"Do you wish to retain your place, then?"
"Yes, yer grace." Sally shifted her feet nervously.
"In whose employ are you?" The duke towered over the servant.
"H-her grace"s," Sally half whispered. She was suddenly afraid.
"No, Sally, you are not in her grace"s employ. You may serve her grace, but you are in my employ. You take my wage. You live under my roof, and you eat at my table. You even have a small clothing allowance from my generosity. Do you understand the difference between being in service and being in my employ?"
"Y-y-yes, yer grace." She had to pee.
"Then since you are content with your lot, I may a.s.sume you wish to remain in my employ. In order to do that, Sally, you will report to me any foolishness your mistress may contemplate. Tomorrow we leave for Hawkes Hill. We will remain there until I decide to come up to London again. That will not be until your mistress has given me an heir or two. If your mistress should attempt to run away again, you will warn me in time to prevent her from doing so. If you do not, Sally, you will find yourself back in the same slum from whence you sprang. Do you understand me, girl?"
"If she finds out I"m spying on her, she"ll kill me!" Sally told the duke. "She"s got a real mean temper when she"s crossed."
"You will be clever, Sally, and she will not find out," he soothed the maid. "And as long as you obey me, girl, there will be a place for you in my household. I wield more power here than your mistress, and you are no fool. You know it to be so."
Sally nodded, and then the duke stepped aside to allow her to pa.s.s. He had been patient with Calandra, but now he was through being patient. She took his forbearance for stupidity and weakness. Decamping from Hawkes Hill and coming up to London without his knowledge had been outrageous. She believed herself off his leash, but she was not. The lead he held her by was a long one. The time, however, had come to rein her in and bring her to heel. Once they reached home he was going to be in her bed every night. He would use her until she bloomed with his child. That was why he had married her. To get children from her. With George and Aurora as his allies they would bring Calandra around to a more reasonable frame of mind.
Aurora. He was thinking about her far more than he should, and he knew it was wrong. But she was everything he had ever desired in a wife. She was intelligent and kind. She had wit, not to mention beauty. She knew her duty, which was certainly more than he could say for his wife. He was glad, nay, relieved, that no one had taken her fancy here in London. What fools men could be. It would be difficult when his grandmother found Aurora the right husband, and he had no doubt that she would. She already had a match in mind for George, the dowager had told her grandson. Valerian Hawkesworth sighed deeply. He needed to go home.
It was a journey of several days" duration from London to Hawkes Hill in Hereford. There were several coaches involved. The dowager had one in which she traveled with her personal maid. There was one for Martha, Sally, and Sally"s a.s.sistant, Moll, who shared their accommodation with the duke"s valet, Browne, and George"s man, Wickham. Calandra and Aurora had their own vehicle in which the duke and George might ride when they were not a-horse. There were three baggage carts. There were fresh horses awaiting them at all the inns, brought from the duke"s estate. A skeleton staff would remain at Farminster House. The rest of the servants had departed the day before for Hereford.
On the morning of their departure Moll came to Martha. "Sally says her ladyship is having a tantrum and carrying on something awful. Could yer mistress come, please?" She curtsied to Martha, who thought the young girl a nice child with promise.
"We"ll both come," Martha replied. "Go tell Sally."
"I knew she would do this," Aurora said. "She half as much said so yesterday. What are we to do, Martha? I am not certain we shouldn"t write to Mama and beg her to come to England."
"Yer mama won"t come, miss. She don"t like the sea, but I have an idea. You just tell her high and mightiness that if she don"t behave herself, you"ll tell the duke of the deception played on him. That"s fraud. The duke can annul the marriage or get a divorce, I don"t know which. Either way, where will Miss Cally be then?"
Aurora"s eyes twinkled. "Cally would rather die than lose her t.i.tle," she said. "I would not have thought such duplicity was possible in your character, Martha."
"I still got a few surprises up my sleeve, miss" was the reply.
