So now Araminta was being rattled about in a carriage, returning to the estate for which her father had reminded her she’d been prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to be its mistress: marry the heir presumptive, her late bacon-brained cousin Edgar.
Fortunately, Edgar had tragically drowned in an accident involving Lady Julia Ledger, but it was sobering to recall how close Araminta had come to ruining her life. Especially now that she had such glittering opportunities at her fingertips. The thought of Lord Ludbridge made her heart swell. How clear he’d made his disappointment when she’d told him she’d have to leave London for a while.
Her father’s summons left her feeling cheated, and she was struck by the urge to take her anger out on someone. She had half a mind to let Lady Julia’s husband, Sir Archie Ledger, in on a few secrets about the wickedness his young wife had got up to when the pair of them had attended the fateful weekend house party at The Grange all those months before, which had resulted in Edgar’s death. However, she’d given away the idea after failing to come up with how such a revelation would directly benefit herself.
Recently she’d heard that the “lovely Lady Julia” had been delivered of a girl.
Everyone, she thought, was having babies or eloping. Her last sight of Larissa had been of her half-sister staring moon-eyed at Mr. Tunley. Well, now it was Araminta’s turn.
If anyone deserved a good match, it was Araminta.
“Mother!” she cried as Mary, the housemaid, opened the door of her mother’s bedchamber. For the moment she truly was overjoyed to see her darling, lovely mother lying against the plumped-up pillows, smiling at her over the downy head of a light-haired infant. “I’ve missed you!” In that moment, she realized she really had.
She took a seat at her mother’s side and reached over to kiss her on the forehead. “So this is my new sister.”
“Would you like to hold her?”
Araminta shook her head. “Perhaps later. She smells a little, and she has a very screwed-up little face, doesn’t she? Like...she’s just tasted vinegar.”
“She looks very much like you as an infant.” Her mother smiled down at the sleeping baby, wrapped in a small white woolen blanket. “She will improve. Hetty, on the other hand, was a complete cherub. The prettiest baby I ever saw.”
Araminta bristled. “Obviously infancy is no gauge of how a child will blossom.”
“Now, let’s not be snide. Hetty looked radiant the last time I laid eyes on her. And even if she has scandalized your papa by eloping with a man with a reputation, I could not be happier for her.” Lady Partington put her hand out to Araminta, who took it reluctantly. “Please don’t be cross with your sister.”
“How could I not? She ruined my chances of a good match this season. It was mortifying attending Lady Smythe’s ball, when barely anyone asked me to stand up. They were all whispering behind their hands about the scandalous Miss Henrietta Partington, who eloped with a man rumored to have been involved in a plot to bring down the government. I could wring that girl’s neck.”
“Araminta, please. What’s done is done, and Hetty is happy at last. That’s all I’ve ever wanted for her.” Her mother squeezed her hand before removing it to tuck the blankets more securely around the child as it stirred. “And very soon, I predict, you will make a match that will please you as much as it will us. With your beauty and your ambitions, not to mention your dowry, I have no doubt it will be a glittering one, too.”
Araminta let her mother’s words wash over her as she stared out of the window. At least her mother still had faith in Araminta’s abilities, even if she was talking Hetty up undeservedly.
“Your papa and I received a letter from your sister last week, in which she voiced concern over your interest in Lord Debenham. She warned us to be vigilant, as she said he was not a gentleman you should associate with, no matter what the inducement, and that she had this on good authority from her new husband. Well, your father decided then and there that you must come home so that he could talk to you.”
Araminta straightened. “I do not think Henrietta is in a position to dispense marital advice to me,” she said, crisply.
“My dear, no need to take that tone. Hetty is merely concerned for your happiness.”
“Hetty is gloating now that she has preced
ence over me for the first time. She’s always wanted to tell me what to do, and now that she’s married, she thinks she can!”
“But there must be truth in her concerns, surely? I know nothing about Lord Debenham but if your sister thinks you should stay away, especially if it’s on Sir Aubrey’s advice, then, of course, I must bring the matter up with you.” Her voice changed and she looked with great sympathy at her daughter. “I know you had ambitions regarding Sir Aubrey, and I know you’re cross with Hetty for marrying him, but please don’t do anything rash, Araminta.”
“How dare anyone imagine I’d do anything...rash!” Araminta had to take several deep breaths to rein in her outrage. She smoothed the folds of her jonquil travelling dress over her knees and gazed out of the window at the sweeping lawns of the gated park. There was a time when to be mistress of The Grange seemed the epitome of success. How much her ideas had changed. “Always I am mindful of the consequences of my actions...unlike Hetty!” She exhaled on a sigh. “But you can set your mind at rest on account of Lord Debenham. It’s true that for a very short while I considered him a likely prospect, since he’d made his interest for me so very clear. However, there is another young man I met at Lady Smythe’s ball several weeks ago who is clearly taken with me, Mama, and I do like him tremendously.”
She smiled as she recalled the way Lord Ludbridge had looked into her eyes as he’d raised her gloved hand to kiss her fingertips the first night when they’d said goodnight. He’d been smitten from the very first glance, he’d told her more than once, since then.
And then Araminta had been dragged back to the country. Lord Ludbridge’s note and the bouquet of flowers he’d sent her on the morning of her departure had reassured her of his desire to see her the moment she returned, so perhaps leaving the city so soon after Hetty’s scandal was not such a terrible thing. It might make him more inclined to make her an offer, sooner.
“Who is this young man?” Her mother looked indulgently at her, clearly pleased at such news.
“Lord Ludbridge. Have you heard of him?”
“Only good things.” Her mother’s smile broadened. “That he is a fine-natured fellow—as are all his brothers—and he’s been working hard to restore the fortunes of the estate, after his grandfather had gambled so much away. Apparently after his late father fell ill, he left much of the handling of daily matters to his eldest son who has acquitted himself well.”
Frowning, she added, “I hear he’s not in London much and that he prefers the country. I don’t know if that would suit you, Araminta. And I believe there would be...pecuniary restraints.” She cleared her throat. “I know your ambitions extend to more—”
“I have changed greatly, Mother, and am no longer as I was before I went to London for my second season,” Araminta assured her. She wasn’t best pleased to learn that Lord Ludbridge was not as plump in the pocket as she’d supposed or hoped, but he was very handsome, charming and clearly taken with her, and Araminta was not going to end her season without an offer. If she had to marry someone with less money, then he must at least be easy to manage.