“Don’t play your tricks on me, Mama!Nicholas Delaney, your pet shibboleth.And don’t tell me you didn’t know, because it must have been announced, and you read every word of the social news.”
Lady Middlethorpe gave him her best look of hurt reproof, which, since she had been gifted with a frail appearance and big blue eyes, was uncommonly effective.This time, however, her normally sensitive son was unmoved, and so she answered him on a sigh.“My dear boy, was it my place to draw your attention to his follies when he did not care to inform you of them himself?”
“What follies?You were always dashed eager to get him married before.Said it would steady him.”
His mother sat up straight.“Marriage to a well-bred girl of high principles might well have done so,” she said tartly.“An elopement—for that is what it amounts to—with Eleanor Chivenham will not!”
Her son missed the point.“The well-bred girl being Amelia,” he said, referring to his youngest sister.“You were always going to catch cold at that, Mama.Nick was bound to settle for a high flyer.”
An unkind critic might have said that her ladyship smirked.“A high flyer!Permit me to inform you that Eleanor Chivenham, now Delaney, must be well into her twenties.She cannot be described as having been on the shelf simply because she was never off it.She lived her entire life in a rundown place in Bedfordshire until recently, when she moved to London.To her brother’s house.”
Her son’s face finally showed all the consternation and horror she could have wished.“LionelChivenham?”
“Keep calm, if you please.Yes, Sir Lionel Chivenham.Even I have heard something of the goings-on in his set.Doubtless you know more.A fine bride,” she sneered, “for one of our oldest families.”Having begun to gain the response she sought, she affected sorrow and rested her head upon her hand.“What his poor brother must be feeling I can only imagine.Such a cultured man.She trapped him into it, of course.One can only feel sorry for him, though he could be said to have come by his just—”
“I can’t believe the half of what you say, Mama,” her son interrupted ruthlessly.It was the only way.“You must have been misinformed.I certainly don’t believe Nick was trapped into anything, and,” he added severely, “you’d do well not to spread such notions.I’m off to change for dinner.I will be going to Town tomorrow.”
He left his widowed mother to regret having lost control of herself yet again on the subject of Nicholas Delaney.It never served any purpose except to alienate her only son.
Her husband had died just before Francis was due to leave for Harrow, and she had resolutely resisted the temptation to keep the sensitive and grieving boy at home.He was a charming child, and her dearest, but his father had been ailing for some years and he had not developed the manly characteristics he would need.
She had felt sure he would do better in a new environment with plenty of male companionship.She had been proved correct, but when he returned home for Christmas she had been stunned to find that he had transferred all the dependence that he had previously reposed on his father to a boy of his own age.“Nick says,”
“Nick thinks,” battered her ears until she wanted to scream.
Meeting the paragon had not helped.She had invited Nicholas Delaney to the Priory and been frightened by him.Even at fourteen, with his voice inclined to escape his control, he was a strikingly handsome and self-assured young man.She’d had to admit he was polite and well behaved, but he was so mature she frequently found herself talking to him as if he were an adult.She had found him impossible to cope with and had come close to hating him when she saw his influence over her son, and how he could control all her children better than she could herself.
Over the years she had waged a war that varied from subtle to overt in an attempt to detach her son from his friend.She had failed, partly because she could not put her objections into clear terms, even to herself.
She had refused to invite Nicholas to the Priory again for nearly two years.When Francis had finally worn down her resistance the invitation had been politely refused.It had apparently been made tactfully clear that all future invitations would be refused also.She had felt no gratitude.All that had been achieved was that her beloved son spent a large part of his time away from his home, at Grattingley.
She had only felt relief when Nicholas Delaney had taken it into his head to travel instead of going to university.
They had only met once in the past four years, when he and Francis had just returned from a short trip to Ireland.They had only been gone two weeks, but him taking Francis anywhere had scared her, and it always irritated her to see the way her handsome son faded beside Nicholas Delaney’s vitality.
His behavior had been exemplary at first, even though she knew she had shown antagonism.She was ashamed to remember how she had been betrayed by her feelings into open attack.
“I suppose I should thank you,” she had said, “for returning my son to me like a borrowed pet.”
Those bright brown eyes had not been unkind.“Let us say,” he had responded, “that pettishness is in the eye of the beholder.I really do not know what you fear from me, Lady Middlethorpe, but I assure you it is illusory.Take consolation from the fact that I will be well out of Francis’s way for some time.Unless,” he added dryly, “you think I should take him to the Americas?”
The idea had terrified her and she had replied sharply.“I am sure you can persuade him.”
He had shaken his head with a genuine and singularly sweet smile.“And I am sure I cannot.He knows his duty to his family, and I would not and could not draw him from you all, for he loves you.”
She had been baffled but not disarmed.She had made a rather meaningless retort in order to cover it.“And what of your family?”
Firing at random, she realized she had hit a target.He merely said, more to himself than to her, “My duty is clear.Just to stay alive, and out of everyone’s way.”
She had never understood what he meant by it.It could be interpreted that his family wanted the black sheep out of the way, and yet, despite a certain unconventionally, she had never heard anything shaming about him.It was equally untrue that his family wanted him out of the way.She had heard his twin brother was distressed almost to sickness by his absence.
When the dinner gong sounded Lady Middlethorpe went below, resolved to obliterate any unpleasantness between herself and her son.She only hoped she could keep the resolution if the talk should veer to the subject of Nicholas Delaney.
Chapter 6
Eleanor woke to her second day as mistress of the house in Lauriston Street to find Nicholas had already left the bed in which he had again done no more than kiss her good night.She told herself that, on the whole, this state of affairs suited her very well.
She had little time for analyzing her marriage anyway, for this was the day of his bachelor dinner and she was determined to fill the role he had set for her.After arranging the final details of the meal with Mrs.Cooke, checking the wines with Hollygirt, and choosing decorations for the table, Eleanor decided to reward herself with a brisk walk in the open air.
