The Husband Hunters Read online

  There were pictures which she knew instinctively were masterpieces and the enamel and china ornaments were all, she was quite certain, priceless.

  ‘I wish Papa had told me more about the Duke,’ she reflected.

  She understood now how impressed he must have been with the Duke’s house in the country if it had contained the same sort of furnishings she saw here.

  But while he had told her about the dining hall with its gold candelabra and Sèvres china, the salons magnificent and impressive, the Park, gardens and stables, he had never, as far as Andrina could remember, described the Duke himself.

  All she knew was that he must be very old since he had not been a young man when her father had known him and that he had once been condescending enough to become her Godfather.

  ‘I hope he is not too deaf to hear what I have to say,’ Andrina thought apprehensively.

  It seemed to her now that all sorts of snags and difficulties presented themselves.

  Supposing the Duke was bedridden?

  She could hardly expect him then to sponsor three young girls in fashionable Society.

  Supposing he was not only deaf but blind? That was something that had never occurred to her before.

  If he was blind, he could not appreciate the beauty of Cheryl and Sharon and therefore half the point of what she had to say would be lost.

  But it was too late now to have any hesitations. She had taken the first step and was not only in London but actually inside Broxbourne House. That was an achievement in itself!

  She realised her fingers were trembling and her knees felt weak, so she sat down on one of the tapestry-covered chairs.

  There was a clock on the mantelpiece, which ticked noisily. There was a contemptuous sound about it, Andrina thought and it had a superior sort of face as if it felt she had no right to be there, forcing her way in where she was not wanted.

  The clock ticked on – five minutes passed, ten, then fifteen.

  Andrina wondered if they had forgotten her. Perhaps the butler had gone to his pantry and it had escaped his memory that she was waiting.

  She wondered how long she should remain where she was without reminding a footman at any rate of her presence.

  Then she told herself that she was being absurd.

  The Duke would not be sitting alone in Broxbourne House waiting for her to call. He might have friends with him.

  He might be having a rest or on the other hand he might be changing for dinner.

  She looked apprehensively at the clock. It was ten minutes to six and, while some people in Cheshire still dined very early, she was almost certain she remembered Sharon saying that the Prince Regent dined at seven or had it been half-past?

  The minutes ticked on.

  When at last Andrina was quite certain that she had been forgotten, the door opened and the butler said in a tone of one who passes judgement,

  “If you will come this way, madam, His Grace will see you.”

  Andrina rose to her feet and forced herself to walk slowly and with dignity as she followed the butler across the hall.

  They went a little way down a wide passage and came to a door outside which stood two footmen on duty.

  As the butler and Andrina approached, they opened the double mahogany doors simultaneously and the butler announced in stentorian tones,

  “Miss Andrina Maldon, Your Grace!”

  Feeling as if she approached the guillotine, Andrina walked into the room.

  Her first glance at the books reaching to the ceiling made her realise that it was a library.

  Then she was aware that a man was standing on the hearthrug with his back to the mantelshelf.

  She moved towards him and then suddenly stopped still!

  For a moment she thought she must be dreaming or seeing things.

  It was not an elderly man who stood there, but Sir Tancred Wensley!

  There was complete silence and Andrina thought that Sir Tancred was as astonished as she was.

  Then, without choosing her words, she asked,

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I was just about to ask you the same question,” he replied.

  He was looking even more awe-inspiring than he had done the night before and Andrina realised that it was because he was wearing evening clothes.

  The dark-blue satin evening jacket with long tails accentuated the breadth of his shoulders and his cravat, with the points of his collar high against his chin, was more intricately tied than it had been the previous evening.

  Andrina’s shyness at his appearance was swept away by a sudden anger as she remembered how he had behaved towards her.

  She told herself swiftly that she had no intention of allowing him to circumvent her in her determination to see the Duke.

  “I asked to see the Duke of Broxbourne,” she said and was relieved to hear that her voice was well under control.

  “So I understood,” Sir Tancred replied, “but I am exceedingly surprised to discover that the Miss Morgan with whom I dined last night should have changed to Miss Maldon when she reached London.”

  Andrina had a sudden fear that he would tell the Duke what had occurred at the Posting inn.

  It would be unlikely that anyone would believe she had not encouraged him, having agreed to dine alone with a man she had never met before.

  She supposed that Sir Tancred was staying with the Duke and she wondered frantically whether she would be wise to beg him to keep secret the fact that they had met before.

  Then she thought that it would only be a humiliating plea and he might refuse.

  “Are you going to tell me why you are here?” Sir Tancred enquired.

  “Certainly not!” Andrina replied. “I asked to see His Grace and, when he appears, I should be obliged if you would kindly leave us alone.”

  “You have something of a secret nature to impart to him?”

  “What I have to say is private,” Andrina replied, “and could be no possible concern of yours.”

  “But I am interested,” Sir Tancred said, “and in case you are wondering my foot is bruised and still somewhat painful!”

