CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Lady Rendlesham was in a quandary, being torn between the desire to deal the masterstroke herself and see the effect, knowing that her victim would see the triumph in her eyes, and the acknowledgement that her animosity might render the blow less effective, since it might be disbelieved.
She spent a happy morning imagining the look on Elizabeth Ashling’s face, the hurt, the crushing disappointment yet again.
This time she would not recover. She would go and hide herself in the Sussex downland and not show her face in London again.
There was also the added advantage of stripping Sir Lucius Radstock of the contented air he had been exhibiting recently.
She had always thought him censorious of her, and, worse still, he had never shown the least interest in her, even when single.
‘My dear Lady Evershott! I vow it is a perfect age since I had a chance to speak with you. Is this not a delightful evening. Have you seen Lady Fernilee’s rather dashing gown?
’ Lady Rendlesham left no gap in which Lady Evershott might interject a remark, and nearly pressed her down to the seat.
‘What a squeeze this is. Oh, do look at Miss Ashling’s pretty gown.
She does seem in good spirits, does she not? ’
‘Indeed, she—’
‘And I wonder if Sir Lucius Radstock is in attendance?’ She laughed conspiratorially.
‘Of course, you will have heard he is likely to make her an offer very soon. Why, did you know’ – she dropped her voice very slightly, so as to ensure Lady Evershott would not be quite sure she heard aright – ‘he has even bought her a horse, under the guise of merely advising Lord Godmanchester upon a purchase, since he could not make her such a gift within propriety. It must have been a secret to prove his affection to her, for she is terribly keen on horses, and it must sway her decision.’
‘A horse? Did you say Sir Lucius has bought her a horse?’ Lady Evershott blinked at Lady Rendlesham, who nodded.
Lady Evershott had not been as explicit as Aurelia Rendlesham had hoped, but she was certainly loud enough, and Lady Rendlesham was mightily relieved to see Elizabeth Ashling turn her head slightly, catching the comment, though she could not see who was seated beside Lady Evershott.
278‘Sir Lucius Radstock, yes.’
‘Sir Lucius Radstock, and Miss Ashling? Goodness, and him a confirmed bachelor.’
Lady Rendlesham could have clapped her hands in delight. This was much better. Miss Ashling, who had indeed looked in good spirits this evening, had paled.
‘I know. And the strangest thing is that it was he who named her “the Unassailable”, which set all the gentlemen in pursuit of her hand, as a challenge, one assumes.’
‘Unassailable? Really?’
Lady Rendlesham nodded again, and then made an excuse to withdraw and watch events unfold.
Lady Evershott was bound to repeat what she had gleaned, and not sotto voce either.
Just as she had hoped, no sooner had she vacated the seat than Lady Evershott beckoned one of her friends to take the seat, and began, in the carrying ‘whisper’ of the deaf, to tell her friend this juicy gossip.
Aurelia Rendlesham watched her victory unfold.
Elizabeth, who had caught enough of Lady Evershott’s response to whoever was talking with her to make her stomach turn over and her head spin dizzily, began to feel positively faint as Lady Evershott regaled her new companion with the tale.
This was not history repeating itself; this was worse, far worse.
Papa had shunned the grieving child and then Henry had caught a girlish fancy, bruised an immature heart with his shallow desertion, but now …
Elizabeth thought for a moment that the floor was coming up to meet her, and took a gasping breath, unconsciously reaching out 279and resting her hand on the arm of Lord Carbrooke, who had approached with the happy notion of describing Miss Amelia’s many virtues to one who must surely be in accord with him, and whom, he gathered from that young lady, was sympathetic to their cause.
Amelia herself, in the few minutes she had dared engage him in conversation, had been at once ecstatic and fearful, convinced as she was that parental preference for the awful Lord Nuneaton might keep her from the only man with whom, she was now convinced, she might be happy.
He had barely begun when Elizabeth looked quite ill, and then laid her hand on his arm.
‘You really do not look quite the thing, ma’am,’ he remarked solicitously, secretly rather worried that she might collapse in a heap at his feet. ‘Let me get you a glass of lemonade, a chair, your aunt?’
‘Aunt.’ Elizabeth blinked at him, and took another breath. ‘Yes, please take me to my aunt, my lord. I have suddenly the most blinding of headaches.’
‘Yes, yes, of course.’
He almost dragged her through the throng, looking about him in some panic until he espied Lady Chalford, whom he approached without any thought of his own concerns.
