him the chance.”

Louise arrived by herself at the Barnstables’ rather shoddy townhouse. It was her first outing alone as the Countess and though she felt a twinge of anxiety at not having her husband’s reassuring bulk by her side, on the whole she was happy to be free. She no longer had to appear the perfect wife.

By now she knew most of the people at the soirée and was greeted in a friendly manner, though naturally most people asked after her husband.

Hearing this, their host called out jovially, “When the cat’s away, the mice will play, eh, my lady?” and though she hadn’t really taken to the man and felt sorry for his wife, she had to admit he had just about hit the nail on the head. She gave him a brief smile.

Supper passed pleasantly enough. The fare was very simple: a thin soup followed by a dish of ham with leeks. It was tasty but rather salty. She did not know that Lord Barnstable always instructed his cook to over-season the meal when they had guests for cards. It made people drink rather more of his inferior wine. And those who drank tended to make mistakes. He watched the new Countess of Shrewsbury and was disappointed when she took no wine.

No port was offered for the gentlemen at the end of the simple meal and when they rose from table Lord Barnstable quickly took Louise by the arm. He had heard she was an inexperienced card player. Her husband was one of the wealthiest men in London. And he wasn’t there to keep an eye on her. Perfect.

“Come, my dear,” he said. “Be my partner in a rubber of whist. I’ll stake us against any others here.”

He said this last part loud, and immediately had takers. Many saw it as an opportunity to win back some of their losses, for though Barnstable was a formidable player, they thought Lady Shrewsbury a novice.

In the end, she and Barnstable were partnered with Lord and Lady Veness. They played a few rubbers, and Louise was careful to appear neither too clever nor too obviously inexperienced. They ended up losing narrowly.

“I fancy you played better when I partnered you,” said Lord Veness.

“Yes, you were so kind,” replied Louise. “Lord Barnstable’s swift play frightens me a little.”

As intended, her response pleased both gentlemen, Veness because he interpreted it to mean she thought him the greater gentleman, and her host because it confirmed his sense of superiority.

“Come, come,” he said. “You’ll have people thinking I’m an ogre. Play a hand of piquet against me and I’ll show you how it’s done. Lord and Lady Veness will excuse us, I’m sure.”

By now Louise was thoroughly sick of her host’s condescending attitude and was keen to show him how it was done. Their partners bowed their acquiescence, and she and Barnstable moved to a table off to one side.

“Allow me to bring you a glass of wine, my dear,” he said. “I need one and I’m sure you do too.”

“Oh, yes please,” she said, for she was thirsty. “At least, not wine, if you please. I don’t drink it. A glass of lemonade would be wonderful.”

“Certainly.” He bowed and left her.

She looked around and saw only one footman bringing refreshment to the guests. Supper had been served by this one footman and the butler. They obviously couldn’t afford more staff. It was a point in his favor that Lord Barnstable did not disdain to serve himself and her.

Her host returned a few minutes later with a glass of wine in one hand, but in the other something that certainly was not lemonade.

“I’m sorry, Lady Shrewsbury, we seem to have run out of lemons. I hope you will not despise this glass of orgeat I made for you. My wife likes the flavor of almonds.”

“I’m sure it will be delicious.” Louise received the glass and took a long swallow. She really was very thirsty.

Lord Barnstable watched with satisfaction. In fact, he had poured a measure of whiskey into the bottom of the glass, counting on the nutty flavor of the orgeat to conceal its presence.

Louise found the drink peculiar but not really unpleasant. At least it quenched her thirst.

Play began and she quickly saw her opponent really was a fine player. In spite of a fleeting sensation that the pips on the cards were swimming before her eyes, she concentrated hard and won enough to keep him on his mettle. At the end of the first partie they were about even. Barnstable challenged her again.

“Let us increase the stakes, my dear,” he said. “I see you have been hiding your light under a bushel. You are a formidable opponent. It’s a pity to waste your talent on a few pence.

They set the wager at ten shillings a point. This time Louise deliberately went down to the tune of twenty pounds, a sum she could easily afford. She wanted him to underestimate her and it was she who challenged him to a third round. She was determined, in spite of the odd disembodied feeling that had grown on her during the last game, to put him in his place.

