Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Alice was nervous about Anthony’s house party, about meeting all the new people, but mainly about being in such close proximity to Anthony again.
She had hardly seen him for the last few days as he had returned to Kent to prepare for his visitors, but she had visited Rosalind daily with her maid as escort.
Alice brushed the mare down and fed her apples, managing to refrain from any mucking out.
Anthony’s staff seemed to think she was very peculiar, but that did not bother her.
Visiting his horses was usually the highlight of her day and was about the only thing that seemed to calm her.
They set off after breakfast on Thursday morning after Alice had said a somewhat tearful goodbye to Duchess, whom her aunt had managed to convince her would rather stay in London than make the journey to and from Kent.
Once they were out of London, Alice spent the time taking in the very welcome views of the countryside around her, and feeling the pull of home.
They travelled down the long tree-lined driveway to Anthony’s estate to find him waiting outside the house to greet them.
“I trust your journey was comfortable?” he asked as they were helped out of the carriage.
“Very comfortable. Thank you, Lord Tonbridge,” replied Aunt Jane.
“My man will take your luggage up to your rooms,” he said. “I imagine you would like some time to refresh yourselves and relax.”
Aunt Jane smiled her appreciation.
“I have taken the liberty of ordering some peppermint tea to be placed in your room. It should help with your travel sickness,” he whispered to Alice, his warm breath on her ear making her insides melt.
“Thank you,” she replied, gratefully. She did feel decidedly green despite her aunt insisting that sitting up straight and looking out of the carriage window for the entire journey would help. It most definitely did not, and she was anxious to hide away until the nausea subsided.
“And I have invited your family for dinner this evening, as I thought it might be too tiring for you to ride over to see them this afternoon. I am more than happy to join you in visiting them and your stables tomorrow morning though, before the guests arrive.”
“That is very kind of you,” said Alice.
Anthony instructed his butler to show them up to their rooms. Alice’s room was lovely, with pale green walls and a large four-poster bed.
The huge bay windows looked out over the formal gardens at the front of the house.
Much to her delight, on the dressing table was a copy of ‘Mansfield Park’ by Jane Austen.
She would save it for later, knowing if she started it now, she would be loath to put it down again.
Alice did not know Anthony’s home well since he had usually come to their house when he was younger.
Her father had been invited over for occasional dinner parties when she was little, but she and her siblings never had.
She was interested to see around it. In fact, she was interested to learn about anything to do with Anthony.
Maybe the more she learnt about him, the more it would help her to understand her feelings for him, and, hopefully, mean she could at least begin to overcome them so she could start to have similar feelings for someone who actually wanted to marry her.
She sat in the armchair by the window, gazing out while she sipped the peppermint tea Anthony had organised for her. He could be so thoughtful sometimes. Thoughtful like a caring brother, she thought sadly.
Trying to be more positive, she reminded herself how good it would be to see her actual brother and her sisters.
She had never been away from her sisters for any length of time since they were born.
They would love to see her new clothes and she found she had missed their noise and company. She was a little surprised by how much.
Her mind soon returned to Anthony as it always seemed to. She felt embarrassed that he even knew about her grand plan, let alone the fact that she had made absolutely no progress so far. And now she had all these ridiculous feelings for Anthony taking her attention away from what really mattered.
Still, this house party would change all that.
It would give her a chance to properly get to know the remaining men on her list and to spend time with them in more relaxed surroundings - surroundings that suited her much better than the noisy, hot, crowded London balls.
She had to secure an engagement soon; just the thought of enduring a second Season made her head start to ache, but she would do it for Henry.
She loved her brother and she could not stand by watching him bear the burden of the family’s financial worries on his own.
It was time to forget her attraction to Anthony.
She needed to see him as another brother, exactly as he wanted her to, and find someone who actually wanted to marry her.
Hearing carriage wheels approaching outside, Alice glanced out of the window.
