Page 16 of The Duke and the Spinster

Chapter Six

The following day, Juliana was unable to provide an excuse to stay away from Hallingbrook Grange. She approached the planned afternoon of games, with a garden party in the formal gardens which spread out from the terrace, feeling a mixture of fear and grim determination.

Fear that she would be clumsy, and fall down the steps, or into a rose bush, fear that the Duke would be there, and that she would be forced to be close to him, fear that he wouldn’t be there, for her treacherous heart informed her that she desperately wanted to see him again, and grim determination that she would, somehow, avoid him, and avoid doing anything disastrous before the assembled people.

Her mother, oblivious as always to the turmoil that filled her, nattered on to Eleanor as the carriage conveyed them up the Hallingbrook Grange driveway.

It was an imposing house, she had to admit, although in that instant she would have preferred to be anywhere else, anywhere.

Descending from the carriage, they entered the house, and were shown through to the ballroom, where all of the terrace doors had been propped open, to allow guests to come and go at will, and to allow the gentle breeze to flow through the house. Soon, she was a silent witness to her sister’s flirtation and her mother’s conversation. It grated – she might as well be invisible, for all the notice that anyone paid her! But, at the same time, she was grateful – invisibility was pleasantly undemanding. And being always at her mother’s side, in the midst of things, would preclude any risk of unexpected meetings in secluded corners.

Once an hour or two had passed, and the Duke had not made an appearance, she began to relax. It seemed that he was not going to attend that afternoon. She was torn between relief and disappointment, and severely chided herself for the disappointment part – what was she thinking! ‘Well’, said the quiet voice in her head, ‘perhaps you are thinking about how it felt to have his lips upon yours?’. She repressed it sternly.

She considered slipping away into a quiet corner to rest her aching feet, then thought better of it. Avoiding all risk of semi-private meetings, with anyone, was by far the safest course.

~~~~~

As Juliana endured invisibility, Garrett walked casually across the town square and slipped into the lawyers’ office. The town was quiet, with not many people about, and he was grateful – the last thing he needed was casual conversation. Only the elder Mr Sandiford was present, and he waved Garrett to a chair.

“Good afternoon, Your Grace.”

“And to you, Sandiford. Do you have information for me?”

“I do indeed, although I’m not sure what to make of some of it. There’s an element of solid information, but there’s also a collection of what sounds like, to me anyway, a lot of faradiddle.”

“Oh?”

“First, the solid information. Lord Delbarton and his family are staying at Hardcastle House, in one of the larger suites of rooms. They appear to be decent people, and the two servants they brought with them seem happy and dedicated to them. But under the surface things are a little less positive. It seems that the current Earl’s father was not a good manager of his wealth, and ran down the estates, selling off a lot of what is not entailed. So, the current Earl is not a wealthy man. He’s not paupered, but he’s struggling somewhat.”

Garrett nodded, not really surprised.

“Therefore, he needs his daughters to marry well?”

“It would seem so. But there he has a little problem – well, two actually. The first is simple – he really doesn’t have the ready to pay out two dowries, not with any speed, at any rate. The second rather compounds with the first, and this is where the dubious information comes in.”

“I pity the man – that is not a good situation to be in, at all. But what is this dubious information? And how does it relate to his daughters’ dowries?”

Sandiford looked at the notes on his desk, as if checking what was said.

“It seems that the elder daughter, Lady Juliana, had her first, and only, London Season more than three years ago. It started with high hopes from her parents, and ended as an apparently unmitigated disaster. She was then, I gather, at nineteen, one of those girls who blooms late. She was still gawky and uncoordinated – the sort of girl who brings to mind a foal taking its first steps – all legs and wobbles. She had then, if reports can be believed, not yet achieved much in the way of womanly curves, nor anything in the way of guile or skill at flirtation. She was damned as an antidote, a clumsy oaf with no redeeming features, and no conversation, not even the physical appeal that might make a man accept the rest. And the gossips of the ton tore her apart for their amusement. She has generally avoided society ever since.”

Garrett felt ill at Sandiford’s words, all too easily imagining what such a situation might do to the confidence of a young girl. Much about Lady Juliana’s manner made far more sense to him now.

“But, terrible as that is, how does it compound her father’s problem with the dowries?”

“Simple – he can’t afford to pay two dowries. So, if he marries off the younger daughter, who is far more socially adept, and the older daughter becomes a spinster, whilst he still has to feed her, and has the embarrassment of her not having found a husband, he will not have to pay out her dowry either. So he is caught between the two. What is best for him is not really what would be best for his daughter.”

“I see. And the dubious information is exactly what?”

“A collection of suppositions about Lady Juliana.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. The ton did not stop at condemning her for her manner and youth. Instead, they took to making guesses about why she might be that way, and spouting those as purported truth. Everything from there being something wrong with her physically, to there being something wrong with her mind. And when that got boring, after she had retired from society, they began to debate whether she had actually been compromised, seduced, and left in no fit state to go into society again. There are times, Your Grace, when I find myself despising most of the titled, no disrespect to you, you understand.”

“I am in agreeance with that opinion, Sandiford. I believe that you’ve told me what I needed to know. This explains rather a lot. I will have to think on it, for I am curious who, amongst the guests at Hallingbrook Grange, and the people of this town, would both know of all of that vicious gossip, and be willing to spread it – for that is what someone has been doing.”

Sandiford paled, his face a picture of horror.