Stephanie and the Wicked Deceiver (Wild Marchmonts #2)

12. A Tale of Love and Guilt

Chapter 12

A Tale of Love and Guilt

O n the ride the next morning, Lord Fortescue said, ‘You look a little distracted, Stephanie. Has something occurred?’

‘Only a letter from home. It has made me miss my family rather.’ She smiled wryly. ‘Morag will be pleased, for that means Mama’s punishment of me is working.’

‘Tell us something about your family,’ said Hedley.

She looked over and smiled again at him. ‘Well, I shall over breakfast, but now your seat in a canter has improved so much that we will gallop. Weight forward, Hedley, but do not be tense. Watch Sir Rupert first, then off we go! Canter, then gallop.’

Hedley was now in a difficult position. Since his return from London, and since the scales had fallen from his eyes about his attachment to his young tutor, it had seemed disgusting to lie by word or deed. He felt not so much that he should not because his conscience had pricked at him from the first of his wicked plan, but that he could not since it was an affront to his love and to his own feelings. But he had promised her mama that he would not yet tell Stephanie of his perfidy and so he was trapped. Was this the clever punishment that Stephanie said her mother was famous for? It was torture.

Well, if he could not be honest in word, at least in deed he could no longer feign. He galloped on the back of his mother’s mare as though he were on Atlas. Stephanie, who had swept ahead of him on Qianlong Emperor and was waiting beneath the huge old oak where they often practised fencing, called, ‘Magnificent, Hedley! But poor Proudfoot is suffering, I fear!’

Hedley bent down to stroke Sally’s neck and did not look again at Stephanie’s glowing eyes.

‘Did you see that, Fortescue, Sir Rupert?’ she demanded excitedly of his companions. ‘Soon the earl will outride you all! He was almost better than Horace – from the first day, of course!’ she scoffed.

After shaking his head, her target said only, ‘You are right, my dear Miss Marchmont. And I thank you for the corrections that have helped me improve, my friends tell me.’

Stephanie sighed. ‘You are no fun anymore, Horace Pettigrew! Do not you agree, Lord Fortescue?’

‘I beg you call me Benjamin since I now call your name. But I must admit that the repentant Pettigrew lacks charm.’

'And Sir Rupert,’ she continued eagerly, ‘were you watching Hedley ride? Did his gallop not utterly stun you?’

‘Well, my dear Stephanie, I am not easily stunned , but it was very … enlightening,’ answered Armitage at his most urbane. ‘I suspected, you know, that Hedley was hiding his light under a bushel, but I did not think he would reveal it quite yet.’

‘Oh, you sound like my cousin Dorian Marchmont. I can seldom understand him when he is being obscure.’

‘That reminds me,’ drawled Armitage. ‘My mother is a very gossipy correspondent, and so I can safely say I know every noteworthy event in Town. I have not heard of a single Dorian Marchmont scandal this Season, which is highly unusual.’

‘It is not likely that Marchmont’s scandals are of the order that a female would hear of,’ remarked Pettigrew.

‘You underestimate the scope of the intelligence methods of Lady Armitage,’ replied Sir Rupert sardonically.

They had reached the stables. ‘I must hear more about your mama,’ said Stephanie as she dismounted.

‘But you promised to tell us more about your own family,’ Armitage protested.

They moved to the house and Stephanie, like the gentlemen, took off her mud-splattered boots and put on some satin slippers with which Morag was awaiting her. The maid shook her head at the muddied gown that she could, at this juncture, do nothing about.

‘Don’t fuss!’ said Stephanie at her expression.

‘Horace said that you received a letter from home, little one?’ Hedley said as they went into the breakfast room.

‘I did, and it made me miss my family a little. I wrote back and mentioned all of you, of course.’

The earl gave a comic frown. ‘What did you say of us?’

‘Oh, just your names, really. I suppose you might be already known to the earl and countess, and perhaps to the rest of the Royal family.’

