Chapter Thirty-One
H is tone was light, but Mr. Castern’s expression was snide.
“We are betrothed,” Brilliance informed him, thinking he should definitely not be speaking of what was under her dress. She hoped their being engaged would improve his manners.
Mr. Castern’s glance darted between the two of them.
“Then congratulations are in order. Although I cannot help wondering why, with your impending happy nuptials, you both feel the need to continue this unconscionable harassment of me.”
“What nonsense are you uttering?” Vincent demanded. “Why are you here?”
“To inform you that I am going to the newspapers with information about a certain Lady B of the Diamond clan who spends her time alone with a gentleman.”
“But that’s me,” Brilliance exclaimed.
Mr. Castern laughed. “Your powers of deduction are sharp, my lady, and I am sure so shall be those of The Times’ readers, especially the ones who study the society pages.”
Vincent took a step closer. “Why are you doing this? Have you no honor? I withdrew the lawsuit.”
“So you say, and I hope I can trust that you did,” Mr. Castern said. “But she,” and he pointed a gloved finger at Brilliance, “has not stopped telling her lies to anyone who will listen.”
Vincent looked at her, a question lurking on his face.
“I sent letters to people with whom I am acquainted,” she confessed. “Important people, I dare say.”
He grimaced, but Mr. Castern swore a blue oath.
“Don’t speak that way in front of a lady,” Vincent warned.
“A lady ,” Mr. Castern spat out, in a rather disparaging tone as far as Brilliance was concerned. “She is a liar and, after finding you two together outside your home, I would wager a lightskirt, too.”
Vincent didn’t say a word before stepping forward and striking Mr. Castern a hard blow to his face. Instantly, blood began to flow from the man’s nose.
A scream shattered the heavy silence, and Mrs. Castern jumped out of the carriage.
“Ambrose, are you injured?” She drew out her handkerchief and handed it to her husband, who held it against his face. Then she rounded upon Vincent.
“You animal!”
“He insulted my betrothed,” Vincent said. “And has admitted an intent to do so in the newspapers like a coward.”
“And she continues to slander my husband,” Mrs. Castern shot back. “Regardless, his face must remain perfect for the concert stage! Revenues will drop if he appears disfigured.”
Brilliance and both the gentleman stared at the incensed wife. Even Mr. Castern seemed surprised that she cared more about his appearance than his bleeding nose or the ownership of the music.
“That hardly seems the primary issue in all this,” Brilliance ventured, looking at the irate female. “Although perhaps while Mr. Castern heals, he could give performances at a song and supper room instead. The Eagle, perhaps.”
“The Eagle!” both of the Casterns said together with similar degrees of disdain for the popular East End tavern.
“Oh, yes,” Brilliance said. “In the newspaper advertisements, it is said to be doing a ‘roaring trade.’ Regardless,” she added, “surely you must understand that the truth is more important than a broken nose, although I do hope Mr. Castern can still breathe easily.”
“Breathe easily!” Mrs. Castern muttered, but she looked worriedly toward her husband, nonetheless.
“If you say one libelous word to the papers,” Vincent warned, “then I shall reinstate the lawsuit at once.”
“The lawsuit hardly matters now that noblemen are canceling their patronage and even some stage managers have said they shall not allow me at their venues. All because she is writing letters.”
Suddenly Brilliance recalled the lie that had so upset her the night before. “Mrs. Castern, you lied about these two former friends composing together in your presence.”
Her face paled. “I did not.”
“Last night, when you had me alone, you were a good liar, but today, in the daylight, you seem like a poor one.”
“Come along, Ambrose,” Mrs. Castern said before turning for the waiting cab. “Imagine a member of the House of Lords brawling on the street,” she added as she walked away.
“Not one treacherous lie in the papers,” Vincent warned Mr. Castern.
“Can she fix the damage she has done? Will she write more letters and tell those people she was lying?”
“I was not lying,” Brilliance said.
“Tell them you were mistaken ,” he corrected himself. “Then you can save face and my career at the same time. Two birds with one stone.”
For the sake of peace and undoing any damage she had done, Brilliance was about to agree when Vincent spoke first.
“No. She will not lie to protect you. Not even a little. In this case, the stone is a clear, honest, brilliant Diamond, and I won’t let her lower herself to your level. Do whatever you wish, but as an earl’s daughter, she is the one who will come out smelling like an English rose.”
Brilliance liked his speech but had to point out, “In truth, my fragrance is a blend. Mostly roses, like the Queen’s perfume, but with bergamot and clove oils. However, everything else you said was well spoken, my lord.”
For some reason, this made Vincent laugh softly, but Mr. Castern rolled his eyes. “I have been taken down by this creature .” He shook his head. “I will not go quietly.”
Vincent growled and appeared ready to strike again, causing Mr. Castern to lurch backward before darting toward the open carriage door.
After the cabbie had driven off, he turned to her. “You didn’t tell me about writing any letters.”
“I sent them before I found out you had stopped the legal proceedings. Did you mean what you said?”
