An Unmarried Lady Page 6

  “Why what can you mean?” Lady Benton inquired.

  “It’s my liver!” explained Mr. Howard apologetically.

  “Your liver?”

  “And my heart as well. I’m afraid it is a great inconvenience. Dr. Tinsley has told me I cannot expect to survive another year. I doubt I shall live to see Elaine’s twenty-fifth birthday.”

  “Oh no, Lambert,” Lady Benton exclaimed, tears filling her eyes. “It cannot be so. Just look at how well you are today. We must bring in another doctor immediately to examine you.”

  “Now don’t go fussing. There’s nothing I detest more. Dr. Tinsley is a most competent physician who has taken great good care of me. I have every confidence in his skill and believe he has kept me alive long beyond what I deserve. The hard fact is I’m about to wind up my accounts, and there’s nothing can be done to prevent it. And don’t you look so alarmed, my dear. I know what you’re thinking, and you can set your mind at ease, for I have some little time left, and I promise you I won’t go off until after Anne has had her Season. No need to fret that half way through she’ll be thrust back into mourning and miss all her fine parties. Just ask these girls of mine. They’re keeping me on the most stringent diet, no wine at all, if you can credit it, and a dose of milk thistle at hand if I start to feel poorly. As you can see, I’m quite blooming under their care.”

  “But what can we do?” Lady Benton asked.

  “My dear Katherine, there is nothing at all that you can do for me. As for the debt, the estate and all its worries will be in the hands of my heir before the year is out. He is a distant cousin, a military man, Captain James Howard. And as he has never been here before and none of us have even met him, we can hardly anticipate that he would be wiling to settle debts incurred in Elaine’s name. He would of course be obliged to take on any debts incurred in my name, but as no one in his right mind would be willing to give me any credit, that is quite beside the point.”

  Lady Benton raised her lace handkerchief, dried her eyes delicately, and turned to her elder niece. “Well then, Elaine, there is no hope for it. If you refuse to go into debt, then you will have to accept your fate and marry.”

  CHAPTER FIVE: In which Mr. Howard reveals his Splendid Scheme.

  The three ladies spent an enjoyable hour inspecting Anne’s new gowns, both those completed and others still in progress. Their taste and workmanship met with Lady Benton’s guarded approval, though she called a halt to one rather dubious project and made a number of suggestions for improvements to several others. She also inspected what remained of Elaine’s gowns from four years earlier and declared them salvageable given the sisters’ skills with needle and thread. At that point Lady Benton bethought herself of at least five gowns of her own that she had purchased quite impulsively and later found to be not at all becoming on one of her stature or complexion. Not one of them had been worn above once, and she was persuaded that they could be refurbished quite successfully to suit one or the other of her nieces most admirably. Since Elaine considerately refrained from reminding her aunt that she herself had no need of new gowns, the afternoon progressed most delightfully.

  Still there remained the question of Anne’s Court dress. Elaine showed Lady Benton her own grand Court gown, a confection of ivory sateen with yards and yards of skirt worn over a structure of hoops and a long train. Lady Benton admired the gown immensely but reinforced Anne’s reluctance to be presented in a hand-me-down. “For this is a remarkably fine gown and all it would take is for just one person to recognize it, and the whole of the ton would know about it before the next morning. You see, everyone’s eye will be upon you, my dears. Because of the fortune, you know. No, there is no hope for it. You will both need new gowns for the Drawing Room.”

  A young lady of great resolution, Elaine returned to the Green Parlor shortly after Lady Benton went up to her room for a rest before dinner. Young Edgar, the sole remaining footman, followed close behind her, taking several trips to transport a good many armloads of books from the library and depositing them in various piles about the room. Her father, who was settled back in his chair with his eyes closed, did not move or indicate in any way that he was aware of the bustle of their movements. Elaine sent Edgar on his way. Then she sat down across from her father and waited with an air of determined patience.