‘I do not know the Tremaines very well,’ Pettigrew interrupted. ‘Who makes up your Royals ?

‘Apart from the earl and countess, there is Charles. You must surely have seen him in London – he has hair a mile high! I had hoped to see many such sights in London for they are amusing, but I was disappointed.’

‘Oh, the fellow who smells of scent and still wears lace at his wrists like my grandfather?’ asked Pettigrew.

‘ That is the Crown Prince. He told Roseanna it was a new fashion. Is it? I have not been to a ball,’ Stephanie confessed.

‘I fear it is a fashion for one person only,’ the baronet said.

‘And then there are Queenie and Ophelia, and Eliot, who is my sister Naomi’s husband – and Dorian, as I said. Only, since Ophelia and Queenie have moved in with Eliot and Naomi, I feel that they have rather become part of the Wilds. That is us you know — the other Marchmont family!’

‘I have met Miss Clytemnestra Marchmont, and I cannot envisage her as Wild, somehow!’ remarked Lord Benjamin Fortescue.

‘Oh, but she is now, a little, though she is still too polite to be called truly wild. If you knew her, you would see such a difference. Naomi and Ophelia have a wicked plan to increase her wildness by degrees.’

‘How is she different from last Season?’ asked Hedley, smiling at her in a way that made her blink.

Reflecting, Stephanie said, ‘Well, I cannot exactly say. I have not much been interested in all of that, but she is still the sweetest lady. She would frequently check me for injury when I came back…’ she looked toward Morag then mouthed silently to him ‘… from a fencing lesson with Sir Francis, for example. I had a skinned knee once and she was almost fierce when she warned him to be careful with me. As though I do not skin a knee or some such every other day!’

A footman, delivering a dish, stopped when he heard this and looked at her. Armitage coughed, an amused expression on his face, and the dish arrived at Stephanie’s elbow.

She turned to Pettigrew. ‘I suppose she might eat you if she found out that you had actually wounded me.’

‘Miss Marchmont…’ said the penitent ‘…Stephanie, I did not mean to, I am so…’

‘If you say you are sorry one more time, Horace Pettigrew, I shall hit you with my crop. It is just a scratch, silly. I once kicked Berthe in the face when she followed me on a tree climb and made her eye black. Though I was distressed, I was not so apologetic as you! And poor Berthe was only six at the time. Hedley, tell him to stop being silly.’

‘Stop being silly, Pettigrew!’ said the assembled breakfast company as one – and laughed.

‘Tell us about Berthe,’ continued Fortescue. He was enjoying himself.

‘She is the youngest and the most like me, everyone says, but she will be another dark-haired beauty like my elder sisters. And she pries, where I do not.’

Hedley heard in her voice her certainty that she alone of her female siblings was not beautiful; it did not bother her, but she was assured of it. She was wrong. As he looked at the open face full of life and vitality he, who had not seen her sisters, was very sure none could match her beauty.

He tried for an off-hand tone as he remarked, ‘ You were a poke-nose with the magician and the female pickpocket.’

‘Oh, only about what they could do , not about anything else. Berthe would go home with them and poke about in their rooms and ask embarrassingly rude questions.’

‘Such as?’ Hedley was wondering what constituted rude to this blunt girl.

‘Well, once she asked a villager’s family why their house was so dirty and the villager told her because she worked so hard that she had not the time to clean it.’

‘And then?’

‘Berthe paid a neighbour’s child a farthing a day to empty the chamber pots and sweep the grate and floor. The old woman who lived in the house was furious to begin with, but she came home to a tidy home and soon lost her rancour.’

‘Yes,’ intoned Fortescue for them all, ‘that was quite rude. But kind also.’

‘Berthe is not kind but practical, I think, like my mama. You cannot thank Mama for a boon, for she will tell you how it was done from necessity , not compassion.’ Stephanie laughed. ‘Anyway, Berthe also told Charles Marchmont that he looked less fat and more squished – I think she invented that word – when he had just bought a new corset. Ophelia told me later.’

