‘How did Tyneham take the news of Susan’s elopement, and did he require much persuasion to go with you for the special licence?’
‘Oh, he reacted as one would expect, especially once he knew that I was aware of his sister’s circumstances. What he said was unforgivable, but since it is not considered polite to throttle one’s intended’s closest relative, at least closest in the eyes of the world, and I needed him with me, I held back. He tried to suggest that her actions obviated any need for him to provide her with Settlements at all. Now, I have no need of the money, but for her sake, I would see her given her due. I made that clear to Tyneham, and he was … persuaded by my vehemence.’
‘I would love to have seen his face.’
‘It was not a pleasant colour, ma’am. At one point I thought he might suffer an apoplexy.’
Sophy paused a moment.
‘Sir Esmond,’ she was not sure how much she dare say with the maid present, but was worried, and so continued, ‘you are not doing this out of some misplaced sense of chivalry, are you?’
‘No, I promise you that. I could not explain why, even if the circumstances,’ he glanced for a fleeting moment at the maid, who was still concentrating on trying to overcome her nausea, ‘permitted, but it is not “misplaced chivalry”. Your cousin has, I hope and believe, suffered from the confines of her childhood.’ He tried to speak a little cryptically. ‘The examples of both genders were infelicitous, and she had nobody with whom to share. All she learnt was that she could make people do what she wanted, and since love was “weak” it was dangerous. She has not experienced friendship, the urge to be generous, let alone the deeper feelings.’
‘And yet you think she might discover them.’
‘I do, and I had better be right, for both our sakes.’
These sobering thoughts led to silence for a while as the chaise bowled along the Great North Road.
Susan had expected to enjoy this journey, however, as the miles passed she found her pleasure diminishing rapidly. Lord Pinkney, having bemoaned her tardiness, had not appreciated her querying why there was only a pair, and not four horses pulling their equipage.
‘Have you any idea how much a post-chaise and four would cost to the Border, miss? Clearly you do not, and I will be quite open and state that until such time as Tyneham gives me a draft upon his bank, even two horses are not easy to furnish. Thank goodness I can at least save upon our expenses at inns.’
‘You mean we shall not eat large suppers?’ enquired Susan.
Pinkney stared at her for a moment. She successfully gave the impression of a heartless woman of the world, but beneath the veneer, the girl beside him was actually remarkably innocent.
‘I mean, my dear, that we only have the hiring of one chamber.’
‘But we are not yet married, sir.’ She sounded quite appalled.
He laughed. ‘In view of the fact that we are eloping, madam, that is immaterial. Within a few days you will be my wife, and I have no intention of paying for a charade of decency over such an exploit as you, indeed, were the first to propose.’
‘I … I think I did not quite understand, my lord.’
‘Well, you can understand now.’ He looked sideways at her slightly pale cheek, and his manner softened. ‘Come, do not let us be at odds. You will find me an easygoing husband, I promise you, not always hanging about your skirts. My demands upon you will not be excessive, and I do not even feel as yet the great imperative of the need for an heir to the wealth,’ he laughed in a rather hollow manner, ‘and honour of the Earl of Pinkney, so I will not pester you. Besides, I have no turn for wide-eyed and ignorant damsels. Perhaps, in time, you will learn to please me, but if you do not,’ he shrugged, ‘it will matter little.’
Susan sat very still, as though moving would cast her into the depths of a chasm. On the one hand, the man beside her, whom she did not, she realised with a jolt, really know at all, had every intention of her sharing his bed before they were legally conjoined. She had absolutely no idea as to what this entailed, but she had bad feelings about it. At the same time, he was telling her that, whatever happened in such circumstances, would not thereafter happen very often because she was insufficiently interesting. She did not want his attentions, but yet it piqued her to think that she might not wrap him about her little finger at will.
She did not know that her face betrayed her thoughts, nor that Pinkney observed them.
‘There is no going back you know, my dear. Once we are married, I shall take you to Tyllings, my house in Cheshire. I have at least kept the ancestral pile, if not much of the lands. When the dibs have been in tune, I have occasionally spent money upon it, so the roof does not leak, at least in the part I use.’
‘Shall we entertain much, my lord?’
‘Entertain?’ Pinkney let out a crack of laughter, imagining the company he preferred in the rural depths of Cheshire, and the disapproval with which he was regarded by his country neighbours. ‘I have no doubt a few ladies will come to view you and offer you their sympathy, but I have neither the funds not inclination for that sort of thing.’
‘So we shall spend the Season in London?’
‘I shall visit Town as often as possible, but you will find plenty of places to spend your pin money in Chester, and however impoverished, a countess is a countess, so you will be treated with deference if you wish to attend the assemblies. You should not look shocked, madam, for neither of us make a pretence of affection in this contract. You gain release from Tyneham, and, I think, a modicum of revenge; I get enough money to keep afloat until the next upturn in my fortunes, and even survive a few more losses, and will possess a very pretty little wife whom I shall endeavour to teach ways which appeal to me.’ He smiled, and Susan repressed a shiver. ‘Actually, the more I look at you the more I think it may be entertaining, and so different from having to pay every time. The muslin company can be devilish expensive, so when times are thin, I do at least have you for free.’
The delusion around which Susan had built her plans crumbled to nothing. She felt very alone, and small, and afraid. A small voice in her head suggested Sir Esmond might have been in the right. Lord Pinkney saw the fear, and it gave him a frisson. His hand closed over hers.
‘Have I frightened you, my child? I have perhaps painted a picture too dark for you. Let me lighten it somewhat.’ He leant closer, and his other hand took her chin, firmly, and raised it. ‘I have never had complaints, you know,’ he purred, and kissed her, quite expertly, but with as little passion as she had received Lord Edward’s kiss at the Chelmarsh ball. She had been kissed before, from grooms to a duke’s son, but all had been nervously fervent, aspirational kisses. This simply used her. She felt disgusted, and pulled back sharply. Lord Pinkney merely laughed.
When they next changed horses, at Stevenage, Susan wondered if she might hide herself, but his lordship was awake to that possibility and took the reticule that lay upon the seat between them, the only barrier she possessed.
‘I think not. You see, without money you can do nothing. I have so very much experience of that predicament. Tradesmen and innkeepers can be remarkably rude, you know, and what would you do, in a town you have never entered before, without even the money for dinner and a bed for the night? No, you have made your bed, Sukie, and will lie with me in it.’
