‘Do you mean to report the matter of this conversation to Edward?’ Richard asked with a spark of anger.
‘I do not.’
‘So then I may speak openly. You want me gone, which is understandable, but my cousin, as you know very well, wants me here, for his own reasons that have nothing at all to do with the pleasure of my company, or any such normal feeling. If he heard that you had warned me off, he would be angry with you, furious, I daresay, and ask you, with some justice, what gave you licence to meddle so egregiously in his private business.’
‘Good God, boy, I’ve heard unsavoury rumours about you in Town, but I didn’t know the half of it. You are very cool and high-and-mighty, and so I must assume that you know what he’s about, and you… you are colluding in it! Taking advantage of his addle-pated folly!’
‘You have not the least right to say that, and you know it. I have done nothing of which I need be ashamed – I have broken no vows, and I assure you, though it is not in the least your affair, neither has the Duchess. I would be interested to see if you can tell me honestly that you think the same of Edward.’
Marchett’s bluster seemed to collapse suddenly, like one of Lunardi’s balloons coming down in a field. ‘Very well, then,’ he said gruffly. ‘What I think is, he’s run stark mad. I’ve never heard of such a thing. Don’t tell me if the girl knows of it – I don’t want to hear anything I may later feel obliged to tell him. I won’t stay here and appear to condone this dangerous folly of his. What a confounded mess he’s made for himself. But the last thing I mean to do is to make more trouble for the poor old fellow. I don’t give a damn about you or the silly chit otherwise.’
‘The poor old fellow, as you call him, is treating his wife appallingly. Jesus Christ, man, she was seventeen when he married her last year! But it’s quite clear to me that you don’t care a button for that.’
The Earl waved his hand as if such womanish sentiments were not of the least consequence. ‘And it’s quite clear to me that you do, for all your fine words and protestations of innocence. More than you should.’
Richard laughed mirthlessly. ‘What do you suppose he’ll do, if you tell him of it? Call me out? Threaten me with a horsewhip? Because – let me be sure I understand you, sir – it would be perfectly acceptable for me to play him false under his own roof if I don’t give a damn for his unfortunate wife, but somehow, it would not if I do happen to care for her?’
‘None of it’s perfectly acceptable!’ the much-tried Earl said. But after a moment, he recovered himself and said, ‘It’s shaken me, this, I don’t mind admitting. But I don’t see how in all honour you can stay either, knowing what you do.’
‘Then I should leave her alone with him, you think? You wouldn’t be at all worried that if I fail him, he’ll start looking measuringly at the footmen?’
Marchett rubbed his hand over his reddened face, and groaned behind it. ‘He wouldn’t,’ was the muffled response. ‘He’s a gentleman, and he wouldn’t.’
‘I wouldn’t have thought he’d do this either, and yet here we are. I doubt either of us knows him in the least, or what he’s capable of. It seems to me he is quite ruthless in the pursuit of his ends, and entirely careless of the feelings of others.’
‘I was afraid of this, but the fool can’t see it,’ the older man said. ‘You’d have to be a scoundrel to co-operate knowingly with his damned unsavoury scheme and if you’re not a scoundrel, if you care for the girl as you seem to… If she runs off and leaves him for another man like the other one did, it’ll break him. Twice – can you imagine what people would say that he must have done to drive them both to it? He couldn’t endure that again, the shame of it, the whispering, never mind this business of his precious heir. I know that much.’
‘I can see why you think I might just care about all that, as an Armstrong, but there’s no reason the Duchess should. You know there’s a name for what he’s doing to her, and it’s not a pretty one.’
‘Don’t you think I tried to tell him that?’
‘And yet if any sort of legal proceedings were brought on her behalf, in the manner of Mrs Addison’s notorious case against her husband last year, and you were asked on oath if your friend had told you of his infamous plan, I’ll wager you’d lie through your teeth to protect him and say you knew nothing of it. Leave her swinging in the wind.’
‘Damn it, man, the Addison case was different! That was a matter of incest – quite exceptional circumstances, and the husband considered not in his right mind! You can’t possibly be telling me that this girl would think to seek a divorce from Edward on her own account, tell the world what he’s been up to, with all the cost and scandal that would involve!’
Richard would not dream of sharing anything that Viola had said to him in private with this man, and so his reply was somewhat evasive. ‘No doubt she is aware that last year, for the first time, a woman was granted a divorce because of her husband’s gross betrayal of her, but I have no reason to think that she has any intention of trying such a thing for herself. And I don’t suppose for a moment she’d get one even if she did seek it. I’m sure she should if there was any justice in the world, but that’s a different matter, as we both know there isn’t. I doubt you and I could ever come to agree on the rights and wrongs of this, and God forbid that the precious status quo of England should be threatened for the sake of a mere woman’s wish for decent treatment from her husband.’