They could hear Cally shrieking as they approached her bedroom. "I"m not going! I have already told you! I am not going! The king is giving a ball tonight, and I will not miss it! Everyone will be there!"
"But we, however, shall not," Aurora said, entering her stepsister"s bedchamber. "We shall be tucked up asleep in some comfortable inn on the road to Hawkes Hill before the first musician can tune his violin, Cally. Why are you not dressed? We are leaving in less than an hour. You really are quite impossible, sweeting." She turned to Moll. "Come, girl, and help your mistress. Sally, are the trunks ready yet? Everyone else"s have already gone down."
"I am not going!" Calandra snarled, her hazel eyes darkening. Her hand reached for an ornament to throw. She gasped as Aurora grasped her wrist strongly, thereby preventing her from further mayhem.
"Leave us, all of you, just for a moment," Aurora said. "My sister and I need to speak together privately." She released Cally"s wrist.
The three servants left the room.
"Why are you on his side?" Cally demanded.
"Because he is right and you are wrong," Aurora answered her bluntly. "You were married to a duke not so you might spend the rest of your life in a round of endless pleasures, but so that you might bear him children, Cally. I may be considered headstrong, but no one has ever said I did not do my duty. Now you must do yours."
"It was your duty to marry him, not mine, but you would not marry him," Calandra responded, rubbing her wrist.
"Because I was headstrong." Aurora laughed, "But you did marry him. He fulfilled his part of the bargain. Now you must fulfill yours."
"I will not do it! And there is nothing you say, Aurora, that will make me. I am the d.u.c.h.ess of Farminster. You are only my stepsister. You have no power over me!" Cally said meanly.
"Ahhh, little one, but I do," Aurora replied softly. "If you do not come quietly with us to Hereford, I will tell Valerian of how we deceived him."
"You wouldn"t dare!" Cally whispered, disbelieving.
"I will have no choice," Aurora answered her. "If you will not do your duty as Valerian"s wife, then I must tell him of the fraud we perpetrated upon him. This will allow him to either annul your marriage or divorce you with just cause, which he certainly has. You have been a disobedient wife, and you refuse to give him heirs. What good are you to him? You have, I regret to tell you, Cally, become a great embarra.s.sment to George and me. Only the vast span of the ocean has kept me from informing Mama of your bad behavior. She would not approve of it. She would want me to act toward you as I am now doing. She would not want you to ruin us all. Do you understand me, Cally?"
"I hate you!" Calandra spat out.
"No, little sister, you don"t really hate me, but you are angry that I have found a way to curb your wicked conduct. You were always a poor loser at games, Cally, and this is the biggest game of all. The most important we shall ever play."
"No wonder the men didn"t like you," Cally said cruelly. "They said you were uppity and high-flown for such an unimportant little colonial. Too much of a bluestocking, Trahern said he heard."
"Lord Trahern"s gossip is of little import to me, Cally. I found your friends shallow, dull, and wretchedly obvious. As for the ladies, they were little better, and most of the girls my age were insipid and silly. Very much like you have become, I fear. I think I shall find a nice country gentleman far more to my taste, even if he isn"t a duke. However, if you wish to retain your t.i.tle, little sister, you had best let Moll dress you. The trip is a long one, the dowager informs me. We want to make it as pleasant as possible. Shall I call your servants back now?" She smiled at Calandra.
What would she do, I wonder, Cally thought, if I told her to go to the devil and called her bluff. But Cally knew what Aurora would do. She never in all their lives had made an idle threat or refused a reasonable dare. She will expose me. Expose our deceit even if it means we will all be ruined. She has a dowry and an income. I have nothing if I am not the d.u.c.h.ess of Farminster. I should have to go back to St. Timothy and live in the old Meredith plantation house with Mama for the rest of my life. Alone. Thousands of miles from London. She shuddered.
"Cally?"
"Oh, call my servants in, Aurora. You have won this round, but I will find a way to repay you for this betrayal, I promise you!"
"You will feel better when we have reached Hawkes Hill," Aurora said soothingly. "You are exhausted with all your social life."