  After some few moments of silence, Mr. Howard opened one eye cautiously and then quickly closed it again. Elaine said not a word. There was a longer pause, and then both of his eyes shot open and he turned his face and glared at her.

  “Dash it, girl! Will you give me no peace?”

  “None at all,” she replied, smiling. “Come now, Papa. We must do this, you know. I have had Edgar bring in here some thirty or more books of sermons and an equal number of some of the more obscure classics. Neither you nor I shall miss them, and we might get as much as fifty pounds for the lot. And then I have three books here which seem to me to be very old and possibly of great value. If I am right, we may have the cost of Anne’s Court dress right here at hand. Won’t you take a look at them and give me your approval to sell them? For that is the only purpose that would justify my accompanying Aunt Katherine and Anne to London tomorrow.”

  “Laying down conditions are you?”

  “Why yes, if that is the only way to obtain your consent.”

  “It is too much. I’m much too tired.” He closed his eyes again.

  Elaine stood up. “Poor Papa! I shall go away immediately. Would you like me to ring for Carney?”

  “No, no. Just let me rest.”

  “Of course, Papa. We can look through the books tomorrow after Aunt Katherine and Anne have left for London.”

  “Vixen! Katherine will have to delay her return, for I am of a mind that you will go with her, and in truth I am too weary to attend to this now. I can see that you are determined and will have your way, but there is much more to do with these books than you realize. We will have to check inside each book carefully and shake out the pages to make sure nothing is caught in there.”

  “Inside the pages? Why what could there be?”

  “My grandfather, and his father before him, were used to tucking pound notes and sometimes valuable papers or letters into books picked out quite at random. Who knows? It may be we will finance your sister’s Drawing Room presentation from my grandfather’s discarded pin money.”

  “Then we will look most carefully, but tomorrow when you are more rested.” Elaine paused and then added, “I remember now that I did sometimes discover an occasional pound note or some kind of paper secreted in your books while perusing through the library that first year after I returned to Lynnfield. However, I warn you, whatever money I found went immediately to Chudleigh and has long since been spent on drainage ditches and the repair of leaky cottages. I have not thought of it since. Do you really think that there could be more money there, just waiting for us to find it?”

  “Well of course I do. Why else do you think I’ve had Carney poking around in the library after you’ve gone to bed?” He hesitated and then with a studied nonchalance asked, “And what of the papers you found? What did you do with them?”

  She didn’t reply immediately, frowning her suspicions at him, and he dropped all pretense and exclaimed, “Dash it, Laney, where did you put them? And who told you you could have the run of the library like this?”

  “Why you did Papa, when first I came home. I assure you any letters or papers I found are stored safely in the library desk.”

  Her father relaxed into his chair. “Well, all right then. You may bring those to me tomorrow morning in my bedchamber once I have had my chocolate, and then we will come down here to see what we can find in these dusty old volumes you have foisted upon me,” he said somewhat crossly. “Now let me rest a while, for I intend to come down for dinner. Will you tell Carney that I will need him within the half hour?”

  “Of course, Papa. I do hope you won’t over tire yourself.”

  “You needn’t worry tha
t I’ll fail you this time, my girl. I’ve told Tinsley he needs to keep me alive long enough to see you girls through this Season and he will do so. You won’t need to put on your mourning again before the end of summer. I know my limits, and I’m reserving my strength for the final push to set everything right.”

  “What? Is there more?”

  “I’ve only just begun.” Mr. Howard caught her look of consternation and chuckled. “Be off with you now and let me rest.”

  Dinner was strictly a family affair, Miss Miles, ever cautious in matters of propriety, having elected to take her dinner up in the schoolroom. Lady Benton, appealed to, agreed to delay her departure for one more day, and intrigued by the lure of hidden treasure even offered to assist in the search for pound notes.

