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Chapter Nineteen
Hebe slept until supper time, then had a wash, put on a wrapper and lay on the daybed with a tray while Aunt Emily and Grace, her newly engaged ninetee
n-year-old daughter, ate their suppers from a card table Peter the footman carried in.
‘You look better already,’ Grace said, smiling happily. She was a short, slightly plump blonde with a pretty figure, wide blue eyes and an expression of quiet contentment. ‘I am so looking forward to us being able to go around together. I have my wedding clothes to buy and you have your new wardrobe for your come-out. Although that is not quite right, is it? You have already come out in Malta.’
‘Yes,’ Hebe agreed. ‘But, of course, nothing there was as fashionable as London parties and assemblies.’
‘I can see no problem at all in securing you vouchers for Almack’s, my dear,’ her aunt confided. ‘And, of course, your presentation at the next possible Drawing Room. Just as soon as we have your court dress ready.’
‘But that will be very expensive, will it not?’ Hebe enquired anxiously. ‘Mama and Sir Richard have made me a very generous allowance, and I am sure that will cover all my other dresses and so on, but not a court dress.’
‘I think we can contrive,’ Aunt Emily said. ‘I have been thinking about it. I have Grace’s plumes laid up in silver paper, so that is one big expense spared. Now Grace’s gown would not do for you, for you are taller, but we can use the hoops and I have laid by just the fabric.’
The thought of being presented at court was enough to keep Hebe’s mind pleasantly occupied for some time, and she was unaware of Anna’s relieved smile as she watched her talking to her cousin, her face relaxed and her cheeks just stained with colour.
The next morning Aunt Emily bustled in while Hebe was taking her breakfast. ‘How did you sleep, dear? Was the street too noisy for you? You look so much better this morning, what a relief. Now, dear, will you and Mrs Wilkins be all right if you are alone in the house for a while? I am so sorry, but your uncle has to go and speak to his bankers, Grace and Joanna really must go to buy new shoes—what they have done to all their satin slippers I just cannot conceive!—and William, I am sorry to say, is bound for the dentist. He will not go with his tutor, so I am afraid I must drag him there myself.
‘We will all be back by lunchtime. If it stays warm, would you like to go for a drive in the barouche with the top down this afternoon?’
‘We will be quite all right, Aunt, you must not worry about us,’ Hebe assured her. ‘Anna wants to continue unpacking and I will lie on the daybed with a book, if there is something I might borrow? And, yes, I would like a drive very much.’
Grace ran up a few minutes later with an armful of books. ‘All novels except…here we are, Byron’s poetry. Don’t let Papa see, he doesn’t approve. Have you read Miss Austen’s Pride and Prejudice? Do try that if you don’t like Byron. Mama says you can come for a drive this afternoon. I am so glad!’ She bent and kissed Hebe on the cheek and ran out with a cheerful, ‘Goodbye!’
‘So much energy, this family,’ Anna commented, laughing. ‘They seem to run everywhere. Would you like to get up now, Hebe? See, I have found this pretty wrapper and given it a press.’
Hebe was glad to get out of bed and curl up on the daybed with Pride and Prejudice in her hand. Her body seemed to be recovering with uncanny speed. She supposed it was because she had always been healthy and fit. Her spirits, though, were all over the place. Part of her just wanted to curl up and weep over the baby. Another part was happy to be with her aunt’s cheerful, loving family. Her sensible self told her what a good thing it was that she had escaped a loveless marriage; her rebellious, emotional self pined for Alex.
Anna, wandering about the room, folding clothes into drawers and setting out Hebe’s brushes on the dressing table, watched the play of emotions on her face and remarked, ‘I think you will feel very mixed up for a day or two, Hebe. It happens to women who have had a baby—one minute happy, the next all tears, and I have heard it said that it happens also in cases like yours. Do not expect too much too soon.’
There was the sound of the knocker. ‘Who can that be?’ Hebe said idly. ‘They will be disappointed to find all the family out.’
A moment later there was a tap on the door and Peter appeared, somewhat red in the face and studiously averting his eyes from Hebe in her wrapper. ‘I beg your pardon, Mrs Wilkins, ma’am, but there is a gentleman here asking to see Miss Hebe. I told him she was not at home, so he says he wants to speak to you. I said I didn’t think you were home either, ma’am, the mistress not having given me instructions, but he says if you don’t come down, he’ll come up.
‘I don’t rightly know what to do, ma’am.’ The footman shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. ‘I mean, he’s a gentleman and all, and he’s big—I don’t think he’ll take kindly to me shutting the door in his face, and there’s only me and Cook and little Dorothy in the house, ma’am.’
He spun round as the sound of steps on the stairs reached them. ‘Oh, gawd, begging your pardon, ma’am.’
‘Anna! Where the devil are you?’ It was Alex, and, by the sound of it, he was in a towering rage.
‘Thank you, Peter. I know the gentleman, I will come down.’ Anna went out, followed by the footman, who sent Hebe a harassed and apologetic glance as he shut the door.
Alex! Here… She put down her book with fingers that shook slightly and was wondering whether to get up or stay where she was, when the door opened with enough force to send it back against the wall and he stalked into the bedchamber, Anna behind him.
‘Major! You cannot go in there!’
He turned to look at the agitated Spanish woman, who was hanging with some determination to his sleeve, and at the footman who was bobbing about on the landing in an agony of indecision. ‘Anna, I am going in there, and, unless you can find someone other than this unfortunate youth to throw me out, I am not sure how you are going to stop me.’ He turned sharply to face them, making them back off as he advanced, and the moment Anna was over the threshold he shut the door, turning the key in the lock with a twist of his wrist.
He stood against the door for a long moment, ignoring the efforts of those outside to turn the handle. Hebe had never seen him look so gentle, and, she realised with a start, so fearful. He walked over until he was beside the daybed, then went down on one knee, close beside her but without making any attempt to touch her.
‘My dear girl, I am so sorry.’ All the anger that had been in his voice as he had spoken to Anna and Peter was gone, and the tenderness made Hebe blink back tears.
‘You understood my letter, then?’
‘Yes. I would have come at once, but the funeral was yesterday. I left as soon as I could, rode through the night and got here at dawn. I have been standing in the street until I saw everyone leave. I did not want to have this conversation with your aunt present.’ She realised that he was indeed in riding breeches, his boots thick with dust.
‘I see you haven’t shaved,’ she said, her voice shaking as she tried to speak lightly.
