“Such a good man that he never bothered to tell the earl that he had never been ordained, and look at the damage that has caused.”
“I am sure that is a mistake… Arthur would not… he would not have intended… the last thing he would have wanted was to harm the late Lord Rennington. They were the best of friends, always, despite the difference in their ages.”
“Such good friends that the earl never complained when Papa somehow always won at piquet. Did Papa ever lose? I do not remember a time. That was another way he lined his pockets, Mama.”
“No,” Lady Alice whispered, hand to throat. “No, he was a good man… on the whole. All men have their weaknesses, naturally, and perhaps the lure of money was too strong for him, but he always meant well and to me that made him a good man. Akindman who loved us both dearly.”
“Well, he had an odd way of showing it,” Tess said. “But since he has amassed this fortune, and not all of it can be identified as thievery, I shall have at least fifty thousand pounds, which I have no intention of handing over to a husband. So I am goingto marry Ulric Frith, Mama, because I can persuade him to give me full control of it, and he will not trouble me as a real husband would do, and then my life will be my own at last. Are you going to give me permission to stay at Myercroft? I am going to go, regardless of your opinion.”
Lady Alice sighed. “I know. I have never been able to stop you from doing whatever you want. All I ask is that you take Betty and Harold with you, and since Lord Tarvin is also invited, you may as well travel with him. A baron’s private carriage will be far more comfortable for the journey than travelling post.”
Tess laughed. “Very well, Mama, it shall be as you wish, although I expect we will quarrel all the way there.” Kneeling at her mother’s feet, she took her hand and said quietly, “I know I am a great trial to you, Mama, but once I have my money and I am free to live my life as I please, you will not need to worry about me again.”
Her mother squeezed her hand. “Mothers always worry about their children, Tess, and especially daughters. While I applaud your spirit, I cannot approve of the direction you are taking. I wonder sometimes if you have not got the worst of both your father and me in you — my determination to forge my own happiness, and his obsession with money. Both of us employed somewhat unorthodox methods of obtaining our own way, but I never stepped beyond what was proper, and your father had a charm that carried him through many difficulties. You are more like a hound racing after the faintest scent. It is irrational, this desire to control your own fortune at all costs. I hope you are not making decisions about your life solely to thwart your father’s wishes or mine.”
“Oh, no. Notsolelyfor that reason, Mama,” she said mischievously.
Lady Alice sighed. “That is what I feared, Tess. I shall reply to Lady Peterson that you have my permission to visitMyercroft, but I have misgivings… deep misgivings about the entire enterprise.”
“Thank you, Mama. I hope one day you will understand that this is all for the best.”
“For whom? Not for you.”
“Yes, for me, for who else knows what will content me except myself? But also best for Ulric and his family, too, and certainly best for Lord Tarvin, who will be spared a most troublesome wife. I want my freedom too badly to marry at all, in truth, but if I must, then better by far to bind myself to Ulric than a man who will keep me in subjection forever.”
Lady Alice shook her head sadly. “Oh, Tess, Tess! Marriage to the right man, a man who truly loves you, is not subjection, it is glorious. I wish above all things that you could experience that too.”
23: Apstead House
Edward found that the journey to Myercroft was not to be a straightforward one. Captain Edgerton had requested that Tess and her maid might look around Apstead House, to see if they could determine whether anything had been removed from it by Mrs Mayberry, so they were all to go to Pickering first. Mrs Edgerton joined Edward and Tess in Edward’s carriage, while Captain Edgerton rode alongside them, leaving his own carriage for the servants and luggage. Mr Neate had vanished, to make his way there by some other means.
The journey was made less tedious by a small travelling chess set that Tess had produced from some dusty recess of Corland, so they beguiled the time with a demonstration of Tess’s superiority in the game, much to Mrs Edgerton’s amusement.
“How is it that you are able to defeat Lord Tarvin so comprehensively?” she asked Tess. “He seems to me to be playing quite well, but then everything collapses and you put him into checkmate with ease.”
“He forgets about his queen,” she said at once. “It is the most powerful piece on the board, yet he seldom uses it. But is that not typical of a man, to overlook the capabilities of the female?”
“I might have done so once,” Edward said, “but the longer I am in your company, Miss Nicholson, the greater my respect for female ability.”
“A gallant answer,” Mrs Edgerton said.
“Which has the added virtue of being entirely true. And I shall remember the queen next time.”
“I hope you will, for you might perhaps defeat me once in a while. Next time we play, I shall explain how best to use your pawns.”
“How did you learn to play so well?” Mrs Edgerton said. “Who is the chess champion at Corland?”
“Kent taught me. You would not know it, for he is always funning, but he is very clever. He understands how all sorts of machines work. Whenever the fountain in the garden breaks, Kent makes it work again, and he loves clocks… engines… mill machinery. He says he wants to be an engineer, but Uncle Charles will not let him.”
“That is hardly fitting work for the son of an earl,” Edward said at once.
“Even so, if he has a skill in that direction, it is a great pity he is not permitted to build a career on it,” Mrs Edgerton said.
“Engines! Who needs engines?” Edward said. “Noisy, smelly things with their great chimneys belching smoke.”
“They bring us cheap cottons and woollens for our gowns,” Mrs Edgerton said with a smile, “and provide employment for many people.”
“And thereby put thousands of cottage weavers out of work,” he said seriously. “I do not like all these mills that are springing up here, there and everywhere. Yes, they employ many people, but they must live in cramped accommodation in smoke-filledtowns, and watch their children play in filthy streets crowded with horses and wagons. Is it not better to live in a cottage in the country, surrounded by clean air and fresh water, with a bit of land to grow vegetables and keep chickens? The man has employment on the farms or for the local squire, and his wife sits at home with her loom and the baby on her knee.”
