“Ah, Lord Tarvin! Do come in, my lord. Thank you for attending so promptly. Rumour has it that you succeeded in setting Shapman free from prison.”
“And he was imprisoned again this morning, in the Holy state of matrimony,” Edward said.
“My goodness, that was quick work!” That was Mrs Edgerton again. “How did you pull that off?”
“With a bishop’s licence from the Archbishop of York, a fraught evening arranging everything and then running my carriage between Birchall and the bride’s church all morning. I had to spend last night at the parsonage to make everything work. I thought it best to get it done before Tess has a chance to insinuate herself into the situation again.”
“Does she know yet?”
“Unfortunately, she heard Shapman was free, rushed down to the village to see him and ran straight into the wedding party. She was… a bit upset.”
“Poor girl!” Mrs Edgerton’s voice was full of sympathy. “She has not had an easy life, and it is not getting any easier.”
“Not an easy life?” the captain said. “Born into an earl’s household? Never wanting for anything in her life?”
“Anything material,” Mrs Edgerton said. “Love… I think she has been starved of love.”
“Which she would not have got from Tom Shapman,” Edward said, a harsh tone in his voice. “Nor will she get it from Ulric Frith.”
“It seems to me that she wants money, rather than love.” Now who was that? The lawyer fellow, Tess thought. Mr Willerton-Forbes.
“And she shall have it, just as soon as we can extract those gold bars from Apstead House,” Edward said.
“That is precisely what Neate is about,” the captain said. “Do you remember my associate, James Neate, my lord? He has just arrived from Pickering to collect the letters of authority enabling him to gain admittance to the house. And the key to the safe, of course. In the course of investigating the house, he will discover afresh the safe and its contents, and be able to obtain a proper estimate of the value of those gold bars. There is a goldsmith coming up from London for the purpose.”
“Excellent. This news may cheer her a little,” Edward said.
“Unfortunately, there is a small problem,” the lawyer said in his ponderous way. “The late Mr Nicholson was helping himself to a sizeable proportion of the late earl’s rental income. The present earl engaged a land steward to deal with such matters, and so Nicholson devised other schemes to line his own pockets, but there was a substantial loss to the estate from the earlier depredations. The earl quite naturally wishes to recoup some of the losses.”
“But not to the extent of Miss Nicholson’s entire fortune, surely?” Edward said.
“My investigations are not yet complete,” the lawyer said slowly, “but my current estimate is that Mr Nicholson’s embezzlement may amount to forty thousand pounds or even more.” A long pause. “Do you still wish to tell Miss Nicholson?”
“No. Good God, no! This is dreadful! She could end up with nothing… not a penny!”
There was a profound silence from the room below.
Tess was too experienced at listening in to reveal herself by an injudicious sound or movement, but she was hard put to it not to squeak with shock. This was a severe blow! She had suspected her father’s perfidy for a long time, ever since she had realised that he bought a new coat or a fob for his waistcoat or a trinket for Mama after he had collected the Lady Day rents. Why should he have extra money to spend after gathering in the earl’s income? He was not usually free with his money, but once a year, he was a little more generous.
Once, she had tested her theory by asking him if she could have a new gown.
“Your Mama is the person to ask,” he had said absently, busy with his accounts. “She handles your allowance.”
“But you have plenty of money just now, so I thought you might share some of it with me.”
His head had come up sharply at that. “It is true that I have been fortunate at the card table lately.”
“The card table? Is that where it comes from?” she had said in innocent tones.
He had looked at her penetratingly. She could not have been more than nine or ten at the time, and he must have wondered whether this was truly childlike innocence or something more subtle.
Eventually, he chuckled, and set his pen down. “You are a clever little thing, Tess. Tell me, why do you think Lord Rennington is such a powerful man?”
“He’s an earl, Papa.”
“True, and everyone bows down to him for that reason. But the real power in the world is money. If you have money, you are a person of consequence even if you are lowly in otherways. Money is security and freedom and the ability to live your life however you choose. Money permits a recovery from any disaster, large or small. Money is independence, Tess, and not being beholden to anyone. Not beingownedby anyone. How much would you like for your new gown?”
Tess had no idea what a gown would cost, but she knew that her father regularly won twenty pounds from the earl at piquet and the earl laughed it off. That was a trivial amount, then.
