Alice gave her a pitying look but drew her into a tight embrace. “Well, I think it a foolish idea to throw away all chance of love, but if any husband will do, I suppose you could try for my brother George.”
Eleanor did her best not to draw back.If I am to carry this out, I must be resolved.Any gentleman of fortune would do, and at least George Kitchener, Lord Dryden, would suit her father. “I do not think I have seen Lord Dryden above twice since I grew up.”
“Well, you cannot go by what a sister says, because he is ten years my senior and he used to vex me horridly, but since you only want a removal from the Abbey, you cannot be fastidious.”
That was all too true. “I would not know how to encourage him.”
Alice’s teasing expression fell. “I do hate to see you considering anyone but Mr Brampton,” she said. “Even if neither of you admit it, you both—”
“Please, Alice, don’t.”
“Very well. Do you enjoy taking out a gun with your dog?” she asked with false cheer. “If you want to encourage George, I think that is the best way.”
Eleanor smiled. “You see, you are coming around to my way of thinking.”
“Not at all; it is just that I hate that ghastly Lady Harriet he has been spending time with. I like you a great deal better, so I am acting in my self-interest. I still think you would be happier single than married to anyone but Mr Brampton, but I will encourage my father to ask George to come home.”
There was a knock, and Lady Longtown entered with a drawn expression. “Girls, it is five minutes past five. General Tilney has begun to pace...”
This spurred them into immediate action, and they were breathless when they ran into the drawing room. Although everyone was at the table by ten past the hour, it took a long while for the general to recover his politeness. He spent some time scolding her for hurrying dear Lady Alice, but Eleanor knew her father was furious at her for being late. Eleanor dared not to suggest that it was Her Ladyship who had encouraged them along.
The evening passed without any great disturbance from her father, and after the remove, Alice said to Lord Longtown, “Sir, I thought since the Tilneys are here that we might send for George to come for a week or so.”
The marquess shrugged, and then said to his wife, “What say you, my dear?”
“I understand Sir Charles Sudbury is with him while Colborne Park’s grounds are being improved. If you want George here, I think I must invite his friend.”
With a look to the general, who gave a complaisant smile in reply, Lord Longtown told his wife to write to his son and heir. General Tilney was not inclined to bestow notice on new acquaintances, but Eleanor was certain that the ‘Sir’ immediately made this other man tolerable.
Alice shifted her weight, and then she gave Eleanor an expressive look before saying heavily to Lord Longtown, “Since we are to have a party after all, why do we not invite Lord Vaughan to spend a week as well? He is known to the Tilneys.”
Lord Longtown did not reply to his daughter, but turned to General Tilney with a raised eyebrow.
“What say you, Eleanor?” her father asked. Without waiting for her answer, he said, “I think it would be pleasant to have more young people around the table, and I am certain Longtown and I can keep pace with any of them on a horse. Invite who you will, my lady.”
“Very well, I shall write to George, and to Lord Vaughan too,” said Lady Longtown.
Alice pushed her food around her plate and said, with affected indifference, “Is Mr Brampton still renting a house near Belleville Hall from Lord Vaughan?”
Eleanor wanted to kick Alice under the table, but they sat too far apart.
Since it could scarcely trouble Lord Longtown to acknowledge anyone who was not his wife, Lady Longtown asked her husband the same question. “They are dear friends as well as cousins,” she added. “I fear Lord Vaughan would feel the slight if he knew George and the Tilneys were here and we did not invite also Mr Brampton.”
“I have nothing to say against it,” General Tilney said. “I was friends with the viscount’s father, and Mr Brampton’s mother was a Miss Drummond, you know, my wife’s cousin, but not so well-provided for as she was.” He wrinkled his nose. “Still, one must keep up connexions.”
“Very well, I shall write to George, and Lord Vaughan too, and tell him to bring Mr Brampton.”
Eleanor glared at Alice, who smiled smugly. If her friend thought she would not follow through on her plan to get herself engaged to the first eligible man who crossed her path simply because Philip would be here, she was sorely mistaken. To another father, a gentleman living on five hundred pounds a year and with noble connexions would be a suitable match for a daughter with a fortune of her own. But in General Tilney’s mind, fortune and consequence mattered more than one’s character, and Eleanor’s happiness mattered to him not at all.
I will never be allowed to marry Philip, so I might as well find whatever peace for myself that I can away from Northanger Abbey.
ChapterTwo
Some of his connexions would call his house small and confined, but to Philip Brampton it was perfectly decent for his purposes; a new-built, good stone house in Vaughan’s village, about two miles from Belleville Hall. It was just large enough to receive himself and his servants, and allow a spare room for a guest, but that was of little consequence to him. He entertained so little and was so readily received into the homes of his friends that he saw no reason to waste his income on having an extra parlour or a larger dining room. He needed only a room with a good window, a fireplace, and a table to spread out his arithmetical questions.
Philip had passed his early hours engrossed by his work and heard neither a knock at the door nor the voice of his man announcing a visitor. It was only when Robert Brampton, Lord Vaughan, clapped him on the shoulder that he looked up from his calculations.
They had the same brown hair and blue eyes from their Brampton grandfather, but his cousin Vaughan had inherited the height, the lively manner, and the viscountcy. Philip rose, but his cousin waved him away. “No formalities amongst cousins and friends.”