  “I am delighted to hear it!”

  “You are certainly adroit at getting yourself out of trouble. Perhaps you have had a great deal of practice?”

  Andrina drew herself up proudly.

  “I have no desire to discuss such matters,” she said. “If you intend to stay in this room until His Grace appears, I suggest we wait in silence!”

  She found it difficult to speak crushingly when she was aware that Sir Tancred’s eyes were twinkling and there was that cynical – or was it sardonic – twist to his lips which she had noticed the previous night.

  “Now suppose we stop fencing,” he proposed after a moment, “and you tell me why you are here and what you want with me.”

  “With you?” Andrina retorted, “I have nothing – ”

  She stopped suddenly.

  A terrifying thought came to her.

  As he saw her grey eyes widen in her small face, Sir Tancred, as if in answer to her unspoken question, said,

  “I am the Duke of Broxbourne!”

  “You? But how can you be?” Andrina demanded impulsively before she could stop to think. “His Grace is old – very old!”

  “My father, to whom I imagine you are referring, died three years ago. A month in fact before his eightieth birthday!”

  Andrina drew in her breath.

  “But you said your name was Wensley,” she pointed out somewhat childishly.

  “So it is! It is one of my titles, which I frequently use when travelling.”

  The Duke indicated a chair with a gesture of his hand.

  “Will you sit down, Miss Maldon?” he said. “Then perhaps you will tell me why you came to see me or rather my father.”

  “How can he have died?” Andrina said almost to herself. “It is something I did not anticipate.”

  “It happens to all of us in time,” the Duke r
emarked in a voice that made her think that he was laughing at her.

  “It may seem funny to you,” she said aggressively, “but I had been so sure that he would be here and he would listen to what I had to say to him.”

  “I am listening.”

  “But it would not be the same with you,” Andrina declared petulantly.

  “Why not?” the Duke enquired.

  “Because for one thing you are not my Godfather,” Andrina replied.

  The Duke smiled.

  “So you were one of Papa’s many Godchildren. I never understood why he so often accepted such a responsible position, seeing that he certainly made no effort to attend to their religious upbringing and left them nothing in his will!”

  “I was not expecting anything,” Andrina said, “but I wanted his help and I thought that I could appeal to his better nature or perhaps his conscience.”

  The Duke threw back his head and laughed.

  “That is the first time I have ever heard that my father had a conscience! And as for his helping you, he was the most selfish man alive with the possible exception of myself!”

  Andrina twisted her fingers together, then she said in a very small voice,

  “You do not consider, Your Grace, that your father’s responsibilities have descended onto you?”

  “In principle – no!” the Duke replied, “but I am prepared to hear the nature of this responsibility, Miss Maldon.”

  It was difficult, much more difficult than Andrina had imagined it would be.

  Try as she would she could not help remembering that the man sitting opposite her had kissed her the night before.

  It was disgraceful! It was outrageous! Something he should never have done!

  She had hoped never to see him again and yet by some terrible twist of Fate he was the only person, she thought despairingly, who could help Cheryl and Sharon to make suitable marriages.

  Unexpectedly the Duke suggested,

  “As I am aware, you have been travelling since early this morning. You must be both tired and hungry. Let me offer you a glass of wine and perhaps some refreshment?”

  “No, thank you,” Andrina replied quickly. “I want to tell you why I am here and it is too important for me – to think of anything else.”

  “It is, of course, impossible for me to guess what it could be,” the Duke said.

  He leaned back in his chair very much at ease and Andrina told herself that she hated him.

  He was not making it easy for her and now she realised how preposterous her suggestion was going to sound.

  “My father – Colonel Guy Maldon – was a friend of your father’s,” she began, “or rather – your father was kind to him when he was a young man. He used to stay at his – house in the country and he often – spoke about those days!”

  She paused, wondering why it was so hard to speak and her lips felt dry.

  “Go on,” the Duke prompted.

  “My father lost his money – gaming,” Andrina continued, “and after that he and my mother had to leave London and live in Cheshire where they had a house – and so they lost touch with their old friends.”

  “My father did not communicate with them in any way?”

  “No.”

  “It is what might be expected. My father was neither loyal nor faithful to his friends. ‘Out of sight, out of mind!’ was the usual way he treated them.”

  “My father always spoke of yours with great affection,” Andrina said, “and now that he is – dead I thought perhaps the Duke might have remembered the days they spent together and that I was his Godchild – and he would – ”

  Andrina’s voice died away.

  It was almost impossible to speak the words she had come to say with the Duke watching her and making her feel unaccountably nervous.

  “What were you expecting him to do?” the Duke asked after a moment when she did not seem inclined to go on.

  “I wanted him to – introduce my sisters to – London Society,” Andrina answered.

  The words came out in a rush and as she spoke the colour rose painfully in her cheeks, moving from her small chin up to her large worried eyes.

