Page 57 of The Chaperone
This was both a relief and slightly unnerving. Somehow, the idea of fleeing to Gretna Green with a young woman who was not in his toils, and willing to do anything for ‘love’, seemed slightly indecent. That her attitude should be as calculating and pragmatic as his own did not fit. It was therefore almost out of a need to fulfil the ‘rules’ of elopement that Pinkney made the effort to gain her affection. That meeting her was so difficult, and was reduced to swift, covert conversations and smouldering looks, added a little spice. He could not rid himself of the thought that she treated it all as a game.
After the attempted flight, Harriet had at first refused to go out alone with Susan, both out of dislike and fear of her doing something wayward yet again. However, with her happiness assured, she relaxed a little, and was even prepared to promenade in the Park with her cousin when Sophy had other duties demanding her attention. Harriet was not to know that in this way she played right into her cousin’s hands.
A murmured exchange the night before at a rout party had seen Susan assure Lord Pinkney that she would try her best to be in Hyde Park the following afternoon at the fashionable hour, and that if he could but observe her and show himself to her but not her ‘gaolers’, she would contrive to slip from under their noses, for a few minutes at least. He had not held out much hope of this succeeding with Miss Tyneham under the watchful gaze of both the Hadlow sisters, but when he saw that Susan Tyneham was only accompanied by Lady Harriet and a maid, he smiled. Had that been good fortune, or Miss Tyneham using her wits?
Lord Pinkney was a great believer in Lady Luck, although he freely admitted she was a capricious mistress. Today she smiled upon him so much he was inclined to try his hand at cards again, come the evening, which might even obviate the need for a clandestine marriage at all.
Lady Harriet and Miss Tyneham had exchanged pleasantries with several young ladies, and Susan, on the alert, had noted Lord Pinkney sauntering some way behind them, when Harriet espied her Intended on a converging course. From that moment, Susan was thrust to the back of her mind. Lord Edward was in fact returning from a visit to his bootmaker, and merely stepping the comparatively short distance through the Park to his barracks rather than taking the Knightsbridge Road, since it was far more sociable. Once he caught sight of his beloved waving a gloved hand, he amended his pace to fall in with her, and he then noticed, with a feeling of some awkwardness, Miss Tyneham.
The conversation between the betrothed couple effectively excluded Susan, and she used it to advantage, claiming that there was a hole in the seam of her reticule, and she must have dropped a half guinea that she had been keeping in it.
‘I am not so fortunate as to be able to waste money upon nothing. I beg you will let me at least retrace our steps from where we entered the Park. If I dropped it in the street, no doubt some itinerant has already taken it up, but here … I will catch you up as soon as I have checked the path.’
She sounded so reasonable, and neither of her companions were enjoying her company. Harriet agreed readily enough, requesting only that Susan should not engage in conversation with strangers, and dithering over whether the maid should remain with her or her cousin.
‘But I am not to meet anyone, cousin, and you are with a gentleman. I see your quandary, but surely the answer is obvious. She must remain with you.’ Susan sounded modesty personified, and had her listeners not been so absorbed in one another, they must have been highly suspicious.
Thus it was that Harriet did not think to question why her cousin was being so helpful, and nodded. Susan therefore began to retrace their steps, ostensibly looking at the pathway. Her cousin and swain were too engrossed in each other to see Susan step aside to some shrubbery, where she joined Lord Pinkney. She was flushed with success rather than ardour, but did present a most fetching sight, and, instinctively, Pinkney smiled and lifted her little gloved hand to his lips.
‘You are a very clever conspirator, my dear.’
‘Yes, I think I am, my lord. However, when together we risk discovery, and I have important things to discuss with you.’
It was quite amusing, hearing this slip of a girl so serious. He quelled the urge to smile at her, realising she would not care for his mockery. However, her next words had the power to stun him.
‘Would you like to run away with me, Lord Pinkney?’ It was posed in quite a matter-of-fact way, as if he might care to escort her to the theatre or to see the beasts at the Tower of London.
‘What a question to ask, ma’am.’ He stalled, since either answer could be seen as the wrong one.
‘It is an honest one, sir. I find myself in a predicament, and you, I believe, have a different one, which might be solved if you solved mine at the same time.’
He frowned, a little confused by this.
‘You are lacking in funds. My brother will effectively pay a man to take me off his hands. At the same time, you are not a gentleman whom he, or my “dear cousin Sophy” would look upon with favour. I have been told that no man of honour will offer for me, so I look to a rogue, dear sir, which sounds to me far more exciting. And if you did run off with me, Tyneham would be mad as fire.’
‘And might call me out, ma’am?’
‘Ha! Not my brother! He will pay up my dowry if he can avoid scandal, and to avoid any possible violence. I never knew a man so desirous of maintaining his own health. In short, we blackmail him, sir.’
Lord Pinkney was taken aback both by her daring and her coolness.
‘If, Miss Tyneham, I can be of any service to you …’
‘And to yourself, do not forget, my lord.’
‘And, incidentally, to myself, I would be glad to do so.’
‘So you agree?’ She sounded gleeful, which shook him.
‘I, er, agree.’
‘Good, then this is what we do.’ Miss Tyneham had A Plan. In truth, it was not a bad plan, and Pinkney could see that it might be their greatest chance of success. He made some slight alterations, where Miss Tyneham’s knowledge was, perforce, a little thin, but otherwise everything was agreed upon. Miss Tyneham offered her hand, not to be kissed in a romantic manner, but to shake upon the conclusion of what felt like a business transaction. It was remarkably disconcerting, and as he watched the young lady hurry away, he became lost in thought, wondering not least whether she had even the haziest idea what her life would be once her brother had handed over the dowry. He was still contemplating this as he rejoined the main pathway, and did not hear a man leading a horse come up beside him.
‘You know, Pinkney, there are a few depths to which I had, mistakenly, thought you would not stoop.’ Sir Esmond Fawley’s voice was superficially disinterested, but his lordship detected steel within it.
‘It never pays to underestimate me, Fawley.’
‘I might say exactly the same.’
