‘This is very exciting … Good evening, General! Yes, indeed, what a crush.’ Kate bowed graciously to the military man and bore down on their hostess, a formidable matron whom Tallie recognised from her portrait at Mr Harland’s studio. ‘Agatha! What a delightful dance! Have you met my dear young friend Miss Grey? Talitha, make your curtsy to Lady Morning ton.’
Tallie bobbed neatly and shook hands, finding herself under a sharp and intelligent scrutiny. How had such a lady been taken in by her scamp of a nephew? she wondered. Presumably she was not the first doting aunt to be deceived by charm and address, and doubtless not the last.
Kate, with one rapid glance across the ballroom to where her son was converging with Jack Hemsley from one direction and Nick Stangate from another, turned slightly and began to stroll towards the head of the ballroom. Just a few steps away a small sitting-out area had been contrived with chairs and divided into two by a screen of potted palms.
‘Agatha, my dear, I wonder if you can spare us a moment,’ she said earnestly. ‘Miss Grey has a favour to ask you.’
‘Oh, please, Lady Parry,’ Tallie interjected, obedient to her script. ‘I would not want to trouble Lady Mornington by asking her about dogs when she must want to be talking to her guests.’
‘Dogs? Are you interested in dogs, my dear?’
‘Oh, yes, ma’am, and I was thinking particularly of buying a pug. Lady Parry says no one knows more about them than you and perhaps you could advise me where the best place to obtain one would be?’
She had been dubious when Lady Parry had told her that a discussion about pugs would be guaranteed to divert Lady Mornington whatever the circumstances, but it seemed that she had been quite correct. Tallie found herself seated and being comprehensively lectured and questioned.
‘Well, yes, ma’am, I do enjoy walking …’ There was Nick a few yards away. He had halted and was standing with his back turned, apparently deep in conversation with another man. That escape route had been stopped then; Jack Hemsley would not care to pass so close to Nick.
‘I had no idea they would need so much exercise.’ Lady Mornington was waxing lyrical about the boundless energy of pugs and the need for long walks whatever the weather. ‘How very invigorating. I had rather imagined them to be lap dogs.’
Through the potted palms she could just glimpse William’s blond head, then she heard him. ‘Jack! I should have known I would see you here.’ He sounded wary, but not unfriendly.
Hemsley’s slightly deeper voice carried even more clearly and Lady Mornington turned her head slightly and smiled, obviously recognising her favourite nephew. ‘Parry, old chap. Er …’
‘Oh, look, I think I overreacted the other week at the ball, you know …’ William was doing an admirable imitation of a callow youth in the throes of hero worship. ‘I mean, I’m sure things weren’t what they seemed … Thing is, I don’t want to fall out with you …’
‘Don’t give it another thought. Tell you what, come to the prizefight in Bedford with me next week—we’ll make up a party, what do you say?’ There was relief and suppressed triumph in the affected voice and Tallie bit the inside of her lip in an effort to keep focused on Lady Mornington while watching Kate Parry out of the corner of her eye.
Lady Parry, who was dressed in an unusual shade of deep salmon to ensure she was visible, shifted her position and Tallie saw her nod. William must have glimpsed his mother through the palms and seen her signal, for his voice became a little louder and Tallie, hearing her cue, dropped her fan and dance card. With a murmur of apology she fell to her knees and began to hunt round under her chair, cutting off Lady Mornington in mid-sentence.
‘That’s a damn nice new curricle you’ve got, Jack,’ she heard William say enthusiastically. ‘More benefits of that post-obit loan you took out on your Aunt Mornington? Or has the old lady coughed up some more of the readies, seeing what a handsome portrait you commissioned of her?’
Tallie glanced up. Lady Mornington had frozen where she sat, her eyes riveted on the screen of palms. ‘Wish I had your knack of turning old ladies up sweet,’ William persisted loudly. ‘What’s the trick to it?’
Go on, Tallie willed Jack Hemsley. Go on, boast about how clever you are.
Chapter Nineteen
Jack Hemsley did not disappoint Tallie.
‘Trick, old chap? Nothing to it. Old trouts like her will lap up any amount of honey, you can’t pour too much on, trust me. Flatter her dreadful hats, take her driving in the park so she can wave to her ghastly friends, pet her God-awful pugs—they’ve all got something like that, if it isn’t pugs it’s a parrot—you can’t fail. A bit of sharp work with the other relatives to put them out of favour and there you are—favourite nephew and all the dibs in tune.’
Lady Mornington surged to her feet. ‘Excuse me, my dear,’ she said with awful calm to Tallie, who was still crouched by her chair making a business out of picking up her fan. A terrible figure in puce, she stepped round the screen of palms. Kate pulled Tallie upright and the two of them followed apprehensively after her.
The scene that greeted them might have been a tableau from a melodrama. Lady Mornington, bosom visibly quivering with indignation, confronted her white-faced nephew who was pinned between his outraged relative, William—who was inconsiderately Standing fast at his back—and an interested crowd of onlookers who, realising something was afoot, had turned to watch. Prominent amongst them was Nick and the man he had been talking to: the Honourable Ferdie Marsh, the worst gossip in London Society.
‘Despicable boy!’ Lady Mornington hissed, the plumes on her coiffure shaking. ‘Lying, toadying, deceitful wretch! This is how you repay my kindness, this is how you serve your cousins, poisoning my mind against them! I shall change my will tomorrow morning, not one penny shall you get from me. In fact …’ her eyes narrowed, regarding his pinched and furious face ‘… in fact, I will not risk leaving it to tomorrow. The Lord Chief Justice is here tonight—I am sure he will be only too pleased to draw up a codicil for me here and now.’
She swept round, magnificent in her fury, and her eyes fell on Tallie. ‘And you, dear child, can help me find him. Are you acquainted with his lordship? Tall man, always looks different without his wig, I find …’ She swept Tallie off without a backward glance. ‘You shall have one of Esmeralda’s puppies from the new litter. You are a good child and I am sure will look after it excellently well.’
‘Tha-thank you, ma’am,’ Tallie faltered, taken aback by this powerful self-control. ‘Ma’am … I am so very sorry about what just …’ She did not know whether to feel guilty or not. It was horrible for Lady Mornington to have Hemsley’s character exposed before an audience, but perhaps it was much worse that she should be estranged from her honest relatives because of the greed of one unpleasant nephew.
Lady Mornington gave her a sharp look. ‘I have been a foolish old woman,’ she said briskly. ‘Serves me right. His father, my younger brother, was just the same—should have realised the bloodline would breed true.’
‘Is that the Lord Chief Justice over there, ma’am?’ Tallie asked hastily.
‘Indeed it is, you have sharp eyes. Now, off you go, back to Kate Parry and have a good time, child. I,’ she added with a note of grim amusement in her voice, ‘I intend to.’
Tallie hurried back, seeing William energetically dancing a boulanger with a pretty redhead and finding Kate just accepting a glass of lemonade from her nephew.
‘Well done,’ Nick said appreciatively. ‘That was an entirely successful ambush. One cannot but admire Lady Mornington—did you notice the insinuation that she had