Lord Fairchild climbed the front stairs of the elegant mansion in Grosvenor Square. He hadn’t seen his Great-Aunt in at least 6 years. To be very honest with himself, she terrified him. She was an arrogant, toplofty, powerful matron of Society, and she knew it. But she had the connections he needed right now to bring about a successful season for Lady Serena and a quick and advantageous marriage. If she would agree to take on a lady who was definitely past her prime and probably either platter-faced or of a terrible disposition, or both. If it was just for himself, he wouldn’t bother. As Will had said, he had his own substantial fortune, garnered from wise investments on the Change and in shipping over the years, and he really didn’t need the money for the old Earl. But that money was all the Lady Serena had and if she lost it because he failed her, he would never be able to forgive himself.

The Butler who answered his knock was a new addition since the last time he had visited, so he handed the man his card, and prepared to wait until his Aunt condescended to see him. To his great surprise, the man came hurrying back and escorted him directly up to his Aunt’s private sitting room, and ushered him in. Closing the door quietly behind him.

Robert took in the sunny room, which seemed so at odds with the Aunt he remembered. The walls were covered with soft yellow silk, and the drapes hung at the windows were creamy white with a pattern of yellow flowers and soft green foliage. The carpeting was an expensive Aubusson. His Aunt was sitting in front of a white Adams fireplace where a fire crackled invitingly. She was smiling hugely and stood as he approached. Somehow, she didn’t seem as arrogant or as unapproachable as she had six years ago. He wondered fleetingly if she had changed, or had she, or maybe they both had.

"Robert! How wonderful to see you. Come sit down. I’ve ordered refreshments for us. You look healthy."

Still feeling a bit off balance, Robert sat on the edge of one of the queen anne chairs and looked thoughtfully at his Aunt. "I’m feeling fine, Aunt Marissa, so glad you could see me on such short notice."

"I’ve been waiting for you to come and see me ever since I heard that you were in town and had inherited that title. But you didn’t come." she said with some asperity.

"I’ve only been in town for a week!" He defended himself. "There has been so much paperwork involved with the transfer of the estate and everything has been neglected because they couldn’t find me."

"So what brings you to see me now, when you should have come a week ago?" She demanded.

Robert was beginning to feel that things were becoming more normal. This sounded much more like the Aunt he remembered.

"I have run into a little problem with the settling of the estate."

"What kind of a problem, and why are you coming to me with it. I certainly know nothing of business or estate management. Winthrup always hired someone to tend to that."

"This doesn’t have anything to do with the management of the estate. It has to do with the old earl’s daughter, Lady Serena Fairchild."

"What about her? She never made it for her season as her mother was ill and then died and then her father died. I believe she should now be out of mourning for him. She could have her season now, except she is getting quite old. Must be at least two and twenty."

A discreet knock at the door heralded the arrival of refreshments, and the butler and a pretty young maid arrived with two trays. One with the tea service and two delicate cups, the other laden with lemon cakes, bread and butter, cold meats, and fruit from the Winthrup succession houses.

After they had both been served tea and the servants had left to room, Lady Winthrup looked expectantly at Robert. "You may continue now."

Robert Sighed. "Actually she is three and twenty. Probably not very graceful or very comely, if my memory is anything to go by."

"What makes you say that. Her mother was a very beautiful woman, a Diamond of the First Water, she had a most successful season, had suitors falling at her feet. If I remember correctly, her marriage to the Earl was a love match. Once they met, they had eyes for no one else. Of course he wasn’t the earl yet, and her parents wanted her to marry some old Duke if I remember rightly, but she threatened to elope with the earl to be if they didn’t let her marry him. So they gave in. It is too bad that she lost so many babies. Serena is the only one of 8 or 10 that lived. I suppose that is why they catered to her so much."

"Well, I wouldn’t consider what the earl did to her in his will catering to her. I would consider it next thing to abuse."

"What in the world are you talking about?"

"He has tied up her half of the estate that is not entailed, so she cannot touch anything but a very small quarterly allowance until she is married. And if she doesn’t marry by the time she turns five and twenty, she loses the entire estate, it is donated to charity."

