A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting(86)

Pattson looked at him gravely. ‘If I may be so bold, my lord,’ he began, ‘I have known you all your life. And I knew your father for most of his. I fancy I have a good understanding of both your characters by now. I would ask you to trust me, then, when I say this: he was proud of you. He knew you would be a great man. But you cannot take up residence in his shadow for ever – you are Lord Radcliffe now. And that means as much, or as little, as you choose.’

Radcliffe stared at Pattson with shining eyes. He cleared his throat. ‘Thank you, Pattson.’

‘You are most welcome, my lord.’





36


Kitty did not tarry long in the parlour, knowing she must go upstairs and face her sister.

Cecily did not turn to look at her, sitting on the bed facing the wall, hands clasped tightly in her lap. Recriminations lay, expectant, upon Kitty’s tongue, but she knew that she must do better now.

‘I am sorry,’ she said at last. ‘I am so sorry, Cecily.’

‘You are?’ Cecily asked, turning with surprise.

‘You were right, about everything. I should have listened to you more, and I did not, and I am sorry. I have been so dedicated to securing our family’s future, I have not given nearly enough thought to its happiness. I do want you to be happy, Cecily – but this is not the way to go about it.’

‘Have you ever thought that maybe I wanted to help?’ Cecily said tearfully. ‘I thought the whole point was to marry rich. Rupert is rich.’

‘Not like this. Scandal does not breed comfort, Mama and Papa taught us that.’ She paused. ‘Are you truly in love with him?’

‘I believe I am,’ Cecily said shyly. ‘I think of him often and wish to speak to him always. We – we talk about things. Books and art and ideas, you know. Not many people want to talk to me about those things.’

Kitty’s heart ached. ‘Yes, I suppose we don’t. I am sorry for that, too. I suppose I – I suppose I do not want to speak of such things, because I always feel a little foolish whenever you do.’

‘You?’ said Cecy, disbelieving.

‘Oh, yes. In truth, I was always most jealous that you were sent to the Seminary.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes, indeed. You came back with all these grand ideas, and a love of books, and you seemed so … lofty all of a sudden. Whereas I just had to stay, to try to find a husband and look after everyone. It made me feel frightfully slow, in comparison.’

‘I never think you slow,’ Cecily said urgently. ‘You are always so certain about everything, always know what to do and say. I always seem to say the wrong thing, get us into all kinds of messes.’

‘And what about us meeting the de Lacys in the first place, hmm? What about Almack’s? You did those things, Cecily, not I. I should not have been able to do any of that without you.’

Cecily flushed in pleasure, Kitty’s confession giving her the courage to ask the question she had been dying to all evening. ‘Do you mean to keep Rupert and me apart from now on?’ she whispered.

Kitty exhaled slowly. ‘No,’ she said reluctantly. ‘But this is not without difficulty. If he even whispers a breath of your elopement to anyone—’

‘He won’t!’ Cecily protested vehemently.

‘Be that as it may. You need to understand the difficulties of this attachment – if you are to aim this high, Cecily, it is very important to think the whole plan through. To be clever about it.’

Another nod, more eager now.

‘Then I shall do my best to help you,’ Kitty said. ‘Thankfully, if Mr Pemberton does propose – which he may not, after tonight – we shall be much better positioned than we are currently upon the social scene. It might not be so implausible then.’

‘Do you want him to?’ Cecily asked timidly.

‘Want who to what?’ Kitty asked.

‘Mr Pemberton, to propose.’

‘Why of course!’ Kitty said, very brightly.

‘After tonight, I thought your feelings might be attached elsewhere,’ Cecily said simply.

Kitty shook her head. ‘They cannot be,’ she said, speaking through a tight throat. ‘It is quite impossible.’

‘Is it? Even after tonight …’

But Kitty was shaking her head again.

‘I cannot speak of it. Let us go to bed now, Cecy. It has been a long, long day.’

Despite this, after they had blown out the candles, Cecily and Kitty whispered longer still into the night. They talked of home, of their other sisters, exchanged sleepy ideas of how to secure Lady Montagu’s approval of Cecily, until – most unusually – it was Kitty who fell asleep first, almost mid-sentence.

Cecily closed her eyes, too. Her heart went out to her older sister. There was such a tragic irony to the whole thing, Cecily thought – almost Greek, really – for Kitty to discover only at this juncture that she was in love with Archie de Lacy after all.

The storm had not broken by dawn. The sisters woke late and – after Kitty had given Sally the day off, and most of their remaining coins as meagre thanks for the great service she had done their family – they spent the day sequestered in the parlour, warming themselves by the fire and watching the rain.

‘Is there anything you would like to … see, tomorrow?’ Kitty asked Cecily, as they sipped on hot chocolate. ‘The Marbles again? I know our last visit was brief. Or the museums?’