AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I wouldn't dare descend upon them with anyone as grand as Sir William Cavendish without giving them fair warning.”
“Me, grand?” he teased. “You are the grand lady.”
“Oh, I know,” Bess said happily.
Since William loved hunting and the game was plentiful in Leicestershire, the Greys arranged a hunt for their guests. Bess accompanied William for the first couple of hours, then retired back to Bradgate to write a letter to her mother. With a flourish, she signed Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, flushing with pride as she gazed down at her new signature for the first time.
They traveled to Derbyshire in William's big black carriage with the Cavendish stags emblazoned upon it. William insisted she couldn't go home empty-handed, so they made their first stop in the city of Leicester, where Bess indulged her love of shopping and bought presents for everyone in her family.
William had never in his life seen a family so excited as Bess's when the newlyweds arrived at Hardwick Manor. He soon realized that Bess was as special to them as she was to him. To his great consternation they were deeply in awe of him, and he had to set about making them feel at ease in his company.
Aunt Marcella Linaker was the exception, of course. She had never been in awe of any man breathing, and William won her over immediately. Soon his laughter echoed through the lovely but shabby manor house, and his easygoing ways encouraged Bess's family to seek out and enjoy his company.
William's manservant, James Cromp, had to share a bedroom with the coach driver, and the only one available was next to Bess and William's chamber. When they retired Bess put her finger to her lips and pointed to the wall. “I know James is privy to some of our secrets, but I don't want your servants to hear every shocking detail of our lovemaking. You'll have to behave yourself.”
“Me?” he teased. “My lovemaking is always circumspect. You're the one who will have to behave, Lady Cavendish.”
She went into his arms and bit his earlobe. “Well, I won't behave; I'll just go about the whole thing silently.” She was a constant source of delight and amusement to her new husband, and he adored her.
The Hardwick farm covered five hundred acres, and as they rode about it, William pointed out to her many improvements that could be made and various ways of making extra money, such as enclosing some of the moors for sheep runs. Bess hung on her husband's every word, for no man in England knew more about land and property and few had his eye for money-making opportunities. That night she passed the advice on to her brother, James, hoping against hope he would become a better businessman and make Hardwick start to pay.
The following day they planned a visit to the Leches. Bess's sister Alice, married to Francis Leche and living at Chatsworth, was expecting her first child. Bess told her family they could use the Cavendish coach, because she and William were going to ride to Chatsworth.
She had told William long ago about her favorite place in the world, and when they drew rein at the top of the fell and looked down on Chatsworth, William understood why she was so enamored of it. It was truly a spectacular piece of land, encircled by the gentle River Derwent, a small, fertile Eden set down amidst the high peaks and wild moors of Derbyshire countryside. It was the perfect, ideal landscape seen in classical paintings.
William watched her face as she gazed down, enraptured. He recognized the hungry look; she got it when she looked at him sometimes. “The house is in the wrong place.” He pointed his riding crop. “It should be over there.”
Bess looked at him in wonder. “That's exactly right! Oh, William, we are so alike in our thinking. This piece of land deserves a magnificent palace-of-a-house. The outer park should stretch all the way into Sherwood Forest and be filled with deer and pheasant. The inner gardens should be formal and stately, with waterways and fountains. Such grandeur and order set in the midst of this howling wilderness would stagger the senses!”
The rapt look of longing on her face staggered William's senses. He dismounted and held up his arms to her. “I want to make love to you.”
Bess asked no questions. She knew he felt the passion she experienced over Chatsworth and that he wanted to be a part of it. She came down to him in a flurry of petticoats. “How fortunate I'm wearing green, and the best part is we don't have to behave ourselves out here. We can cry our pleasure to the highest peaks.”
Bess couldn't wait to return to London and begin her new life. She made her mother, aunt, and sisters promise to visit her. Cavendish helped James Cromp load their luggage so that Bess could say her good-byes in private. Her mother embraced her. “Bess, you have so much courage. Marcella was right when she insisted you were the one who must go to London.”
Bess wiped away a tear. Courage? If only they knew how terrified she had been just a short time ago. “William is my strength.”
Marcella shook her head. “No, Bess, the strength and the courage are yours. You knew what you wanted, and you went after it. You set your goal so high, and now you have achieved it.”
Bess embraced her aunt Marcy. “Nay, I've only just begun.”
***
The London house that Cavendish bought from William Parr was in Newgate Street, not far from St. Paul's Cathedral. When they arrived and William took her on a tour, Bess was surprised to find many of the rooms empty.
“I want you to start fresh. This is your house, Bess, and I want you to furnish it with things that will please you. You'll have to start by hiring your own staff. You are completely in charge here. You will also have to keep your own accounts; I'm far too busy with the accounts of the treasury.”
She flung her arms about his neck and went up on tiptoe to kiss him. “Thank you, William; I swear I won't disappoint you.”
Bess immediately threw herself into making her new household a rival of those of the Greys and the Dudleys. The seaport of London had the treasures of the world to choose from, and Cavendish gave her carte blanche to purchase whatever she fancied. She began interviewing servants the first day and decided to keep on two men who already worked for her husband, Francis Whitfield and Timothy Pusey. She hired a cook and a cook's assistant, as well as housemaids and footmen. She decided she needed a full-time seamstress to fashion her clothes and was lucky enough to find a woman who also did exquisite embroidery. Bess sketched out the scenes she wanted for a pair of wall hangings and set the woman to work immediately.
By the end of the first week, Bess had a staff of twelve servants. This was in addition to James Cromp, William's valet, and his secretary, Robert Bestnay, whom Bess kept close beside her all week to record every expenditure. Bestnay showed her how to prepare a set of household account books, which she kept meticulously, and at the end of each day she signed Elizabeth Cavendish with a great flourish.
They went to Northaw for the autumn hunting and stayed until Christmas, entertaining all their friends. Bess took great delight in her role as hostess and, after a full day's hunt, presided over the gaming room, where they played cards and gambled into the night. But Bess also took a great interest in the estate's administration.
It had languished in Church hands and had not kept pace with current methods of management. William showed her how to increase the rents and revenues by enclosing commons and wasteland on which their tenant farmers could now graze extra herds of cattle and flocks of sheep.
William also put the Northaw property in both their names and taught Bess how to convey property to trustees and back again to them jointly to establish indisputable title to their lands. “I am much older than you, Bess, so if we hold our property jointly, it will be yours when I die, and there will be no question of wardship for our children. And speaking of children, my darling, when are you going to divulge your deep, dark secret to our friends?”