"Oh, go to the devil!" Cally said sourly, "And get out!"
Their trip was not unpleasant. Cally sulked and hardly spoke to her, but the landscape outside their carriage while winter still was yet lovely. Their vehicle was comfortable and warm, and very well sprung. The horses were changed at midday when they stopped to refresh themselves at the prearranged inn. Their accommodations were clean and quite satisfactory. There were hot, tasty meals and warm featherbeds with down comforters. Hot water was brought at night to wash, and again in the morning.
When her stepsister"s mood refused to lighten, Aurora asked the dowager"s permission to ride in her coach with her. She was a far better companion, and very knowledgeable about the country through which they were traveling.
"The road we travel upon was originally built by the Romans," the dowager informed Aurora. "Do you know about the Romans, girl?"
"A little bit, ma"am. They were an ancient peoples, warlike, considered a great civilization in their time. I did not know, however, that they built roads too."
"All over England, girl!" She smiled at Aurora. "How is it you know about the Romans? I doubt that bubblehead of a sister of yours knows about Romans, or much of anything else either."
"Cally was not particularly fond of her studies as George and I were, but she plays the pianoforte beautifully. Has she played for you? She can sing too, and paint," Aurora defended Calandra.
"How did you convince her to come along so meekly?" the dowager demanded. "She"s been sulking ever since we left London, but she came."
Aurora laughed, pretending to make light of the matter. "Why, ma"am, I just told her if she didn"t behave herself, the duke would divorce her, and then she wouldn"t be a d.u.c.h.ess anymore."
"Hah!" the dowager barked a sharp laugh. "You certainly know the bubblehead"s weak spot, don"t you, girl? Aye, that was a good threat. Calandra likes being the d.u.c.h.ess of Farminster." She looked sharply at Aurora. "I shall have to be careful choosing a husband for you, girl. If he is too weak, you will have no respect for him, and if he is too strong, you will kill each other. You present me with quite a challenge."
"As my family knows, ma"am, I will marry only for love. t.i.tles and wealth mean little to me. Nevertheless, I will appreciate your efforts in the matter. Perhaps together we shall be successful." Her gloved hands were folded meekly in her lap, but Mary Rose Hawkesworth was not in the least fooled.
"Are you as stubborn as your sister, then, miss?" she asked.
"I will admit to being stubborn," Aurora replied, "but you will find me far more reasonable than Cally, I think."
The dowager chuckled, genuinely amused. It had been a very long time since she had been so taken with someone as she was with Aurora. Again she considered the pity of it that it hadn"t been Aurora her dear grandson married instead of the foolish Calandra. Changing the subject, she said, "I believe I have the perfect wife for George, although I will certainly present him with several young ladies that I consider suitable marriage prospects. Still, I have my own personal favorite. I shall tell you about her if you do not tell your brother. He should make up his own mind, of course."
"I promise, ma"am," Aurora said.
"Her name is Elizabeth Bowen. She is the eldest daughter of Sir Ronald and Lady Elsie Bowen. Sir Ronald is a baronet with a small estate matching ours. He is the vicar at Farminster village church."
"Would her family be willing to have their daughter move an ocean away from them, ma"am?" Aurora wondered. "You know that Valerian appointed George to remain in his position as St. Timothy"s manager."
"The Bowens will thank G.o.d if Betsy and George are taken with each other. Lady Elsie proved a fecund wife, but she has given her husband five daughters before their son was at last born. Five dowries, and the estate entailed upon the heir. Those poor girls don"t have large portions, and cannot expect great marriages. A young man with an income such as your brother"s will be considered a treasure."
"How will he meet her, ma"am?"
"We shall have a ball at Hawkes Hill once we are settled in again. That should please your sister," the dowager said. Then she yawned. "I am exhausted with all this traveling. I will certainly be glad to be sleeping in my own bed tonight." She closed her eyes, and very shortly began to snore softly.
