Misfit Maid

‘Relative? What nonsense is this, pray?’

‘Surely you are aware that the Burloynes are connected to the Otterburns?’ said Delagarde, in a voice of pained surprise which caused Lady Hester to choke off a smothered laugh. ‘Indeed, it was my mother who sent Miss Wormley—our cousin, you must know—to look after Lady Mary when she was left without a female protector at so tender an age.’

Adela’s eyes were popping, and it was evident that all this was as new to her as it was to her husband.

‘How comes it about that I never heard a word of this?’ Shurland demanded, casting an irritated glance at Maidie.

‘Did you not? It was before your time, of course,’ Delagarde said in an excusing tone. ‘But perhaps the late Lord Shurland did not have an opportunity to inform you of it.’

‘Reginald Hope,’ said the present Earl, in a voice that very imperfectly concealed his chagrin, ‘saw fit to inform me of nothing at all concerning my inheritance. If he had a thought to spare for anything other than his infernal hobby, I was not privileged to know of it.’

‘How dare you sneer at Great-uncle Reginald?’ demanded Maidie, suddenly firing up.

At the back of her mind, as she came rapidly towards the group, she took in the startled glance of Lady Hester, and the odd expression that leapt into Delagarde’s features. But the spurt of anger would not be contained.

‘You are not half the man he was, Firmin,’ she told her cousin in a voice that shook. ‘Great-uncle Reginald was the best of men, and the kindest of guardians, and as much a father to me as Worm was a mother. I will not have either of them abused. As for his preoccupation, it was a great deal more than a hobby, and of far greater worth than anything you might waste your thoughts upon.’

‘Of importance to others of equal eccentricity, no doubt,’ retorted Lord Shurland.

Delagarde saw Maidie’s eyes flash, and was not much surprised to find that the Earl backed down. He was rather amused than otherwise by the discovery that the unshakable Lady Mary had a temper.

Shurland shifted a little, avoiding his cousin’s eye, and adopted a blustering tone. ‘Very well, very well. Enough said. In any event, this is no time to be arguing over what is past and cannot be mended. Go and pack your things, Maidie, for you are coming home with us.’

Maidie moved away from him, saying in a calmer tone, ‘I thank you, no, Firmin. If Lord Delagarde is indeed willing to sponsor me—’

‘Certainly,’ broke in Delagarde. ‘Not only that. I am going to figure as her trustee.’

Shurland’s chest swelled alarmingly, and his cheeks reddened. ‘You will figure as nothing of the kind, sir! I am perfectly aware of all the circumstances of her fortune. You have no rights in the matter at all.’

‘Neither have you,’ Delagarde pointed out. ‘Lady Mary is of age and may do as she pleases, and I do not believe that either myself or you, Shurland, have the means to prevent her. If she chooses to come and live with my aunt and myself, there is no barrier that I can see.’

‘Except,’ put in Adela bitterly, ‘that it makes us look like fools.’

‘That cannot be helped,’ said Delagarde.

‘Oh! I did not look for such usage from you, my lord! It is plain that Mary has blinded you with some horrid tale against me.’ She glared at Maidie, and seemed for the first time to notice her appearance, for she added in a waspish tone, ‘How you suppose you might catch a husband in a get-up like that, I am at a loss to understand. You look thirty if you look a day! And if you have not sense enough to conceal that perfectly appalling hair—’

‘Appalling?’ echoed Delagarde, interrupting her without ceremony. ‘My dear ma’am, I cannot agree with you. Lady Mary’s hair is her most attractive attribute, and the gown is excessively becoming. Indeed, I was just expressing my admiration when you were announced.’

Maidie gasped at this blatant untruth, and noted that Lady Hester was struggling against a fit of laughter.

‘However that may be, my lord,’ said Adela sulkily, ‘you will at least admit that it is hardly raiment suitable to a debutante.’

‘Well, if you dislike it so much, Adela,’ Maidie said before Delagarde could answer this, ‘you should be happy that it is not you who will have to appear in society with me.’

‘This is absurd!’ Lord Shurland burst out angrily. ‘I am far from accepting this faradiddle about your mother, Delagarde, but I take leave to inform you that there will be but one construction to be put upon the matter, if you take it upon yourself to interfere in this way.’

Maidie felt a sudden shift in the atmosphere, as though a chill entered the room. Glancing at Lady Hester, she was startled to find the elder lady’s eyes sparkling with something other than humour. Her attention was drawn to Delagarde, who had stiffened, she thought. His narrowed eyes were turned upon the Earl, and there was a hint of ice in his voice.

