Frederica Read online

  ‘No, no! Only that the expense of stabling, in London – and a groom besides –’

  ‘Gammon! The merest trifle! If you had had any rumgumption, Freddy, you would have brought our own horses to London, and John-Coachman as well! I can tell you, I don’t like it above half that you should be jauntering about in a job-carriage. It don’t present a good appearance – and if you thought I should have grudged the expense you’re fair and far off!’

  She assured him that no such thought had entered her mind, and thereafter said no more. His somewhat censorious brother, Jessamy, was not so forbearing. Not only did he refuse to take the smallest interest in Harry’s neatish pair of Welsh bays, but he condemned their purchase so unequivocally, and with such a total want of the respect due to his senior, that only his sense of propriety (as he told Jessamy) restrained Harry from tipping him a settler.

  Thereafter, his family saw little of Harry. His smart new set-out made it an easy matter for him to attend a good many race meetings, and several pugilistic battles, held discreetly out of town, but at such accessible places as Moulsey Hurst, or Copthall Common.

  The Marquis knew all about the quarrel, and the resultant coolness between the brothers. He had once or twice invited Jessamy to ride with him in the park, and on one of these occasions they had encountered Harry, trying out the paces of his prime pair. The Marquis had said: ‘Two very tidy ones! Have you driven them?’

  ‘No! And I don’t mean to!’ had replied Jessamy, fire in his eyes, and his upper lip lengthening ominously. ‘Harry knows very well what I think of this bang-up set-out of his!’

  ‘I’m not so well-informed. What do you think of it?’

  That was quite enough: Jessamy told him in explicit terms. He was, in general, reserved to the point of stiffness, but he had long since ceased to regard his lordship in any other light than that of a close and trusted relation; and he hoped that Cousin Alverstoke would give Harry snuff for his reckless extravagance. ‘Because he don’t care a straw for what I say!’ he ended bitterly.

  ‘I don’t suppose he does. It says much for his forbearance that you didn’t – er – receive a chancery suit upon the nob!’ had said Alverstoke, adding, with the flicker of a quizzical smile: ‘How would you like it if Felix raked you down?’

  Jessamy had flushed hotly, an arrested look on his face; but after a moment or two he had replied: ‘Very well, sir! I shouldn’t have said it! But – but it provoked me so much I don’t know how I could have kept my tongue between my teeth! Frederica may say that he has a right to do as he pleases, but I think he should be considering how he can best help her, instead of wasting the ready on his own pleasure!’

  The Marquis was much in sympathy with this sentiment, but he had not said so, preferring to cast a damper on Jessamy’s wrath, and to point out to him that the purchase of a curricle and a pair of horses was hardly likely to bring the whole family to ruin.

  He was sincere in this opinion; and he did not think that Frederica was much worried by Harry’s slight burst of extravagance. But that something was causing her to feel anxious he was reasonably certain; and since it had become, by almost insensible degrees, a matter of importance to him that nothing should be allowed to trouble her, he set about the task of discovering what had brought just a faint look of strain to her eyes. He invited the Merriville sisters, my Lord and Lady Jevington, and Mr Peter Navenby to be his guests at the Opera one evening, mentally holding his sister Louisa and her prosy son in reserve, in case Augusta should spurn his invitation. She did not, however, which, since the Jevingtons also rented a box at the Opera House, surprised him a little, and still more her mild spouse.

  Nothing, therefore, could have been more unexceptionable than his lordship’s opera-party; and nothing could have been more exactly calculated to convince even the most suspicious that he was merely doing a guardian’s duty than his lordship’s polite but rather bored demeanour. It was a simple matter for him to engage Frederica in conversation during the interval without attracting attention: he had merely to retire with her to the back of the box, to make room for those of Charis’s admirers who ventured to present themselves. He had said: ‘I hope you are pleased with me; I shall think myself very ill-used if I don’t receive a fervent expression of your gratitude!’

  Only for an instant did she look puzzled; as he watched the laughter spring to her eyes he reflected that she had never yet daunted him by asking, fatally: ‘What do you mean?’ She had said instead: ‘Indeed, I am very much obliged to you, sir! I only wish –’ She paused, sighed, and said: ‘Don’t you think – now that you have had the opportunity to observe him more closely – that he would be the very man for her?’

  He glanced at the unconscious Mr Navenby. ‘Perhaps: how can I tell? Is that what troubles you?’

  ‘No, it doesn’t trouble me, precisely. I am only anxious that she should be comfortably, and happily, established.’

  ‘Then what is it?’ he asked.

  ‘Why, nothing! Except that I shall be obliged to turn off the cook, which is a great bore, because she cooks well. But my housekeeper tells me that she is so much addicted to gin that she must go. Can you wonder at it if I appear a trifle harassed? – Though I hoped I did not!’

  ‘Oh, don’t be alarmed! I daresay no one who wasn’t well-acquainted with you would notice the least change in you, and might even be fobbed off with this Canterbury tale about your cook.’

  ‘It isn’t a Canterbury tale!’ she said indignantly.

  ‘Very well, but the cook hasn’t cut up your serenity, Frederica. Tell me, are you afraid, as Jessamy appears to be, that you will all be brought to a standstill because Harry has bought himself a stylish curricle and pair?’

  ‘Good God, no! I own, I wish he hadn’t done so, for I don’t think he has the least notion of what it will cost him to maintain his own carriage in London, but I promise you it hasn’t cut up my serenity, as you call it! Did Jessamy tell you about it? I wish you will tell him that it is not for him to lecture Harry how he should go on!’

  ‘Oh, I’ve already done so!’ he replied.

  ‘Thank you!’ she said, with a look of gratitude. ‘He pays much more heed to you than to anyone else, so I shall indulge myself with the hope that when next he sees Harry he won’t look quite so disapprovingly at him!’

  His brows rose. ‘When next he sees him? Is Harry away, then?’

  ‘Why, yes – just for a day or two! I am not perfectly sure, but I believe – that is, I know he has gone off on an expedition with some friends,’ she replied lightly.

  ‘So that’s it!’ he said, smiling.

  ‘Indeed it isn’t! How can you be so absurd?’

  ‘Shall I accept that rebuke with a civil bow, or would you prefer me to reassure you?’ His smile grew, as her eyes lifted involuntarily to his face in a questioning look. ‘You are a very good sister, and you don’t in the least object to Harry’s going off with his friends, but you are afraid that he may have got into bad company, are you not? Well, you may be easy on that head: I am not personally acquainted with young Peplow, but, according to what I hear, he’s not one of what we call the peep-of-day boys. I have little doubt that he and Harry will cut up a number of extremely foolish larks, but that need not concern you: such antics are to be expected of halflings.’ He paused, hesitating for a moment before he said: ‘When I first met you, Frederica, you spoke to me of your father with a frankness which makes it possible for me to tell you that I believe that you have very little need to dread that Harry may follow in his footsteps. I perceive the resemblance between them, but I can also perceive certain differences, the chief being that Harry seems to have no taste for gaming. Does that reassure you?’

  She nodded, and replied in a low tone: ‘Yes – thank you! I own, that – that possibility has been in my mind, though I can’t tell how you should have guessed it.’ She smiled at him, in her frank way, saying simply: ‘You are very good, and I’m truly grateful – in particular for your kindness to my