“But if you should have a son! My uncle will be very angry at the prospect that he might be deposed.”
“Yes, but we will be in London before he can become aware of my situation. I have taken our Aunt Martin into my confidence. I think it will be sufficient to have her overcome her dislike of town and agree to stay with us at Portland Place. If your uncle should attempt to impose upon us, he will find us in the care of a very formidable guardian.”
Their conversation was interrupted by the appearance of Miss Vernon’s little cousins. They had always been kept to so close a family circle that anybody new was a great curiosity, and upon their cousin’s arrival, they were possessed of such excitement that they ran away from their nursery maids and tumbled into Lady Vernon’s apartments.
Frederica greeted them with a sweet and playful smile, which immediately secured their interest, and she shepherded them back to the nursery, entertained them with games and stories until their dinner was brought up, and sat with them while they dined.
chapter thirty-four
Lady Martin to Lady Vernon
Ealing Park, Derbyshire
My dear niece,
I am both delighted and shocked at your news—it is what we have always wished for! But to come at such a time! I have given orders for my trunk to be packed in no more than a day—write at once to Mrs. Forrester, for I intend to be settled at Portland Place before you come to town. An “Elinor” would suit me very nicely, yet I cannot but wish for a “Frederick.”
As far as the business at Miss Summers’s, I commend my grandniece for acting as she did. To run away from all protection in order to save a friend from an imprudent elopement! To contrive to get away from school and travel as far as two streets before she was overtaken! It is just the mixture of adventure and folly that I possessed before I married my husband and was obliged to be sensible. I am excessively pleased.
James, however, does not think it such a great joke as he once did to have everybody regard him as Frederica’s suitor, now that all of London believes that she ran away from school to escape him! To my way of thinking, that could only raise her in anybody’s esteem. I begin to fear that nobody would marry James unless dragged to the altar. Even Lady Hamilton’s youngest daughter chose Mr. Charles Smith to my wastrel of a son. James does not like it at all when his character or his tailoring are called into question. He does not mind that people think him wanting in sense, but it grieves him to be thought wanting in appearance or kindness. It is all his own fault. If he does not wish to be the object of this sort of levity, he must marry somebody. He has dallied long enough.
I am anxious to know more of your opinion of Reginald deCourcy. There is a great deal of property and a large fortune, and though it would burden Frederica with Catherine Vernon for a sister and Lady deCourcy for a mother-in-law, perhaps they may settle somewhere distant until he comes into Parklands, and then he may send Lady deCourcy off to live with the Vernons. I confess that I like it very much. How long does young deCourcy continue at Churchill? You must throw them together as often as you can.
Your loving aunt,
Elinor Martin
Lady Vernon knew that Catherine’s interest would be more difficult to secure than Reginald’s—his must be won over by Frederica’s beauty, her understanding, and her prepossessing manners, but Catherine’s sympathy could only be roused by urging it in the opposite direction. In Catherine’s presence, therefore, Lady Vernon adopted an attitude of sternness and detachment toward her daughter, which secured the forbearance of her sister-in-law more effectively than if she had made a show of maternal affection.
To be sure, even if Catherine were inclined to be strict, she could find no motive. Though Miss Vernon was the daughter of Sir Frederick Vernon and the cousin of Sir James Martin, she laid no claim to privilege and repaid her aunt’s indifferent hospitality by arranging work boxes, mending purses, assisting the nursery maids, and keeping out of everyone’s way, and Catherine could not but be pleased with one who did so much and required so little in return. As for the children, they were delighted with a cousin who was always good-humored when they slipped a frog into her pocket or tied her apron strings into a knot.
Mrs. Vernon to Lady deCourcy
Churchill Manor, Sussex
My dear Madam,
On Thursday, Mr. Vernon returned from London and brought Miss Vernon with him, as Miss Summers absolutely refused to take her back. (I am sure that by now you have learned the motive of her conduct and cannot disapprove it, as it was done on behalf of our cousin Lucy.) They arrived just as we sat down to tea, and might have been with us earlier had my generous husband not undertaken to bring Miss Manwaring as far as Billingshurst.
When her daughter entered, Lady Vernon was the very picture of self-command, though earlier she had been shedding tears and pouring out her anxiety to Reginald. No doubt because the arrival of her daughter must expose him to all of her failures as a parent, which could not be evident while Miss Vernon was in London. She greeted her daughter with composure but without any tenderness of spirit. Miss Vernon’s address was perfectly civil. She did not sit with us for ten minutes, however, before she burst into tears and ran from the room. Lady Vernon followed and reappeared again, only coming down to announce that Miss Vernon was very fatigued and that they would dine in their apartments. She made a pathetic show of concealing her misery, which tried my patience sorely, but fortunately we were not subjected to it for the entire evening.
I was able to see more of my niece on the following day. She is very pretty, but not at all like her mother. She has quite the Vernon cast of countenance, the oval face and mild dark eyes of her father. There had been a portrait of Sir Frederick somewhere in the gallery, which my dear husband was compelled to move in order to make way for a likeness of my grandfather. It had been done not long after Sir Frederick was knighted, and his age cannot have been much older than Miss Vernon is now, so the resemblance is rather striking.
I cannot think that a girl with so little in the way of fortune or accomplishment is truly the object of Sir James Martin, despite her mother’s schemes, yet although she has had a wretched education and a poor example in her mother, she may not be too young to amend her defects. She is not entirely without merit, as she has made herself useful in any number of small tasks, and her little cousins have all grown very fond of her. I am persuaded that Mr. Vernon foresaw that her temperament would be suitable to tending to them (as we have yet to engage a governess) and elected to bring her to Churchill on that account. Mr. Vernon is always putting the children and me above anything—I do not think that there is a husband who is his equal!
When Lady Vernon departs Churchill for London, which I hope will take place very soon, perhaps the children and I may come to you in Kent, and I will contrive to bring Miss Vernon with me so that you may determine for yourself whether she would do for a governess. I assure you, my dear madam, that, though she is wanting something in elegance, there is nothing coarse about her, and she has the sort of modest and obliging disposition that would never presume upon your goodwill and notice.