“I shall not be in danger, Lord Tarvin.”
The frown reappeared instantly. “You are over-confident, madam! You cannot know how Ulric will react, and he is a big man, a powerful man, and you are a such a dainty creature. I should not wish you to be hurt by him.”
“And I shall not be, sir. I am confident that this is so, for I shall not be living at Myercroft with Ulric.”
The frown changed to bewilderment. “Then what on earth is the point of this charade? If not Myercroft, whatdoyou want? His money, is that it? A large settlement so that you can go off and live as you please? You will catch cold at that, for the lawyers and I will take the greatest care over the settlement, you may depend uponthat.”
Tess could hardly believe he knew nothing of her situation. “I care nothing for Myercroft, or Ulric’s fortune!”
“Nonsense! You are not doing this out of the goodness of your heart. If it is not Myercroft you want, it must be money. How much?”
“What?”
“Let us get to the point, Miss Nicholson. How much will it take for you to relinquish your hold on Ulric? Ten thousand? I can do that if it will get rid of you.”
“How dare you! I do not want your money!”
“Twenty thousand, then.”
“Did you not say you would avoid further insult, sir? And yet you see fit to try to bribe me! Your money is nothing to me, nothing. I do not want so much as a penny piece from you or from Ulric. How should I, when I have a fortune of my own, if I can get my hands on it? Did your Mama not tell you about me — about the terms of my father’s will? No? My father left me his entire fortune, since I am an only child, but only on condition that I marry a gentleman. Ulric is a gentleman, is he not? He will serve my purposes admirably. In fact, I may noteven need to marry him. A betrothal may be enough.Nowdo you understand?”
His eyes glittered for a moment, and she held her breath. Would he erupt again, or would he see the logic behind it? “I did not know that,” he said stiffly. “That does not improve my opinion of you. It was low when I believed you were merely in pursuit of Ulric’s wealth, but it is even lower now that I know you mean to use him for your own purposes and then discard him when he is no longer of use.”
“What do I care for your opinion of me?” she said impatiently. “And how is Ulric harmed by this? If we marry and take control of his estate, then he and his family will have a more pleasant home to live in and a more agreeable life, without you needing to dip into your pockets to rescue them from debt. So long as Ulric has his horses, he will be happy.”
“Do you know what will happen if his mother moves back to Myercroft?” he said tersely. “She will run through his fortune in two years or less, and then I shall be called upon to dip into my pockets, as you describe it, far more than at present. I do not begrudge the allowance that is paid them, nor the few pounds here and there when the children need new boots or the butcher’s bill becomes pressing, but I will not fund that woman to live like a great lady at Myercroft.”
Now it was Tess’s turn to frown. That was a problem! She had assumed that Mrs Jack lived in seeming poverty because her funds were too limited for her numerous family, and that with a larger income she would be comfortable. She had not taken her for a spendthrift. Yet now she thought about it, she had seen the trunks in the attic filled with bolts of cloth that had been determined after all to be unsuitable, the furniture still with years of use in it replaced, and the vast amount of waste in the kitchen. Mrs Jack looked eagerly forward to invitations to card parties, yet bemoaned her poor luck.
“I shall consider that,” she said. “There must be a way to ensure she has no way to overspend. If I were there… but I shall not be. Even if I could persuade Ulric to let you have the management of his finances, you are not always here, either, and his mother would be there every day, dropping hints in his ear.”
“Exactly so,” he said, with an unexpected smile. Oh, but he should smile more often! How handsome he was when he was not scowling.
“We will both consider the problem,” Tess said. “Of course, if I can get hold of my fortune without marrying Ulric, that would make the question moot, and everything could go on as before. That is what you want, is it not?”
“It would be for the best.”
“I shall write again to my uncle, and see if I can persuade him to— Well, never mind. My betrothal must carry some weight with him, so I will write and see what may be done.”
“Would it help if I write, too?” Lord Tarvin said. “He may listen to the urging of another peer.”
Tess sat up straighter. “Now that is better! We should not be enemies, should we? We both want the same thing, after all — for me to go away and leave Ulric in peace, which I shall be very happy to do once I have my fortune. If you write, be sure to mention the house in Pickering. I need access to that — will you tell him so?” She made no mention of safes or gold bars — he had no need to know about that.
“I shall be sure to do so,” he said. “Anything to be rid of you.”
They both laughed, and since Lord Tarvin wanted to know more about the terms of the will, they talked for some time in perfect amity, only retiring to bed when the clock struck midnight.
***
Tess was not trusting enough to leave Lord Tarvin to write his own letter to Lord Rennington, for who knew what he might say and what mischief might be caused as a result? So she rose early and loitered in the hall until he descended the stairs, and then supervised as he wrote the letter in the library.
It was rather cleverly done, she had to admit. Lord Tarvin appealed to the earl as one lord to another, and one trustee to another. Since he would be winding up his cousin’s trust fund and drawing up settlements for his marriage to Miss Nicholson, he wrote, it would be convenient for him to know the full extent of her fortune. In particular, there was a house in Pickering which had not yet been examined and valued, and might he send a trusted man of his to view the interior and assess the value? Then he franked his letter and Tess’s too, and dispatched a footman to get them at once to the post.
While they awaited replies from Corland, they went over to Myercroft every day, and rode with Ulric. Tess found these rides far more agreeable with Lord Tarvin’s presence. Unlike Ulric, he rode at an easy pace, stopping often to admire a particularly picturesque view, or to comment on the signs of burgeoning prosperity or incipient neglect in Ulric’s land, or simply to pass the time of day with a farmer or cottage wife or some boys painstakingly digging out a ditch beside the road. And in between, he chatted easily about this and that. If he was especially interested in Tess herself and her Corland life, that was not to be wondered at since she was betrothed to Ulric.
In the evenings, they made up a four for whist with Lady Tarvin and Mrs Edward Harfield, where Mrs Harfield apologised to Edward for every infelicitous play the other ladies made, and glared defiantly at him for her own mistakes. He uttered no reproof but wore his most disapproving expression.
If the ladies declined to play, or retired early to bed, Tess and Lord Tarvin played chess, and his frowns disappeared.Especially when his mother was not present, he was an agreeable and even amusing companion, as if he had forgotten that Tess was supposed to be his enemy. Only when Ulric was mentioned did his sour face return until he became absorbed in the game again. She discovered that they were evenly matched in the game, but she felt it expedient to allow him to win most of the time, since it kept him in humour.