‘Indeed? Perhaps you would care to elaborate.’

Shurland glared at him, but blustered it through. ‘Poker up, if you will, sir! You know very well what I mean. I shall not demean myself by explaining it further.’

‘Very prudent,’ returned Delagarde sardonically.

The Earl coloured. ‘If we are to talk of prudence, let me advise you to inquire into the way things are left before you do what you may come to regret. You do not know her, Delagarde. I do!’

Maidie could make nothing of this. She saw that the Viscount’s brows had snapped together, and he was now looking more puzzled than angry. Before she could request an explanation, Lady Hester had moved forward again, her calm tones dispelling the discomfort in the air.

‘You quite mistake the matter, my dear Shurland. Delagarde is acting, I assure you, from motives of the purest chivalry.’ She laid a hand upon Adela’s arm. ‘I fear you are very much put out, my dear. Never fear. We shall say that the child has come expressly to stay with me, because Delagarde’s mama wished for the connection, and because Reginald Hope was my own dear friend.’

‘You may say so,’ answered Adela shrilly. ‘I will not. No one will think that an adequate reason for Mary to come out under your aegis instead of mine. I shall be made to seem the greatest beast in nature, and I think it is quite heartless of Mary to subject me to such a horrid slander!’

Upon which, Lady Shurland burst into sobs, and rushed out of the room. Her harassed spouse turned on Maidie.

‘I hope you are satisfied!’ He swung round on Delagarde. ‘As for you, sir, concoct what story you wish, but don’t expect me to corroborate it!’

‘The only thing I require,’ responded Delagarde calmly, ‘is that you will keep quiet about Lady Mary’s fortune. Neither you nor I can wish for the sort of speculation that must arise if society should hear of it.’

‘I shall say nothing, but I must point out to you that you, far more than I, are likely to be hurt by its becoming known.’

‘Well, if you spread the news about, you will discover your mistake,’ Delagarde said trenchantly. ‘Because I will set it about that you tried to marry Lady Mary off to your brother-in-law.’

‘If you imagine that Eustace wishes to marry her, you are mightily mistaken,’ objected Shurland, incensed. ‘The truth is that he desires nothing less—as who shall blame him?’

On this parting shot, he stalked out of the room, leaving Maidie a prey to conflicting emotions. On the one hand, she was relieved that Delagarde had perversely chosen to champion her; on the other, she was disturbed by Firmin’s veiled hints. What had he meant? Her thoughts dissipated as Lady Hester gave way to laughter.

‘What a dreadful liar you are, Laurie! I don’t know how I kept my countenance.’

Delagarde grinned. ‘You can talk, Aunt Hes!’ He saw that Maidie was staring at him in frowning silence, and raised an eyebrow. ‘Well? You have got what you wanted, have you not?’

‘Yes, but I can’t think why, when you know very well that you heartily dislike the notion,’ she said frankly.

‘True,’ he agreed. ‘But not as much as I disliked Lady Shurland. Come to that, I am not overfond of Shurland either.’

‘They are both hateful! And Firmin was lying, too. It is quite possible that Eustace does not wish to marry me—for he doesn’t like me any more than I like him—but he will overcome his reluctance in order to get his hands on my money.’

‘So will a great many others,’ Delagarde said. ‘Which is why we are going to say nothing about it.’

Maidie frowned. ‘Then how am I to get a husband?’

‘You will have to rely on your looks and natural charm of manner.’

‘Oh,’ Maidie said doubtfully. Then Lady Hester began to laugh again, and a slight flush crept into her cheeks. ‘You mean to be sarcastic, I suppose, but I do not care.’

‘You need not tell me that.’

‘Well, but you completely agreed with Adela. You said exactly the same as she did about this gown.’

‘Did I?’ Delagarde looked her up and down.

Then, so suddenly that she had no time to protest, he stepped up to her and, in one swift movement, ripped the bandeau from her head. Maidie uttered a stifled cry and put her hands up to her hair. She hardly heard the shocked reactions of the other ladies, for Delagarde had seized her wrists, and was pulling down her struggling hands.

‘Stand still!’ he ordered. ‘Do you think I am going to hurt you? Just be quiet a moment!’

Maidie stared up at him, lost in amazement, unable either to speak or move as she felt his fingers moving deftly in her hair, running through her curls, and prinking them. She followed the motion of his eyes as they flicked about together with the action of his fingers. As he finished, the dark eyes came to rest on hers. They smiled.

‘There, that is better,’ he said, and stepped back. ‘You look much younger, and the gown is now unexceptionable.’