  Anne, too, agreed to join in the scheme with genuine enthusiasm, for she had been greatly distressed at the pressures put upon her sister by their aunt and realized that it was only her own predicament that made Elaine vulnerable to such assaults. She regretted her own selfishness, yet still could not bring herself to agree to the humiliation of wearing a hand-me-down to the Queen’s Drawing Room. She thought she would be willing to wear quite a modest Court gown, costing no more than one hundred pounds (for that sum seemed a very large one to her) if only one could be purchased at that price.

  It was most troublesome to be so, well, ‘new’ (for want of a better word) to the world of Society and not know exactly how one ought to go on. She thought she had for the most part been very accommodating and patient with all of Elaine’s strict economies over the past four years, and now she found herself feeling both elated and quite frightened to death all at the same time, at the idea of launching into the luxurious life she knew was waiting for her in London next spring.

  After a year of careful observation of all the customary restrictions imposed by their mourning for Giles, and now with dear Papa so ill, she hardly knew how to feel about leaving Lynnfield to engage in such frivolities. If they were to find enough money hidden in the pages of the library books to pay for her Court dress, and perhaps to purchase some silk slippers and woolen half-boots, as well, she thought she might be able to bear all this confusion of feelings and concentrate on having a successful Season, if only out of duty to Papa who wished so fervently to see her safely married before he took his leave of this world.

  It was decided that they would not limit their task to the books Elaine had had Edgar bring into the Green Parlor. Anne and Mr. Howard would go through those most carefully looking for pound notes and papers, with Carney assisting them. In addition Mr. Howard would approve or disapprove each book for sale and would especially inspect the older volumes Elaine had found to see if he didn’t agree that they could prove to be of considerable value. In the meanwhile Elaine and Lady Benton would recruit assistance from both Miss Miles and Mary Hastings and proceed to the library (with Edgar to do the heavy lifting and any dusting necessary) and make a search of the entire collection.

  Mr. Howard expressed relief at acquiring such assistance in undertaking an enormous task which had overwhelmed him each time he had thought he might feel sufficiently well to attempt it. His earlier misgivings seemed to be allayed when all three ladies promised most solemnly that they would most carefully collect all letters and papers found in addition to the pound notes, that, no matter now small or insignificant a piece of paper might seem, they would save it for him, and that they would hand everything they found over to him unread and unsorted.

  The search thus organized got underway the following morning. Elaine soon found that Lady Benton’s manner of assistance was to point out particular books for Edgar to bring to her and to leaf through each in a desultory way while chatting amiably about the various entertainments in store for the sisters when they would come to London in the spring, and exclaiming pettishly from time to time over the tediousness of the chore, the layers of dust on the old books, and the foolhardiness of storing one’s banknotes in such an odd and inconvenient way. Mary Hastings took care to do a quick but thorough check of each of these volumes as she collected them from the garrulous lady and returned them to the library shelves, on several occasions discovering a slip of paper or a pound note that she had overlooked.

  At noon they retired to the Green Parlor for tea and a substantial nuncheon (all but Mary Hastings who took some refreshment in the kitchen), bringing their findings with them. Altogether the two groups had discovered some twenty-eight one pound notes and three five pound notes along with a growing pile of letters, folded papers, and small scraps with no more than a few words written upon them. These were handed over to Mr. Howard who placed them carefully into a small ornately carved wooden chest he had required Carney to set on the table next to his wing backed chair.

  Elaine, busy doing sums in her head, was elated to realize that, together with the small sum that remained of her own carefully hoarded nest egg after paying for the roofs, they now had close to one hundred pounds to apply towards the Court dress. If they found as much in the afternoon, and if she could realize at least fifty pounds from the sale of the books in London, they might very well end up with a total high enough to meet their essential expenditures.

