Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Lady Josephine had neglected her social correspondence, and thus Alice had been condemned to her ladyship’s sitting room for the entire morning.
“Sooner begun is sooner done,” Lady Josephine said, selecting another macaron de Nancy from the tray. “And now you will be home in time to share your nooning with your grandpapa, provided you don’t dawdle.”
Alice had not had the luxury of dawdling since she’d come to live with Grandpapa. “You’re sure we’ve answered them all?” A pile of gossip, good wishes, and scriptural quotes penned in an epistolary game of battledore apparently enjoyed by ladies with churchly connections.
“We’re caught up, I am pleased to say. If you’d return the lap desk to Bernard’s study, I’ll thank you for spending a pleasant morning on a pleasant task.”
Alice had known pleasanter mornings pegging out the wash.
As Lady Josephine munched her macaron, Alice mentally lectured herself about the virtue of patience while she organized the lap desk contents.
Quill pens in this compartment. Ink bottles tucked in another.
Wax and seals in yet another. The desk was a marvel of design, ornately inlaid, and quite heavy.
When all had been neatly stowed, Alice secured the latch and rose, taking the desk by its handle.
“Good day, my lady.” And blast you for wasting another beautiful summer morning. Blast me for allowing it. “My regards to Vicar.”
“That man… He has been particularly vexatious lately, though I’m sure you would never imagine him causing anybody annoyance, much less his doting mama. I cannot say I’m pleased with my nephew either.”
If Alice had had hackles, they would have risen. “I doubt his lordship will be in the area much longer. He won’t bother you at all from London.”
Her ladyship put the last of the macaron back on the tea tray and gazed up at Alice. “Do you even know, Alice, are you aware that it was he and not Blessington Peabody who put those flowers at your back door yesterday afternoon?”
Alice affected a puzzled expression while her insides began to roil. “Flowers? You mean the bouquet Grandpapa brought in at supper? Blossoms common to any hedge? Your ladyship must be mistaken.”
Her ladyship was not mistaken. Flowers gathered by the baron himself, stems cut on a slant as Alice had seen him cut the roses in the conservatory a lifetime ago.
The whole wrapped with wheat stalks… Alice had nearly cried to see the profusion of posies sitting by the boot scrape.
She’d already chosen a perfect primrose to press between the pages of last year’s almanac.
“Come now, Alice. Thaddeus Singleton is the last man who’d bother to gather flowers for the kitchen table. Camden is behaving foolishly, trying to catch your notice with mawkish gestures. You must discourage him, Alice. He means your ruin, though he wouldn’t call it that.”
He means to do me great honor. “Ma’am, you must be mistaken. On the two occasions Grandpapa and I have dined at the Hall, his lordship has barely spoken to me.”
“On Sunday, you walked with him in the garden after supper, Alice. That was noted.”
The lap desk was growing heavier in Alice’s hand, almost begging to be heaved through the sitting room window.
“The baron was merely being polite while Grandpapa went off to be harangued by Mrs. Shorer over some ache or pain. I assure you, his lordship doesn’t view me in the light you suggest.” To lie about something so precious, so unexpected and private…
Alice wanted to heave the lap desk at Lady Josephine’s head. Hard.
Her ladyship poured herself another cup of tea.
“Alice, you are too trusting of men. We know this. I hesitate to bring up your sordid past—I always hesitate, as I know the memories must mortify you—but you have learned little from your mistakes. The baron left those flowers for you, and I would not mind seeing him make a fool of himself, but he has no call to disrespect you. I won’t have it. ”
Alice set the lap desk down. “Ma’am, his lordship is planning to return to Town soon. Mrs. Shorer has assured me of that.”
“Eunice Shorer is frequently in error and seldom in doubt. Alexander’s passing has set the whole Hall on its ear, and its housekeeper is more uppish than ever.
Languishing in her bed for three days. Next, she’ll be riding in the baron’s coach to services.
Even Bernard has grown contrary. Did you know he’s seeking to leave St. Wilfrid’s? ”
The question was clearly a test. Lady Josephine collected gossip. She seldom dispensed it, unless to upset somebody. She was gauging Alice’s reaction, assessing what Alice knew.
“We’ll miss him,” Alice said evenly. “Vicar is much respected, and I’ve always found him to be the voice of reason and probity. If he seeks a more prestigious post, nobody would blame him.”
