“I most certainly did not!”
“Nellie, will you not introduce me to your friend?”
“This is Mr Ramsbottom, milady… Miss Nicholson.”
“Oh, Mr Ramsbottom!” Tess could not help laughing. “You have been following us all over the north of England. Have you concluded your business with Lord Tarvin satisfactorily?”
“I have, yes. It’s all right, Nellie, he said yes.”
“Oh, thank goodness!” Nellie turned to Tess. “He wants to marry me, you see.”
Tess burst out laughing. “And you had to get Edward’s permission, of course, to release his mistress.”
“Tess!” Edward said with an enormous sigh. “What an incorrigible girl you are! You should know nothing aboutmistresses, especially mine. You are supposed to believe me as pure as the snow.”
She only laughed harder. “Edward, you are twenty-seven years old and a single man. Why should you not keep a mistress if you want to? Once we are married, of course, it will be a different matter.”
“That’s the spirit!” Nellie said. “You keep him in line, dear.”
He shook his head. “Yes, this is very timely, Nellie, and I am sure Ramsbottom will look after you very well. It is a better arrangement for you to be a respectable baker’s wife rather than a mistress, but really, you should not be in this house.”
“Why should she not be here?” Tess said. “This is your house, Edward, so it is for you to say who comes into it and who does not.”
“My mother would not like it,” he said.
“Are you going to be driven by your mother forever? All those games you played, pretending to be courting and having no intention of marrying any of those insipid society ladies. Is it not time to put all the secrecy behind you and run your life however seems good to you? And if your mother dislikes it, she has a perfectly good house of her own to live in.”
With impeccable timing, the door opened again, and Mrs Edward Harfield came in, her eyes scanning the room, lingering on Tess, and then settling on Edward.
“Here you are, Edward. We were expecting you to join us in the Blue Saloon as soon as you arrived.”
“I had business to attend to.”
“Was it so urgent that you must keep your poor mother waiting? No news from you for a week, apart from a brief note to say that you had arrived at Myercroft. I was in terror that some dreadful mishap had occurred. Then you appear without warning, and I find you entertaining guests in my house.”
Edward hesitated, and Tess could see the precise moment when his face settled into a harder expression.
“This is my house, Mother, and I will entertain whomever I please within it.”
Two spots of colour appeared on her cheeks. “And whom does it please you to entertain?”
“Oh, do you want an introduction? Certainly. This is Nellie Goodlake, my mistress — no, I beg your pardon, myformermistress, and this is Ramsbottom, who is her intended. He is a baker from Clerkenwell.”
Mrs Harfield’s mouth opened and closed soundlessly. Tess was enjoying the scene enormously, but she did wonder if Edward had perhaps pushed her too far, and she might actually swoon away. She was made of sterner stuff, however.
“We shall discuss this later, Edward. For now, will you get these persons out of my house?”
Nellie and her middle-aged swain were all too ready to escape from a family fight, and within moments were gone, Edward accompanying them to the door. Betty took the opportunity to disappear, too.
“Would you like a cup of tea, Mrs Harfield?” Tess said in her most affable tones. “An apricot tartlet, perhaps?”
She did not deign to reply, but as soon as Edward returned, she said icily, “Edward, I have never been so outraged in my life! Bringing disreputable females here, ignoring your own mother and now that girl is usurping my position as mistress of this house.”
“First, you have never been mistress here,” Edward said calmly. “Lady Tarvin is mistress of Harfield Priory until I marry. Second, Tess is merely practising for when she becomes my wife.”
“You would marry that disgraceful chit? If she has led you astray—”
“Not another word! Tess is my future wife, and I will not stand by and hear her abused. She is the woman I choose to share my life, the woman I love with all my heart, and you had better learn to like it.”
