“To tell you the truth I had actually forgotten your existence,” the Earl replied.
He felt Petrina stiffen as if at the insult and went on to explain,
“As it happened, I was abroad when your father died and, when I returned, I had a great many personal matters to attend to as I had only just inherited my father’s title and estates. I am afraid your problems were set aside for mine.”
“But you must have told your lawyer that I was to go to Harrogate in the holidays and stay with Cousin Adelaide.”
“I told him to deal with the matter as he thought best.”
“But you knew Papa?”
“Your father and I served in the same Regiment and before the Battle of Waterloo a great number of us made wills. Those who were married left their children and, sometimes even their wives, in the charge of friends whom they thought most capable of looking after them if they were killed.”
“Papa was older than you.”
“Quite a deal older,” the Earl agreed, “but we played cards together and we both had a great love of horses.”
“And as you knew a lot about horseflesh, Papa thought that you were a suitable Guardian for me,” Petrina said bitterly. “Well, I only hope he is aware, in Heaven or wherever he is, of what a mess you have made of it.”
“I am astonished that your father never changed his will.”
“I suppose he felt that there was no one else more suitable. Anyway he did not expect to die when he did.”
“No, of course not. Was it an accident?”
“He had been drinking with friends and, when they rode back home, someone bet Papa that he would not jump a very high wall. Papa never could resist a bet.”
“I am sorry.”
“I loved him,” Petrina murmured, “although he was often very unpredictable.”
“And your mother?”
“She died during the War when Papa was serving with the Duke of Wellington’s Army.”
“And that left only your Cousin Adelaide.”
“Yes, Cousin Adelaide,” Petrina agreed in a different tone of voice, “and no one except you could think her a suitable companion for a young girl.”
“I suppose I shall have to allow you to choose your own chaperone,” the Earl said.
“I am not going to have one.”
“Oh, yes you are,” he replied. “As your Guardian, I shall appoint one immediately and, if you are pleasant to me, I will allow you to have a choice in the matter.”
Petrina looked at him suspiciously.
“Are you intending to launch me on Society?”
“I suppose I shall have to,” he replied, “but let me assure you, Petrina, I have no desire to do so. I cannot imagine what I shall do, saddled with a debutante, especially one like you.”
“I don’t want to be a debutante, I want to be a Lady-Bird.”
“If I hear one more mention of that,” the Earl stipulated firmly, “I shall give you a good spanking, which incidentally is something that I can imagine has been regrettably omitted from your education in the past.”
“If you are going to take that attitude towards me,” Petrina retorted, “I shall run away here and now and you will never find me again.”
“Then I shall hang on to your fortune. You have already accused me of spending it on myself.”
“Have you done so?”
“No, of course not. I happen to be an extremely wealthy man myself.”
“Then I would like everything I own handed over to me immediately.”
“You get half, I think, when you are twenty-one and the rest when you are twenty-five or the whole lot when you marry.”
Petrina stamped her foot on the floor of the phaeton.
“You are only quoting to me my own words. I so wish I had known who you were when I was waiting for Jeb.”
“Think just how lucky you have been,” he said mockingly. “By sheer coincidence I have turned out, as if we were in a Fairytale, to be your Guardian. I have waved my magic wand and you come to London, make your curtsey to the Queen at Buckingham Palace and, if you wish, to the Prince Regent. You are then launched into the Beau Monde.”
“You mean everyone will pay a great deal of attention to me because I am your Ward?”
“And you are also, of course, an heiress,” the Earl pointed out.
“I am not going to marry anyone, even if you do plan to find me a suitable husband.”
“If you imagine that I am going to concern myself with your amatory adventures, you are very much mistaken. I will find you a chaperone and as my house is very large I presume you can live there for the time being. If you annoy me or are tiresome, I shall rent a house for you on your own.”
“Shall I never see you?” Petrina asked curiously.
“Not often,” the Earl answered frankly. “I have a well-organised life, a great deal to do one way or another and frankly I find young girls a bore.”
“If they are anything like the girls I was at school with, I am not surprised?’ Petrina said. “But I suppose they grow up into the witty sophisticated women of the world who you have tempestuous love affairs with.”
“Who told you that?” the Earl asked in a voice of thunder.
“Claire said that all the Gentlemen of Fashion have mistresses – after all, what about the Prince Regent? And all the most beautiful women have lovers.”
“If you would cease quoting your foolish and ill-informed friend I think we would get along a great deal better,” the Earl said irritably.
“But it is true, is it not?” Petrina enquired.
“What is true?”
“That you have made love to lots and lots of beautiful ladies.”
This was undeniably a fact, but it made the Earl extremely annoyed.
“Will you stop talking about things no well-behaved girl should mention?” he stormed. “When I launch you in Society, Petrina, you will be ostracised by all the important hostesses if you speak of mistresses and all the other vulgar creatures you have mentioned since we met each other.”
“I think you are very unfair,” she complained. “After all you kept asking me questions and I answered truthfully. It is no use complaining now that I did not lie. How was I to know that you are my Guardian?”
With an effort the Earl controlled his temper.
“I cannot believe that any girl with your opportunities would not want to be a success and it will be impossible to be one unless you learn to curb your tongue.”
“I have had to curb it at school,” Petrina replied, “but I had hoped when I got away that I should be able to be myself and I do not see really why that is wrong.”
“Your whole attitude is wrong,” the Earl said severely. “Nicely behaved, well-brought-up young ladies make their debut and get married and know nothing about the seamy side of life.”
“You mean about Lady-Birds and ‘bits of muslin’?”
“Yes.”
“Well, Claire knows all about them.”
“Claire has a brother who obviously has a very irresponsible attitude