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They found Marwood leaving the foyer and headed in the direction of
his library. Eugenia's peremptory tone brought him up short. "There
you are, Marwood! Did you have a successful trip? Here is Lord
Sterne to applaud your return."
Marwood, scarcely in the best of tempers to begin with, felt as though
his neck cloth had suddenly grown too tight. "Hullo, my dear," he
said, dutifully planting a kiss on his wife's cheek.
Lord Sterne, who had raised his quizzing glass, now said dryly, "It
would seem Marwood's journey was not successful. Er, no doubt this
is dreadfully mal a droit of me, Marwood, but where is your
daughter?"
Unconsciously, Castor squared his shoulders and, avoiding his wife's
sharp-set eyes, replied, "In Bath, my lord. Acquiring a bit of polish
under the wing of my sister, Miss Anthea Marwood. Before her
Season, you understand. Bringing her up to snuff before she makes
her curtsey to the queen, don't you know."
"I see," Sterne said dryly. "Curiosity compels me to enquire if this
means my suit is no longer welcome to her? Or rather I should say,
welcome to you?"
Eugenia opened her mouth to reassure his lordship. Castor, however,
had spent much of his journey home thinking about what Anthea had
said. He had always stood somewhat in awe of his sister, whose
intellect he considered to be too powerful by half, and he could not
entirely dismiss her words. So now, to everyone's surprise, including
his own, Marwood said bluntly, "You are, my lord! Very sorry to
have dragged you here to no purpose. Never realised my Cal would
take such a pet, but since she has, nothing to do but forget the whole
business."
"Castor Marwood!" Eugenia said, fixing a fulminating gaze on her
errant spouse. "Do you mean you have allowed Calandra to decide
such a matter herself?"
Lord Sterne bowed at this point and spoke in a polite voice that
dripped poison. "Please, madam, don't trouble yourself. I collect there
is a young swain in Bath. Someone she prefers over myself? I only
trust you will not have cause to regret her, er, impetuosity in throwing
herself at the fellow!"
Goaded, Castor retorted, "Well, there you're out! There ain't no young
swain. Leastways, Seabrook only escorted her and her aunt there. But
he's dangling after someone else. If you must have it, my Cal's
frightened of you! Aye, that's it. She's heard all manner of tales about
you, my lord. Good God, everyone has! And I tell you, she's
frightened."
Sterne, who had been listening with obvious boredom, abruptly came
alert. It was only with great effort that he kept his voice steady as he
asked, "Did you say frightened?"
Castor, who by now had worked himself up to a level of moral
indignation, flung back at his lordship, "Terrified!"
A smile briefly crossed Sterne's face as he toyed with his quizzing
glass. It was a sight Eugenia Marwood greeted with no little relief.
Finally Sterne said, "Tell me, Marwood. If I were to go to Bath and
pay my addresses to your daughter Calandra, would you object?"
"Of course not!" Eugenia replied hastily with a minatory frown at her
spouse.
But Castor scarcely saw her. "Do you mean you still want to make my
Cal an offer?" he demanded incredulously.
"Well, as to that," Sterne replied smoothly, "I can scarcely say until
I've seen the child. At the moment, I simply wish to assure myself that
you would have no objection."
"Too, too kind!" Eugenia murmured.
"Hmph!" Marwood snorted. "And I'd have thought-.this would have
given you a disgust of the girl."
Sterne bowed slightly. "You mustn't blame the child for her fears.
Perfectly understandable, I assure you. She has, after all, never met
me. I propose to remedy that."
Castor Marwood was still uneasy. His spouse, however, had no
intention of allowing mawkish sentiments to interfere with the
business of seeing each of her daughters established creditably in
marriage. Before Marwood could offer any further objections,
Eugenia said, "We should be delighted to have you call on Calandra
in Bath. I must warn you, however, that the child's aunt, Anthea
Marwood, is ... is rather out of the common way. An original, in fact!
Sometimes I believe she has a dislike of men. In any event, you ought
to be forewarned that she may not precisely welcome you, and I beg
you will not regard such crotchets."
Lord Sterne replied easily, "I assure you, madam, that if I have your
permission to pay my addresses to Miss Calandra, I shall scarcely be
daunted by her eccentric aunt."
In perfect accord, the pair smiled at one another, and Castor said
rather gruffly, "Yes, yes, by all means call on the chit. Just so long as
you understand she's afraid of you. Haven't understood the girl in
seventeen years, daresay I never will! Now, if you'll excuse me, my
lord, I'm feeling devilish sharp set. Never can eat my mutton when
I'm travelling. I shall see you in the morning. Eugenia, you'll make
my excuses to Oglesby? Not that he'll care. Not when he can be
making up to Beatrice, the sly puss. Smelling of April and May, they
are. Leastways Oglesby is. Well, good night, all."
With that, Marwood made good his escape. In fact, however, Eugenia
was not in the least inclined to try to stop him. Lord Sterne's
pronounced intention to follow Calandra to Bath was as delightful as
it was unexpected. She had no wish to find his lordship dissuaded by
some careless utterance of Castor's. Eugenia, as she escorted Sterne
back to the drawing room, attempted to repair any damage which
might already have occurred. "I pray you will not regard it, Lord
Sterne, if you find my daughter a ... a trifle shy! It comes of not
having brothers, you see. Calandra is, however, in general a most
biddable girl and I daresay she will come round quickly enough once
she has met you and seen that you are scarcely an ogre! Depend upon
it, her aunt, Anthea, has stuffed her head with all sorts of nonsense.
But you will no doubt make short shrift of that! Marwood and I have
taken care to teach her her duty, of that you may be sure."
Eugenia might as well have spared her breath. Lord Sterne was not
interested in discovering that Miss Calandra Marwood was a
"biddable" girl. He hoped, in point of fact, that the chit was as
frightened and reluctant as Marwood had said. If so, he could scarcely
believe his good fortune. The parents who would countenance his
attentions toward their daughters were very few. And in those rare
cases, the daughters were, if not complacent, at least resigned to his
suit. But Lord Sterne was bored by compliance. As the abbesses of
several of London's most famous brothels could have attested, Sterne
preferred his bedmates to be afraid of him. Afraid and young. Sterne's
first wife had not been afraid. Fortunately she died in childbirth. The
second had been as terrified as he could have wished, but she had
found the means to hang herself before the marriage was scarcely [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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