A Rational Proposal (Furze House Irregulars Book 1)(5)
“You had best explain,” said Mrs Bowman.
“Explain what?”
“You would not know the circumstances, I daresay, as you did not act for my father,” said Verity. “Unless you have been talking to Julia?”
“I frequently talk to Julia,” said Charles. “It is the fastest way to find out what is going on in town. About what, particularly?”
“John’s wedding. Oh no, I remember now, she was away at the time or we would have called.”
“Verity,” said Charles, exasperated.
She flashed an engaging smile at him. “I beg your pardon. The facts are simply that Selina, having been modestly indecisive about marriage these past two years, accepted John within moments of learning Papa had left him Kennet End Hall and the whole estate, without even Mama and I as distraints upon his purse. I promise you, Charles, within moments. In one breath she was commiserating with us prettily on our loss and saying how she couldn’t bear the thought of John’s broad shoulders having to support the burden of the estate alone, and in the next breath she was accepting the situation of loving helpmeet and arranging a mutually convenient time to visit the foremost goldsmith in Bury St Edmunds for the purpose of choosing a ring. She was then overcome with remorse at having kept John dangling for so long. It was very affecting, was it not, Mama? She fixed on an early, very quiet, wedding at St George’s, Hanover Square because our period of mourning had barely started and she did not wish to offend the sensibilities of the district. So noble of her, do you not think?”
Charles shook with laughter. “You are a wicked young woman, Verity. Your brother’s wife is a sensitive lady, I apprehend.”
“Can you doubt it?” Verity ate a couple of mouthfuls of the chicken and continued. “Clearly my provincial mourning dresses would never do to celebrate such an auspicious occasion so, as we had been invited to stay with her well-connected cousins in town, I thought it safest to visit the same modiste as Selina, and to charge my wedding finery to John’s account.”
Charles regained his composure with some difficulty. “Do remind me never to annoy you.”
She opened her eyes wide. “I was not annoyed in the least. As I explained to John, it was a compliment to my new sister-in-law, designed to show how much I trusted her taste and judgement. He must have agreed, for he didn’t argue the outlay at all.”
“You are a minx.”
“But a nicely dressed one, you have to admit.”
Charles was betrayed into another smile and didn’t even begrudge her the tiny curve of her lips in triumph at having coaxed him into a better humour. That was the other thing he had forgotten, that despite the outrageous scrapes she and Julia had required rescuing from when they were younger, Verity herself was never less than amusing to be with. The danger lay in encouraging her.
Accordingly, he turned to his hostess. “I am glad to see you in good looks, Mrs Bowman,” he said. “Forgive me, I should have mentioned it as soon as I arrived, but you basely distracted me with those excellent macaroons.”
He spoke nothing but the truth regarding Mrs Bowman’s looks, yet she was still a water-colour painting compared to Verity’s vivid oils. It was difficult to credit Mr Tweedie’s assertion earlier this week that over twenty years ago, Miss Anne Harrington had been the prettiest girl in the county and much in demand as a dance partner.
“She was as pretty as her brother was handsome,” he’d said, sitting at his desk in unaccustomed stillness with the admiral’s problematical will in this hands. “We have always had a number of clients in Suffolk, so I saw a good deal of them, being the junior partner myself in those days and thus the one to be sent whenever something needed dealing with.”
“My commiserations,” said Charles pointedly.
“It was the tragedy that changed her. You would have been too young to remember, of course.”
“I should think I was. Twenty years ago I was still in the schoolroom. What happened?”
“Long before he made Admiral, James Harrington had a friend William Lawrence. One saw them everywhere, they were up to all the rigs and rows in town. Both James and Anne were cut from a different cloth to their parents and elder brother. Anne had a tendre for Will Lawrence who was lively and witty, and as darkly dashing as the Harringtons were fair. Will and Anne had an understanding, but his prospects depended on his grandmother, so he would not declare himself in public until he had been to see the old lady to discover what she might do for them.”
“That seems most correct. Did she disapprove? Was that the tragedy?”
Mr Tweedie sighed and came back from the past. “Alas, we never knew what she would have thought. James Harrington was under orders to join his ship. Will Lawrence travelled down to Portsmouth with him, saw him safely away, then set off to visit his grandmother. He was held up by highwaymen and killed on the turnpike en route. It was a shocking thing, quite terrible. The joy went out of Anne Harrington like a... like a chandelier with all the candles snuffed at the same instant.”
Charles felt a moment of pure astonishment at his prosaic partner’s sudden incursion into poetry. “A tragedy indeed,” he said. “Were the perpetrators caught?”
“I do not believe so. Anne took it very hard. Too hard, in my opinion. Mr Bowman was a widower who had been pressing his suit with her parents. She had been keeping him at arm’s length, as she had everyone, but with Lawrence gone, she married Bowman almost at once, as if she simply couldn’t put up a fight any more. I was involved in drawing up the marriage articles for her father - principally to ensure her portion would be settled on her own children rather than those from Bowman’s previous marriage - and I never saw such a pale, wan bride. I know James Harrington considered it a shabby thing for his sister to do, so soon after Will Lawrence’s death, but there you are. He was at sea, there was no one at home to counsel her otherwise and it certainly wouldn’t have been my place to say anything. All I could do was to tie up her settlement as tightly as I knew how. From my knowledge of her, it troubled me greatly that Bowman wasn’t a warmer man, but an offer is an offer and she was under considerable pressure from her parents. Do give her my best wishes. She will always be a beautiful woman in my eyes.”