Leo opened his mouth, closed it, and finally said, ‘Miss Beaumont, I should rather have your faults than other people’s perfection.’
‘Oh good God,’ Louisa muttered.
He ignored her. ‘I beg your pardon. And yours, Charnage. I, er. Possibly got a little carried away.’
Daizell nodded acknowledgement in a very serious manner. He didn’t catch Cassian’s eye.
Louisa rolled her eyes. ‘Marvellous. If you are harbouring a desire to play the knight for Eliza, what we actually need is a way to get her out of this tangle.’
‘Both of them,’ Cassian said. ‘Daizell has a reputation to salvage too. If Sir James Vier chooses to speak of the recent incident, it will do a great deal of damage to them both.’
‘Possibly more than you’re aware,’ Louisa said. ‘Kentridge has rather run up against the rocks of Eliza’s trustee, who seems to be quite appallingly sluggish. If or when Vier chooses to make this story public, suitably embroidered, it will be most unpleasant for Eliza, for any gentleman who might wish to marry her without being ridiculed as a fortune hunter with low standards, and for Mr Charnage if hedoes not care to be known as a dangerous abductor and abandoner.’
‘I would rather not be.’ Daizell was red in the face too now. ‘You should be aware that Vier has had a great deal to say about me in the past, and I dare say he will bring it all out again, which will not help matters. I’m sorry about that.’
‘It is not your fault,’ Cassian said through his teeth. ‘He has slandered you continually because of your father’s wrongdoing and it has to stop!’
‘It seems to me we have a number of people in this room for whom Vier is a problem,’ Kentridge said. ‘Might I suggest everyone put their cards on the table?’
‘Over dinner,’ Louisa added. ‘Leo is both more pleasant and more intelligent when fed, and I dare say Cook is in a fury by now since we should have been eating twenty minutes ago and everything will be quite spoiled. Let us go in.’
The dinner was not spoiled, but it might as well have been for all the attention anyone paid to the excellent meal. Kentridge presided, drawing out the problem with forensic care.
‘Miss Beaumont’s situation,’ he said. ‘Vier is legally her guardian. He could insist on her return to his home, at least attempt to compel her marriage, and certainly raise objections to any marriage attempted without his consent. We can resist that at law, and hope to draw out a case until she attains her majority, but that is several months off. Moreover, any case will involve her attacking his character, which is not known to be bad, and him attacking hers, which has this matter of two elopements attached to it. Further, Miss Beaumont remains a very rich woman and a rich woman with a damaged reputation is liable to attract men of questionable motives. Which would be distressing for her, andcast an unflattering light on any decent man with aspirations to her hand.’
‘A decent man would not care a button for her fortune, or people’s opinion,’ Leo said, chin up.
Miss Beaumont pressed her lips together to avoid wobble. ‘But if the world believes a man is marrying a ruined woman for her money – people are so cruel. I would not want to do that to a man I – cared for. Oh, I wish I hadn’t eloped!’
‘You aren’t ruined yet,’ Louisa said firmly. ‘If this Mr Marston keeps quiet, and I say you came directly to me, and only used Mr Charnage’s name to muddy your trail—’
‘You could indeed say that, my dear, but not in court,’ Kentridge informed her. ‘Your lightest wish is my command in general, but I must require you not to commit perjury, even in a good cause. Let us turn to Mr Charnage’s problem. Vier seems to dislike you rather, Mr Charnage.’
‘My father robbed him at gunpoint and killed his whist partner,’ Daizell said. ‘I don’t blame him for taking that poorly. He also manufactured a scandal about me at my cousins’ home. He had hold of some profiles I had cut – it’s a hobby – which were, uh, for a gentleman’s party, and claimed I was distributing them to the young people there.’
‘Thatwas a lie,’ Miss Beaumont said. ‘I heard it said, but I was there and I never saw any such thing. And Mrs Swain did not ask me or anyone if it was true.’
‘Anna Swain? Sellingstowe’s cousin? No, she would not. What a dreadful prig of a woman she is and her husband is worse,’ Louisa said. ‘They are unquestionably the most righteous people I have ever met. Appalling bores.’
‘Mr Charnage’s cousins, my dear.’
‘Pshaw. Nobody could be related to the Swains and be happy about it.’
Daizell made a face that suggested Louisa had the right of it. ‘All the same, Vier did have some rather unfortunate profiles, even if I had not meant them for that audience, and then I did attempt to elope with Miss Beaumont.’
Kentridge tapped his fingers on the table. ‘It seems to me that Vier has a number of unfortunately accurate things to say. He can demand Miss Beaumont’s return, accuse her of various misbehaviours, bring up Mr Charnage’s offences – justified or not – to stoke the flames of scandal, invoke Leo’s debts, and quite probably drag Severn into it all. This entire business could become quite unpleasant for all of you. And it would make it very difficult indeed to argue that Miss Beaumont’s wardship should be struck down, by marriage or otherwise.’
Miss Beaumont had gone pale. Leo reached out to her, and she gripped his hand. ‘You must have some ideas, Kentridge,’ he insisted. ‘The man is a villain.’
‘One with the law on his side, and who will have public opinion on his side too.’
‘He had me kidnapped,’ Cassian said. ‘Admittedly while trying to have Miss Beaumont kidnapped, but I don’t see that’s better.’
‘You’d be the one ridiculed for that,’ Louisa pointed out. ‘And his reason was your involvement in this second elopement, which is not information we want to set about.’
‘He is a cheat!’ Leo said. ‘We can surely use that.’
‘It will be hard to prove,’ Kentridge said. ‘Consider, Leo. The only way to demonstrate that he is a cheat would be for him and his partner to play a game under the eyes of neutral parties who had been made aware of his methods in advance, because otherwise they will not remember or notice what he says and plays. That means people who canbe trusted not to give anything away, because all he need do not to be caught is not use it. Could you really tell people, enough people, about his system in all its subtleties, and have them memorise it, and watch him play, and be sure they would not let anything slip,andthat they would be prepared to assert what they heard and saw – and, after all that, have other people believe their account? Perhaps it is achievable, but—’ He made a face.