“I shall not let you beat me again,” she said. “It must not be thought a lady cannot beat a gentleman.”

“In that case, let us increase the stakes,” he suggested with a smile. “If you are to beat me, let it be for something worth winning. What do you say to a pound a point and an extra hundred on the whole?”

This was heavy betting, but she was sure she could beat him. Besides, if she lost, she could afford it. Since Gareth had paid all her dress bills, she was financially well in hand. She still had five hundred pounds of her allowance. That would be more than enough! And she wanted to put her husband in his place, too. He had warned her off playing with the host. How delightful it would be to announce large winnings. That would show him she wasn’t just a complaisant little wife!

“Very well, my lord,” she said.

“But before we play, let me fetch you another glass of orgeat,” offered her host. That is, unless you found it disagreeable?”

“No, indeed. Thank you, that would be kind. I am very thirsty.”

Barnstable smiled and disappeared. He came back with another glass of wine for himself and a larger glass of the same drink as before for Louise. She drank deeply and the cards were dealt.

Louise began by winning on points, but the feeling of oddness increased, as if it were not she who was playing but someone else. She drained the rest of the orgeat in her glass and they began the second hand. Now the cards swam before her eyes and she found she was unable to concentrate. She was increasingly sleepy. It was not surprising, she said to herself, trying to talk herself awake. She had not been sleeping well and she had never before played against so cunning an opponent. She lost that hand, but by how much, she did not know. Her opponent looked at her narrowly as she inexpertly dealt the third and last hand. He continued to play with a precision she found she could not match. She could hardly keep her eyes open. All she wanted to do was lie down. She kept him at bay for a while but then made one silly mistake after another and ended up losing badly .

When Lord Barnstable announced her final losses, the shock made her sit up. Over seven hundred pounds, an enormous sum! Much more than she had.

“Can it possibly be as much as that?” she gulped. “I had no idea! But… I haven’t the means to pay it.”

She waited but he said nothing to relieve her, so she continued hesitatingly, “I… I must ask you, dear Lord Barnstable, to take my vowels. I will not be able to pay you in full till quarter day.”

“Dear lady,” he said gently, “You put me in a difficult position. You say you have not the sum to pay what you owe. That is indeed a misfortune for any person of honor. One does not wager without being able to cover the loss. Debts of honor, you know must be paid at once.”

Louise’s head was aching now and she was beginning to feel sick. All she could think of was getting out of that stuffy room into the fresh air. What could she do? She could offer to pay what she had and ask him to wait for the rest. But he had just indicated he would not extend her credit. She rushed into a foolish decision.

“Would you… would you take this as an earnest of future payment?”

And she held out the Shrewsbury diamond bracelet.

Louise and Barnstable had been playing off to one side, and after the first hands, any onlookers had wandered away. She spoke quietly and no one else heard her. But the flash of the diamonds as she took the bracelet off her arm and handed it to Barnstable caught more than one eye, and the murmur family jewel ran around the room.

Lord Barnstable looked at her seriously, saying nothing. Let her sweat, he thought. But his mind was working furiously. Her I.O.U was worth 700 pounds. That was a tidy sum, and one he would have been glad to collect. If the silly wench didn’t have it, her husband did. But the bracelet was worth much more, not because he could sell it, but because he knew Shrewsbury would pay anything to get it back.

Finally he spoke. “Very well, my dear. As your, er, well-wisher, let us not talk of vowels and debts but rather of an arrangement between friends. I will, er, hold the bracelet for now.”

And who knows what else you might be prepared to pay , said his ever-active voice in his head.

Louise looked at him, her head swimming.

“Thank you, my lord,” she said. “That is very kind of you. Now I must… must….”

She ran from the room and down the stairs. Without stopping for her cloak, she wrenched open the front door and took a gulp of the cool night air. She ran down the linkway to where her coach was waiting and leaped inside, but they were hardly underway before she had to call to him desperately to stop. She flung herself from the carriage and was violently sick into the bushes that grew along the edge of the park in the center of the square.