‘My apologies, ma’am, for interrupting you’ – he bowed to Lady Chalford and the lady with whom she was chatting – ‘but Miss Ashling is unwell, and requested that I bring her straight to you.’
Lady Chalford looked surprised, but one glance at Elizabeth’s pale cheeks and blank expression wiped any thought of asking what had happened from her mind.
280‘My poor dear, you do look wan. Thank you, my lord, I will take her home immediately.’ She paused. ‘Oh dear, Amelia! What should I …?’
‘Perhaps, ma’am, Lady Micheldever might take her “under her wing”, so to speak, and later return her home.’
‘Yes, yes, an excellent idea.’
‘Would you care for me to find her for you, and then Miss Ashling may remain in your care?’
‘Yes, that would be best.’ Lady Chalford, flustered, defaulted to the mode in which a gentleman might take control simply by asserting a little authority.
Lord Carbrooke bowed and went about his quest, not a little relieved to have put the responsibility of a very sickly-looking lady upon other shoulders.
He returned in but a few minutes, followed by Lady Micheldever, to whom Elizabeth’s sudden indisposition was explained, and who immediately volunteered to bring Amelia home at the end of the party.
This all meant very little to Elizabeth, who had passed through feeling faint to a state of otherworldly numbness, and with a flame of anger catching the tinder of betrayal.
By the time she was handed into the carriage, Lady Chalford was glad to see the pallor had gone, though it was now replaced by a rather dangerous look.
Elizabeth sat bolt upright, her hands clasped together tightly.
Lady Chalford made soothing noises, which her niece appeared to ignore.
Once arrived in Mount Street, Elizabeth stalked into the house in the manner of some potentate of the distant Orient about to order myriad executions, or so it seemed to her aunt.
In fact, the only slow and unpleasant fate she was 281imagining was that of Sir Lucius Radstock, whose deceitful heart she could cheerfully, at that moment, have torn slowly from his traitorous body with her kid-gloved hands.
Lady Chalford followed her niece up the stairs, but not quickly enough to reach that damsel’s chamber door before it slammed.
There came the sound of a cry of frustration, and glass shattering.
‘Oh dear,’ murmured Lady Chalford to herself.
She waited for a minute, then knocked, a little timidly, lest she be met by some missile.
There was no answer at all. She opened the door cautiously, and peered round.
Elizabeth stood in the centre of the room, bosom heaving, and a small cloud of pink dust on and at the base of the far wall, where also lay the shards of a powder bowl.
‘Elizabeth, my dear, try to be calm.’
‘Calm? After this?’
‘After what?’ Lady Chalford enquired, mystified.
In answer, Elizabeth ground her teeth but tried to master the desire to shout, even at her aunt. Her voice, when she spoke, was very low and trembled, but was hardly more than a whisper.
‘I am a fool. I knew, oh I knew from the start, but still I let that deceitful toad worm his way into my affections, into my heart even. He seemed so different at last, and he is not as bad … He is worse, for the others deserted me through weakness. He has betrayed me intentionally, played me as a fisherman does a trout.’
‘I am still at a loss, Elizabeth.’
‘Lucius Radstock, Sir Lucius Radstock, Aunt, was the man who gave me the name “the Unassailable”. Ah, perhaps 282you did not know of this. Well, nor did I until rumour finally reached me, about a week ago. It is rife among the gentlemen’s clubs, however, and accounts for the number of highly unwelcome suitors who have pursued me, even to the point where …
’ She halted, recalling Sir Lucius’s knocking down of Lord Easby.
He had seemed so noble, but it was his fault that Easby had ever shown her any attention; it was his fault she had been insulted, hounded, hunted.
‘He is to blame for everything. And then, just to add insult to the injury, what must he do but buy Mist for me to ride.’
‘Lady Godmanchester’s horse?’
‘Yes, except it never was her horse. I thought her far too fiery for Helen. He even had my best friend deceive me too. No doubt he made up some romantic tale to persuade her. How he must have laughed at me.’
‘But that must, whilst being very naughty, be seen as a sign of the deep affection in which …’ Lady Chalford tried to find something positive, and failed.
‘Affection? No. He just wanted to lull me into being happy so that he could make an offer without fear of refusal.’
‘But if you did not know he bought the horse, how could this have influenced you, dear?’
Elizabeth paused. There was a breakdown in her logic, but she was too incensed to worry about it unduly.