She felt more emotional than she thought she would when she caught sight of the carriage containing her brother and sisters arriving.
She hurried outside to meet them and the four ended up in a very undignified clump of hugs and cries of, “We missed you!” and “Were you always this short?”
When they finally broke apart, Alice saw Anthony standing by the front door watching them, a smile on his face.
Drinks were handed around in the drawing room and everyone caught up with each other’s news.
Promises were made to Margaret and Charlotte by Aunt Jane after many entreaties that they would come to London to stay with her for their own first Seasons when the time came.
The look on Henry’s face at the thought of his youngest sisters being unleashed into society was priceless.
Alice was not one hundred percent sure he had even accepted the idea of her attending some of the Ton’s finest functions, to be honest.
The chatter continued throughout dinner, with much laughter ensuing, when Aunt Jane was out of earshot, from the idea of Alice dressing up as a stable boy just so that she could clean out some horse muck.
“What are we going to do with you, Alice?” said Henry affectionately. “And there was I thinking that London would change you. If anything, it appears to have made you more determined in your preferences.”
“I for one am glad that London has not changed Alice,” said Anthony quietly. A look passed between him and Henry, and Henry said, “Well, if everyone’s finished, what say we retire to the smoking room, Anthony, and set the world to rights?”
“That sounds like an excellent idea,” replied Anthony.
“Will you show us your new dresses?” Margaret asked Alice.
“I hope you had them made with long hems so they can be let down for us,” joked Charlotte.
“You girls go and enjoy yourselves,” said Aunt Jane. “I will be quite happy in the drawing room by the fire with my embroidery, as long as you promise to come and have a game of cards with me when you’re done.”
“Of course, Aunt,” said Alice. “We will be back to join you again soon.”
Anthony and Henry made themselves comfortable in the two wingback armchairs positioned in front of the fireplace in the drawing room and lit a cigar each. On a small table between them were two glasses of rather good whiskey they had both been looking forward to sampling.
“It is good to see you,” said Henry. “Thank you again for what you have been doing for Alice. Yes, even that little stunt with the stable boy’s outfit,” he added with a shake of his head.
“You have made her time in London far easier for her than it would have been without you there, and I am glad she had you looking out for her.”
“It is nothing,” said Anthony, with a wave of his hand. Henry gave a roll of his eyes at his friend’s playing down of his actions.
“Oh, before I forget,” said Henry, taking a sip of his whiskey and nodding at it approvingly, “I bumped into Marcus Payne while out riding the other day. Do you remember him from Oxford? Anyway, he is back in the country and he is Sir Marcus now. Just inherited that huge estate down by Tunbridge Wells.”
“I was aware of his good fortune,” said Anthony.
“Anyway, he does not really know people in this neck of the woods so I invited him along to your house party. He will stay at Fairfax and ride over with us. I hope I have not imposed?”
“No, not at all,” Anthony replied.
“You do not look exactly thrilled at the news . . . I did not think it would be a problem . . .”
“It is not,” Anthony sighed. “I am just being ridiculous to be honest. Alice has been asking about Sir Marcus since we bumped into him on Rotten Row a little while ago. I did not invite him to my house. I should have.”
“Why did you not?” Henry asked.
Anthony groaned, but admitted, “Because he is handsome and wealthy and intelligent and loves horse riding and now has an estate close to yours.”
The puzzled look on Henry’s face led Anthony to continue, “He would be a perfect match for her.”
Realisation hit Henry, “And you still have feelings for Alice?”
Anthony nodded and took a large sip of his drink.
“And you are still determined to marry Sarah?”
“You would do the same if you were in my position.”
“Maybe,” Henry admitted, “but I suspect you would caution me against it.”
“Maybe,” said Anthony with a little smile. “You know I would not be able to live with myself if I abandoned Sarah.”
“I am not talking about abandoning Sarah . . .”
“My mind is made up, Henry.”
