Page 8 of London Holiday (Sweet Escapes Collection #2)

Chapter eight

D arcy arrived at his uncle’s house at nearly the same moment as Richard, who was calling upon his mother. They were shown into the drawing room within minutes of one another and were left to await the earl and countess.

“Well?” Richard snickered, “I see you have found new clothing. What was the matter with the footman’s costume? Too tight across the shoulders?”

Darcy glared at the floor, too infuriated to speak a word.

“I say, did you read the paper this morning?” Richard goaded. “Word has it that Lord Wharton plans to take a new wife. But I expect you have not seen the paper yet today.”

Darcy brooded more darkly, if that were indeed possible.

“A proper heiress, of course. No title of her own, but the daughter of a peeress, just the same. Money and connections do a fine job of purchasing beauty, but for all that, I would declare the lady merely tolerable. Still, I should offer my own arm as well, if the lady taking it could place such wealth into my hand. Ah, well, no use fantasising, is there? There was another entry in the same section which I found rather more intriguing than Wharton’s announcement. I wonder if there is any truth to it? But I suppose it would be of no interest to you.”

“I have seen it, Richard!” Darcy erupted.

“Temper, temper, Darcy. I thought you would be honoured to see your name in the paper beside someone as distinguished as Lord Wharton. Tell me, is Anne pleased? ”

Darcy lurched from his chair and began pacing the room. “What am I to do, Richard? I have no wish to ruin her, but our aunt has made it impossible to do otherwise!”

Richard offered a laconic shrug, a lazy smile, and suggested, “Perhaps you could disappear for a while, just after the wedding. Think what freedom! No estate worries to trouble you, no burdensome wives or in-laws hanging round your neck. Yes, it is just the thing. I might have chosen India, but a crusty former bachelor like yourself might find the wilds of Scotland more to his liking. Shall you be boasting a beard and kilt when next we meet?”

“Richard, do not be preposterous.”

His cousin laughed jovially. “I was only trying to help. If you do find it so distasteful to marry a wealthy heiress, I can think of a chap or two who might step into your place.”

“Impossible. Nothing of good can come of this.”

“Nothing? Surely it is not so dire as that. You do take things far too seriously, Darcy.”

“Marriage is one of those things which should be taken seriously, as are deceitful relations. I will not suffer my aunt to dictate to me in this matter.”

“And you need not do so. Any luck with that alibi?”

Darcy had paced to the window and was now staring out of it. “No,” was the flat answer.

Richard gave a little whistle. “Well then, wedding bells it shall be. Unless, of course, you pay Anne off with a handsome settlement, making yourself look the guilty party in the matter—assuming she would accept a settlement. She will still be ruined, and you will still be considered a scoundrel, but you will be free.”

“There must be some better solution than that. I have done nothing to legally obligate myself—” Darcy was interrupted when the door opened to admit his lordship. Darcy bowed slightly to his uncle, who approached with a congratulatory smirk.

“Well, Darcy, it is about time I was able to say this to you. May I wish you joy? ”

“I wish you would not, Uncle. I had nothing to do with these engagement rumours. They were falsified by my aunt to force my hand.”

“Falsified? Darcy, that is a vile bit of slander against your aunt. You would not dare speak such without proof.”

“I have proof, Uncle. I was not at home last night when my aunt claims my cousin was found in my bed. I do not even know if she was truly in my bed, but I was certainly not there with her.”

“Then your servants could naturally verify this fact. Why have you not confronted your aunt, if what she speaks is not true?”

Richard coughed. Darcy’s fingers twitched.

“I am afraid it is not so straightforward, Uncle. My aunt has seen fit to cultivate the loyalties of my servants. It was done, and done well, before I knew a moment’s suspicion.”

“Really, Darcy, I had looked for better from you. Do you expect me to credit such an account? That you, the master, have so badly managed your affairs that your elderly, widowed aunt could have defrauded you beneath your very nose? If it were not so laughable, I would say such a man deserved to reap the fruits of his failings.”

Darcy’s teeth clenched. “My aunt is far from a helpless widow.”

“Catherine? No, indeed. I believe if we had a dozen of her, we should set them loose in the Tyrant’s household and this war with France would be over within a se’nnight. But that does not answer for these claims of yours. Am I to believe that Catherine would conspire against you and risk ruining her own daughter, simply to force a marriage?”