‘Your little sister sounds dreadful!’ said Pettigrew. ‘Worse than you, even.’

Stephanie grinned. ‘I am glad you are back to being unpleasant, Horace!’ Pettigrew grinned back.

Wilson brought more refreshments. Stephanie had barely swallowed a mouthful before she continued. ‘My brother, Richard Marchmont, is the eldest. Rich is an engineer like Papa, and he doesn’t talk very much except to Tabitha, who is thirteen and an engineer, too.’

‘A female? An engineer?’ This was Pettigrew, of course.

‘She is. She had one patent for gears when she was only eleven years old and is therefore rich in her own right, Mama says. And another patent is pending, I am told.’

‘The patent office is labyrinthine and very difficult to navigate,’ remarked Fortescue.

‘Oh, but we have Uncle Gavin. He is the best lawyer in Scotland.’

‘Scotland has, I fear, different laws to England,’ said Hedley.

‘That is no problem to Uncle Gavin. He has the strangest memory, you know. Once he has read a book he remembers every word, so he is also an expert on English law. When Papa went to the Americas to make steamboat engines, Uncle Gavin went too. Papa said he out-talked the fast-talking American lawyers. He does all Papa’s business, which is Mama’s now, of course.’

‘You miss your Papa…’ the earl said, his voice a caress.

Her eyes filled, something the friends were shocked to see from their young hellion, and they stilled.

‘He was the most handsome and best man in the world. He was like Richard, only Papa was also funny and Rich seldom is.’ She shook her head as though banishing the sadness. ‘My eldest sister is Roseanna, who is very sweet. Then there is Phoebe, who bit the baronet.’

‘Which baronet?’ enquired Pettigrew.

‘I do not think I should say, Horace, but she did. Phoebe and Roseanna are both beauties. Do not take my word for it – they have been perfectly besieged in London with gentlemen followers. At least, the house is full of them but some must be for Ophelia and Queenie, of course. But I do know they dance every dance at balls and drive out with gentlemen.’

‘So that is all of you? There are a great many.’

‘Indeed! But there is still Mama. She is the most unusual person but quite wonderful.’

‘Yes,’ agreed Hedley.

Armitage coughed, fearing Hedley would betray himself. ‘Hedley means you have quoted her to us before.’

But Stephanie had not noticed; she was looking into the distance as she spoke of her mother. ‘I did not always know Mama was unusual, although Papa told us often that he had the most wonderful and unique wife. But as one travels and meets with others, one begins to understand how marvellous it is that there is a mama at home who allows you to hang upside down from trees if you want to, or draw gears incessantly if you’d prefer, or write like Naomi. That is not usual, is it? To permit females such freedom?’

‘I don’t suppose it is,’ said Sir Rupert. ‘But it rather explains you.’

‘And then, after Papa died and Mama was left alone, I saw how truly wonderful she was. Nothing defeats her.’

‘Why does your family reside with the other Marchmonts?’ asked Hedley.

‘Oh, for some purpose of Mama’s. I did not much enquire, for she is always right.’ Stephanie smiled. ‘Actually, it was awkward for a while since most of the other family wished us gone, but it is entertaining when in all innocence Berthe challenges all Charles’ Marchmont’s loftiness – or even the earl’s. The earl always affects to be so dismissive and distant, but Berthe manages to irritate him. Once he laid a hand on her and— Oh, I should not say. I do not usually speak so much and here is why. My mouth runs on without a stop. I have no natural discretion.’

‘Do you mean to say,’ said Pettigrew, getting back to business, ‘that the Earl of Tremaine was moved to strike a child?’

‘He did not strike her, just gave her a warning push to stay away, but it caused Rich to throttle him. He doesn’t like anyone touching the children, especially since Papa passed away. He is very protective.’

‘I am surprised that the earl did not send you all off afterwards,’ said Sir Rupert Armitage, stroking the ball of grey fuzz that always found him.