“I assure you that I did,” he promised, clearly still thinking about the unpleasant scene that had transpired in full view of any neighbor who happened to be looking out his or her window. “I shall undoubtedly be blamed for lowering the value of property on King Street,” he muttered. Then he asked, “Did I mean which part?”
“About me,” Brilliance said. “A brilliant diamond. It truly was very kind of you.”
His expression softened. “You are priceless, dear lady.” Taking her hand, he bowed over it. “Please ask your mother if I may call upon her tomorrow at one o’clock for a private audience.”
“I shall.” She didn’t want to leave him, but after collecting Belinda, who had managed to remain inconspicuous mere yards away through the entire incident, Brilliance climbed into her father’s carriage.
As she headed home, uppermost in her mind were two matters — what it would feel like to have her reputation shredded by Ambrose Castern should he tell the society pages she had spent time alone with a man and how she could help Vincent regain ownership of his music.
“I had a feeling Lord Hewitt would be the one,” her mother said. “All the way back to last July when you first sent me a letter about him.”
Brilliance shrugged. None of Carolyn Diamond’s children would doubt her astuteness. She explained to her mother the reason for their earlier cessation of friendship, and how she might now be embroiled in a bit of a scandal.
“We Diamonds have had our share and weathered them all without any loss of status. Do not worry. In the meanwhile, we shall invite his parents over for dinner,” her mother added. “I like meeting new people, although your father may quibble, as he says we have enough friends and in-laws.”
Brilliance was thinking about the birthday party she had attended. “He is a good son with a seemingly close attachment even to his stepfather. And he gives his mother a piece of original music each year for her birthday.”
Lady Diamond’s glance sharpened as she looked at her youngest daughter.
“How do you mean ‘gives’?” she asked.
Brilliance frowned at the question. “He plays the piece in front of their guests and presents his mother with a ... Oh! He presents her with a hand-written copy!”
“I don’t suppose he has dated each one, perhaps along the lines of ‘Many happy returns of the day, your loving son’ with the month and year?”
“I don’t know. Do you think I could go to my future in-law’s home without an invitation?”
Her redheaded beauty of a mother nodded, her cat-like green eyes glinting.
“If they are the right sort of people, then yes. And if they don’t like their future daughter-in-law dropping by, then they are the wrong sort, in my opinion.” Then she added, “I shall accompany you. That’s a far cry more acceptable than your maid.”
Although Brilliance wanted to run out the door immediately, she had to wait for her mother to change. A countess didn’t simply go out into the world willy-nilly.
Then, with hope in her heart, Brilliance and her mother traveled to Lord and Lady Winthrop’s home.
“I am prepared to leave my card,” Lady Diamond said. “After all, they may be out.”
“Do you mean truly out?” Brilliance asked. “Or out to us?”
Her mother bristled. “Out to us? I think not! If they are declared out by their staff, then they had best have taken their carriage and be somewhere on the other side of Town. Out to us, indeed! Bri, I do not understand you sometimes.”
Brilliance only smiled. Her mother grew prickly at the oddest times.
Regardless, Lord and Lady Winthrop were not out, and soon, Brilliance and her mother were seated in the drawing room with Vincent’s mother. A splendid tea service was laid before them.
As soon as they all had a cup in hand, Brilliance got straight to the meat of the matter. “Lord Hewitt asked me to marry him last night.”
His mother leaned forward, nearly spilling her newly poured tea.
“Why, that’s marvelous!” Lady Winthrop declared. “I am utterly thrilled for you both. I knew he would make a smart match after the last disaster.”
Brilliance decided not to bring Mrs. Castern into the conversation.
“I can scarcely believe it was only last night,” she said. “Since then, I have visited with my sister early this morning and then with Lord Hewitt by midday. Now, here I am with you.”
She knew her face reddened as the two married ladies exchanged a glance.
“We’d had a misunderstanding that needed clearing up, you see. But my maid was with me the entire time.” Oh dear, that was a lie . “Except for when I confronted Lord Hewitt in his conservatory.”
Lady Winthrop’s eyes rounded. “You bearded him in his den. How brave!”
Brilliance shook her head. “No, my lady, in his music room.”
Lady Winthrop laughed as did her own mother, although Brilliance had no idea why.
“In any case, I promise that shortly” — after a few sizzling kisses, she recalled silently — “we were in the drawing room. He actually moved the furniture, so my maid had a place to sit.”
“Bri,” her mother said. “I believe Lady Winthrop wishes to speak, dear one.”
“My son has not yet had a chance to tell me of his engagement, but I surmised you were exceedingly special to him during my birthday party. It was a shame you had a megrim and had to leave.”
Brilliance decided to let that little white lie stand. She blew out a sigh. Life was complicated when one was in love.
“About that party, my lady, I was thrilled yet surprised when he gave the abbreviated concert. Lord Hewitt seems reluctant to play in company —”
“Oh, yes,” her ladyship agreed. “My son finds performing to be somewhat demeaning.”
“That is a shame,” Lady Diamond said. “I had the pleasure to hear him at our home, and I think a great talent like his is a gift from God, intended to be shared. Unfortunately, none of our family, except my second oldest daughter, is particularly musical.”
