Part 8 (1/2)
”Don't, please,” Elizabeth interrupted. ”You know I could never take money from you. Among other things, I wouldn't be able to pay it back. The trust should cover Havenhurst's expenses, but only barely. For now, my most pressing problem is to find some way out of this coil my uncle has created.”
”What I cannot understand is how your uncle could consider these two men suitable when they aren't. Not one whit.”
”We know that,” Elizabeth said wryly, bending down to pull a blade of gra.s.s from between the flagstones beneath the bench, ”but evidently my 'suitors' do not, and that's the problem.” As she said the words a thought began to form in her mind; her fingers touched the blade, and she went perfectly still. Beside her on the bench Alex drew a breath as if to speak, then stopped short, and in that pulsebeat of still silence the same idea was born in both their fertile minds.
”Alex,” Elizabeth breathed, ”all I have to-”
”Elizabeth,” Alex whispered, ”it's not as bad as it seems. All you have to-”
Elizabeth straightened slowly and turned. In that prolonged moment of silence two longtime friends sat in a rose garden, looking raptly at each other while time rolled back and they were girls again-lying awake in the dark, confiding their dreams and troubles and inventing schemes to solve them that always began with ”If only. . .”
”If only,” Elizabeth said as a smile dawned across her face and was matched by the one on Alex's, ”I could convince them that we don't suit-”
”Which shouldn't be hard to do,” Alex cried enthusiastically, ”because it's true.”
The joyous relief of having a plan, of being able to take control of a situation that minutes before had threatened her entire life, sent Elizabeth to her feet, her face aglow with laughter. ”Poor Sir Francis,” she chuckled, looking delightedly from Bentner to Alex as both grinned at her. ”I greatly fear he's in for the most disagreeable surprise when he realizes what a-a”-she hesitated, thinking of everything an old roue would most dislike in his future wife- ”a complete prude I am!”
”And,” Alex added, ”what a shocking spendthrift you are!”
”Exactly!” Elizabeth agreed, almost twirling around in her glee. Sunlight danced off her gilded hair and lit her green eyes as she looked delightedly at her friends. ”I shall make perfectly certain to give him glaring evidence I am both. Now then, as to the Earl of Canford . . .”
”What a pity,” Alex said in a voice of exaggerated gloom, ”you won't be able to show him what a capital hand you are with a fis.h.i.+ng pole.”
”Fish?” Elizabeth returned with a mock shudder. ”Why, the mere thought of those scaly creatures positively makes me swoon!”
”Except for that prime one you caught yesterday,” Bentner put in wryly.
”You're right,” she returned with an affectionate grin at the man who'd taught her to fish. ”Will you find Berta and break the news to her about going with me? By the time we come back to the house she ought to be over her hysterics, and I'll reason with her.” Bentner trotted off, his threadbare black coattails flapping behind him.
”That only leaves the third contender to discourage,” Alex said happily. ”Who is he, and what do we know of him? Do I know him?”
It was the moment Elizabeth had been dreading. ”You never heard of him until a few weeks ago, when you returned.”
”What?” she asked, nonplussed. Elizabeth drew a steadying breath and nervously rubbed her hands against the sides of her blue skirts. ”I think,” she said slowly, ”I ought to tell you exactly what happened a year and a half ago-with Ian Thornton.”
”There's no need to ever tell me if it will cause you unhappiness to speak of it. And right now, we surely ought to be thinking of the third man-” ”The third man,” Elizabeth interrupted tightly, ”is Ian Thornton.”
”Dear G.o.d!” Alex gasped in horror. ”Why? I mean-” ”I don't know why,” Elizabeth admitted with angry confusion. ”He accepted my uncle's proposition. So it is either some sort of complete misunderstanding or it is his idea of a joke, and neither makes much sense-”
”A joke! He ruined you. He must be a complete monster to find it amusing now.”
”The last time I saw him, he did not find the situation amusing, believe me,” Elizabeth said, and, sitting down, she told the whole story, trying desperately to keep her emotions under control so that she would be able to think clearly when she and Alex finalized their plans.
Chapter 9.
