Simon Bingley's Resolve, page 8
‘Has anyone told Porter?’ Spence asked into the awkward silence. He referred to Wickham’s illegitimate son, who was working as trainee steward at Pemberley. ‘I gather he closely resembles his father, and if Mrs Rochdale should happen to see him…’
‘You tell him, Spence,’ their father replied. ‘You get along well with him. He knows something of our complicated history with Wickham, but not the full particulars. Best he hears it from you. I wouldn’t put it past Caroline to try and recruit him to her cause.’ His expression turned grim. ‘I don’t doubt that she has one.’
‘You think she has come here with the express purpose of causing more trouble, Papa?’ Susie wrinkled her brow. ‘I cannot imagine how she hopes to succeed. Twenty-five years have passed.’
‘I hope she has not come with that intention, my dear,’ Father replied, ‘but I will not underestimate her for a second time. Her mind was supposedly disturbed when she caused trouble here before, and for my friend’s sake we have pretended to believe that was the case.’ Father lifted his shoulders in a negligent shrug. ‘And perhaps it’s the truth. She married her doctor and is supposedly better now, but your mother and I have discussed the matter many times over the years and cannot convince ourselves that there was anything wrong with her in the first place, apart from selfishness and an arrogance that made her determined to have her own way.’ He paused. ‘She tried to drown your aunt Lydia in the lake, which is when we accepted that Charles would have to be told and take responsibility for his sister, which he did.’
‘Good heavens.’ Spence shared a bewildered look with his siblings. ‘She really doesn’t like your family, does she, Mother? Let’s hope our uncle can track her husband down. Then he can come and take her away and we will all be more comfortable. I am sorry that you are stuck with her and that her presence stirs up such unpleasant memories, sir,’ he added, addressing his father.
‘For my part, I shall find it very hard to be civil towards her,’ Bella said.
‘Did you notice the way she tried to get Simon to herself?’ Spence asked. ‘Fortunately, Miss Dayton stole him away. Simon is as easy-going as his father was in his younger days, so I wonder if she means to exploit him and get him to promote her cause, whatever it might be. She must have sensed our hostility earlier but it didn’t seem to affect her, which implies that she is very thick-skinned.’
‘We depend upon you to protect your cousin, Spence,’ their mother said. ‘You and he are especially good friends.’
‘Oh, I dare say I shall manage to steer him clear of his aunt,’ Spence replied lazily, ‘and Miss Dayton too, if I think he’s in danger of falling in love.’ He paused. ‘Again.’
Everyone laughed.
‘Nadia Dayton is charming,’ Marc said. ‘I wish I could say the same for her sister.’
‘Well, if there are no more family skeletons to be revealed,’ Spence said, ‘I had best go in search of Porter. Excuse me please, Mother.’
‘Yes, my dear, you get along.’
‘Let me know if you encounter any problems,’ Father added.
Spence wandered outside, his head spinning as he mulled over the extraordinary revelations of the past half-hour. He expected to discover Tobias Porter in the estate office at this hour, which is precisely where he ran him to ground.
‘What-ho,’ Tobias said, putting his pen aside and stretching. ‘These damned figures seem determined not to tally.’
‘Such is the way with figures the world over,’ Spence replied, slumping into the chair across from Tobias’s desk. ‘Are you for the Lamb?’ he asked, aware that Tobias often visited the local tavern at the end of his working day. Spence sometimes accompanied him.
‘Shortly, unless you have come to give me more work, which I wouldn’t put past you. Then again, perhaps you’re hiding from all the females who are keen to impress you with their beauty and accomplishments.’
‘Actually, I came to talk to you.’ Spence took a moment to choose his next words with care. Tobias appeared to have put his wild ways, his resentments and disappointments behind him, and no longer looked upon a father he had never known with unparalleled hero worship. Even so, this situation required tact. Tobias knowing the man who sired him wasn’t perfect was one thing. Learning what he had tried to do to Spence’s parents was entirely another.