Before her mother bemoaned the rest of her offspring’s distinct lack of ability to play anything, Brilliance got on with her request.
“I noticed that Lord Hewitt brought the printed copy of his sonata. Has he always given you a copy as a present every year?”
“Ever since he was a boy. He used to give his father music, too, and then also for his stepfather. We have quite a collection, although the others are handwritten.”
Brilliance swallowed and looked at her mother who nodded.
“Have you saved every one?”
“Of course.” She looked at Lady Diamond. “I am sure you have kept mementos from all your children, too, be it a lock of baby hair or a childish painting or something recently done.”
Brilliance’s mother raised an eyebrow at her, offering a tilted smile. “Yes, I have keepsakes from each of my five children.”
“My mother is too polite to say it, but she could show you one of my recent attempts at oil painting or watercolor, and you would not be able to tell whether it was from my childhood or last week.”
They all laughed. Brilliance asked the final question that would make this a miraculous day. “By any chance did Lord Hewitt put a date on the sheet music?”
“No,” his mother said, dashing her hopes. “Although, when he was younger, he would write which of my birthdays it was until I kindly asked him to stop at my fortieth.”
The two mothers chuckled about age, but Brilliance was thrilled. “Surely that would be as firm evidence as any date. After all, you only turn each age once.”
“I’ve been turning forty for quite some time,” her own mother said. And the two ladies laughed again.
“What is all this about?” Lady Winthrop asked.
“Were you aware that another composer has been passing off your son’s music as his own?”
Lady Winthrop paled. “I was not. But if I had to hazard a guess, I would say it must be Ambrose Castern.”
“Indeed, yes,” said Brilliance. “I take it you have never been to one of his concerts, or you would have recognized your son’s music.”
“No, I have never heard Mr. Castern in concert, and I never will. I treated him like a son whenever he came home from school with Vincent. But then that awful mess with him stealing my son’s betrothed, a terribly disloyal girl. No, I could never lay eyes on either of them again.”
She straightened her shoulders. “But now I will have you as a daughter, for which I am exceedingly glad.” Vincent’s mother looked at Lady Diamond. “As long as you don’t mind sharing her.”
“My Brilliance is one of a kind, but I will share her with you.”
Lady Winthrop patted her chest in the region of her heart. “Thank you.” Then she got back to the matter at hand. “Vincent never told me that Ambrose had taken his music. I knew only that my son stopped composing for a while. And of course, he had to let his heart heal so he could fall in love with you.”
She rose to her feet. “If you wait a moment, I will get his music. I keep it all in two satchels. They are bulging.”
When she reached the drawing-room door, however, she paused. “And if I understand the importance of this sheet music in proving the pieces were, in fact, composed by my son, then you will be glad to know that I personally wrote the year on the back of the first page of every gift he gave me or gave either of my husbands, at each party’s end.”
And then Vincent’s mother hurried out.
“This will prove everything,” Brilliance said.
“It certainly shall. We could go directly to the solicitor.”
Brilliance considered that. “The last time I took Lord Hewitt’s music, he became terribly angry. I learned my lesson. I think I will simply give it to him when he comes to our home tomorrow.”
Her mother leaned back in the wing chair in which she sat.
“Why is he coming tomorrow?”
“To speak with you, of course,” Brilliance told her. “He spoke with Father last night before the ball.”
“I know,” her mother said. “Your father tells me everything.”
Brilliance hadn’t known that. “Do you tell him everything?”
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
Brilliance laughed. “Lord Hewitt wanted to give you the same honor that he gave to Father.”
Her mother tilted her chin. “He is going to fit into our family nicely,” Lady Diamond said.
“I must tell you that Mr. Castern has made some dreadful threats about telling the editor of The Times that I have been in Lord Hewitt’s company without a chaperone. And whether he knows it or not, it is true.”
She hoped her mother wasn’t too disappointed in her or irritated by the prospect of the family name being tarnished.
“That little worm of a man cannot cloud a clear Diamond. When you were born ... well, not precisely then because your eyes were scrunched tightly closed, but when I first looked into your blue eyes, I said to your father, ‘This baby’s eyes are shining like brilliant-cut sapphires.’ It is one of my favorite gemstone cuts. If you ask Radiance why, she’ll tell you all the whys and wherefores. All I know is that particular cut allows the most light to shine through from all angles.” Her mother placed a hand over hers.
“My special girl, you are Brilliance personified, and nothing can change that. Besides, as that wonderful character Jane Eyre said, ‘Reader, I married him.’ That wipes away nearly every perceived sin, as your father and I found out when we eloped. You will become Lady Hewitt, and no more shall be said of your reputation except as an excellent wife.”
Brilliance rose from her seat and threw her arms around her mother just as Lady Winthrop returned, weighed down by two thick leather cases. As Brilliance straightened, Vincent’s mother placed these on the table in front of the sofa.
“I certainly hope my son will take all his music to the publisher as soon as he has sorted out this mess with Mr. Castern,” she said. “But I want these originals back.”
“As one mother to another,” Lady Diamond said, “I will personally make sure they are returned to you.”