Berta, we've arrived,” Elizabeth said as their traveling chaise drew up before the expansive estate belonging to Sir Francis Belhaven. Berta's eyes had been squeezed closed for the last hour, but Elizabeth saw her bosom rising and falling with rapid, shallow breaths and knew she was not asleep. Berta had been terrified at the prospect of playing the role of Elizabeth's aunt, and none of Elizabeth's soothing or promises had eased her fear one bit in the last several days. She had not wanted to come, and now that she was there, she was still praying for deliverance.
”Aunt Berta!” she said forcefully as the front door of the great, rambling house was swung open. The butler stepped aside, and footmen hurried forward. ”Aunt Berta!” she said urgently, and in desperation Elizabeth reached for the maid's tightly clenched eyelid. She pried it open and looked straight into a frightened brown orb. ”Please do not do this to me, Berta. I'm counting on you to act like an aunt, not a timid mouse. They're almost upon us.”
Berta nodded, swallowed, and straightened in her seat, then she smoothed her black bombazine skirts.
”How do I look?” Elizabeth whispered urgently. ”Dreadful,” said Berta. eyeing the severe, high-necked black linen gown Elizabeth had carefully chosen to wear at this, her first meeting with the prospective husband whom Alexandra had described as a lecherous old roue. To add to her nunlike appearance, Elizabeth's hair was sc.r.a.ped back off her face, pinned into a bun a la Lucinda, and covered with a short veil. Around her neck she wore the only piece of ”jewelry” she intended to wear for as long as she was here-a large, ugly iron crucifix she'd borrowed from the family chapel.
”Completely dreadful, milady,” Berta added with more strength to her voice. Ever since Robert's disappearance, Berta had elected to address Elizabeth as her mistress instead of in the more familiar ways she'd used before.
”Excellent.” Elizabeth said with an encouraging smile. ”So do you.”
The footman opened the door and let down the steps, and Elizabeth went first. followed by her ”aunt.” She let Berta step forward. then she turned and looked up at Aaron, who was atop the coach. Her uncle had permitted her to take six servants from Havenhurst, and Elizabeth had chosen them with care. ”Don't forget,” she warned Aaron needlessly. ”Gossip freely about me with any servant who'll listen to you. You know what to say.”
”Aye,” he said with a devilish grin. ”We'll tell them all what a skinny ogress you are-prim 'n proper enough to scare the devil himself into leading a holy life.”
Elizabeth nodded and reluctantly turned toward the house. Fate had dealt her this hand, and she had no choice but to play it out as best she could. With head held high and knees shaking violently she walked forward until she drew even with Berta. The butler stood in the doorway, studying Elizabeth with bold interest, giving her the incredible impression that he was actually trying to locate her b.r.e.a.s.t.s beneath the shapeless black gown she wore. He stepped back from the door to permit them to enter. ”My lord is with guests at the moment and will join you shortly,” he explained. ”In the meantime, Curbes will show you to your chambers.” His eyes s.h.i.+fted to Berta and began to gleam appreciatively as they settled on her plump derriere, then he turned and nodded to the head footman.
With a white-faced, tight-lipped Berta beside her, Elizabeth climbed the long flight of stairs, glancing curiously about her at the gloomy hall and the crimson carpet on the steps. The carpet was thick and soft at the edges, attesting to its original cost, but it was threadbare beneath her feet and in immediate need of being replaced. There were gilt sconces on the wall with candles in them, but they had not been lit, and the staircase and landing above it were shrouded in darkness. So was the bedchamber she'd been a.s.signed, Elizabeth realized as the footman opened the door and ushered them inside.
”Lady Berta's chamber is just through this door,” the footman spoke up. Elizabeth squinted, peering in the darkness, and saw him walk over to what she a.s.sumed must be a wall. Hinges creaked slightly, hinting at the fact that a door had just been opened by the footman.
”It's dark as a tomb in here,” she said, unable to see more than shadows. ”Will you light the candles, please,” she asked, ”a.s.suming there are candles in here?”
”Aye, milady, right there, next to the bed.” His shadow crossed before her, and Elizabeth focused on a large, oddly shaped object that she supposed could be a bed, given its size.
”Will you light them, please?” she urged. ”I-I can't see a thing in here.”
”His lords.h.i.+p don't like more'n one candle lit in the bedchambers,” the, footman said. ”He says it's a waste o' beeswax.”
