The Reluctant Widow Read online

  ‘My dear John, in what possible way can I be held to have encouraged Nick to do any such thing?’ protested Carlyon.

  ‘No, well, I did not mean that precisely, but I know as well as if I had been present that you have not told him how wrong he has been!’

  ‘He knows that without my telling him.’

  ‘He needs to be hauled well over the coals!’

  ‘I expect you have done so already.’

  ‘He does not attend to me as he does to you.’

  ‘He might do so, however, if you would be more sparing of your homilies.’

  John shrugged, and said no more for a few moments. When he spoke again it was on another subject. ‘Who is this female to whom you married Cheviot?’ he asked.

  ‘She is a daughter of Tom Rochdale of Feldenhall.’

  ‘That man! Good God! Then that is how she comes to be a governess! Poor thing! But what is now to become of her?’

  ‘Well, I do not as yet know how Cheviot’s affairs may stand, but I dare say something may be saved from the wreck. He made his will in her favour.’

  ‘Made his will in her favour?’ John repeated incredulously. ‘Ned, was that his doing, or yours?’

  ‘Mine, of course.’

  ‘Well,’ John said dubiously, ‘I suppose some compensation had to be made her, and, to be sure, I was never in favour of its coming out of your pocket. But ought not the estate to have gone to the next of kin?’

  ‘Old Bedlington, for instance,’ said Carlyon.

  ‘Yes, I suppose so, for, after all, he is his uncle.’

  ‘But I don’t want old Bedlington to be living within a stone’s throw of me,’ said Carlyon.

  ‘No, my God!’ John agreed, struck by this eminently reasonable point of view. ‘I dare say he will kick up the devil of a dust, though.’

  ‘I don’t think it. He had never any expectation of inheriting the estate.’

  ‘You will have him down upon you as soon as he hears of this,’ John said gloomily. ‘Depend upon it, he will blame you for the whole. I suppose he must be the only person alive who had a kindness for Eustace – and if he had known what we knew even he might not have caressed and encouraged him so much!’

  ‘I suppose his own son cannot be a source of much satisfaction to him,’ Carlyon said, yawning.

  ‘A source of expense, more like, but I never heard that Francis Cheviot was a commoner like his cousin! Not but what he is like to ruin Bedlington, if he goes on his present pace. I heard that he dropped five thousand at Almack’s last week, and I dare say that’s not the half of it. I should be sorry for Bedlington, if he were not such an old fool.’ He gave a short laugh. ‘He is in a great way over the trouble they are in at the Horse Guards.’ Carlyon raised his brows in lazy enquiry. ‘Oh, information leaking out! Not my department, thank God! It’s for ever happening. Bonaparte’s agents know their business very well.’

  ‘I thought you were looking a little grave. Is it serious?’

  ‘Serious enough, but they’re all as close as oysters over it. Of course, things do leak out – well, if you have old fools like Bedlington dabbling their fingers in state affairs what can you expect? There are plenty of people like him who can’t keep their tongues still. Oh, they don’t mean to give secrets away, but they’re damned indiscreet! That’s why Wellington has been keeping his plans so dark this time. But from what Bathurst told the Doctor there’s something more than indiscretion in this business. You won’t repeat this, Ned, but there’s an important memorandum gone astray, and they’re all in an uproar over it. By what I can make out, it’s to do with his lordship’s campaign for this spring, and there are only two copies in existence. You may guess what Bonaparte would give to have an inkling of what Wellington means to do, whether he will march on Madrid a second time, or strike in some new direction!’

  ‘I can indeed! Do you say this memorandum has been stolen?’

  ‘No, I don’t say that, but I do know it is missing. However, from all I have ever seen of the way they go on at the Horse Guards it will very likely turn up in the wrong file, or some such thing.’

  ‘You are severe!’ Carlyon said, looking amused.

  ‘Why, I dare say Torrens would say the same, for you must know that there are too many of Prinny’s creatures foisted on them at the Horse Guards, and a shabbier set of fellows you’d be hard put to it to find than most of ’em! Such jobbery!’

  ‘Oh, now you are back at Bedlington!’

  ‘Him, and some others. Lord Bedlington!’ John enunciated scornfully. ‘And why, pray?’

  ‘Distinguished military career,’ murmured Carlyon.

  ‘Distinguished military fiddlesticks!’ snorted John. ‘A.D.C. to the Regent! Pander to the Regent, more like! But, there! I do not know why I am boring on in this way. Will you be able to bring Nick off safe, do you think?’

  ‘Yes. Though Eustace would have been glad to have injured him if he could have done it.’

  ‘What a damned fellow he was!’ John said warmly. ‘I should like to know what harm Nicky ever did him!’

  ‘Well, he seems to have treated him very roughly tonight,’ Carlyon pointed out. ‘But it was not Nicky he meant to hurt so much as me, through Nicky. Fortunately Greenlaw sent the nurse away as soon as Eustace began to talk, so there’s no harm done.’

  ‘Oh, you had Greenlaw there, had you? Well, he’s a disrespectful old dog, but safe enough! I’d give something to know what he must have thought of your freaks this night!’

  Carlyon smiled. ‘Oh, I tried his civility too high, and he got to remembering helping me down from the church steeple, and digging the shot out of your leg, John, that time we stole one of my father’s fowling-pieces, and I peppered you so finely – do you remember? He was within an ace of giving me as stern a homily as you have probably given Nick.’

  ‘Impudent old rascal!’ John said, grinning. ‘I wish he had done so! But, Ned! This Will! Is it in order? Might it not be contested?’

  ‘I believe it is legal enough. I shall certainly not contest it.’

  ‘Not you, no! But Bedlington must be next of kin to Eustace, and it occurs to me that he might try to set the Will aside on that score. For once Eustace was married –’

  ‘No, you are forgetting. By the terms of the original settlement, in default of appointment by Eustace, the estate must have devolved upon me. To invalidate the Will would not benefit Bedlington.’

  ‘True, so it was! Did you think to name an executor?’

  ‘Yes, myself and Finsbury.’

  ‘That was a good thought, to bring a lawyer into it,’ John approved. ‘But, I must say, I wish you were well out of the business!’

  ‘Why, so I soon shall be, I trust,’ Carlyon said, setting down his empty glass, and rising to his feet.

  ‘It seems to me you are left with this widow on your hands!’

  ‘Nonsense! Once probate has been granted I dare say she will sell the estate, and I hope she may be able to live very comfortably upon the proceeds.’

  ‘It has been so mismanaged since Eustace came of age that she may find it hard to find a purchaser,’ John said pessimistically. ‘Ten to one, too, there will be so many charges on it that the poor girl will find herself in a worse case than ever. Was he in the moneylenders’ hands, do you know?’

  ‘I don’t, but I should think very likely. His debts will have to be paid, of course.’

  ‘Not by you!’ John said sharply.

  ‘Well, we shall see how it goes. How long are you staying with us, John?’

  ‘I must be in London to-morrow, but I shall come back, of course, now that things have turned out in this way.’

  ‘You need not.’

  ‘Oh, I don’t doubt you will manage it very well without me!’ John said, smiling at him. ‘But that young rascal will have to give his evidence at the inquest,