  “Introduce your sisters into Society?” the Duke repeated incredulously. “My father would never have entertained such an idea – he disliked Society! He had no use for it! And as for young women – I doubt if he ever spoke to one!”

  “There is no one else who can help,” Andrina said in a low voice, “and Cheryl is beautiful, more beautiful than any girl you have ever seen and Sharon is very lovely too, but in a different way. They are exceptional, unique! Far more beautiful than Elizabeth and Maria Gunning – and it seems so wrong, so unfair, that they should be buried in the country!”

  “If my father had agreed to this extraordinary idea of yours, which I can assure you he would never have done,” the Duke said, “were you suggesting that he should also pay for the privilege?”

  There was a jeering note in his voice, which made Andrina feel a hot wave of anger rise inside her. But she told herself that it would be fatal to lose her temper or to speak in anything but a polite and pleading tone.

  “Certainly not!” she replied, but it was more defiant than polite. “We were perfectly prepared to pay our way!”

  As she spoke she held out to the Duke the leather case that contained her mother’s necklace.

  She had taken it out of her valise at The Swan with Two Necks and had carried it with her in the Hackney carriage and when she entered the house.

  “What is that?” the Duke enquired.

  He made no effort to take the case from her and Andrina rose to her feet to cross the space between them and place it in his hands.

  He opened the box and looked at the Indian necklace with surprise.

  “My father brought it back from India,” Andrina explained. “Mama kept it and would never sell it however poor we were. I am sure that she intended to keep it to pay for Cheryl and Sharon’s weddings when they were married.”

  She paused and then said distinctly,

  “There will be no chance of their getting married – or of meeting the right sort of prospective husband where we are living now. They must come to London!”

  “And you think this will pay their expenses?” the Duke enquired.

  “It is worth at least five hundred pounds,” Andrina told him, “and if they could come up for this Season, just until June, they should be able to meet suitable young gentlemen.”

  “I see that you have thought all this out in some detail, Miss Maldon,” the Duke said.

  “I am trying to make you understand – how important it is for us,” Andrina replied.

  “Us?” he questioned. “That is the first time you have included yourself in this grandiose scheme. I thought it was only your sisters who concerned you.”

  “I thought that I should be there to – look after them and to – guide them,” Andrina faltered. “If they could – manage without me – then there would be no reason for me to stay in London.”

  “You are very self-effacing, Miss Maldon,” he said, but it did not sound particularly complimentary.

  “You do understand why I wanted to see your father,” Andrina said pleadingly. “I felt perhaps he would realise he had – neglected an old friend who had fallen on hard times and might wish to make – amends by doing – something for his daughters.”

  “My father would not have considered himself under any obligation, morally or otherwise,” the Duke replied. “If your father dropped out of circulation, he had only himself to blame.”

  There was silence until Andrina said in a very low voice,

  “You would not – contemplate what I – ask?”

  “I certainly would not!” the Duke replied. “I am a bachelor, Miss Maldon, and I assure you that I am far from being the right person to sponsor three debutantes – however attractive they may be!”

  “There is one thing I – forgot,” Andrina said.

  “What is that?” the
Duke enquired.

  “There was a family connection between my father and yours. I think they shared a great-great-grandmother. Anyway my father sometimes spoke of the Duke as his cousin.”

  “What was the name of this great-great-grandmother?” the Duke enquired and Andrina was sure that he was sneering.

  “Bentinck.”

  “It is certainly a name which appears in our family tree,” he conceded.

  “Then it would not be as if you were helping – complete strangers.”

  She knew that she was being importunate by continuing to plead with him and yet she felt as if all her plans had fallen flat like a card castle.

  There was something ignominious in knowing that, having come all this way to London, she must just turn round and go back home.

  She looked at the Duke’s face and was quite certain that he was not only unmoved by her appeal but not even interested in what she had to say.

  She had failed and the disappointment was like a stone heavy in her breast.

  Taking from him the box that contained the necklace, she turned without speaking and walked towards the door.

  “Where are you going?” the Duke asked.

  “Home.”

  “You have somewhere to stay tonight?”

  “I will find somewhere.”

  “At this hour?” the Duke asked sharply. “My dear girl, you cannot wander about in London alone.”

  “Your Grace need not be concerned,” Andrina answered. “I can look after myself!”

  “As you did last night?”

  She felt a surge of irresistible anger as she replied,

  “You can hardly blame me for that!”

  “Who else? When you were travelling alone without even a maid? And you told me that you were going to London in search of a man!”

  “I was not to know that Your Grace – would misconstrue my words,” Andrina began.

  Her eyes were dark with fury as she added,

  “How dared you think – what you thought? It was inexcusable!”

  “What could you expect me to think?”

  “But you must have – known. Do I look as if I was – that sort of – woman?”

  “My poor innocent,” the Duke said scathingly, “pretty girls who have no wish to get into trouble do not travel alone, and never, do you hear me, never do they accept invitations from strange men!”