Charity Girl Read online

'Several points more than the devil, sir!' said Desford. 'I should most certainly come to you if I reached the end of my rope.'

  His lordship nodded, apparently satisfied, for the next thing he said was: 'To think of old Nettlecombe's having fallen into parson's mousetrap at his time of life! Did you say that he'd married his housekeeper?'

  Thus it came about that when Lady Wroxton entered the library half-an-hour later she found father and son on the best of good terms. Indeed, the first sound she heard when she opened the door was a shout of laughter from Desford, to whom his father was describing, in highly coloured terms, what had been his own experiences in Harrowgate. She was not very much surprised, for she had considerable faith in Desford's ability to deal with his father, and she knew that however violently her lord might deny the imputation, Desford was the son nearest to his heart.

  My lord greeted her genially, saying: 'Ah, here you are, my lady! Now, come in, and tell Desford if I wasn't poisoned by those stinking waters at Harrowgate!'

  'Well, they certainly made you extremely sick,' she said. 'But you only drank a very small quantity, you know, and there's no saying that they wouldn't have done you good if only we could have prevailed upon you to persevere.' As she spoke, she warmly embraced Desford, who had risen at her entrance, and had crossed the floor towards her, to put his arms round her in a breath-taking hug. She kissed him, but pinched his chin as well, saying, as she looked lovingly up into his handsome face: 'So now you've turned into a knighterrant, I hear! What next will you do, dearest?'

  He laughed, but my lord said that he forbade her to give the boy a scold. 'He has made a clean breast of the affair to me, my love, and I have said all that was necessary, so there's an end to it! No one,' he added, with absolute conviction, 'can say that I am one to ride grub!'

  'No, my dear,' she said gravely, but with Desford's smile lurking in her eyes. She let Desford lead her to a chair, and gave his hand a little squeeze before she let it go, and said: 'I had a comfortable cose with Hetta, Ashley, and I collect, from what she told me, that your protégée is a very amiable and well-conducted girl, which, I own, surprised me, and makes me think her mama must have had more delicacy of principle than one would have supposed – recalling the circumstances of her mar riage – for Wilfred Steane had no principles at all. It seems that Lady Silverdale has taken a great fancy to her, and is much inclined to invite her to stay at Inglehurst, but Hetta thinks it will not answer.'

  'I know she does, ma'am, and I agree with her.'

  'A pity,' she said, in her calm way. 'However, I daresay Hetta is right. So what do you mean to do with the poor little creature?'

  He told her what his plan was, and she accepted it, merely saying that if any other recommendation of Cherry to a possible employer than Miss Fletching's was needed, she would be very happy to supply it. After that no more was said on the subject, my lord demanding to know what she thought of old Nettlecombe's being trapped into marriage by his housekeeper, and bidding Desford tell her all about his Harrowgate adventures.

  Nothing occurred to mar the harmony of the evening, and when his lordship said goodnight to Desford outside his bed-room, he was in perfect charity with him, partly because he was so much relieved to know that his heir was not contemplating matrimony with the daughter of a man whom he had no hesi tation in saying was the greatest rascal he had ever known, and partly because he had succeeded in winning two out of the three rubbers of picquet he had played with him.

  Before he left for London on the following day Desford was able to have some private conversation with his mother, while Lord Wroxton was engaged with his bailiff. She took him to see the improvements she had made in the rose-garden, and as they strolled down the walks together he asked her, lifting a quizzical eyebrow at her, whether he had her to thank for the welcome accorded to him by his father.

  'No, no, Ashley! I didn't utter a word in your defence!' she assured him. 'Indeed, I said I would never have believed it of you, and was never more shocked in my life!'

  'What a very sure card you are, Mama!' he said appreciatively. 'In fact, I did owe my pardon to you!'

  She smiled, but shook her head. 'You may always be sure of his pardon, my dear, however much you may have vexed him. But perhaps you might not have won it as quickly if I had been so gooseish as to have tried to plead your cause, for nothing, you know, makes Papa more obstinate than opposition, and he was very angry. You'll own that he can scarcely be blamed! The intelligence that his eldest son had apparently formed a close connection with a member of a family which he holds in the greatest contempt came as a severe shock to him.'

  He nodded, grimacing. 'Yes, I knew he would fly up into the boughs if he heard that I was having any dealings whatsoever with a Steane, which was why I hoped he never would hear of it. Do you wonder why I took her to Hetta, instead of bringing her here? It wasn't that I doubted your understanding of the case, I promise you! But his I did! Recollect, too, Mama, that I was already in his black books! He told me, on the occasion of my last visit, that he didn't wish to see my face again, and, from what Simon told me, when I ran smash into him at Inglehurst on the day I took Cherry there, his temper had not improved!'

  'Alas, no!' she sighed. 'Poor Simon! I was so sorry for him, and he bore it all so patiently! But I was sorry for Papa too, because whenever he rakes any of you down, and says things he doesn't in the least mean, he is always thrown into gloom afterwards, and wishes he hadn't been so mifty. Not, of course, that he would admit it – though he did say after your last visit, dearest, that if you supposed he meant it when he told you he never wanted to see your face again you must be a bigger mutton-head than he had thought possible. He assured me that there was no occasion for me to worry about it, since he hadn't a doubt you'd come back very shortly – not that he cared a rush how long you stayed away! So you must never think that he doesn't hold you in affection!'

  He burst out laughing. 'Proof positive, Mama!'

  'Well, of course it is! You know his way, Ashley! He would think it shocking weakness to betray to any of you how dearly he loves you! But I must say that nothing could have been more unfortunate than that you and Simon should have chanced to pay us visits at just that time. He was sadly out of frame, you know, not only because his gout was paining him so much, but because the new medicine which had been prescribed for him didn't suit his constitution at all. I'm bound to say that it did do his gout good, which was why he persevered with it, but it had a very lowering effect on him, so that I was glad when our good doctor substituted for it a diet-drink of dock-roots, which suits him much better.' She smiled, and said: 'But seeing you, and having made his peace with you, will have done him more good than all the medicines in the world.'

  He glanced quickly down at her. 'Is that a hint to me that it's my duty to make Wolversham my headquarters, ma'am? I have a great regard for my father – indeed, I think few men have a better father! – but I couldn't live with him!'

  'Well, I don't think he could live with you either,' she replied composedly. 'You would be certain to rub against each other, for you are both so dreadfully determined! You have only to go on in just the same way, giving us a look-in every now and then, and as long as you don't give him cause to suspect you of being on the brink of an imprudent marriage he will be very well pleased with you!'

  'He need never fear, ma'am, that I could ever be so lost to all sense of what I owe not only to him, but to my name as well, as to do anything that would make him regard me as a – oh, as a broken feather in the Carrington wing!'

  She smiled a little at that. 'No, my dear: I am very sure he need not! And if you had wished to marry Miss Steane he would have tried to make the best of it, however disappointed he would have been, for he didn't dislike her, and he certainly didn't think her a designing girl. Indeed, he told me that he found it hard to believe she was Wilfred Steane's child! And, you know, dearest, even if he had taken her in the most violent dislike, and you had married her in the teeth of his opposition, he woul