"I can see that there is nothing to be done but tell you the rest. Lady Sea grave--I was hoping to spare you this, for a little time at least--" He broke off and sighed heavily, seeing the look of blank incomprehension on all their faces.
"It was Lady Bolt who told Dit ton about the episode at the inn."
"Lady Bolt!" Several people spoke at once.
"It does not surprise me that she is spreading slanderous gossip," the Dowager Countess observed.
"But she was at Weller den with you when Peter was at Famforth!" Polly exclaimed and found that everyone was looking at her again. She turned bright red as Henry looked at her with quizzically raised brows.
"I mean... I understood that Lady Bolt... that you..."
Henry"s smile mocked her.
"Just as you understood that I had arranged a tryst with Lady Bolt at Richmond? It was only business, I fear, contrary to all appearances!
It is true that Lady Bolt and I were briefly at Weller den"s houseparty, though not together in any sense of the word," he added drily.
"In fact, Lady Bolt left only a day or two after Peter did.
Her intention, I believe, was to join the Duke of Gars ton at the New market races. I imagine her route took her through Famforth--I know it did, for she stayed at the Rose and Crown only the night after Peter was there.
The landlady there knows Lady Bolt and also knows of her connection with the Mark ham family. She was bursting to tell her ladyship this prime piece of gossip and no doubt she was rewarded for the information. " "And Mr Dit ton?" the Dowager Countess pressed.
Henry gave an ironic smile.
"This part might be amusing were it not that the behaviour of Dit ton and Lady Bolt was so damaging. You may know that the two of them are old..." he cleared his throat "old friends. In recent times they have been in a different business together. Lady Bolt has lent Dit ton considerable sums of money, has become involved in several illegal gaming rackets with him and has even, I suspect, benefited from his and Chapman"s criminal activities. The extent of her involvement is something on which she is currently being questioned. She was arrested this morning. " He turned back to Lucille.
"I am sorry if the news occasions you any pain. Lady Sea grave."
"I shall bear it with fort.i.tude," Lucille said, straight faced.
"But we digress. Did Lady Bolt pa.s.s on the gossip to Dit ton?"
Henry nodded.
"She did. She wrote to him immediately. She knew that he loved scandal and she was also sure that he might find the information useful at some point in the future. Of course, she was correct." He glanced briefly at Polly, who looked away.
"The piquant part, however, was that Lady Bolt did not approach the subject directly. She liked to hint and tease, and at no point did she tell Dit ton whom the gentleman was by name. He, knowing that Miss Mark ham had recently been courted by Grantley, made the obvious a.s.sumption. I know, because I have seen and destroyed the letter. Dit ton was carrying it last night."
"So you knew that as well!" Polly was so affronted she thought she might burst.
"You knew why I had agreed to the betrothal even though you pretended you did not!"
"I only knew about the letter after Dit ton was arrested," Henry said calmly, "and I could not be certain that that was the means he used to compel you to marry him. There might have been something else! "
Polly was not to be pacified.
"I do not believe you! Of all the cruel tricks! Oh! You are despicable--" " Polly! " The Dowager Countess"s shocked tones mingled with Lucille"s more tempered reproof. Henry did not seem much put out.
Polly thought he was almost smiling and she felt she could have slapped him had she been closer.
"The tea has gone cold," Lucille observed prosaically in an attempt to calm the atmosphere.
"Nicholas, would you pull the bell for some more? Henry, will you stay?"
Henry March night got to his feet.
"No, ma"am, I thank you. I have work to do. I am not sure--" his gaze touched Polly"s face briefly "--whether I shall return to Suffolk."
"But you must come to the wedding!" Hetty said hopefully. She seemed to have almost recovered her spirits now that the dreadful truth had come to light and no one, not even the Dowager, had condemned her as a fallen woman.
Henry smiled.
"I should be very glad to do so if I can," he said, "and I wish you both very happy! " There was an awkward silence after Nicholas had gone out to see Henry to his curricle. The Dowager Countess made some comment about the weather, indicating that the topic of the past fifteen minutes was now effectively closed. Hetty ventured a remark about the wedding arrangements and soon everyone was chatting about the rival merits of orange blossom or hot-house lilies to decorate the church. For a fantastical moment it seemed to Polly as though the whole episode had never even occurred. She was left to marvel at the swiftness with which the most enormous of family secrets could be swept successfully under the carpet.
Chapter Seventeen.
QysQ.
You are my only hope now, Polly! " The Dowager Countess fixed her daughter with tragic dark eyes.
"I had every expectation of seeing Hetty and Peter married in London, but of course that is out of the question now! I was never more shocked in my life!
And Hetty the daughter of so respectable a man! There must have been some sad lack of guidance in her upbringing--perhaps the influence of that dreadful Cyprian," the Dowager added thoughtfully, brightening at so plausible an explanation.
"I feel. Mama, that you should be laying the blame at Peter"s door if you must apportion it anywhere," Polly said firmly.
"He is the seducer, after all!"
"Yes, and in such a low place as that inn!" the Dowager mourned.
Polly hid a smile at the thought that Peter"s behaviour would have been more acceptable had he chosen more salubrious surroundings.
"I do feel that Hetty should show a certain reticence," the Dowager continued.
"Why, she behaves as though nothing has happened! It shows a certain unsteadiness of character!"
Polly thought that Hetty"s ebullience sprang more from relief than a want of feeling.
"I am persuaded that Hetty"s feelings are all that is proper,"
she said. "She is very young, Mama, and is understandably excited about the wedding. Now, in what way am I your only hope?"
"Why, for a fashionable wedding, of course!" Happily, the Dowager was now diverted.
"First Nicholas and Lucille marry in that hole-in-the-comer fashion, and now Peter... But you will not disappoint me, I know! It is what your father would have wanted--" Polly was looking vaguely confused.
"But, Mama, I have no intention of getting married--" " No intention! "
The Dowager Countess laid aside the linen she had been folding for Hetty"s trousseau. " But surely it is as good as arranged? I a.s.sumed that Lord Henry was only waiting until he could wash his hands of this sordid affair with Tristan Dit ton! Surely--" "You are mistaken.
Mama." Polly got up hastily. In the five weeks since Henry March night had left Suffolk, she had had ample time to reflect on what had happened and resolve that she could never explain to her mother why such a match was now impossible.
"There never was an understanding between Lord Henry and myself--"