And then, at last, he was able to ride away to freedom.
2: Family Trouble
“Eleven thousand,” Tess repeated, in disgusted tones.
The lawyers beamed happily at her. “It is a substantial sum, Miss Nicholson,” one of them said. “A splendid dowry for any young lady. And in time you will also inherit your mother’s portion of fifteen thousand pounds.”
“A time far in the future, we must hope,” the other said.
“Yes, indeed. All the Lady Alice’s well-wishers must hope that it will be a great many years before such a large sum finds its way to you.”
“Indeed, it is a very great sum,” the other chortled. “You must beware of fortune hunters, Miss Nicholson.”
The two men exchanged smug glances.
“What about the house?” Tess said.
“Ah, now, the house at Pickering is leased at a modest rental — ten pounds a year. The tenant is a respectable widow, a Mrs Mayberry.”
“But what is the house worth?”
“Worth? If it were to be sold? A few hundred pounds, perhaps, but you would not wish to sell it, I am sure, Miss Nicholson.”
“I might wish to live in it.”
The earl had said nothing so far, but at this he frowned and leaned forward on his elbows. “Tess, my dear, you could hardly set up your own establishment, not a girl of twenty. If Alice were to go with you… but you know how impossible that is. She must stay here where all is familiar and she knows her way around, and that means that you must stay here as well.”
Tess sighed. She had known she was asking for the impossible. Her mother had been blind since a childhood illness, and could not leave Corland Castle.
“But surely I can go and look at the house?” she said. “Since it is mine—?”
“And disrupt the tenant?” the earl said. “Tess, do not let this inheritance turn your head. The Pickering house is not yours, not until you marry, and then your husband will determine what is best to do with it.”
Tess had nothing to say to that.
“When you are out of mourning,” the earl said, “you may come to town with us, if you wish, and Lady Rennington will introduce you into society, and find you a suitable husband. You will have suitors buzzing all around you, my dear, so pretty as you are, and with a very handsome portion to offer. You will be able to choose just the man to suit you, you may be sure.”
Tess could be sure of no such thing. A suitable husband! It was the last thing she wanted.
***
Tom Shapman was busy turning chair legs when she arrived, his coat off and sleeves rolled up above the elbow, revealing admirably strong arms.
“More chairs?”
“Aye, fourteen for the dining room at Langley Villa for Lord Birtwell and his bride.”
“If they ever get to the altar,” Tess said with a lift of one shoulder. “They have been betrothed forever, it seems.”
“He’s the heir, so it’s not a simple matter of banns and a wedding,” Tom said. “There’ll be a lot to take into account. So long as they pay for their chairs, it’s nothing to me when they marry, or if they marry at all. But what did the lawyers say? Are you a wealthy woman?”
She told him all that had been said, and he made sympathetic noises. “Well, there it is, then. No vast fortune after all.”
“But thereis!”she cried. “I tell you, I have seen it!”
“How can you see a fortune? It’s all in the banks, isn’t it? Or… investments of some sort.”
“This was in Papa’s safe,” she said. “Gold bars, a great pile of them, and I know from the prices in the newspapers that they are worth far, far more than a measly eleven thousand. But then one time I looked they were gone, and now I have not the least idea where they are.”