‘Oh, he would not do so. Mama has mastered him somehow.’

‘Money!’ said Fortescue cynically.

Armitage nodded.

‘You do not mean to say your Mama bears all the expenses for both families…?’ probed Pettigrew.

‘Now I think of it, that is probably why the earl and Charles disagreed whenever the countess suggested our removal!’ Stephanie nodded. ‘Thank you, Horace.’

‘But she cannot…’ protested the young man. ‘How rich is she?’

‘I feel it is vulgar to intrude further,’ said Hedley reprovingly.

‘I expect you mean it is vulgar to speak of money, but I believe we are quite fabulously wealthy. All grandpapa’s estates, Papa’s wealth – and even Richard and Tabitha are wealthy in their own rights. Only we don’t generally think of it. We live the way we wish and it is very little to do with the things the Royals deem important.’

‘Like?’

‘Oh, status! When Naomi wondered why the countess was so set on rank while Mama was not, Mama said she herself did not particularly value it since she had always had it. Just as we girls did not particularly value money since we had always had access to it.’

‘It is true,’ said Horace Pettigrew. ‘I never think of money at all until I run out of it near quarter day. Then it is all I think of.’

‘Idiot!’ remarked Armitage.

‘So, you may buy anything you wish?’ pursued Pettigrew quite intrusively.

‘Not at all,’ Stephanie said. ‘We all have an allowance, and if we run out before the quarter ends, Mama will not frank us. Never!’

‘That is how you realise the way to avoid profligacy,’ remarked Sir Rupert, with mild approval.

‘My Pa franks me if I annoy him enough,’ grinned Pettigrew with a hint of smugness.

‘And see the consequence!’ said Baron Fortescue. ‘If he once did not , I suspect your next allowance would last until quarter day.’

‘You are quite right. My elder sisters seldom run out of money these days. It is quite your own fault, Horace!’ Stephanie chided.

Pettigrew gave her a childish grimace in return. Hedley saw that they were children together and felt suddenly very old.

‘I confess I wish to see the biting beauty,’ remarked Armitage, one satyr’s eyebrow flying.

Stephanie stopped eating and said earnestly, ‘This is why I should not talk. It is only since you are such good friends and I trust you already…’ she did not notice that the gentlemen, each in their own way, looked touched by this admission that came from her so naturally ‘…that I have let my tongue from its leash. But I must swear you all to secrecy about everything I have mentioned about my family. About the Royals, too. It is wrong to gossip.’

‘Whichever scandalous truths we know about each other, gentlemen such as us never betray our friend’s secrets,’ said Lord Fortescue sombrely, hand on heart.

‘Scandalous secrets? You must confide in me, too, then,’ said Stephanie. She turned to the earl with a mischievous smile. ‘I have a mind to know some of your secrets, Hedley.’

‘Not suitable for females.’ drawled Armitage.

‘Well, of all the…’ protested Stephanie, stung by the injustice.

‘I am dreadfully late, my dears. Sorry,’ said Miss Galloway, joining them with an apologetic look at the earl for not doing her duty. But Morag was here so all was well in the chaperonage department. ‘ What is not suitable for females?’ she asked. ‘I think those are always the most interesting things to hear.’

‘Och, they are just talking nonsense, Miss,’ said Morag, who had been sitting in a corner. ‘Teasing the lass, most like.’

‘Male scandals,’ said Stephanie.

‘I should like to know some of them. Female scandals lack meat on them, I should say,’ said Gertrude Galloway airily, sipping her coffee. ‘ Miss Pretty went to the garden with Mr Handsome for a whole two minutes without her chaperone!’ she recounted in a simpering voice. Changing her tone to bored, she added, ‘How shocking! Or Miss Lovely was seen touching a man’s hand at an exhibition.’ The bored tone again. ‘How illicit! Not much to make the heart race. Do tell us some more satisfying stories.’ She bent across the table to Hedley and adopted such an avid look that he laughed.

