Good. Then we are agreed. You will refute this strange idea of the Earls and not choose any of them. I can promise you, on Louiss behalf, that you will not be let starve.
Bella supposed she was meant to be grateful for that, but before she could find a suitable reply his lordship and Louis had come into the room and she was obliged to busy herself, pouring tea for them. It was only when no one spoke that she realised both men looked furious. Louis was decidedly pink about the ears and the Earls face was almost purple. Bella was afraid he was going to have a fit of apoplexy.
Grandpapa, I do believe you have overtaxed yourself, she said. Should you not go and lie down for a while?
I will go when I am ready. Where are Edward and Robert?
They have not come down again.
He rang the bell furiously and sent the footman scurrying upstairs to summon the two young men. When they appeared, Robert had bathed and changed his clothes and was wearing a green frockcoat, pale brown pantaloons and tasselled Hessians, with a fresh shirt and a new cravat, though there was no disguising the injury to his face.
Well, what have you to say for yourself? his lordship asked when the young man had made his apologies for his earlier appearance.
I was on my way here when I was set upon by a mob, he said, seating himself and taking a cup of tea from Bella, who found her hand shaking so much the cup rattled in the saucer. They were the equal of any bloodthirsty French soldiers I met on the battlefield. And I had no weapon, not that a gun would have availed me, there were too many of them. They pulled me from my horse and demanded my money.
Where was this? Bella asked.
He turned to look at her, surveying her slowly, taking in the homely grey dress and heightened colour and deciding that her obvious effort to appear unattractive had had the opposite effect. She was lovely. At the crossroads between here and Eastmere. They were marching and filling the whole road. I could not avoid them.
I should hope you did not give in to them, Elizabeth said.
I would not be sitting here if I had not, but I did not submit without a protest, which is why one hothead dealt me a blow with the club he carried.
Rabble, the Comtesse said. Call out the militia. Hang the lot of them or we shall end up with our heads in a basket, just as it happened in France.
Oh, I do not think so, Robert said mildly. The cases are very different. These are simple men driven to excess. When I expressed my sympathy with them, they took the money I proffered and bade me proceed very civilly. They did not take other valuables, or my luggage, which is a blessing or I would have had nothing to wear but what I stood up in.
Did you see Mr Trenchard? Bella asked.
No, should I have?
He was sent for to go home. His servant said the labourers were threatening to pull his barn down and wreck his house.
No, I did not see him. But he is not the only one to sufferthe mob I saw had been on the rampage for some time, most of em pot valiant. It will take the militia to make them return to their homes.
Oh, dear, I hope there will no blood shed, she said. The poor have been sorely tried, what with the price of flour and bread rising so high and wages so low.
Your sympathy does you credit, Bella, Edward said. But it does not give them the right to take the law into their own hands. Destroying the property of those they depend on will not serve.
Did you demand their names? the Earl asked Robert. I can send for the constable to have them taken up and charged.
No, I did not. It is unlikely they would have furnished them if I had. He put down his cup and stood up. Now, if you will excuse me, I am devilish hungry and as Edward has been so obliging as to replace the contents of my purse, I will repair to the local hostelry and bespeak me a meal.
Oh, dear, how thoughtless of me, Bella said. Robert, please, be seated again and I will ask Cook to find something for you
No need, my dear, no need at all. I shall do very well at the tavern.
But do you not wish to know why his lordship has called us all together? Louis asked.
Oh, as to that, Edward has acquainted me with the facts of the matter. I am sorry to say it, but I think the whole thing is a fudge and I wish I had saved myself the expense of the journey to hear it. I might still be in possession of my purse. And this He pointed to his eye. This might be its proper size and colour.
Bella was delighted by his answer and found herself smiling. He swept her an elegant leg and then moved forward to take her hand and raise it to his lips. His brown eyes, looking into hers above the hand he held, were full of merriment. She was glad someone could find humour in the situation. My apologies, dear Bella. I do not mean to disparage you, but you must see that any marriage based on coercion will not serve. Besides, however much I might wish to, I cannot enter a contest against my brother. He has a right, I do not.
Right! Louis exploded furiously. If anyone has a right
Oh, please, do not quarrel, Bella intervened. I cannot bear it. Grandpapa, please say something
He simply smiled and rang for Sylvester to help him to his room. As soon as he had gone Elizabeth bade Louis follow her upstairs to see if the servants had obeyed their instructions to change their rooms and, no doubt, to talk about what they would do next, leaving Bella facing Edward and Robert. She looked from one to the other in despair.
I am so sorry, she said. This is none of my doing. I cannot think what has got into Grandfather
Touched in the attic, Robert said. Must be. Not fair on you, not fair at all. Edward thinks so, too, dont you, Teddy?
Thus appealed to, his brother agreed wholeheartedly. If he is thinking of your future, as he says he is, then he could easily secure that with an annuity or a good dowry.
But dont you see? she cried. My dowry is to be Westmere.
I am not sure he can legally do it, Edward said.
Oh, how I wish Papa were still alive, she said. There would be no argument and none of this would be happening.
If it is any comfort, you have our support, Robert said. I promise you neither of us will offer for you.
It was all too much and she fled to her room, where she flung herself across the bed and sobbed. How could her grandfather be so cruel? How could Robert think it would give her comfort to know that he would not offer for her? He still saw her as the young cousin he had sometimes condescended to amuse as a child, the little girl he had taught to ride and fish when he had visited Westmere on his summer vacation from Cambridge. But as her grandfather had pointed out, she had gown up and was now at a marriageable age. Oh, how she wished Miss Battersby would come home. She needed her.
Ellen Battersby was a little dotty, given to romantic notions and great sighings over the novels she read, and would insist on using their characters as examples of how to behave or not to behave. Bella humoured her, which was more than the Earl did. He was often so outspoken as to be rude to her and consequently the poor woman avoided his presence as much as possible. Perhaps that was why she had stayed away so long. But Bella needed her.
If Miss Battersby could not come home, then she would go to her and seek her out. It was only a short ride to Downham Market, and if no other remedy for her troubles presented itself, then she would stay away, find a way to earn her own living. She rose and changed into her riding habit. She did not want to meet any others of the household for they would surely want to know where she was going, so she carried her boots in her hand and crept along the upper gallery towards the back stairs.