"You mean to tell me that if she doesn’t find a husband by her 25th birthday, she will be cast out to fend for herself without a penny!"

"I think that is what I just said."

"That is absolutely barbaric. You will just have to give her your share of the estate!"

"I can’t do that. The earl must have thought I would do something like that. He tied mine up also until she is married and if she doesn’t marry it goes the same way as hers."

"Can’t you do something? Talk to the lawyers, break the will, something. This is totally uncivilized!"

"Calm down, Aunt. I know it is uncivilized in this enlightened era, but I’ve talked to three different lawyers and they all say the same thing. There is no way to break the trust as it is set up. She has to marry for either of us to collect the money."

"Does she know about this yet?"

"Not all of it. I don’t think she knows about the marriage by age 25 or that she stands to lose the entire inheritance. I don’t know how she will take it and I certainly don’t want her going into hysterics or doing something really unsuitable in order to obtain the funds."

Lady Winthrup looked at him strangely, "I thought you knew Serena? Granted I haven’t had any dealings with Serena in nearly 12 years, but the Serena I remember had a lot more spunk than you are giving her credit for. She is intelligent and resourceful, yes and willful too. Do not underestimate this girl or you will be the sorrier for it.

So why have you come to me? I can’t help you straighten out this mess her father left her, and you in. You could marry her yourself you know and solve the entire problem for both of you."

"Marry her myself! Why is everyone trying to foist this antidote off on me!" He muttered, trying unsuccessfully to suppress his frustration. "I don’t want to marry just yet, and I certainly don’t want to marry her."

"Then what am I supposed to do?"

"I was hoping you would launch her this season. Sponsor her in society, and prepare her bow to the Queen, and find her a husband."

"But the season begins in earnest in four weeks. There is no way I can prepare her for a season in that short a span of time."

"From my understanding, she has had a finishing governess/companion with her since she was 17 and preparing for her come-out. The old earl ask the governess to stay on, since he thought she would eventually be needed, so I’m assuming she has had all of the basic training necessary."

"Who is this finishing governess?"

Racking his brain, he finally came up with her name, "Mr. Bickford said she was one Emily Proctor, a young woman who came with impeccable references."

"I’ve never heard of her." Lady Winthrup said flatly. "Her references can’t be that impeccable if I have never heard of her." Robert smiled at his aunt’s arrogant manner and added his coup de grace. "She came highly recommended by Lady Arbouthnot."

The look on Lady Winthrup’s face was worth all the hassle of facing her this morning.

"Lady Arbouthnot recommended her." She exclaimed. "I can certainly see why she got the job on those recommendations, but why would Lady Arbouthnot recommend a finishing governess. She hasn’t had a daughter to launch in 15 years, and from what you are saying this is a young lady."

Robert nodded. "Yes, several years older than Lady Serena, but still a young lady."

"I would certainly like to meet your Lady Serena AND her finishing governess, Emily Proctor, did you say her name was. Then I will give you my final decision on the Season. If she is not presentable, It will have to wait until the little season so I have time to work on her."

"Thank you, Aunt."

"Don’t thank me yet. I may not be able to help you, and you may end up in a marriage of convenience yet in order to save both of your inheritances."

"Heaven Forbid!!" Robert Exclaimed, putting down his cup none to gently.

"Careful of the china! It’s Sevres and I don’t want it broken. With this appalling Napoleon on the continent, I can’t replace the pattern."

"Sorry Aunt, but don’t mention marriage to me, especially not marriage to Serena." He said a bit more calmly.

"What do you have against Serena? You haven’t seen her since she was what, nine or ten. She hasn’t done anything to you. It is like you have your mind definitely set against her from the start."

She looked at him thoughtfully. The more she studied him, the more she developed a very sly gleam in her eye. Robert started to feel like a recalcitrant ten year old caught with his hand in the cookie jar. It was all he could do not to hang his head a shuffle his feet and mutter an apology.