“Believe what you will. That is what has occurred, and I am determined that she shall not succeed.”

“I suppose you have some explanation as to where you were last night, if not in your bed?”

Darcy frowned. “I have.”

“Well? Was it some other fair creature in your arms? Is it rather some greater disgrace which prevents you from speaking? ”

Darcy drew a steadying breath. “It may not seem a plausible excuse, but my valet alerted to me to a substance in my drink which was intended to render me unconscious. I had already consumed the drink when I learned of it. I left the house at once to prevent the very sort of compromise my aunt claims took place.”

“You left? At what time? Where did you go?”

He glanced at his cousin. “It was shortly after eleven when I departed. I intended to go to Richard, but I was… detained. I did not arrive at his apartment until morning.”

The earl crossed his arms and raised his bushy brow. “The last time I examined my clock, there was a handspan of time between eleven and my breakfast hour. How do you account for it?”

Darcy stared at the carpet, his jaw working. “As I described to you, I had been given a substance in my drink….”

“So, what you mean to say is that you have no memory of last night’s events? How, then, am I to believe a word of your defence?”

“I do recall leaving the house and walking. That much I remember with clarity.”

“Perhaps you do not remember coming back in? Staggering to your room with Anne for company? Forgive me, Darcy, but I am afraid I must take up your aunt’s cause. You offer no proof of your claims, but Catherine does. You must marry Anne after such a debacle. If you do not, the disgrace to the family does not bear thinking of.”

Darcy bristled. “I am innocent of any wrongdoing!”

“If you have evidence of your innocence, I suggest you produce it, and rapidly. And Darcy, do not act rashly—an angry confrontation with your aunt will serve you ill. I will not tolerate a public row within the family!”

Darcy took his leave but a few moments later, now nearly shaking with unsatisfied indignation. Richard followed closely at his heels, apparently too diverted by his cousin’s woes to wait upon his mother. He would not miss a moment of his entertainment.

Darcy turned back in annoyance. “Have you not something more useful to be about?”

“Not at present.”

Darcy stepped into his carriage and found, to his great irritation, that Richard had not awaited an invitation to join him. He took the opposite seat, casting his arm over the cushion in satisfaction.

“So, where to? Back to the house, where you will naturally ignore my father’s edict and toss our aunt from your property, creating a scene to embellish every drawing room from here to Derbyshire for the next nine months? Or do we go in search of this proof of yours, which no doubt rests in the charming hands of a lady of uncertain age, who—”

“I did not ask for your company,” Darcy interrupted sourly. “Nor are your suggestions helpful.”

“Come now, Darcy, I would never abandon a wounded comrade. I always stay to drag him off the field, or at the very least, keep the surgeons away from him until they can inflict no more harm.”

Darcy turned away, scowling through the window.

“What of Anne?” Richard suggested. “She knows the truth of what happened last night. Cannot you simply speak with her and sort this nonsense out?”

“Anne has made no objections to her mother’s ambitions these four and twenty years. I presume she must have been complicit in the affair, as it was predicated on her willingness to be found in my bed in a shocking state of undress.”

“Yes, but is any of that true?”

“It does not matter if it is or not. She submitted to the plan and consented to have the report made that there had been a liaison. That is sufficient evidence of her intentions. There is no benefit in speaking to her, and potentially even greater harm if we are seen speaking privately.”

“You are assuming our aunt had given her a choice in the matter. ”

“You were present at each of my last visits to Rosings. Indeed, she was the very reason I insisted upon your company! Has she ever shown any reluctance toward marriage to me?”

“No, but neither has she hopped between your sheets. Quite seriously, if I did not know you so well as I do, I would account you mad. Why would they wait to stage a compromise in London when it would have been so much easier last spring in Kent, at their own house? Or again this coming April? I hear Aunt even has a new rector eating out of her hand, so a wedding could have been got up in short order. Surely Rosings would have been her choice.”

“Unless Anne has suddenly grown desperate for some reason.”

“Yes, but even at that, we should have seen them at Christmas. Unless of course…. Oh, by thunder, that is what you suspect, is it not?”

Darcy merely arched a brow and said nothing.

