A Rational Proposal (Furze House Irregulars Book 1)(48)
Julia sighed in sympathy. “It will be the money. Charles always has been the most principled of my brothers. Fortunately, he is also the one most likely to ride to the rescue if one is in trouble. Could you pretend to be abducted?”
Verity gave her a dry look. “Having first had the presence of mind to write him a helpful letter telling him where I have been confined? It is of no matter. I am to accompany him tomorrow. I shall see if I can contrive to throw myself into his lap in the carriage.” And he will put me aside like a particularly irritating harlot and tell me to behave myself.
A knock on the door heralded a footman with a parcel. “This was delivered for you, Miss Julia.”
Julia brightened up at once. “I adore surprises. I hope it is not from Lieutenant Neville or I will be obliged to return it.”
It was not from the lieutenant. Julia carefully undid the sheets of tissue paper to reveal...
“It is the reticule,” she gasped. “Did you go back for it after all, Verity?”
“When would I have had the time? Besides, you do not need it. Is there a note?”
Julia poked amongst the wrappings and unfolded a crisp sheet of paper. “Here,” she said, passing it to Verity.
“To Miss Congreve,” Verity read aloud. “Sir Philip Munro begs Miss Congreve to accept this trifle as the inadvertent cause of her tumble on his steps and trusting she is none the worse for it. Julia, it is from Sir Philip Munro!”
The two friends stared at each other in consternation. “I cannot return it,” said Julia. “That would be the height of bad manners. But I do not see how I can accept it either. What can he mean by it?”
“Perhaps he feels bad about taking us for pickpockets. But Julia, if he heard what we were arguing about then he must have been very much more aware of us than he gave any sign of. Sharp ears too.” Verity looked at the reticule uneasily. “I do not think I like such control.”
“Nor I, though it is flattering that he has gone to the trouble of searching out the reticule and discovering my direction. I am glad it was not as expensive as the work deserves. I do not need to feel guilty about his laying out too great a sum of money.” Julia stroked the blue embroidered satin. “The best solution is a note, I think, thanking him for his gift and saying it was not in the least necessary. Oh, how annoying gentlemen are. Not only has he robbed us of the excuse to go back there again, I dare not even use the reticule now, in case he sees me at the next party where we coincide and reads more into my carrying it than that it goes with my costume.”
“You will have to forswear blue for a twelvemonth. Shall we send the letter straight away? We can couch it in a formal style to match his. I have paper and a good pen in my writing case.”
“You are the best of friends.”
Verity made a rueful face. “If I had been a better one, I would have lent you the money, and then we would not have had to deal with this at all.”
She told Charles about the incident the next morning in an effort to banish embarrassment and keep the atmosphere in the carriage on a friendly basis.
“Odd,” said Charles, a frown on his face. “I hope he is not getting a tendre for Julia. I do not trust a man who turns thieves in, apparently for sport. It bespeaks a lack of emotion.”
“She does not return the regard. I thought you should know in case he referred to either the gift or Julia’s tripping on his step in conversation. It did not strike me that he looked at you in the gallery with any degree of goodwill.”
“Nor I him. He is a difficult gentleman to like. Too remote, though I may be wronging him. My thanks for the information. How do you get on with the furnishings for Furze House? The lease is now signed. There seems no reason why you and Kitty should not remove there as soon as we can get her safely away.”
He was clearly desperate to evict her from his orbit. Verity answered in the same composed tone, but having regarded Charles as a friend her whole life, her heart was breaking to think he might never be anything more. Men, as Julia said, were unfathomable.
Once they reached the Bridewell, he became more like himself. “Stay close to me, Verity, and strive for an open mind. Many of the wretches in here have had very little choice in life. Much can be forgiven the poor.”
“You are a good man,” she said. “Lead on.”
They went through an archway and across a walled yard. It was large and open to the sky, but the high walls gave Verity a similar oppressed feeling to when she had been caught in the fog. Then down a passage, where a small window set in a door gave her a glimpse of a large bare room with straw piled in wooden frames for beds, and then they were shown into a small room, where presently two young women and a child were brought in. One woman settled herself on a chair with the babe on her knee and looked Charles boldly in the eye. The other huddled in a corner, head bent, wrapping her arms around her body as if she would never be warm.
“Susan Norris,” said the warder, “and the woman brought in with her. She’ll not leave her, though you’ll not get any sense from her.”
“Her name is Hannah,” said Susan Norris pointedly. “She’ll do no one any harm. And what can I do for you, my fine fellow? Can you get me out of here?”
The warder made to strike her, but Charles spread his hand.
“My name is Congreve, Miss Norris,” he said. “And I know nothing except I am to talk to you. Perhaps you could start by relating how you came to be in this place.”