‘Well, you’ve found me, so out with it.’ Tobias grinned, as refreshingly lacking in subservience as always. ‘Some of us have to work for a living, you know.’
‘Hah! You could have fooled me.’ Spence’s smile quickly faded. ‘We have an uninvited guest up at the house.’
‘Ah, I did hear something. All very mysterious, but what is it to me?’
Preparing Tobias for a shock, Spence succinctly repeated everything he had learned from his father. Spence half expected wild denials, anger, anything other than the casual shrug that Tobias offered him when he’d heard it all.
‘You don’t look surprised,’ Spence said.
‘I’ll pretend to be affronted if you like, but truth to tell the more I learn about my late father’s behaviour, the less shocked I am by it. Clearly my mother misled me regarding his character, and everything else about him for that matter. She was blinded to his faults—which were legion, I’m discovering—by love and she believed everything he told her. Anyway, Spence, let me put your mind at rest. If this Mrs Rochdale tries to recruit me to whatever crazy scheme made her come here, you will be the first to hear about it.’
‘I didn’t doubt it for a moment,’ Spence replied, meaning it. ‘But I thought you should hear it from me first, in case she tries to ply you with a highly skewed version of past events. Can’t think why she would, but then I can’t think what made her come here anyway when it must be obvious to her that she wouldn’t be welcome.’
‘Some women never get over their disappointments and can bear grudges for all of England.’
‘I suppose you speak from experience, being the success you are with the fairer sex and leaving dozens of broken hearts casually scattered in your wake.’
Tobias gave a cocky grin. ‘If she does latch onto me, I shall attempt to get some answers for you.’ Tobias leaned back in his chair and stretched his arms above his head. ‘She will likely talk more readily to me, especially if she thinks she has found a sympathetic ear after being frowned at in your drawing room.’
Spence laughed. ‘Women of all ages tend to confide in you.’
Tobias grinned. ‘Is it my fault if ladies find me such a sympathetic soul?’
‘I’d best go and change for dinner.’ Spence stood, shaking his head and still laughing. ‘Try to stay out of trouble if you possibly can.’
‘You ask a lot.’ Tobias stood too and they crossed the lawn, talking and laughing together.
*
Caroline examined her reflection, nodded her satisfaction at the image that stared back at her and dismissed the maid who’d helped her, the offer of whose services she had been forced to accept. Taking any charity from Eliza Darcy went against the grain, but needs must. She couldn’t have brought her own maid with her, and it had required some ingenuity on her part to escape the woman’s clutches. Caroline was convinced that Albert had employed the woman to spy on her and to restrict her movements when Albert himself was not at home—which was frequently nowadays. It infuriated Caroline that she had to put up with such impediments to her freedom, but she had learned over the years to keep her thoughts to herself. If Albert imagined that she was, as he so condescendingly put it, becoming overwrought, he increased her medication. Whatever it was that he forced her to ingest made her feel relaxed to the point of lethargy, as though everything was too much trouble.
She adjusted the fall of her headdress, pleased with the gown that she had ordered with this occasion in mind. Making a good impression on this first night and winning over her hostile relatives was vital, and things had not gone well so far. Even Jane, always so eager to please, had remained aloof and disapproving while she conducted Caroline to this room. Not that it mattered. Jane didn’t signify. Caroline had come here to achieve peace of mind, and that would be impossible until she could put the past behind her.
The past, all the mortifying events that plagued her mind and made the acceptance of unfulfilled expectations impossible for Caroline, revolved around Pemberley.
And Eliza Bennet.
She shuddered when she thought of the way in which the business with Wickham had gone so very wrong. She had been convinced when she saw her beloved Darcy carrying his unconscious wife away from that summerhouse, his mouth set in a grim, uncompromising line, that he now understood the full extent of the woman’s loose morals and would cast her aside.