“I understand that, but it does not mean I will cease advising you against it. I should be a pretty poor friend if I did. Even if I consider your taste in women very strange, it would make me very happy to see you marry my sister.”
Anthony’s eyebrows rose.
“I will admit that until recently I should have thought the two of you a terrible match, but something has changed between you . . .”
“We have become friends,” Anthony said. “I hope I do not annoy her quite as much as I once did.”
“Judging by the way she was watching you as we ate, you definitely do not annoy her like you used to,” Henry said with a sigh.
“I am glad she does not loathe me anymore and I have enjoyed spending time with Alice, but, believe me, even if Sarah and Charlie were not in the picture, there is no possibility your sister would see me as a potential husband. She as good as told me so,” Anthony said, concentrating fiercely on fiddling with his cigar.
“Oh,” said Henry. “My apologies, I . . .”
“It is fine,” replied Anthony, cutting him off. “And I should have extended an invitation to Sir Marcus. Thank you for doing so. He would make an excellent match for Alice.”
“What a beautiful room,” commented Margaret, looking around Alice’s bedroom. “It must be one of the finest in the house. It is enormous.”
“It is lovely,” agreed Alice. She loved the view from her window in particular, it was so refreshing to look out over greenery after being surrounded by buildings in London.
She felt freer and more relaxed. Unless she thought about all the guests who would soon be arriving, and, in particular, the gentlemen from her list who had been expressly invited for her to inspect.
This made her wince. But she needed to find a husband and this was by far the most sensible way to do so.
And nothing that she had tried had worked so far, it was definitely time to try a different tactic.
Alice showed her sisters into her dressing area which connected to the bedchamber and where Beth had already unpacked her clothes.
“These must have cost a fortune. Just look at the quality of this fabric. And they are the latest designs from Paris,” said Charlotte, running her hand over one of the dresses. “This is so generous of Aunt Jane.”
“I know,” replied Alice, forcing a smile onto her face. “I just hope I manage to repay her by finding myself a husband.”
“Speaking of which, what is going on between you and Anthony?” Charlotte asked, with a wink.
“I do not know what you mean,” said Alice immediately, her cheeks turning pink.
“I think you do,” said Margaret, taking over the interrogation from her sister.
“I have never known you two go more than ten minutes in one another’s company before without arguing, and now I hear you are regularly going out riding in Hyde Park and dancing together at some of the finest balls of the Season.
And you could barely keep your eyes off each other during dinner. ”
“I suppose he is not quite as annoying as I used to imagine,” Alice admitted, carefully. “I have come to know him better in the last few weeks.”
She saw Margaret and Charlotte exchange a look.
“You would tell us if there was something going on . . . romantically between the two of you?” asked Charlotte.
“Of course!” said Alice, forcing a smile. “But can you honestly imagine that ever happening?”
Her sisters laughed, and she pretended to join in as naturally as she could.
She knew that she and Anthony were somewhat renowned for their bickering and teasing of each other, but was the thought of them being together romantically really so ridiculous?
Maybe it was, she would have thought so herself not too long ago.
She was being over-sensitive, she knew, but could not seem to stop herself.
“Shall we go back downstairs and join Aunt Jane? I do not want her to be bored,” she suggested.
“Certainly, I am desperate to see if your card playing has improved since you’ve been away,” teased Charlotte. “Has Aunt Jane been tutoring you?”
“A little,” admitted Alice, “but I fear she must despair of my attention span.”
Her sisters giggled, well aware of Alice’s mind’s propensity to wander if she was not completely enthralled with what was going on and would rather be outside with her animals.
Alice closed the bedroom door behind them and gave herself a mental shake before following her sisters downstairs.
They had done nothing wrong and it was not fair to be grumpy around them.
They were not to know how her feelings for Anthony had changed, or what had happened between them, thank goodness.
She could not help feeling disoriented though as she followed their lead back to the drawing room.