“The reasonableness and probity you note is my influence on an otherwise brooding and self-centered fellow. Bernard is not a bad man, but neither is he the exemplar his father was. Alice, might I—out of both kindness and duty—be blunt?”
“Of course.” Though Alice well knew neither kindness nor duty would figure into whatever topic came next. If anybody was frequently in error and seldom in doubt, that person was Lady Josephine.
“Let us say, Alice, for the sake of argument, that the baron is truly courting you. An outlandish notion, I know, but stranger matches have been made.”
Love matches, which were not strange at all. “He is not—”
Her ladyship held up a hand. “He’s certainly not courting anybody else, and my sources are reliable, Alice.”
Her sources were cowed and bullied and threatened into tattling.
“Camden has twice had you and Thaddeus to dine at the Hall, albeit once in company. On both occasions, he conversed with you privately. Now he’s leaving flowers at your back door, and there was that business with you spending hours in his company, ostensibly to tend to his mail. The appearances speak for themselves.”
Alice could guess where this sermon was heading, but to hear Lady Josephine say the words was somehow necessary.
“What would you advise, ma’am?”
“I advise that you consider carefully the decision before you. If you encourage Camden in any regard, he will ruin you. Your years of good behavior, your grandfather’s standing, your admirable attempts to distance yourself from past mistakes will mean nothing.
But say the baron is intent on matrimony. ”
“For the sake of argument.”
“For the sake of argument and for your sake, Alice. Again, you’d face choices.
You truly ought to consider marrying him if you can bring him up to scratch.
He’s titled, not bad-looking, albeit unfashionably largish.
He won’t expect you to cosset or dote upon him.
Being lady of the manor would make you the envy of the female half of the shire. ”
His lordship is also kind, funny, patient, hardworking, generous, and honest. To say nothing of his kisses.
“Do go on, ma’am.” This volte-face on the subject of the baron’s ideal bride was tactical, and Alice should have foreseen it.
Lady Josephine could intimidate Davina Halbertson and bully Dorothea Considine.
She could control Alice. Of course, that made installing Alice as the next baroness her ladyship’s preferred choice.
Why am I never ahead of her schemes? Why haven’t I learned from those mistakes?
“Marry him,” Lady Josephine said, “and we would certainly have to send the girl very far away. To have evidence of your folly—I do not call it sin; I know how young men are—on Lorne Hall’s very doorstep would be utterly untenable.
You certainly cannot disclose her existence to the baron and expect him to offer you marriage, though I suppose you could speak your vows and then explain.
No man likes to be made a fool of, especially not by his wife.
Camden has always claimed more than his share of pride too. ”
Her ladyship ate the last bite of her sweet, just a helpful adviser trying to present facts and possibilities in their most relevant light.
Alice picked up the lap desk. “You’re suggesting I should send Gabriella away and encourage the baron?”
“Not suggesting, but asking you to consider that if the baron’s intentions are honorable—which I beg leave to doubt—then you must cease meddling in your daughter’s life.
She’s lucky, Alice, to have had the comfort and security of the orphanage as long as she has.
A truly devoted mother would allow me to place the child in a situation where her path in life lay plainly before her.
The child could then reconcile herself to her fate without distractions. ”
One story a week is not a distraction, and I am not the meddler here. “You advise sending Gabriella away?”
“The farther the better. I have always said that a clean break would be best.”
Said it over and over, until Alice had nearly snatched Gabriella up and stolen off into the night with her. Then Alice had met the prospective adoptive parents, and they’d been so eager to love a squalling little bundle of noise and need.
So understanding of Alice’s predicament and her broken heart.
“We have ranged far afield of present realities,” Alice said. “While I always appreciate your ladyship’s insights, in this instance, I hope you are in error. His lordship will return to London, he will not court me, and no drastic measures need be taken where Gabriella is concerned.”
Her ladyship sighed gustily. “Sooner or later, Alice, you must make that break. For the girl’s sake. You cannot acknowledge her, you cannot support her, you can only do her harm by hovering. If she costs you the baron’s addresses, she is doing harm to you as well.”
“You have given me much to think about.”
“Good. Think long and hard if you must, Alice, but see that you reach the same simple, commonsense conclusions I do. I would not want to intervene unnecessarily, but I will if I must.”