Elizabeth blinked in the darkness, tom somewhere between laughter and tears at her plight. ”Oh,” she said, nonplussed. The footman lit a small candle at the far end of the room and left, closing the door behind him. ”Milady?” Berta whispered, peering through the dark, impenetrable gloom. ”Where are you?”
”I'm over here,” Elizabeth replied, walking cautiously forward, her arms outstretched, her hands groping about for possible obstructions in her path as she headed for what she hoped was the outside wall of the bedchamber, where there was bound to be a window with draperies hiding its light.
”Where?” Bert asked in a frightened whisper, and Elizabeth could hear the maid's teeth chattering halfway across the room.
”Here-on your left.” Berta followed the sound of her mistress's voice and let out a terrified gasp at the sight of the ghostlike figure moving eerily through the darkness, arms outstretched. ”Raise your arm,” she said urgently, ”so I'll know 'tis you.”
Elizabeth, knowing Berta's timid nature, complied immediately. She raised her arm, which, while calming poor Berta, unfortunately caused Elizabeth to walk straight into a slender, fluted pillar with a marble bust upon it, and they both began to topple. ”Good G.o.d!” Elizabeth burst out, wrapping her arms protectively around the pillar and the marble object upon it. ”Berta!” she said urgently. ”This is no time to be afraid of the dark. Help me, please. I've b.u.mped into something-a bust and its stand, I think and I daren't let go of them until I can see how to set them upright. There are draperies over here, right in front of me. All you have to do is follow my voice and open them. Once we do, 'twill be bright as day in here.”
”I'm coming, milady,” Berta said bravely, and Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief. ”I've found them!” Berta cried softly a few minutes later. ”They're heavy-velvet they are, with another panel behind them.” Berta pulled one heavy panel back across the wall, and then, with renewed urgency and vigor, she yanked back the other and turned around to survey the room.
”Light at last!” Elizabeth said with relief. Dazzliing late afternoon sunlight poured into the windows directly in front of her, blinding her momentarily. ”That's much better,” she said, blinking. Satisfied that the pillar was quite st.u.r.dy enough to stand without her aid, Elizabeth was about to place the bust back upon it, but Berta's cry stopped her. ”Saints preserve us!” With the fragile bust clutched protectively to her chest Elizabeth swung sharply around. There, spread out before her, furnished entirely in red and gold, was the most shocking room Elizabeth had ever beheld: Six enormous gold cupids seemed to hover in thin air above a gigantic bed clutching crimson velvet bed draperies in one pudgy fist and holding bows and arrows in the other; more cupids adorned the headboard. Elizabeth's eyes widened, first in disbelief, and a moment later in mirth. ”Berta,” she breathed on a smothered giggle, ”will you look at this place!”
Mesmerized by the gilt ghastliness of it all, Elizabeth slowly turned in a full circle. Above the fireplace there was a gilt-framed painting of a lady attired in nothing whatsoever but a sc.r.a.p of nearly-transparent red silk that had been draped across her hips. Elizabeth jerked her eyes away from that shocking display of nudity and found herself confronted by a veritable army of cavorting cupids. They reposed in chubby, gilt splendor atop the mantel and the bed tables; a cl.u.s.ter of them formed the tall candelabra beside the bed, which held twelve candles-one of which the footman had lit-and more cupids surrounded an enormous mirror; ”It's. . .” Berta uttered as she gazed through eyes the size of saucers, ”it's. . . I can't find words,” she breathed, but Elizabeth had pa.s.sed through her own state of shock and was perilously close to hilarity.
”Unspeakable?” Elizabeth suggested helpfully, and a giggle bubbled up from her throat. ”U-Unbelievable?” she volunteered, her shoulders beginning to shake with mirth.
Berta made a nervous, strangled sound, and suddenly it was too much for both of them. Days of relentless tension erupted into gales of hilarity, and they gave in to it with shared abandon. Great gusty shouts of laughter erupted from them, sending tears trickling down their cheeks. Berta s.n.a.t.c.hed for her missing ap.r.o.n, then remembered her new, elevated station in life and instead withdrew a handkerchief from her sleeve, dabbing at the comers of her eyes; Elizabeth simply clutched the forgotten bust to her chest, perched her chin upon its smooth head, and laughed until she ached. So complete was their absorption that neither of them realized their host was entering the bedchamber until Sir Francis boomed enthusiastically, ”Lady Elizabeth and Lady Berta!”