Page 7 of A Much Maligned Miss

“Oh, he would never move so far away from his dear mother,” Jeremy said flippantly. “They are a devoted pair.”

“Good lord, he sounds quite distressingly worthy,” Gervaise answered, looking appalled. “Unless of course beneath it all, he takes after his maternal side.”

“You suggest that vice lurks under his mask of virtue?” Jeremy said with a laugh. “I’ll never believe it. That boy blushes every time Squire Pebmarsh tells a bawdy joke!”

“But we have already decided you are no fit judge of character,” Gervaise reminded him. “Emmeline, what say you?”

She tipped her head to one side. “I just couldn’t believe it of him,” she said regretfully at last. “I would almost swear under oath there is not an ounce of vice in the boy.”

“Just dull, then,” Gervaise decided, promptly losing all interest in Edgar Needham. “We will concentrate on the Machiavellian mother and the poor persecuted daughter instead. They will be our entertainment tonight.”

“Poor Caroline,” Emmeline sighed. “The thought of her own mother treating her thus, why it…it revolts every proper feeling!”

“Careful,” Gervaise cautioned her. “Now you are starting to sound like the heroine in a novel, and we can’t have two. No, Miss Halperston is the wronged damsel of this piece and her mama the wicked, plotting villain. You, Emmeline, are a side character at best, though a very charming one at that.”

“Why, thank you kindly,” she said, inclining her head, a reluctant smile curving her lips.

“Never to me,” Jeremy objected. “To me, Emmeline will always be my darling Ballentine.” He carried her hand to his lips and kissed it.

“Of course I am to you,” she responded. “But it is only right that Gervaise should seek out his own leading lady of life.”

Gervaise frowned. “That is not what I am doing,” he objected at once. “You, Lady Faris, are willfully misunderstanding me.”

“Is it not?” she asked innocently.

He narrowed his eyes at her. “Caroline Halperston possesses even less of the qualities I would consider essential in a wife than Beryl Blessing.”

“Oh, come now! Caroline would never have aspirations to cut a swathe through fashionable London! She would not even know how to cut a dash, poor thing.”

Jeremy cleared his throat. “He means, my love, that Caroline Halperston possesses no fortune with which to tempt him.”

Emmeline’s face fell. “Oh,” she said. “No,” she conceded after a heavy pause. “Everyone knows her father died without a penny to his name. Apparently, her second husband rescued Angela Needham from penury.”

“I am afraid that Lady Atherton will need to be pretty plump in the pocket to support an extravagant creature like myself,” Gervaise admitted, stifling a yawn. “No, no, my interest in Miss Halperston is purely academic. Her fascination lies in her predicament, not her person. I daresay aside from that she is as dull and worthy as her brother.”

“Now there I cannot agree with you,” Emmeline said stoutly. “And neither does Teddy. He maintains that Caroline Halperston is thoroughly charming company, and he would marry her himself if he was of age.”

3

Benham Hall, Penarth

Mrs. Needham was wreathed in smiles and hanging off her son’s arm as they stood in the entrance hall welcoming their guests inside. “Welcome one and all!” she gushed. “Lord Faris, it has been too long since your last visit! Lady Faris, what a beautiful gown! And Lord Atherton.” A hint of coolness crept into her voice. “I am glad you could visit with us before your return to London. Squire Pebmarsh and the Rylands await us in the drawing room. Please, come this way.”

Gervaise handed his coat to an oppressed-looking butler and followed the others into a well-appointed drawing room which reflected its mistress’s rather faded charm. A quick scan of the room revealed her daughter was not in attendance tonight. He and Emmeline exchanged a pointed look, and she turned to their hostess.

“Is Caroline not joining us this evening?” Emmeline asked.

Mrs. Needham’s smile did not waver. “Alas, my poor Caroline is indisposed. She went for a lie-down after luncheon and did not feel well enough for entertaining. Goring shall take her up her supper on a tray.”

“It is such a shame she will miss you all,” Edgar Needham chimed in regretfully. “I know Caro was looking forward to tonight very much and spent all week going over the menu and coaxing the tenderest vegetables out of old Angwin. Only you know how gardeners are, they never want to give up anything fresh and young. They always want to grow things to prize proportions.”

As he spoke, Mrs. Needham’s expression seemed to tighten. “I think you will find tonight’s menu was my invention, Edgar dear,” she said reproachfully. “Caroline merely carried out my instructions.”

For a moment her son looked surprised by this assertion, but he swiftly recovered himself. “Oh, of course, Mama,” he assured her smoothly, if not convincingly. Emmeline exchanged another significant look with Gervaise.

“I bet that is why Mrs. Needham has locked poor Caroline in her room tonight,” Emmeline whispered in an aside. “She means to take all the credit for the dinner party when it was in fact her daughter’s work!”

The squire joined in at this point, lambasting his own head gardener who could only be brought to part with vegetables as “tough as old boots.” “Should have fired the old devil years ago!” he concluded with a hearty laugh.