Not a bit of it. She let out a low growl of frustration as she dwelt upon her grievances and felt anger surge through her bloodstream, her mind free from the vile potions her husband forced upon her but which she had become adept at pretending to ingest. It wasn’t as though she had intended to kill Lydia Wickham when she encountered her alone at Pemberley’s lake. A red mist of anger had temporarily blurred her vision and made her act out of character, but she would have come to her senses before any real harm had been done.
Probably.
At every turn the wretched Bennets foiled her plans to the point at which she could no longer be held responsible for her actions. The family was enough to try anyone’s patience. The fact that she, Caroline, ought to have married Patrick Shannon was a perfect example of the Bennets’ insupportable assertiveness. She had seen Shannon first in London and made up her mind then and there, once she realised that he would soon be a close neighbour of Darcy’s, that he was the man for her. If she couldn’t have Darcy, at least she could be close to him and admitted to his society.
It scarcely seemed possible, but the woman whose scandalous elopement with Wickham had been glossed over and forgiven failed to appreciate the enormity of her crime. Nor did she have the good manners to fade into widowed respectability when Wickham met the grisly end he so richly deserved. Instead, she brazenly ran to her sister at Pemberley, where she met Shannon and managed to attract his interest, stealing him from beneath Caroline’s nose in much the same way that Lizzy had stolen Darcy from her. If Caroline had temporarily—very temporarily—lost her mind and resorted to violence, was it any wonder? The disappointments, the unfairness, the undignified way in which she had been treated had driven her to take drastic action.
Albert Rochdale’s appointment as her personal physician had been one of the few good services that Charles had unintentionally provided her with. Albert had been gaining a reputation as a medical man with an interest in deranged minds when they first met. Caroline had wanted to laugh out loud. If she had listed all her grievances, Albert would have immediately understood why she had lost her grip on reality. But common sense prevailed and she played Albert’s game, prepared to bide her time.
She just hadn’t realised that it would take so long for an opportunity to present itself to revenge herself on the Darcys once and for all. In those early days Albert had seemed genuinely attracted to her for reasons that had nothing to do with her fictional ailments or her fortune. He liked her for herself, and the boost to Caroline’s self-esteem was its own reward. It had been too long since she had been admired in the manner she deserved, and Caroline basked in the attention. She noticed how women of all ages fawned over Albert. He was charmingly inclined towards them all but it was Caroline, he had assured her, who held the key to his heart.
Of course she had been wrong about his feelings, which had not endured. She knew that now, but hindsight was deucedly annoying and she preferred not to reflect upon the fact that he had been using her every bit as much as she had used him.
She had seldom been allowed to mix freely in society during those early days and, still smarting from events at Pemberley, she had no desire to show her face for fear of being ridiculed as well as ostracized. Her entertainments were restricted to those provided by her sister Louisa, with whom she had lived before her marriage.
Albert was a constant visitor and plied her with attention. Only now did she fully understand that it was the supposed affliction of her mind that had held his interest. She overheard him saying once that it fascinated him to see her behaving like a rational person when he knew for a certainty that the balance of her mind was seriously disturbed. What utter tosh! There was absolutely nothing wrong with her mind, but it frightened her to hear Albert attest that anyone from a less privileged background would have long since been sent to an asylum and wiped from the collective memories of her family’s mind.
Life with Louisa and her terminally boring husband had threatened to make her genuinely ill, so when Albert had gone down on bended knee and proposed, she hadn’t hesitated to accept him. Her damaged pride was salved because this handsome and sophisticated doctor desired her above all the available females in London.
Charles had not attended the small ceremony that took place a mere few weeks after Albert’s proposal. She was too keen to become a married woman to reflect upon the reasons for it being a rushed, sparsely attended affair. She had genuinely believed that Charles would have overcome his temporary annoyance and been there to walk her down the aisle. He would have returned to his customary easy-going manner in his dealings with her, giving her a foothold back into Derbyshire society. But he didn’t come, and she was obliged to have the odious Mr Hurst give her away.