‘Oh, I do not know,’ said Hedley, warding her off. ‘It seems to me that Stephanie 's scandals are meaty enough for any carnivore. Rescuing children from the Thames, fighting footpads with a foil, practising a pickpocket’s gymnastics or chasing a magician for magic tricks all seem more interesting than the scandals of most men I know.’

‘You are quite correct!’ said Miss Galloway, apparently satisfied. ‘Stephanie’s scandals are unique. I have been bucked up since I heard of them.’

‘Do you wish you had done suchlike yourself, ma’am?’ asked Armitage, a touch sardonically.

‘No,’ said Gertrude simply. ‘It is like hearing about a military hero’s actions – thrilling, but not enticing for oneself.’

Morag muttered in the corner; it may have been ‘Enticing for no sensible person. Just encouraging her .’

Pietro was missing, which gave Morag the notion that Stephanie was, too. The girl had said she would make a tour of the grounds, and goodness knows she could walk! A little maid generally accompanied her since the older woman could no longer keep up, but as Morag, feeling concerned, turned a corner in the upper corridor leading to Stephanie’s room, she saw that maid emerge with a heap of bed linen to be washed.

Well, thought Morag, Pietro was with her, but she then had a suspicion and went as briskly as she could to the stables. Yes, Miss was riding with the Italian, she was informed, as she did every day. Every day ? For many of these afternoons Morag, busy with other chores for a couple of hours, had locked Stephanie in. When she considered it now, the child had not quite complained enough at her incarceration, and Morag had once seen muddy boots, indicating escape.

Since Stephanie had been permitted the before-breakfast ride (Lady Eleanor, by letter, had not objected to the maid’s decision since they frequently dined with Miss Galloway these days and the gentlemen, too, of course) Morag had assumed that that there was no more need for incarceration. Surely the lassie already saw them all enough?

Perhaps Miss was just riding around the grounds of Reddingate? But Morag, frowning, ordered the gig.

It was about this time that Naomi in London got Stephanie’s reply. She gathered up the sisters and cousins and they read the letter in her chamber. Queenie and Ophelia, who would never previously have dreamed of such behaviour, threw themselves onto the coverlet to join the Wilds: Naomi, Roseanna and Phoebe. Naomi had not thought it politic to invite her youngest sisters, Berthe and Tabitha; it was not good, said Phoebe, to give Berthe new ideas for mischief. Anyway, the younger ones were with Richard, Dorian and Eliot below; it did not seem to matter to them these days which of these gentlemen they tripped after.

‘Stephanie’s idea to somehow trick his lordship with the other earring seems enticing, but we may need male help. We cannot easily follow a gentleman without being spotted.’

‘Do you think we should behave so basely?’ asked Queenie nervously.

‘It is his lordship who is base,’ said Ophelia. ‘We just wish to prevent him.’

‘But the intention by Stephanie’s ploy is to take back the earring, which in fact now belongs to the wicked lord since her ladyship pledged it. We must not steal!’ said Roseanna.

Naomi sighed and looked from Queenie to Roseanna, ‘Are you sure you two are not sisters? You have the same scruples.’

‘Morals,’ corrected Ophelia. ‘But gladly, I have none.’

‘Oh, that is not true,’ cried Roseanna. ‘You are very good!’

‘Well,’ said Phoebe, ‘we might leave the sum of money of the bet when we take the earring, supposing we discover its location, but we cannot have his lordship use the pledge to further his own dark ends or, if she refuses him, ruin a woman’s life.’

‘Oh no!’ said Queenie.

‘If I have anything to do with it, I will get caught and ruin the whole plan,’ worried Roseanna.

‘I promise you and Queenie shall only be given the most respectable of tasks.’

‘And we’ll take all the risks!’ said Phoebe.

‘You mock us, Phoebe.’

‘In such a cause, I will happily become a thief!’ Naomi exclaimed.

‘And I,’ agreed Ophelia.

