Page 7 of The Trials of Alaric
Trials?
“Mary, no!” Lady Lewiston appeared horrified. “Another suitor? I thought we were agree…” She shut her mouth mid-word, leaving Alaric to wonder what the two ladies were plotting, but the words “another suitor” gave him pause.
He spread his hands. “Ladies, I wish only to recover from my ordeal and continue my journey to England and to my home. I do not wish to be any trouble to you.”
“You will be less trouble if you are part of the house party,” Lady Claddach said, decisively. “You can join whatever activities you are well enough to enjoy. Of course, I do not expect you to compete to win my daughter’s hand. She has suitors enough. But I do expect you to show you are a gentleman.” She held up a hand to stop whatever complaint her sister was about to voice.“No, Dorrie, my mind is made up. It does not change anything. Good day, Mr. Redhaven. We shall excuse you from dinner this evening, but after that, your valet shall be given the day’s program while you are at breakfast.”
The two ladies left the room. Colyn caught Alaric’s eye. “I take it the valet would be me, sir,” he said, his voice full of suppressed laughter.
“This is not funny, Colyn,” Alaric warned.
“Well now, sir,” Colyn told him, “it is after being just a little bit funny. Lady Lewiston wants Lady Bea for her own son, you see. But Lord Claddach said Lady Bea’s husband cannot be anyone with his own lands and title, for when Lady Bea is countess, she will need her husband to manage the lands in her name. His lordship might spend most of his time in London on account of his lady, sir, but he is a Claddachman, born and bred. He don’t want an Englishmen putting his English lands first, see you, ahead of our sweet island.”
“I see,” Alaric commented. So, Lady Beatrice was an only child, was she? And her father’s heiress for title as well as estates? Unusual, but it made it all the more surprising she was unwed when she must be in her twenties.
“Lady Bea never wanted to have her Season,” said the chatty Colyn as if reading Alaric’s mind, “and her ma let her be, thinking she would be more likely to marry Lord Beverley if she hadn’t met anyone else.”
Lord Beverley? Alaric had been to school with a Viscount Beverley. Come to think of it, that was where he had heard the name Lewiston. The despicable viscount was only too happy to tell lesser mortals he was son and heir to the Earl of Lewiston. And according to Beverley’s view of the world, all other mortals were lesser.
Colyn continued, “When my lord decided it was time for Lady Beatrice to find a husband, he told Lady Claddach andLady Lewiston to make a list of suitors. The list had twenty names, I hear tell, and Lord Beverley was one of them. My lord struck the name off and ordered his lady to produce another younger son or the like.”
“Annoying for Lady Lewiston,” said Alaric. No wonder she had already decided she did not like him. In her mind, at least, Alaric was a rival to her son. Not that Alaric had any interest in these contests, or in marrying Lady Beatrice. Lovely though she was. And little though she deserved a husband like Lord Beverley.
“The earl had them investigated,” Colyn continued, “and picked his five preferred candidates, but downstairs, we think the ladies chose twenty men Lady Beatrice won’t want any part of. For a more dismal lot you could not hope to meet. Four of them without a skerrick of sense and one who doesn’t want to be here. That’s what we think downstairs, anyway. She won’t have her cousin though. She cannot stand the man.”
In that, Lady Beatrice showed herself a woman of sense.
It was nothing to do with Alaric, in any case. He would dutifully attend any house party activities he could not gracefully avoid and leave on the next available boat. Or, since he would have to send to his father for the money to leave, on the next available boat after his father replied to his letter.
Which he would have to ask Lord Claddach to frank, since he did not have a bean to his name.
Alaric shuddered.
*
The suitors allentered the archery contest. So did three of the four young lady guests and Mr. Maddrell, Papa’s secretary.
Bea’s cousins, Dorothy and Lucy Hetherington, were more interested in giggling, and in admiring the young men than inhitting the target, but Lucy had a natural aptitude that left her in the game after Dorothy, Mr. Maddrell, and one of the suitors, Mr. Ambrose Howard, failed to survive the first three rounds.
The Fairweathers, brother and sister, were leading on points going into the fourth round. Lady Eleanor Fairweather was at the house party to make up numbers, but her brother, Mr. Martin Fairweather, was a Suitor.
They ended the fifth round still in the lead, though Lord Lucas Versey and Mr. Ambrose Howard were not far behind. Lucy was still in, but Sir Henry went out in the fourth round and Mr. Francis Meadowsweet in the fifth.
Those dropped from the game stood with the other guests, cheering for their favorite and commenting on form. Sir Henry added to the negative impression he was making on Bea by complaining loudly about all the factors that had prevented him from showing his usual form. He then tried to talk some of the other gentlemen into going off and playing billiards with him.
Mama and Aunt Lewiston arrived back from their visit to Mr. Redhaven halfway through round six. “I have told Mr. Redhaven he is to join the house party,” Mama said, when she came up with Bea. “See to it, Beatrice.”
“It is a mistake, Mary,” said Aunt Lewiston. “You mark my words. We do not know for certain who this young man is. I can only imagine what Lewiston will say when he hears.”
Bea doubted her uncle would do more than raise a sardonic eyebrow, and his reaction did not matter, in any case. Her father had approved Mr. Redhaven’s presence in the castle, and her mother wanted Mr. Redhaven in the house party.
Bea supposed it was remotely possible that someone—some gentleman—had boarded the ship under a false name and then carried on with the ruse after being shipwrecked. Mr. Redhaven seemed a pleasant enough person, though. He was certainly handsome. And charming.
It might be quite amusing at that to see what the suitors and the other house guests made of him. Especially in the clothes the poor man would be forced to wear. With her father’s permission, she had made Conyl and Gilno—both of whom aspired to be valets—free of some old trunks from the attic. Clothes her father had worn when he was younger and, as he put it,slenderer.
The two footmen had been looking forward to making some changes of clothing for their castaway gentleman from her father’s castoffs. They would no doubt be delighted to meet the challenges of a house party.
Lucy had been outshot in round six and Mr. Howard in round seven. Lord Lucas and the Fairweathers were evenly matched, Bea thought. The honors would go to whoever didn’t make a fatal mistake. And there. Mr. Fairweather had shot wide.