Lady Hester clapped her hands. ‘Well done, Laurie!’ She came up to Maidie. ‘Don’t look so bemused. He is quite right. The bandeau and feathers were a mistake.’

Maidie blinked. ‘But he hates my hair! I know he said something silly to Adela, but—’

‘Whatever I may have said,’ interrupted Delagarde, ‘it is quite untrue that I hate it. Besides, since you are desirous of catching a husband, it will usefully attract attention. There is bound to be some deluded fool who falls in love with it! And the sooner the better.’

‘At last we are of one mind!’ retorted Maidie, reviving from her bemused state. She drew a breath, and smiled at Delagarde.

The effect was blinding, and his brows rose. Perhaps it was not such a far-fetched notion that someone would fall in love with her. Provided, that is, they had no opportunity to discover her character first.

‘I must thank you, my lord, for having supported me,’ Maidie was saying. ‘I do not understand why you should have done so, but I won’t tease myself about that.’ She added in a confiding way, ‘I was afraid you meant to encourage Firmin and Adela to take me away.’

‘I know you were,’ Delagarde said. ‘And I have no more idea than you why I did not do so. I have every expectation that I will live to regret it!’

The better relations that had been established between himself and Maidie were not the only thing that prompted Delagarde to offer his escort when she expressed a need to visit the lawyer who dealt with her affairs. He’d had time enough since Wednesday to wonder why he had allowed himself to be dragooned into submission over her ridiculous charade. It was not, he thought, the advent of the Shurlands. He had been more or less reconciled before that. He had spent that first day smouldering over the perfidious way Aunt Hes has spiked his guns, but had arrived home without any real expectation of discovering the whole episode to have been imagined, as he had told himself might well be the case.

His resentment had flared anew at sight of Maidie in that objectionable attire, but it had fled as he took in the enormity of her ginger hair and discovered the chink in her armour. Gone was the self-possessed young woman who had driven him against the ropes in the morning! He had begun to realise that there was a good deal of bravado about Maidie’s manner. She was still the most infuriating wench he had ever encountered, and he did not doubt but that she would drive him demented. But he could no more have thrown her out of his house than he could similarly have treated Aunt Hes.

He had done what he might to avert the worst consequences of her descent upon him, but he was a little disturbed by Shurland’s remarks. It would be as well, he thought, to discover just how matters were left. Maidie’s expressed wish to visit her lawyer was therefore opportune.

They set off in his phaeton on Friday morning, with Maidie (who had yesterday been on a further shopping spree with Lady Hester) arrayed in a new pelisse of warm brown and a matching bonnet adorned with russet satin rosettes. With her curls rioting under a wide brim, Delagarde acknowledged that she made an appealing picture.

‘You look very well,’ he said, as he handed her up into the carriage. ‘Was it your choice?’

‘No, it was Lady Hester’s,’ Maidie told him, giving him her direct gaze with those clear grey eyes. Well! It was moderate praise, but at least he approved. ‘I have not yet learned enough to trust myself.’

‘You will,’ Delagarde said, climbing up into the phaeton, and disposing the heavy folds of his caped greatcoat loosely about him to free his arms before taking up the reins and his whip. He nodded at his groom, who let go of the horses’ heads and swung himself up behind as the carriage swept past.

‘It is very kind of you to take me to see Bagpurze,’ Maidie told him, not to be outdone in civility.

‘No, it isn’t,’ Delagarde said with a grin, glancing down at her. ‘I have a very good reason for going with you.’

Maidie frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Since I have been thrust into a position where I may well have to figure as your trustee, I had better know the true facts of your inheritance.’

‘But I have told you!’ Maidie protested. ‘Do you suppose I have been lying to you?’

‘You have scarcely told me anything at all, and you cannot expect me to have made head or tail of the rigmarole you did tell me. But at least I must get a straight story from a lawyer.’

‘Do as you please,’ Maidie said huffily. ‘I have nothing to hide.’ She thought for a moment, and then added, ‘Besides, it is a good opportunity for us to come to terms.’

Delagarde glanced frowningly down at her. ‘Terms?’

‘Yes, of course. You need not think I should expect you to do all this for nothing. And I am sure you will find the charge less troublesome when we have agreed how much I should pay you for serving me.’

For a stunned moment, Delagarde could say nothing at all. He held in his horses with automatic skill as he guided them through the turn into Piccadilly. Then he found his tongue, throwing a quick look at the calm figure at his side.

‘You wish to pay me?’

Maidie frowned up at his profile. ‘What is the matter now? You need not be embarrassed to admit that your pockets are to let. I should have thought you would be only too glad of the opportunity to obtain some easy money.’

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