That Charles and Jane could bear a grudge for so long was as surprising as it was undignified. But still, she was here now and would behave so impeccably that her relatives would gradually lower their guard and accept her again.
It was not as though they had anything to get into a dudgeon about, she thought belligerently, sensing the old rage that she thought she had learned to conquer swamping her reason. She breathed slowly and deeply until the feeling subsided and took a small nibble of one of the special biscuits she had brought with her, aware that it would help to calm her.
Caroline ate slowly, reflecting upon the fact that she was the one who had been ill-used and misunderstood. She was the one who’d been tricked into matrimony and been obliged to ingest all manner of potions that had dulled her senses and left her feeling listless and unfulfilled. She would have liked to have had children of her own, but she was absolutely sure that Albert had used his medical knowledge to somehow prevent her from conceiving. He was too wrapped up in his research and with cutting a swathe through the wealthy ranks of the ton in his professional capacity to have time for a family. Not that the physical side of their marriage had lasted for long. Caroline found it distasteful and Albert must have sensed her dislike of the undignified act, because he left her alone after the first month or two.
She had been kept more or less confined to their London home all these years, with a succession of maids appointed by Albert to watch over her. The biscuits had been her lifeline, guaranteed to send her off into a pleasant dreamlike trance when things got too much. Once she became aware of the manner in which they dulled her senses, she had gradually weaned herself off her reliance upon them without Albert’s knowledge, only resorting to their comforting properties in times of extreme strife. She needed to keep her perfectly sane wits about her.
She seldom managed to venture out alone, and she often felt like a prisoner. Albert was attentive but abstracted by his growing practice. Only during recent years had he left her alone for prolonged periods as he chased up new avenues of research connected to his field of interest. She was not supposed to know that Albert had also found solace in the arms of a succession of mistresses. She didn’t care about his peccadilloes, and she was glad to finally be given some small freedoms that came about thanks to his preoccupation with his latest floozy. She had discovered by subversive means that she lived in this part of the world. Charles didn’t know that, of course, so if he decided to send for Albert to take her home, he would have no idea where to find him. She had outsmarted her husband, and nothing would stand in her way now.
It wasn’t quite time to go down yet, so she sat in the window of her chamber and drank in the magnificent view that she had never forgotten—the view from an equally magnificent house that she should be mistress of, if there was any justice in this world.
She sighed, feeling contented despite her grievances in ways that she had forgotten were possible. If Jane and Charles were still being standoffish, she would just have to cultivate the good opinion of their children instead. The girls were both married with families and responsibilities of their own, and their husbands would doubtless disapprove if they were to befriend the prodigal aunt. That left Simon, the target she had decided upon earlier. It was annoying that he had been snatched away from her by the little hussy who had him in her sights, but Caroline hadn’t come this far to be bested by a slip of a girl.
She glanced at the lawns and gasped when she saw Spencer Darcy walking across them with another young man whose appearance gave her quite a start. He was the image of Wickham at the age he had been when she’d last seen him. Had her eyes deceived her? She felt as though she had travelled backwards in time and that Wickham was actually here. Her heart palpitated, and she was again obliged to utilise her deep breathing routine until the ability to think rationally was slowly restored to her. She wondered what Albert would have to say if, despite all his education and complicated medical knowledge, he discovered that she had never been deprived of that ability. Well, not for long anyway.
The young man must be Wickham’s son; there could be no other explanation. She knew that Darcy had given him a position here, which was one of the reasons why she had depended upon his forgiving nature as a means of regaining favour. She wasn’t supposed to know about Wickham’s chequered history, of course. No one ever mentioned Pemberley in her presence or told her anything about the Darcys. She had been reduced to reading Louisa’s private correspondence with Charles in order to keep abreast of matters.