"Well never mind about that for now." She said finally, smiling to herself. "Bring her to me as soon as you have her in town. Now tell me about your adventures with Napoleon and Wellington. I’m anxious for news."

When he left the Winthrup mansion a half an hour later, he had left his aunt with a highly edited account of his activities on the continent. Very few actually knew what he did for Wellington and he wanted to keep it that way. The fewer that knew the safer he would be in his new life. He also didn’t think his aunt needed to know about the succession of ladies who had provided him aid and succor off the battlefield, so to speak. Speaking of which, he needed to find a new lady now that he was back in town. Maybe he would convenience Will to go to the theatre tonight and check out the new crop of dancers.

Reaching the corner, he ran into Lord Channing, whom he hadn’t seen in years, not since leaving for the war.

"Hey, old man!!" Channing greeted heartly, pounding him on the shoulder. "What brings you to this part of town?"

Robert looked at his old acquaintance, tall, handsome, blond, suave, and very much the consumate man about town. Channing had come into his title eight years ago. But as Robert remembered, it was a title with little or nothing to go on. The money had been bled off to provide the previous Viscount with his debauched lifestyle and to pay his gambling debts. The property had been mortgaged to it’s limits and there had been no improvements made on it in decades. From what Robert had heard, the Channing country seat was a moldering pile of ruins and totally uninhabitable.

Yet to look at the man before him, you would never know he had ever suffered any setbacks. He was dressed in the first stare of male fashion. The cut of his coat screaming Weston, and his boots glowed with a polish that only an expensive Valet can create. His face showed no sign of poverty, only a touch of dissipation, and a genuinely friendly smile.

"Just visiting my aunt. Only been back in London for a few days and paying the usual obligatory social call on relatives." He drawled, like the good, bored aristocrat should, allowing his face to fall into the expected social mask.

"It is great to meet you like this. Let’s go over to White’s and have some lunch and catch up on old times." He said, motioning toward an oncoming hack.

"I’m meeting Will at my rooms in a few minutes."

"Well, come then, we will collect him and we will all go, haven’t seen him in ages either. Come on man!"

Reluctantly he entered to hack and gave directions to the Claridge and sat down across from Channing. Studying the man again, it was easy to see why he had always been so popular. He did have a certain charm, and his smile and manner were almost intoxicating. He had an innocent air about him that made you want to confide your innermost secrets to him. That was what had kept him apart from Channing at Oxford. It seemed to him that everyone else was confiding their secrets to Channing, and then they were always at his beck and call. Well he didn’t have any secrets that could be confided so he was safe, he hoped.

The hackney pulled up in front of the hotel and Channing smiled. Why don’t I head on over to Whites and order lunch and you and Allendale can come right over. Since this was very much to Robert’s like, he smiled also and said they would be there within thirty minutes. He was barely out the door and standing on the street, when the hack drove off at brick clip.

He was crossing the sidewalk, heading for the door of the hotel, when he sensed the presence behind him and dogged to the side, avoiding the full contact of the huge brute who had lunged at him. Then Robert saw the flash of a knife blade and knew he was in big trouble. Dodging and weaving, he avoided the lunges of the big man, but he knew it was only a matter of time. He had to find something to use as a weapon. Then suddenly, the brute was attacked from behind by a flock of small boy bodies, throwing him off balance and giving Robert the entrance he needed to disarm him. When the dust had settled, Tommy and five other boys were sitting in triumph on the man’s back, riding him like he was an unbroken horse.

Just then the doorman appeared with three footman and they hauled the man to his feet. There fear in his eyes was evident as he struggled between his captors.

"Bind him securely and send someone for a Bow Street Runner. I want to talk to the runner and this man, so bring him up to my rooms in, oh say, 20 minutes." He ordered, and then looked down at six eager young faces, and continued, "and send three substantial tea trays with plenty of milk to my rooms immediately."

Turning to Tommy, he ruffled his hair and said, "Come Lad. I must hear this tale from the beginning." And lead the small parade across the lobby filled with astonished aristocrats, and up the grand staircase to his rooms.

© 2002 by KayDee Ward
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