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Anna found her at the table early the next morning, fully dressed and with a sheet of writing paper before her. ‘Hebe? Did you sleep?’
‘Not much,’ Hebe answered honestly. ‘I have been thinking—planning what to do. I have written to Mama.’
‘To tell her?’ Anna hesitated. ‘Wait one minute before you tell me, I will ask Mrs Green to send up breakfast.’
As she came back Hebe was signing her name. ‘No, I have said nothing to her, but I have to write or she will be worrying that I have not arrived safely.’
She pushed the letter across the table to Anna, who pushed it back. ‘I cannot read English as well as I speak it.’
‘Dearest Mama,’ Hebe read, ‘We both arrived safe at Portsmouth the day before yesterday after an uneventful voyage and found Mrs Green’s lodgings to be both comfortable and entirely suitable for ladies travelling alone. I was somewhat tired, so I hope you will forgive my not writing immediately we landed, but I am glad to tell you that I find I am now eating much better than I have for some time. I am about to write to my Aunt Fulgrave, and I believe the best course will be for us to hire a chaise and make the journey to London ourselves, rather than wait until my uncle is able to come and collect us. I will write at length as soon as I reach London. Mrs Wilkins begs to be remembered to you, and please convey my respectful affection to Sir Richard. I remain, trusting you are both in the best of health, your dutiful and loving daughter, Hebe.’
Dutiful. She wished she was certain exactly where her duty lay. But one thing was clear, her first, her only, concern now was for the baby. She was becoming reconciled to the idea that she was carrying a child, but she simply could not feel pregnant. Sick, tired and frightened, yes. But not a mother to be. Doubtless that would come.
‘A chaise?’ Anna queried. ‘Will that not be expensive?’
‘Sir Richard gave me money against that contingency. He was not sure whether, when we arrived, we would want to wait for my uncle, or travel on. He said we should not pay more than two shillings and six pence per mile for a chaise and pair. I think it is about seventy miles—if we were to go direct.’
‘If? Hebe, what are you planning—?’ Anna broke off as Mrs Green tapped on the parlour door and entered with a laden tray.
‘Here you are, Mrs Wilkins. A nice big breakfast to tempt Miss Carlton.’ She whipped the cover off a platter of bacon and kidneys. Anna, with one glance at Hebe’s face, took the cover and replaced it firmly.
‘Thank you, Mrs Green. How delicious, we must not let it get cold.’
The landlady was turning to leave when Hebe said, ‘Do you have a Peerage in the house, Mrs Green?’
‘Why, no, miss, but there’s a very good circulating library down along Bath Street.’
‘And do they have the London newspapers?’
‘Oh, yes, miss, all of those, and they keep them for months, miss, because of the naval gentlemen wanting to catch up on all the news when they come into port.’
‘Excellent. Thank you, Mrs Green.’ Hebe waited until the door was closed, then said, ‘I need to find where Alex’s family seat is: there is a fair chance he will be there, having been away so long and with the wedding to prepare for. And I must discover whether or not the wedding has taken place.’ She eyed the covered platters uneasily. ‘I think I will just have some toast and a cup of tea.’
Anna lifted the teapot and began to pour. ‘Hebe, what are you planning?’
‘I know what I must do, I think, although there are some details I cannot yet see clearly. But how I must do it will depend on where Alex is and whether or not he is married yet.’ She picked up the butter knife, thought better of it, and began to cut dry toast into pieces. ‘Do not look so worried, Anna. I am not going to do anything foolish, and I know I must be very discreet.’
The ladies found Hodgkin’s Circulating Library without any trouble, and the proprietor was only too happy, on receipt of a day’s subscription, to settle them in a comfortable corner with a table, the Peerage and the past two months’ issues of The Times.
The Beresfords’ family seat was quickly found. ‘Oh, thank goodness,’ Hebe exclaimed. ‘It is in Hertfordshire: see Anna, Tasborough Hall near Tring. I will ask to see an atlas in a moment, but I should imagine that will not be too great a detour on our way to London. Now, let us work backwards through The Times, looking at the announcements for a wedding notice. I should imagine the betrothal notice was placed before Alex returned to England.’
They worked their way steadily backwards, their fingers becoming grimy with newsprint. ‘Surely the wedding cannot have taken place so soon after Alex’s return to England,’ Hebe puzzled, after they had scanned a full month. ‘Oh, well, it is better if it has not, for I would want to avoid Lady Clarissa if at all possible. Look, we are back to a date before Alex could possibly have landed.’
Anna, who had taken the week earlier than the pile Hebe was scanning, broke off with a gasp. ‘Hebe, look, here in the Deaths! It is the Major’s father, is it not?’
Hebe snatched the paper and spread it out on the table between them. ‘George Beresford, third Earl of Tasborough, as a result of a carriage accident, at his seat, Tasborough Hall, Hertfordshire…succeeded by his son, William, Viscount Broadwood. Oh, my goodness! No wonder the marriage notices have not appeared: the family will be in deep mourning. Why, it must have happened just before Alex arrived in Portsmouth. How dreadful, to return home to such a tragedy!’
They sat, staring at each other, too stunned by the news to speak. Then Hebe said, ‘Much as I hate to intrude on him at such a time, I cannot afford to wait. It is, after all, four weeks since the accident: the family will be receiving calls again. Mr Hodgkin!’ The proprietor hastened over, hoping that these well-dressed ladies who were making such good use of his facilities might be tempted to take out a longer subscription. ‘Do you have an atlas I could consult? I need to plan a journey to London, by way of an estate in Hertfordshire.’
A gazetteer was speedily placed before her, Mr Hodgkin helpfully opening it at the correct page. ‘Thank you,’ Hebe said. ‘Could you recommend a reliable livery stable? I wish to hire a chaise and pair and, as you may imagine, with two ladies travelling alone, the assurance of a reliable postilion is most important.’
Mr Hodgkin, while disappointed that these ladies seemed bent on leaving Portsmouth, was hopeful that they would recommend him to their friends and did his utmost to be helpful. ‘Certainly ma’am. I would suggest Porter’s Livery Stables, which is not too far. When you are ready to leave I will send the lad with you to show you the way, if you wish. A long-established and most reliable outfit: I assure you I would have no qualms about entrusting my mother or my wife to their care.’
The livery stable proved as respectable as Mr Hodgkin had promised. Hebe and Anna emerged from the office with a carriage bespoken for the next day, with a pair and one postilion. After careful consideration of Hebe’s need to visit old friends near Tring and then continue to London, while not tiring herself, as Anna interjected firmly at this point, the owner suggested easy stages to Guildford. There they might stay at any one of a number of highly respectable inns that Mr Porter himself could recommend, then travel on to Berkhamsted. ‘The King’s Arms, ma’am, is the place to stay, although I would not despise the Crown if the King’s Arms cannot accommodate you. The next morning you would be able to make a morning call and still be in London that evening by a good road.’
Calculations were made and Hebe handed over what seemed to Anna a large amount of money. ‘And for that we get one man?’ she protested as they walked back slowly to Mrs Green’s lodgings. ‘No armed outriders?’
‘Anna, this is England, not the wilds of Spain with French troops around every corner,’ Hebe teased her gently. ‘Now, I think I will write to my aunt and warn her that I will be arriving in three days’ time.’
