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“Lord Bertram, now you’re the one talking in riddles!” Antoinette exclaimed while Fanny leapt up and snatched back the glass of claret her brother was about to toss back, promising to reinstate it only if he explained himself.
He managed to look blank while directing an unfocused look of longing at the glass Fanny was waving in front of his nose. “I thought I explained myself very clearly. We were talking about Katherine and those rumours.”
“Vile whispers.” It pained Fanny even to utter the words. “But hardly anything new. If people believe Katherine’s association with Lord Derry should compel her to marry him, then they’ve got nothing much else with which to trouble themselves. Derry helped her when Freddy proved himself such a wastrel of a husband, but there was absolutely nothing inappropriate in it. Katherine tells me so, and I believe her. She says she doesn’t want to marry Lord Derry, now, and she never did.”
“I wish she’d take my advice that it’s in her interests to marry a rich and besotted gentleman this time,” Antoinette interrupted. “I’ll have another word to her. Don’t I know how much easier life is married to a rich man who’ll give you the moon.”
“You’re very different to Katherine, and besides, she won’t listen,” Fanny said tightly. “Katherine’s heart is elsewhere engaged. Apparently, she’s been in love with a gentleman she won’t name—though I will tell you it’s not Lord Derry—for years.”
Eliza made a small noise like a gasp while Bertram, seized back the glass from Fanny’s hand. “I’m not talking about those rumours,” he said after he’d tossed back the contents, I’m talking about the wager I saw written up in Boodles Betting Book dating back seven years. Lord, no one told me at the time, though I believe I was elsewhere, making my mark in the world.”
“Boodles Betting Book!” Fanny exclaimed, horrified. “What was written up about my daughter? Goodness, Bertram, but you can be vexing. Will you just come out with it?”
Bertram looked offended as he pulled out his snuffbox before deciding on more fortification and going towards the brandy decanter that stood upon the sideboard. “Seems that someone we know quite well,” he said with a pointed look at Antoinette, “wagered that young Katherine would elope on a certain day in June seven years ago. I then saw Lord Derry wager that she wouldn’t—with a sizeable payout to go to the son of yours truly here,” he claimed, with a flourish of his hand in Antoinette’s direction “if she did! And we all know she did.”
Antoinette jerked forward, crying indignantly, “Are you accusing my George of having a hand in Katherine’s elopement? What, exactly, are you saying, Bertram?”
“Lord, ain’t it obvious?” Bertram looked vexed. “I’ve said it clear as daylight. Your George mightn’t have written up the original wager, for it was George Bramley who did that, but he embellished it and he had a vested interest in ensuring your Katherine,” he said, directing a look at Fanny, “eloped on June the 9th. And she did.”
“Of course she did, because she was madly in love with Freddy Marwick!” cried Antoinette, quite riled up. “George has done nothing wrong.”
Bertram chewed his lip thoughtfully before agreeing. “Dare say he did the right thing in case she had second thoughts, since, as the next wager has it, if she was delivered of a girl within nine months, five hundred was to be paid out to the chap closest to the day and a thousand in the case of a boy. But that’s by the bye. Can’t remember who wagered that, besides.”
“My poor Katherine,” Fanny whispered, distraught. “How vile people can be.” And yet she knew better than anyone, and from experience, the answer to that question. She also knew that Katherine’s flirtations in the first fortnight of her coming-out had made her vulnerable to such poor treatment by the rakes and reprobates who caroused and made wagers at Boodles.
“But she did not suffer from the rumours, and that’s what’s important,” Antoinette reminded them, though she didn’t look as airily unconcerned as usual. “And if her choice in husband and to, in fact, elope was not wise, it’s not as if she was pressured into a marriage not of her choosing, as our grandparents and even parents, were.”
“But I’m not so sure it was of her choosing.”
Fanny was no less surprised than Antoinette and Bertram, who turned to look at Eliza. After all, what could their friend know about the state of Katherine’s heart seven years before?
Eliza looked stricken as she shook her head, unable to continue for the moment and Antoinette said, “I hate to say this but…” She stopped and looked at Bertram. “Bertram, I’d like you to leave the room now, for you’ve said all you need to. We’ll consult you if necessary on what steps we can take to mitigate further scandal—if we decide more scandal could ensue.”
Bertram looked at his timepiece and shrugged. “Time to be off, besides. I daresay there’ll be more entertainment to be had at Boodles, and I’ll do my bit to ensure my niece’s reputation remains as blemish-free as it ought. Not that it’s particularly blemish-free right now, but I have a fondness for the girl, and I’ll do what’s right by her as her uncle. She doesn’t deserve what people say of her.”
Now Fanny really felt like weeping though it was Antoinette who said, “Just conduct yourself with caution, Bertram. You ever were one for getting more than just yourself into scrapes.”
“And hasn’t everything turned out for the best when I’ve had a hand in it?” he asked, pinching his nose. “Why, think of young Thea, who never would have married Grayling if it hadn’t been for me. And you, too, Eliza, have a great deal to be glad about as a result of me knowing what was what when you were intent on marrying that reprobate, George Bramley.”
Fanny shooed him out and turned to Antoinette, whose words filled her with dread. Eliza had clearly decided not to expand upon what she’d been about to say, nor respond to Bertram, but Antoinette seemed very keen to impart her thoughts.
She twisted a ringlet around her finger and moved forward in her seat. “As we all know, Katherine met Freddy Marwick the first night she came to London. I thought she’d lost her heart a little too readily, and even I was scandalised when she quizzed me on the kinds of attentions a wife would be subjected to from a husband.”
Fanny felt unaccountably awkward, despite that fact she’d been far from innocent when she’d married Fenton. It seemed so different in the case of one’s own daughter. She also felt a little disturbed that Katherine had chosen to consult Antoinette rather than her own mother on matters relating to marital relations.
A little stiffly, she said, “I’m sure I explained what I needed to in preparation. At the time, I had no idea Katherine’s head or heart had been turned by anyone. And I certainly didn’t want to furnish her with too much knowledge that might not be…appropriate.”
“Lord, is that Fanny Brightwell, my own scandalous sister talking?” Antoinette threw up her hands. “What have you turned into? Mother Goose? Why, no wonder Katherine consulted me, then, on a safe means to test her selection of a potential husband.”
Eliza reddened, and Fanny said, “You’re going too far, Antoinette, to air this publicly. Nor had you any right to be so…accommodating. No wonder Katherine eloped if her head was filled with ideas of romance and desire and all those other things you love to talk about.”
“I said exactly the right thing: the truth. And I was at pains to reassure her that she had carte blanche to decide upon her own husband. I reminded her of how fortunate she was to be able to choose for herself, unlike us, and she was very pliant.”
Fanny tried to cast her mind back seven years. Had she misread the situation at the time? “Katherine seemed very levelheaded. Eloping was out of character for her. But obviously, Young George had a great incentive to ensure that she did, no doubt pressured by Marwick, since we all know now that he’d lost a fortune at the tables just days before and needed a rich wife who was in ignorance of his pecuniary difficulties.”
“No need to look so fiercely at me!” said Antoinette indignantly. “I knew nothing of
this wager and George’s involvement until tonight. And nor should you rail over what was inevitable if Katherine was in love with Freddy.”
