Page 24 of Lady for a Season
The woman stared at Maggie but did not speak. Maggie bobbed a curtsey and stood, uncomfortable under the woman’s scrutiny. There was another woman in the room, standing to one side, neatly dressed in grey. She was older than Maggie, but younger than Edward’s mother, with warm brown eyes and a pleasant face. She gave a small nod when Maggie caught her eye. A servant of some sort.
At last Edward’s mother spoke.
“He has done nothing since he arrived back here but lash out and scream to leave Atherton, to be returned to Ivy Cottage. We have had to confine him to the rooms he has chosen and tell the servants that he is overcome with grief. My maid, Duval here, waited on him while Joseph collected you.” She looked Maggie over, her lip curling with disdain. “Are you his mistress?”
“No!”
“Then what are you to him that he should demand your presence here?”
“I am his companion, ma’am, hired by Doctor Morrison to look after Edward, I –”
“Edward?You call him Edward?”
Maggie gulped. What had she done wrong? “Is that not his name, ma’am? It is what I was told to call him.”
The woman narrowed her eyes. “The man you call Edward is Edward Robert John Atherton, the twelfth Duke of Buckingham. He is the master of Atherton Park. He is addressed as His Grace or to those with whom he is familiar, as Buckingham. I am his mother, the Duchess of Buckingham. You address me as Your Grace.”
A dizziness came over Maggie, whether from tiredness and fear or from this sudden news that Edward, gentle fearful Edward, was a duke. It could not be true. She had known he must be fromthe gentry, and had guessed, once she had seen this house, that his family must be rich, but a duke? And yet… all the comforts they had enjoyed at Ivy Cottage. A simple cottage in a tiny village and yet there had been feather beds and cream with their porridge, ample supplies of food and fuel, and Doctor Morrison to care for a young man considered mad and sent away from his family… now Maggie understood why there had been no shortage of money, no expense spared in Edward’s treatments, however unpleasant they were.
“But…”
“But what?”
“He has been at Ivy Cottage for years, I was told…”
“He has been there since he was fourteen years old.”
“Then why has he been brought back now? Has Doctor Morrison said he is cured?” For a moment Maggie was hopeful, for after all she had never seen much wrong with Edward, and the doctor’s treatments had only weakened him, not changed his behaviour except to make him quieter and sicker.
“His father and elder brother have died.”
“Both?”
“His father died of an apoplectic fit four months ago and my older son died in a hunting accident more recently. Edward is the only heir. If he does not take up the title, the whole estate will go to a distant cousin. Which cannot be allowed to happen.”
Maggie stayed silent. There was too much information coming at her; she was still trying to imagine Edward as a duke. Would such information make him better or worse? Would the responsibility be too much to bear, would it make him ill again?
The Duchess cleared her throat, then spoke reluctantly, as though what she was suggesting was displeasing to her. “I have an offer for you. We have one social season in which to find Edward a bride and get him married. If we leave it any longer, it will cause gossip. Edward has…” She paused. “Edward hasinsisted that you be always by his side. Not just at home, though that would be preferable. He wants you to be at all the social occasions he must attend during the season, he says he has not the strength, the – the confidence to partake in them otherwise. Obviously, the Duke of Buckingham cannot be seen to require a nursemaid, people will talk. I have devised a plan. You will stay here, posing as a distant cousin of the family so that you can keep Edward calm without anyone realising you are effectively nursemaid to a lunatic. Once he is safely married off, you will be paid one thousand pounds, and you will leave Atherton Park and never speak of your time here again.” She stared at Maggie. “Do I make myself plain?”
The offer and the sum of money were breathtaking. A thousand pounds would allow Maggie to live comfortably for years. But… “What happens when he is married?”
“He will sire an heir, which will secure the estate and the title for another generation.”
“I meant, what will happen to Edward?”
“He will live here, unless his madness is too obvious, when he will be kept elsewhere, as he was before. The title and the estate will be safe.” She shrugged again and, in that moment, Maggie despised her casualness, as though she were speaking of Edward occasionally taking the sea air or the waters for his health, as and when he chose, not the reality of being locked away from the world, subjected to the torment of Doctor Morrison’s treatments.
“Well?”
Maggie wanted to ask for time to think. Everything was too much, she was still trying to understand all she had been told, but the Duchess was not granting her time to think. Among the thoughts whirling through her mind was the line from the Hospital’s letter to her when she had been sent out into the world:Lying is the beginning of everything that is bad; and aPerson used to it is never believed, esteemed or trusted.Maggie felt muddled and uncertain of what exactly she was being asked to do, what would happen, what her assent might lead to. What was most important?
Edward. She would be with Edward, and that was all that mattered for now. She would care for him as she had done at Ivy Cottage. That part, at least, was simple. But she was to pose as a cousin? Pose as a lady? That she could not imagine, but it did not matter for now; all she needed to do was care for Edward. Everything else was unimportant. Even the money, a life-changing sum. She set that thought aside. Perhaps he would be happier with a wife and a child, perhaps it would help him. He might find a woman who was kind and gentle, who could lift his spirits. And if all else failed, Maggie could return with him to Ivy Cottage, or somewhere like it, and life could go on as it had before.
“Yes. I will stay.”
The Duchess took a deep breath, whether of relief or apprehension, Maggie could not tell.
“Very well. Leave me now. You will spend the day upstairs in the nursery. Neither you nor Edward must leave those rooms unless otherwise instructed. Food will be sent up to you. Joseph will attend to you both. I will send for you later today when I have had time to plan. Go.”