‘Well yes, but we must yet find a method. Naomi and I will come up with a plan on the level of the Great Marvello. Perhaps we will ask Dorian, for he has a duplicitous soul.’

‘If we want a duplicitous soul, we should have invited Berthe to help us, as Stephanie suggested.’

‘Heaven spare us!’

‘Yes, but leave us now, girls, for Naomi and I shall discuss it,’ ordered Ophelia. The others left and Ophelia turned to Naomi. ‘There is something else I want to mention to you,’ she said.

‘And not to the others?’

‘Well, Roseanna and Queenie would likely worry, and Phoebe would go to bite someone of a higher rank than Sir Osbert Barclay!’

‘What has concerned you in the letter?’

‘Stephanie is giving lessons in riding and fencing to Hedley? That is, Maximilian Chance, Earl of Hedley .’

‘Well, whatever his rank, I like that he has unbent enough to accept tuition from a girl. It argues for a lack of arrogance. And whatever has prompted this, I think he might learn something for she is truly excellent, you know.’

‘Of course I know. But you do not know that Hedley is the finest sportsman in England!’

‘ He is tricking her ? Because she is pretty, he means to play with her?’ said Naomi wrathfully.

‘No, no, he does not have that reputation. I have always believed he is a good man, and the friends he mentioned are first class.’

‘It is a joke, then, an entertainment?’

‘I should think so, but it has gone on for some time…’

There was a knock and Dorian Marchmont, twenty-eight-year-old Greek god, joined his sister and cousin on the bed, crossed his legs over the edge and leaned casually on a post. ‘Phoebe thought you’d need my help plotting something, but I will do so only if you are sure that it will not upset your mama, Naomi.’

‘Well, I won’t tell her. She is too busy to bother with our schemes,’ Naomi laughed. ‘But Dorian, are you so afraid of Mama?’

‘I value Lady Eleanor’s judgement,’ Dorian said solemnly.

‘I suspect that for you, like Eliot, she had become your goddess.’

‘Naturally, as she would be for any man of sense.’

‘That explains why she irritates Cedric and Charles,’ remarked Ophelia.

‘Precisely!’

‘But Ophelia has raised another problem with me. Do you know Hedley well?’

Dorian bristled ‘Hedley? Why?’

‘Read this!’ said Ophelia, thrusting Stephanie’s letter into Dorian’s hand. He read it avidly. ‘Is it not ridiculous that Hedley, Armitage and all, are playing such a trick on Stephanie?’ she asked.

‘I can see the temptation… If a child offered that Nonpareil Hedley instruction, it might have been too sweet a jest not to allow her.’

‘But it has gone on so long. However, Ophelia thinks that Hedley is not a bounder.’

‘Certainly not! He does not harass young females. That is why I thought, when he came here…’

‘He came here ? Hedley? All the way from the Court?’ Naomi exclaimed.

‘Yes, last week. He met with your mother, Naomi.’

‘Oh, well – it might be… No! Could the girl who wishes to dispense with balls and morning visits be pursued by an earl at Reddingate?’

‘Ah, so it might have been on Stephanie’ s account that he came here…!’ Dorian said. For some reason that Ophelia would think about later, her brother sounded relieved.

‘But he will not do her harm?’ asked Naomi.

‘She is far more likely to do him harm if what you suspect is true. She has no notion of men as suitors.’

‘You only say so because she was unmoved by your beauty, Dorian,’ said his sister. ‘She might be moved by Hedley’s.’

‘Is he handsome?’ asked Naomi.

‘Oh, extremely so!’ replied Ophelia.

‘And he will not do anything dishonourable?’ Naomi persisted.

‘Of course not! Hedley is a gentleman to the core,’ opined Dorian definitely.

‘Then we need not tell Mama?’ asked Naomi.

‘He probably came here to confess his crime,’ said Dorian. ‘I said he was a gentleman.’

‘Oh then! I wonder if my boyish little sister will break the great man’s heart?’