Aurora looked out the window of the coach as it rumbled along the road. The landscape was rolling. Here and there the symmetry of the land was broken by isolated hills. They had crossed a great number of brooks, streams, and small rivers along the way. The countryside was heavily wooded, stands of oak and elm and beech vying with orchards that come spring would blossom, and come late summer would give forth a bounteous crop of apples and pears. There were arable fields, their plow ruts frozen with winter"s cold. By summer they would be golden with wheat. Herefordshire"s greatest wealth was in the sheep and cattle now grazing on the late February hills. The cattle were bred for meat, which for the most part would end up in London. The sheep gave a good wool crop regularly that was woven in the area"s many small water-powered mills into fine cloth and yarns.
Most of the farms and small towns they pa.s.sed by had timber-framed houses with thatched roofs. The churches, even those in the little villages, were, however, constructed of stone, as were the castles and the great houses of n.o.bility. Cally had complained that Hawkes Hill was a big old-fashioned stone house with a slate roof, and nothing to recommend it at all. The dowager, however, had told Aurora that the house dated back to Tudor times, and indeed had been constructed on the ruins of an earlier house that had burned.
The Hawkesworth family had been barons on the estate for longer than anyone could recall. The earldom had come into being when one of the ancestors had done a great favor for King Henry VII. This first Tudor king was noted for being tightfisted. Raising a man in rank was a cheap enough thanks for the king, especially when the man already possessed a large estate. The dukedom, of course, had come through Charles II.
Suddenly the coach began to slow itself, and when it had almost stopped it turned off the high road onto a narrower track. The vehicle b.u.mped along, but the dowager continued to snore on contentedly. Aurora smiled, and drew the lap robe up a bit farther so the old lady would not catch a chill. They were obviously approaching Hawkes Hill Hall. The carriage finally came out of the trees, and Aurora could see the roadway stretching ahead of them across a greensward, and, beyond, upon a hill, was set the hall. It looked almost like a castle with its dark gray stone turrets and towers.
Aurora gently shook her companion. "Ma"am, I believe we are approaching home," she said.
"Eh? What?" The old lady"s eyes flew open, focused, and then she said, "Yes, that is Hawkes Hill. I hope you are going to be very happy here with us, Aurora. At least until you depart a bride."
"Or return home to St. Timothy," Aurora replied.
"Do not say such a thing," the dowager scolded her. "I should consider myself a complete failure, and unable to face your dear mama, if I did not provide you with a good husband, child."
As the travelers drew up to the house, they found servants waiting to welcome them and take the luggage down from the baggage carts. Calandra swept grandly by everyone, Sally and Moll in her wake, disappearing into the building. The duke ushered his grandmother and his guests inside.
"Welcome to Hawkes Hill," he said to George and Aurora. "Grandmama, will you be joining us for dinner this evening?"
The dowager held her hands out to the fireplace, then said, "I think not, dear boy. It has been a long trip, and I think I should prefer a tray in my room. I know you understand."
"Yer grace?" Moll had joined them. "Her grace says she"ll take dinner in her room too; and she don"t want to be disturbed neither, she says to tell you, sir." The maidservant curtsied, flushing.
"Tell her grace that I acquiesce tonight, but tomorrow is another matter. Say it just like that, Moll," the duke instructed the girl, his demeanor serious.
"Yes, yer grace." Moll curtsied again, almost running from the drawing room where they were all standing.
"Impudent chit!" the dowager muttered. "And to send that poor child to deliver such a message. Valerian, you must do something!"
"I fully intend to, Grandmama." He turned to George and Aurora.
"Dinner in the country is at seven," he said. "Peters will show you to your rooms." He bowed.
The dowager had gone on ahead of them. George and Aurora followed the butler back into the entry hall. Beyond the staircase they could see a large room, probably the old hall, Aurora thought. She was really looking forward to exploring this wonderful house. It might have been yours, a wicked little voice in her head reminded her. She pushed the thought away. She had made her choice, and she had to be content to live with it. It was, after all, what she had wanted. Wasn"t it?
