Part 15 (1/2)
”'The Mayor and Corporation of Devizes,'” she read aloud, ”avail themselves of this building to transmit for future times the record of an awful event which occurred in this marketplace, hoping that such record may serve as a salutary warning against the danger of impiously invoking Divine Vengeance to conceal the devices of falsehood and deceit.”
She paused, noting that both Vanessa and Catherine looked conscious. Of course the warning was more directed against blasphemy than against deception, but she doubted that they drew the distinction. She read on in a portentous voice.
”On Thursday 25th January, 1753, Ruth Pierce agreed with three other women to buy a sack of wheat, each paying due proportion; one of these women in collecting the money discovered a deficiency and demanded of Ruth Pierce the sum that was wanting; Ruth Pierce protested that she had paid her share and said she wished she might drop down dead if she had not. She rashly repeated this awful wish; when to the consternation and terror of the surrounding mult.i.tude she instantly fell down and expired.”
The wording was less relevant than Sarah had hoped, yet her companions were a trifle pale. She managed to produce a realistic shudder and rubbed in the lesson. ”What a shocking story! If I were guilty of any underhanded dealings, I vow I should quake in my shoes.”
It was a silent pair that walked with her back to the Bear and allowed Peter to hand them into the barouche.
”What a pleasant day,” sighed Sarah, leaning back against the squabs. ”I fear Little Fittleton can be quite lonely now that all Adam's sisters are wed and removed from the neighbourhood. He means to bring his bride to live at Cheve, I collect, but how he will go on with such limited female companions.h.i.+p, I dread to think. Of course it is his growing up with so many sisters that is to blame.”
”To blame?” asked Lady Catherine hesitantly.
”Yes. It is unconscionable the way he hides beneath such charm the l.u.s.ts of a veritable Bluebeard.”
”Bluebeard?” Vanessa's violet eyes nearly started from her head.
Catherine, however, looked slightly skeptical so Sarah hastened to retract.
”I exaggerate, of course. Why, I do not mean to accuse dear Adam of murdering a series of wives! Indeed, I daresay he does not even mean to marry more than one at a time, though of course he does have radical views. Only the other day we were speaking of harems such as they have in Turkey, where a man is allowed four wives and any number of concubines-as many as he can afford to support, I believe, and Adam is excessively rich. Not that I have ever known him to support more than three females at a time, not counting his own family.”
Vanessa gasped.
”My abigail did mention some such rumour among the servants at Cheve,” Catherine conceded, her composure beginning to fray. ”I dismissed it as an exaggeration.”
”I fear not.” Sarah sighed. ”I was put in the uncomfortable position of receiving all three at the vicarage. At one time.”
”Surely he will not expect his wife to receive his cheres amies? Once I am Lady Cheverell, he will not continue to keep a mistress,” Catherine stated confidently.
”You, Lady Cheverell?” cried Vanessa. ”It is I who shall be his viscountess. He will have no cause to look elsewhere for beauty.”
She and Catherine glared at each other. Sarah added her fuel to the flames. ”Alas, Adam will never be satisfied with one woman, however beautiful or accomplished, whichever of you he chooses.”
”He has already chosen me,” said Catherine in a cold voice. ”We have been betrothed since the day we went to Salisbury.”
”Then I have prior claim,” announced Vanessa in triumph, ”for our engagement began on the night of the ball.”
”On the contrary. Lord Cheverell clearly changed his mind after asking you.” ”He is promised to both of you?” cried Sarah dramatically. ”Alas, it is as I feared. Does he mean to keep one in London and one at Cheve, I wonder?” Both young ladies stared at her, aghast. Unconsciously they moved closer together on the seat, as if for mutual protection. Sarah pressed her advantage. ”You will have to keep silent, of course. Think of the disgrace if it should become known, and I daresay even a peer can be imprisoned for bigamy. You will not like to be visiting him at Newgate.” Horror was mirrored in two pairs of eyes. Sarah sat back, satisfied. ”Lady Cheverell's house party comes to an end shortly, does it not?” she said in a conversational tone.
”You will be glad to go home and tell your families that Adam has come up to scratch. Twice-though that is best kept secret. I wonder which of your papas he will approach first.” ”If he has the audacity to ask my father for my hand,” Lady Catherine announced, her voice steely, ''I shall have him thrown out of the house.”
”I shall write to Papa at once,” Miss Brennan quavered, ”and tell him on no account to grant Lord Cheverell permission to court me.” Sarah thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the drive home. When they reached the vicarage, Peter jumped down to help her from the carriage.
”Not a word to anyone!” she whispered to the groom, slipping a s.h.i.+lling into his hand.
”I knows how to hold me tongue, miss,” he said with a grin, tipped his hat and drove on.
Adam looked up in annoyance as the door to his study was flung open. Not that going over the estate
accounts was a pleasure, but having settled to them he wanted to finish and forget them. He had explicitly
instructed Gossett that he was not to be disturbed. The sight that met his eyes was not rea.s.suring. Lady Catherine marched in, militant outrage personified. Vanessa Brennan, on the other hand, drooped, her beautiful violet eyes reproachful. Adam rose and bowed.
”To what do I owe the honour, ladies?” he enquired warily.
”Philanderer! Yes, you may well blench, my lord, for we know you to be a second Casanova!”
”Why, Lady Catherine, I am shocked that you have even heard of that notorious libertine.”
”You need not think to cozen us with your wiles. All has been revealed to us.”
”False deceiver, you have broken our hearts.”
”What, both of them? Or have you more than one apiece?” Adam was beginning to enjoy himself.
”What is this 'all' that you have discovered?”
”It is beneath our dignity to repeat the sordid details. Suffice it to say that you may consider yourself jilted, as you deserve. Twice. Come, dearest Vanessa, we will not bandy words with this-this-”
”Bluebeard,” put in Miss Brennan helpfully as they swept out.
Accounts abandoned, Adam went after them, grinning. What the devil had Sarah told them?
”Gossett!” he shouted. ”Have Caesar saddled and send Wrigley up to my chamber at once.”
Not half an hour later he stepped into the vicarage study, to be greeted by two laughing faces. At the sight of him, both the Meades went off into fresh whoops. Jonathan's chair teetered precariously on two legs.
”Minx,” said Adam, resigned. ”What yarn did you spin to them?”
”I started quite innocuously,” Sarah gasped, ”with Lord Sidmouth's column.”
The viscount looked blank.
”He is so rarely here he probably doesn't know about it,” Jonathan advised his sister.
”You must remember the story of Ruth Pierce, who dropped dead in the market? It was dinned into us
often enough when we were children as a dreadful warning against falsehood.” Sarah explained how she had enticed the young ladies into reading the cautionary tale on the new market cross. ”I am certain it gave them pause. However, Bluebeard was my trump card.”
”Vanessa said something about Bluebeard. Sarah, you didn't tell them that I am in the habit of murdering my brides?” ”That was unnecessary. The truth was sufficient,” she said dryly, then conceded, ”though I cannot deny misleading them a little. I believe I succeeded in persuading them that you wanted two wives, one for the town and one for the country. What happened?”