Richard nodded and steepled his white fingers, biting his lips. “Tell me you have proof of where you were last night, Darcy.”

“As you say, the truth can be equally troublesome.”

“You do not mean you were with some other young lady? I was only teasing, you know, but did you…?”

“Not intentionally, but yes. I was found in Mayfair and apparently not in possession of my faculties. The party who looked to my well-being was a tradesman’s niece from Cheapside.”

“Was she amiable?

“I did not stay to find out.”

“Pretty?”

“That is hardly the point. Even if she were—which she is not—I will not suffer her tender mercies. What does it profit me to escape one forced marriage to a lady who is at least from the proper circles only to be ensnared by an ill-mannered, impertinent, unsophisticated and completely unsuitable tradesman’s niece?”

“Unsuitable or not, you must have spent a deal of time in her company, to have learnt so well how much you dislike her. ”

“I was forced back into her company in hopes that she might be trusted with the truth. I was disappointed.”

“Well, I know that if my choices were between an impertinent tradesman’s niece—who seems to have touched a larger nerve than I have known you to possess—and our sickly and possibly gravid cousin, I would choose… oh, dash it all, Darcy, but is there not a harlot or some lascivious widow you can pay off to vouch for you?”

“I would prefer if you did not try to advise me.”

“Come, can it really be so bad to go back to that… what was it? Unmannerly, ill-favoured—”

“I never said she was ill-favoured.”

“In fact, you did. You cannot even keep that bit of the tale straight!”

“I said she was not amiable and that she lacked culture.”

“You said you did not stay to find out if she was amiable.”

“It does not signify! She is wholly unsuitable, whatever your intimations, and hardly a gentlewoman.”

“But she took you in off the streets, and even dressed as a footman, rather than a gentleman.”

“What does that matter?”

“Naturally she did not make you sleep in the stable, nor force you out on your own while still incapacitated. I would wager she even saw to it that you were fed before you naturally insulted her on your way out the door. Indeed, she must be an utter heathen.”

“Many a woman can play at the Good Samaritan. That is hardly a proper qualification for a wife.”

“It is not a bad place to start. So, which is it to be? Anne or this… what was her name?”

“Miss Elizabeth… something. Her uncle’s name was Gardiner.”

“You were not even properly introduced?”

“She thinks I am a footman!”

Richard stared for a moment, then his face broke into a wide grin. In another moment, he was holding his belly and wiping tears of laughter from his cheeks. “Oh! Forgive me, Darcy, but this really is the most entertaining story I have heard in months. Did she set you up in the servants’ quarters and all?”

Darcy folded his arms and looked away.

Richard was still hooting in merriment when the carriage rolled past Darcy House and onward toward his own dwelling. When he recognised their surroundings, he looked to his cousin in confusion. “You are not going to your own house?”

“No. And neither are you.”

“Ah,” Richard nodded in understanding. “Off in search of your impertinent daughter of trade?”

“My solicitor, if you must know.”

“You intend to post a retraction? You cannot do that without some valid cause, you know. Rumour is only rumour in the papers, but an official statement….”

“And when the more salacious bits reach the gentlemen’s clubs? Almack’s? Far more than rumours of an engagement will be spread. Anne’s reputation will be irredeemable, and my own, in tatters. If I act immediately to prove there is nothing to the reports of an engagement, perhaps my innocence will also be believed.”

“I think you are being a little too optimistic. Everyone prefers a juicy bit of tittle-tattle to the truth, even if it is disproved later.”

“Then I shall simply have to disprove it sooner than that.”

“May I wish you the very best of luck with your ‘proof,’ then. Of course, if your Miss Elizabeth did not know who you were and is of any sort of a generous nature, she and her family might well vouch for you without making any demands of your honour. She may never even need to know your name! A letter from a good house should suffice. Had you thought of that?”

“If she gives such assurance, the result may be a very public ‘broken engagement.’ With another lady in disgrace over the affair, can you believe that her name would also remain anonymous? The ton would search her out mercilessly, and she would be presumed to be my mistress. Tradesman or no, what uncle would not then demand satisfaction of me? After one embarrassment, I could do nothing to avoid a second.”

Richard pursed his lips and sat in contemplation for a moment. “Right, then. May I stand up at your wedding?”