Page 50 of Lady Dramatic
Chapter Thirteen
The dining roomhad gone quiet as Serenity held her breath and waited to hear who Clara was.
Lord Thorpe was glaring at his brother. Serenity also noticed the butler, Quinn, frown. Was Clara some lost love that was never to be mentioned? Perhaps Lord Thorpe had been deeply in love and this Clara individual had broken off an engagement? No, nobody would break an engagement with Lord Thorpe, how could they? That could only mean she’d died! Was it of consumption or being thrown from a curricle or a winter fever?
“Oh, I see,” Lord Charles said, “you did not mention her yet.”
“Did she die?” Serenity nearly cried out, dabbing at her eyes.
“Die?” Lord Thorpe asked, sounding very surprised. “Certainly not, she wed the local innkeeper and goes on quite happy.”
Now Serenity was thoroughly confused. The duke said, “Thorpe, you’d better spell out the story your brother has so gleefully hinted at lest we all imagine strange ideas.”
Lord Charles reddened at the idea that he’d gleefully hinted. Then he said, “She was a housemaid.”
What did Lord Charles say? Why should there be some story of a housemaid having to do with Lord Thorpe? She would not believe he had meddled with a servant. No, that was not at all his nature.
Lord Thorpe sighed. “I do not have the first idea why this would be a topic of conversation at dinner, but as it has been raised, I will relay the circumstances. Clara was a housemaid who was dismissed on account of being with child. It was very early days and she would not have been found out, had not she told the housemaid she shared a room with. I was sixteen and had just arrived home on a school break at the time. I became certain Clara was to end up begging on the roads with an infant in her arms. I took fifty pounds out of my father’s library and gave it to her.”
“You see?” Lord Charles asked. “He stole fifty pounds from our father.”
All eyes turned to Lord Charles. “What else was he to do?” Winsome asked. “Allow poor Clara to starve on the road?”
Lord Charles appeared to be embarrassed to be asked that question. Serenity did not give a toss about Lord Charles’ embarrassment. Lord Thorpe had acted nobly. Of course he had, she would expect nothing less.
“It’s not on, you know,” her father said, “allowing one of your household to starve on the road.”
“She was never going to starve,” Lord Charles blurted out. “She married the local innkeeper.”
“Well, thank heavens for that,” Serenity said. She did not think she understood Lord Charles. He had seemed to hint at that story being something that would put Lord Thorpe in a bad light when it had been quite the opposite. Certainly, his father the duke would have seen that he ought to have given Clara the fifty pounds himself, and been sorry at being so remiss.
“Well now,” the duke said, “that’s settled. It seems everything worked out satisfactorily for all involved.”
“Lord Charles,” Verity said, “are you aware that the spaniel has a long history of being able to detect gold? They have very sensitive noses, I’m given to understand.”
Serenity pressed her lips together to stop from laughing as Lord Charles gripped his fork. Verity was about to lead the lord down a long garden path of nonsense.
Lord Thorpe turned to her. “I am sorry my brother thought to bring up that particular interlude.”
“Why did he, though?” Serenity asked. “He made it sound as if you had some terrible confession to make when you acted quite rightly for poor Clara.”
Lord Thorpe laughed. “I felt it right and in fact urgent at the time,” he said. “But Ididsteal fifty pounds from my father.”
“I do not suppose my own father would mind it,” Serenity said. “But then, I suppose he would not have thrown Clara out to begin.”
Lord Thorpe nodded. “My father thought it brought disgrace on the house.”
“But that is so unfair. It should only bring disgrace on the gentleman responsible for poor Clara’s condition.”
“He thought that too,” Lord Thorpe said.
Valor, who apparently was not entertained by Verity’s long explanation of how and why spaniels could detect gold, said loudly, “When I am grown and out, I will go to all the parties but marry nobody.” She stared pointedly at Serenity as if she hoped her sister would take on that novel idea.
“Oh, I see,” the duke said jovially, “you’re to cost me all the money with no end in sight. What about my plan to empty my household of every last one of you? What’s to come of that?”
Valor had seemed to have given that idea some thought. She said, “Papa, by the time I should go to Almack’s for my debut, you will be very old and decrepit. You’ll barely be able to walk and might not be able to use your legs at all. You’ll be happy I’m there to wheel you from room to room. You’ll see.”
“I rather hope I will not see, if that’s to be my fate,” the duke said. “She paints a cheery picture, eh?”
