“So it is all settled. They are to marry.” Jane could hear her voice as if it came from a long way off. Bennetta glanced up at her sharply. She had long suspected that Jane cared a great deal more for Mr Maitland than his intended!
“Who knows? His father, I believe, was a gentleman, but of no account socially. But on his mother’s side, the Goddards are an old and respected military family. His grandfather was an Admiral and there are generals and colonels going back generations. At least Archer has turned his back on becoming a soldier or sailor. He is ambitious, determined and, I imagine, a little ruthless.”
She giggled. “You have to admit that sounds just like Anne, so I suppose they are a good match. What do you think of him? You were in his company a great deal down in Dorset, I believe, or so Celeste tells us. Do you find him handsome? I admit he is tall and broad shouldered but sometimes his expression is so very dark. Is he a worthy husband for our sister?”
Jane muttered something under her breath, then said she had to change her shoes and left the room, blinking back tears she refused to shed.
Bennetta returned to her piano practice and moodily played a little waltz tune. She didn’t like to see Jane upset but surely she could not have feelings for Archer Maitland. Only weeks ago she had been head over heels in love with Digby Frobisher! It was all very confusing.
She sighed: sometimes she wondered if this was all life had to offer her. She was eighteen years old and did nothing except enjoy herself, arrange balls and watch as those around her got married and began new lives.
She thought of her cousin Miriam, sailing away from England with Nicholas, her sea captain. They could be anywhere in the world by now, having all sorts of adventures. And all she had to think about was the order of dances for her next entertainment!
Bennetta pushed her hands through her dark curls, absently pulling out her pins and ribbons. She wanted to do something dramatic, wanted to make a difference in the world about her, but she had no idea how.
Thoughtfully, she crossed the room to a desk and perused the list of possible invitees to the ball. She had always prided herself that she had been partly responsible for her cousins, Cassandra and Catherine, finding happiness with their husbands. Well, if she was doomed to spend the rest of her life making sure the right people married each other, then she might as well do her best for her favourite sister.
Bennetta had noticed that sometimes gentlemen reacted well to a touch of jealousy. Her parents would not be pleased; but as the list had already been approved, they would not know until the night in question. She picked up her pen and carefully added the name Digby Frobisher to those to be invited.
Jane hurried up to her room, pushing all thoughts of Anne and Archer to the back of her mind. She had the rest of her life to grieve for a love she could never have. Grace Frost had to be her main concern at the moment.
Luckily, she had a small amount of money put safely away in a drawer. There was certainly not the twenty guineas that Grace had mentioned, but it was all she had. Wrapping it carefully in a silk square, she sat on her bed for a moment, trying to gather her thoughts into some sort of semblance.
If her mother had been at home she would have gone to her and explained. She had often heard Elizabeth Darcy discussing the plight of unmarried mothers with her Aunt Jane. They both felt strongly that it was wrong when all the blame was placed onthe shoulders of the poor girls concerned and none on the men who had obviously played their part!
Why, only this August, when an Act had been passed in Parliament, forbidding the keeping of slaves in parts of the British Empire, she had heard her mama say to her father that it was a pity that the same sense of care could not be offered to young women who fell from grace.
Yes, her mother would have gone with Jane to find Grace. She might not have given her money, but she would have had a plan to make her life easier. Well, she wasn’t here and tomorrow would be too late because Grace would have vanished into the depths of the country to an unknown fate and future. No, it was up to Jane to at least pave her way with a few miserable guineas.
Hastily, she changed her embroidered velvet cloak for the plain, sensible one she wore when visiting the poor, donned a pair of sturdy boots and casting aside her blue feathered hat, she found a disgraceful, squashed, old bonnet that had been left on a shelf for many years.
There was no doubt in her mind that her parents would be horrified if they knew what she was about to do and, even more importantly, they would be distressed. To venture out into town without anyone knowing where she was going—she could not think of another time she had ever done such a thing, could not remember a time when she was growing up when she would have even dreamt of doing anything so foolhardy.
She fastened the bonnet strings tightly under her chin. The days of her being scared and compliant had vanished when she had gone to the Green Man to rescue Tabitha without asking anyone’s permission!
For a moment or two she was tempted to ring for James and require him to accompany her, but she resisted. Even if she made it clear to her parents that she had ordered the young footman to do her biding, she knew they would see itas a dreadful dereliction of his duty. They would expect him to refuse, to at least tell the housekeeper what had transpired. And if he did go with her, then he could easily lose his position as a result.
No, it was best that she and she alone took on the responsibility of her actions.
Matlock House lay peaceful and quiet as Jane crept down the stairs. The servants were using the Darcys’ absence for several hours as a chance to rest, so the footman who was usually on duty in the hall was sitting contentedly drinking tea in the kitchen. From the drawing room she could hear the sounds of Bennetta’s piano playing. In seconds the latch to the front door was lifted and she was out on the street.
Archer Maitland had no idea why he had ridden back to his offices, dismounted, handed his horse over to the groom in charge of the nearby stables, then immediately taken the reins back and swung himself into the saddle once more.
He had headed back across the city in the late afternoon towards a quiet square which seemed far away from the noisy, bustling streets full of carriages, carts, hawkers crying their wares, muffin men, hot chestnut sellers, beggars, ladies of dubious intent and pickpockets lurking, waiting for opportunities to come their way.
Dusk was falling—mid October and it was already nearly dark. He had no plan of what he intended to do once he reached Matlock House. He would call on the Darcys, perhaps repeat the invitation to Anne and Bennetta that he had already given Jane—to inspect his new offices and suggest improvements in furnishings and fittings.
If he saw Jane—he would apologise for leaving her so abruptly in the Arcade. He was anxious that they remain friends, even if they could never be anything more.
The pale perfection of her face, her eyes the blue of the sky in early morning, the fair hair that fell like spun gilt across her shoulders, all cascaded through his mind until he realised with a jolt and an automatic tug on the reins that brought his mount to a halt that the reality was within his view.
Jane Darcy was hurrying down the steps outside Matlock House and, pulling her cape hood over her head, she walked swiftly towards the hansom cab rank that stood in one of the streets leading into the square.
Archer stared after her in consternation. Of course there was no reason she should not be out on some perfectly acceptable errand. It was only late afternoon—an appointment with a dressmaker, perhaps—a sudden shopping trip to buy more embroidery silks, or paints for her landscapes? But if so, where was her maid or footman?
He knew only too well, from all Anne had told him and from what he had gathered from his own observation of the situation amongst the Darcy family, that Jane was cossetted and guarded in a way that neither of her sisters would ever have countenanced.
Inadvertently his spurs touched his mount’s side, and it bucked and circled crossly, as he realised she might well be on her way to some assignation! He knew Frobisher was in town, had heard him mentioned in his club only the other evening. Could Jane possibly have an appointment to meet the man who had broken her heart?
