“That is quite enough, Izzy! Stop interfering or—”
“Oh, you areIzzy!”Ruth said, her face lighting up gleefully. “He wanted to marry you, didn’t he? Is it true what they’re saying about your family?”
“Ruth!” Sydney snapped. “We agreed we would not mention it.”
“But I like her,” Ruth said. “She says what she thinks. None of this fiddle-faddling round, always being polite. Youaremarrying me for my fields and woods, and youaregoing to be fat, and just because your family’s grander than ours doesn’t mean you’re better than us, you know. You’ve got finer manners than me, but you know it, don’t you? I don’t look forward to spending the rest of my life married to someone who always thinks he’s above me. So is it true, Lady Farramont? That your parents were never properly married? That’s what everyone’s saying, but that’d be quite a scandal, wouldn’t it?”
She gazed at Izzy with guileless eyes.
“How do you know about that?” Izzy said.
Sydney sighed. “A letter came from town today. Your brother is there and not going by the name of Viscount Birtwell, and enquiring at the Treasury about employment. You know how these things spread… the clubs, and so on.”
“It is true,” Izzy said quietly. “Our chaplain, it turns out, was never ordained, and so was not authorised to conduct marriages. Birtwell… Walter… all of us are illegitimate.”
“But Izzy,” Sydney said, “surely your chaplain married you and Farramont, too?”
“He did.”
“So you are…?”
“Not married. Correct. Technically, not Lady Farramont any more, either, but everyone knows me by that name.”
“Ohhh,” Ruth breathed. “Sothatis why you have come. But that is perfect, for now you can marry Sydney, as he wanted years ago.”
“What?”Sydney said. “But I am betrothed to you, Ruth.”
“Then I set you free. Lady Farramont is quite right, Idodeserve better than you. I’m not going to marry you, Sydney.”
“But the banns have been read,” he said helplessly. “We marry on Friday. It is all arranged.”
“Then you’ll have to unarrange it, won’t you? May I wish you both very happy. I’ll go to my room now and start packing.”
She strode away, the rest of her family scuttling helplessly in her wake.
Sydney looked as if he had been struck over the head. “Izzy Farramont, what a meddlesome woman you are! Now look what you have done, and Father had set his heart on that land, too.”
“Fields, fields, fields! Whatever has happened to you, Sydney? You have the soul of a poet, but you have turned into some sort of money-grubbing conniving miser, and I truly never thought it of you. What has brought about such a hideous alteration? Are you all in the basket?”
“No.” He lowered his voice and drew her a little aside so they would not be overheard. “Father is not likely to last much longer and… he frets rather. About me, about the succession and about that wretched field. When the Plowmans bought that estate, it seemed like the ideal way to settle his mind. I have no brothers, so it is up to me to do what is necessary. I want him to die happy, Izzy, knowing that the succession is secure and our lands the best they can be. And now you have ruined everything and he will fret himself into an early grave, and Mother with him. She has consumption, did you guess that? So I shall not have either of them for much longer.”
“I am very sorry for it,” Izzy said, subdued.
“Well, so am I, and it is my wish to make them happy before they leave this earth. How I am to do it now I cannot imagine, and if you think I plan to fall at your feet again just because you aretechnicallynot married, you have another think coming.”
“No need to worry, Sydney,” she said coldly. “I have no expectation that you would wish to marry me. After all, I have no fields with which to entice you.”
So saying, she swept haughtily from the room.
10: Reflections
When he reached York, Ian called into the bank for funds and found the normally unflappable bank manager in rather a state.
“Oh, my lord, so glad you are here! I did my best to follow your instructions but—”
“Then Lady Farramont has been here?”
“Yes, my lord, as I say, and—”