  After their repast, Lady Benton announced a little crossly, that she was exhausted by the morning’s efforts and must repair to her room for a quiet afternoon nap. Mr. Howard, too, was tired, and after a small discussion with Elaine as to which books he would allow her to take to London to sell, he permitted Carney to help him out of his chair and take him to bed. He paused at the door and smiled at Elaine. “This is a good day’s work. When I have rested a bit, I shall write a note for you to take to my man of business when you are in London, instructing him to find a buyer for the books, and to determine a fair evaluation of the worth of those other three volumes. They may very well prove to be of considerable interest to some collector of fine old books, and Thompson is just the man to find out, for he is something of a collector himself.”

  The books in the Green Parlor had been thoroughly searched and sorted, so Anne went to the Library with Elaine and Libby. They found Mary and Edgar already there waiting for them and all set to work with renewed energy. They found their progress considerably faster now without their aunt’s constant flow of questions, complaints and chatter, and while the task was not fully completed by the end of the afternoon (there was one remaining wall of books still unexplored), enough had been accomplished that they felt they had acquitted themselves very well. More banknotes (amounting to sixty-three pounds) had been discovered along with another small pile of papers, which Elaine took into the Green Parlor and deposited in her father’s little wooden chest.

  For the first time in many months she felt that she could allow herself to relax and contemplate the future without deep misgivings. She would go to London with her Aunt Katherine and Anne, and while they were at the drapers and the dressmakers, she would go to Mr. Thompson with her father’s note and two full crates of books to sell. Then when they returned to Lynnfield, they could complete the task begun this day and perhaps find even more pound notes, so that Anne might be able to purchase a few of those elegancies that make a Season just a little more magnificent – an ivory fan, a fine shawl, a pair of long white gloves.

  Thus it was that Elaine came down to dinner in a more comfortable frame of mind than she had experienced in a long while. Lady Benton had recovered her energy, and Mr. Howard had found enough strength to come down for dinner again this evening as well. Anne was in high gig, not only because they would be going to London in the morning, but, she declared, because she had been included in the day’s treasure hunt, and “for once no one treated me like a baby, who didn’t understand what was going on around her.”

  After dinner, instead of going directly up to bed, Mr. Howard accompanied the ladies into the drawing room, where he stayed only a few minutes before asking Elaine to join him in the Green Parlor. Perceiving that her sister looked disappointed at being left out of adult conversations once again, E
laine reminded her that she still needed to collect their father’s promised note to Mr. Thompson and was relieved to see Anne settle down with their aunt for a happy discussion of necklines and fabrics and the outmoded hoops that were most unfortunately absolutely required on Court dresses.

  The crates of books had already been carried down to be placed in the carriage, and the Green Parlor had been set back in order and thoroughly dusted after the morning’s work. Elaine waited quietly while her father finished his letter to Mr. Thompson, folded it, sealed it, and handed it into her safekeeping. “Oh, Papa, we have done it, have we not?” Elaine told him triumphantly. “Nothing can interfere with Anne’s presentation now.”

  “And what about you, my dear?”

  “Oh, I’ll go to Town for a fortnight, perhaps near the middle of the Season, just to make sure Anne is going on as she ought. I’ll be able to remake a few of my dresses so that I can be turned out passably and not put her to shame, but you know after a couple of dull Wednesday nights at Almacks, I shall be heartily glad to return here to be at Lynnfield with you.”

  “I want more for you, Laney!”

  “I already have what I want, dearest Papa. I want to be right here at our beloved Lynnfield with you for as long a time as we have remaining. And then, when I can no longer be at Lynnfield, well I will be very content in my own home in Bath with my dear Libby.”

  “I never noticed you had much of a taste for Bath when we were there.”

  “Not when you tricked me into tasting the waters! I can still remember how you smacked your lips and told me how delicious they were!”

  Mr. Howard laughed. “And a trick you well deserved for insisting that I partake of that odious swill twice daily.”

  “Well, you have often enough accused me of being a managing female, Papa, but really, do you not think that between the two of us we have managed quite well for dear Anne? I am certain she will take exceedingly well this Season and find a kind and loving husband.”