"You and the old girl get on quite well," George whispered as they mounted the broad staircase. "You were in her coach all but the first day. Cally is obviously still in a bad mood."
"The dowager was far better company than our sister," Aurora told him. "Besides, I like her. She is intelligent and has wit."
"What are we to do about Cally?" George persisted.
"Cally is not our concern," Aurora told her brother. "We helped to get her home, and now the rest is up to the duke. She is his wife. Besides, Lady Mary Rose has plans for you, George. She has lined up a bevy of eligibles from which you must pick a bride." Aurora chuckled wickedly. "I cannot wait to meet the girl who will ensnare you with melting eyes and maidenly sighs."
"And what about you, miss?" he demanded.
"First you, George," Aurora laughed, giving him a gay wave as she entered the bedroom Peters indicated was hers. "I"ll see you at dinner, brother dear!" And she blew him a kiss.
"Well, miss, and here you are at last," Martha said. " "Tis a grand house this Hawkes Hill. Just look at this room. Isn"t it lovely?"
Aurora looked around, and had to agree with her servant that it was a lovely room. The walls were covered in a creamy silk. The woodwork was painted pale green. The hardwood floors were covered with a rose and green Oriental carpet. The marble fireplace was flanked with a winged angel on either side. The cream and celadon striped draperies were of heavy silk, tied back with heavy gold roping. The mahogany bed had tall turned posts and an arched canopy of cream satin. The matching bed drapes were sprigged with rosebuds. There was a magnificent mahogany chest against one wall; a piecrust table before the windows flanked on either side by upholstered chairs; and by her bedside was the prettiest little side table Aurora had ever seen, atop which was a crystal candlestick with a beeswax candle and a small silver snuffer.
"And," Martha said, sounding most pleased, "there"s a separate dressing room for your clothing, miss, as well as a little room for me so I don"t have to climb those stairs into the attic."
"Then you think we"ll be happy here?" Aurora teased her servant.
"We"d have been happier if you knows what," Martha replied tartly. "Miss Calandra"s rooms are at the far end of the hallway. She ain"t hardly spoke to you since we left London."
"She"s still angry at me, I fear, for threatening her as I did," Aurora said. "I far more enjoyed riding with the old dowager." She sighed. "It is unusual for Cally to have such a prolonged attack of the sulks, but she"ll come around in time. After all, I"m all she"ll have unless she makes some friends among the local gentry."
"They won"t be tony enough for the likes of our d.u.c.h.ess," Martha decided. Then she said, "Would you like a bath, miss?"
Aurora nodded. "It is to be just George, Valerian, and me at the dinner table, but I think I should make an effort, don"t you?"
Martha agreed. Going to the wall, she yanked on the bellpull. It was answered shortly by a housemaid. "My mistress needs a bath," Martha said. "Would you be kind enough to have hot water brought?"
"Yes, ma"am," the housemaid said politely. A personal servant outranked her.
At five minutes before the hour of seven, Aurora descended back down the wide staircase, going to the drawing room where the duke had said they would meet. Her gown was of lavender silk, the underskirt a broad stripe of lavender and cream. The rounded neckline was edged in tiny purple silk violets, and her sleeves dripped lace.
"Good evening, Valerian," she said, curtsying prettily. "I am early, then, for I do not see George, who is always on time."
"How pretty you look, Aurora," he replied by way of a greeting. He was dressed in white knee breeches, a black velvet coat, and a waistcoat of black and white striped silk. "No, your brother has not come down yet. Do you find your room satisfactory?"
"Oh, yes! And Martha is more than pleased to have her own little room next to mine. It was most thoughtful."
"Excuse me, your grace." George"s valet, Wickham, stood politely in the door of the drawing room.
"Yes, Wickham?"
"Master George begs your pardon, yer grace, but he"s got the headache fierce, and is already, beggin" yer pardon again, tossin" his guts. He can"t come down to dinner. Not that I didn"t warn him to wear a hat today when you was ridin", but would he listen?"