Chapter Twelve #2
Perhaps news of the happenings in the hall reached into the recesses of the shops, for the crowd outside was growing, and among the new arrivals were the very ladies who most needed to hear the news of two of those weddings.
By some lucky chance, they were in the glover’s, just opposite where the couples had stopped to exchange greetings. Act Two of the play was about to begin.
Baldwin’s would-be mother-in-law glared at Clara on Baldwin’s arm, muttered to her daughter, and attempted to march past with her nose in the air, and the other two mothers would have followed her lead.
However, the brothers and their ladies hadn’t staged this display just to let these three go.
“Good day to you,” said Baldwin, pitching his voice to be heard.
“Lady Baldwin, may I make known to you these ladies, particularly Lady Atkinson, whom I have mentioned to you? With her husband, she joined Teign in attempting to bully me into marrying her daughter.” He lifted his wife’s hand to his lips and kissed it.
“Fortunately, dearest, bigamy is against the law, so you have made me safe.”
He sketched a mocking bow in the direction of the six ladies, all of whom stood gaping in his direction.
“Please note, Lady Atkinson, I did not court your daughter. I did not propose. In fact, I did everything I safely could to discourage the marriage. I did not sign any agreement. If you object to my marrying someone else, I suggest you take it up with Teign.”
Lady Atkinson shut her mouth, gave a decisive nod, and said, “We shall see about that. We are going to tell Lord Atkinson about this.”
“Lord Ernest,” said another of the mothers. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
“My brother has said it all, Lady Farringford-Smyth,” said Ernest. He then deviated from the script. “Teign kept us imprisoned by threatening injury to our brothers. We have escaped his clutches, and will no longer do his will.”
The hum of conversation became a thunder, and Mel could not hear what he said next, but he, like Baldwin, kissed his wife’s hand. It was probably what they agreed. “I have chosen my own bride. Lady Ernest has made me the happiest of men.”
The crowd had self-modulated, realizing that their own noise meant they were missing lines of dialogue, and Mel caught Ernest’s next comment, again unscripted.
He bowed to the daughter, saying, “I am sorry you have been inconvenienced, Miss Farringford-Smythe. The choices we brothers have made should not reflect badly on you or your friends. You were no more than a victim of Teign’s machinations.
If you knew all, you would be thanking all the powers that be for your lucky escape. ”
The third mother had been looking around, and had caught sight of Kemble. “Lord Kemble,” she trumpeted, and surged toward him, drawing her daughter in her wake. “Lord Kemble, I suppose you are going to tell me that you, too, have married.”
She looked Mel up and down with eyes that spat contempt. Had she the power, Mel felt, she would have burnt Mel to ashes where she stood.
“Mrs. Blackmore has not yet done me the honor of accepting a proposal from me, Lady Spurfold. That, however, is not the reason I am refusing to wed your daughter. I was being forced into marriage by threats to my youngest brother. He is now on his way overseas, and will no longer be under our father’s malignant guardianship by the time he returns to England. ”
He inclined in a shallow bow. “Be grateful. Coercion is grounds for annulment, which would have been far more embarrassing for your daughter than having me repudiate the agreement you made with Teign.”
“Come along, Felicia,” said Lady Farringford-Smyth. “We shall see about this. Lord Baldwin, we and our husbands shall be calling on Lord Teign.”
The six of them, mothers and daughters, hurried off along the arcade, brushing off questions and comments from the bystanders.
“A flock of silly geese,” said Kemble, with no sympathy at all. “They thought Teign would be their golden egg, but they should not have treated us as if we were of no account. Time for Act Three of our little drama.”
The rest of the brothers and their wives approached. As organized earlier, a beadle hurried up with a wooden box. Kemble stepped out from the bookshop doorway, and climbed up on the box.
The brothers gathered around him, their wives on their arms. The audience stilled, waiting to find out what was about to happen.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Kemble said loudly.
“The Sheppard brothers are no longer subject to Teign’s tyranny, and he will no longer be deciding our social calendar, nor threatening our younger brothers to gain our compliance.
Should you care to send invitations to any of us—my brothers, myself, our ladies—my sisters-in-law, Lady Baldwin and Lady Donald, have agreed to receive our mail. Thank you all for your attention.”
He stepped down, and offered his arm to Mel. “Finis,” he said.
It was not, in fact, quite the end. Continuing Kemble’s play analogy, Mel supposed she could compare the walk to a series of encores, as people claimed an acquaintance with one of the brothers, or one of their wives, and presumed on it to ask questions or offer an invitation to call.
They kept walking however, claiming another pressing engagement, which was true enough, for they all wanted to be somewhere else by the time Teign learned what had happened here this afternoon.
The people that Clara had hired—bodyguards from a firm called Moriarty Protection—closed around them as they left the arcade, and saw them to their carriages.
The agency had assigned a team to each couple.
One team followed Mel and Kemble when Winifred’s carriage dropped them at the mouth of the alley that contained the gate to the tunnel.
“We shall be safe from here,” Mel told them. “But I should like to reassign you, with Lord Kemble’s permission, to guard my daughter, sister, and nephew.”
“We could put another team on them, Mrs. Blackmore,” said the senior of the two bodyguards.
“I need a team on my daughter and brother-in-law,” said Kemble.
“If Teign finds them, he will use them against me. But I agree that Mrs. Blackmore’s family are also at risk.
Talk to your employer and arrange for both addresses to be covered.
As for Mrs. Blackmore and me, we are heading for our beds.
We won’t need guards until at least noon tomorrow, and can meet them here. I’ll cover any extra costs.”
The bodyguard peered at him with narrowed eyes and then nodded. “If I can have those addresses then, my lord, ma’am.”
Mel felt in her reticule for a notebook and pencil. “I shall write a note for my sister, and put the address on it,” she said.
“A good idea,” Kemble approved. “If you would be so good as to spare me a sheet of your paper, I shall do likewise.”
It took only a couple of minutes. Soon, the bodyguards had gone and Mel and Kemble were locked inside the gate and on their way down the tunnel and up the stairs.