Lord Marchett did not have an answer to that, or not one he was prepared to say out loud, and Richard, disgusted, left him to his breakfast.
16
Much as he was tempted to confront his cousin that very morning and relieve his own bruised feelings by telling him exactly what he thought of his behaviour, Richard could see it would be of no use, and might do actual harm. He was not the one with most at stake. How to proceed from here must be Viola’s decision, and she knew already that her case was hopeless. Damn his own situation that made her even more trapped – he’d driven that home to her last night himself. But it would have been cruel to give her false hope, and he couldn’t do it. This was not a world in which they could be together.
Despite Mrs Addison’s success last year as the first woman to divorce and shame her husband through Act of Parliament, and gain custody of her children into the bargain, the old booby Marchett had been right to say that the circumstances were very different. Addison’s incestuous affair with his wife’s sister had been vouched for by witnesses – there was nothing so definite here. Edward’s crime had been one of intention and manipulation only. And furthermore, the determined Scottish lady had had substantial financial resources and a shocked, supportive family behind her – Viola knew only too well that she could boast of neither. Marchett and Winterflood would lie to save themselves; it would be their word against hers, and society was not currently arranged to favour women’s interests over those of rich, powerful, titled men. It seemed doubtful if it ever would be. No – there’d be a huge scandal, as she’d said last night, and she’d be the one to suffer most even though she was entirely blameless. Who could doubt it? Her family would be pulled down with her too – it would be a comprehensive disaster.
She emerged later in the morning, finding him doing nothing in particular in the library as he waited for her, and his heart was wrung by her pale, unhappy face. ‘Let’s walk,’ she said. She was already wrapped in a grey velvet pelisse and holding her bonnet carelessly by the ribbons. He fetched his overcoat and hat and accompanied her outside. It didn’t seem to matter where they went, but by tacit consent, they climbed the winding path up the slope that would have them out of sight of the house as quickly as possible. It was a looming presence that pointed up the vast disparity in power and influence between the Duke and themselves.
‘Have you seen Edward?’ he asked her, and she shook her head. ‘Marchett accosted me this morning over breakfast – tried to get me to leave, prosed on about honour, as if I were the one behaving dishonourably here. But I confronted him with the horror of what his old companion is trying to do you, not to mention me, and he had nothing to say to me in his defence. He told me he would not report our conversation back, and I believed him. He’s appalled, but you won’t be surprised to hear that he isn’t actually going to take any action on your behalf.’
‘What could he do, after all?’ she said with an air of indifference, almost of apathy. ‘What can anyone do? I was never foolish enough to imagine that Lord Marchett, Edward’s oldest and closest friend, would support me, and I’m not sure it would help much even if he did. How is it possible to be surrounded by such splendour, to supposedly be mistress of it, to be widely envied, and yet to be so powerless? I have no money beside the allowance my husband makes me, which is a great deal by most people’s standards but is entirely dependent on his continuing to pay it, and my family has nothing to spare. I am a duchess, but it is an empty title, product of my marriage – people would bow and scrape to me wherever I went, I’d get endless credit at the modiste’s so I could buy another stupid gown I don’t need, but that is all. In law, I am no more than Edward’s possession. It makes me feel sick and furious to think of it.’
There was nothing to be said to all this, because it was true.
They made their way to one of the summerhouses, and took some comfort in holding each other, but today, their kisses were desperate and feverish, as if they both knew that a shadow hung over their relationship and a time limit had been placed on it. That had always been so, of course, but it had been possible to ignore the facts before – now, it was not.
When they returned to the house, they found a great and unexpected bustle in the hall, with servants running to and fro; it soon became clear that Lord Marchett was leaving, and the Duke was bidding him a punctilious farewell. The carriage was already drawn up by the door, the luggage was almost loaded, and the horses could not be kept waiting long in the chill air. The Earl shook hands with Richard with a tolerable show of friendliness, and bowed over Viola’s hand with an artificial smile pasted on his face, thanking her for her hospitality as he told her that he had been summoned home by an urgent letter in the day’s post. Every single person present knew that this was untrue, and they all pretended to believe it.
‘I am sorry to see you go, old fellow,’ Edward said, appearing to mean it. Whatever had passed between the two old friends in the last hour, it did not seem as though they had had a falling-out: nothing so severe as to be irrevocable, at any rate. ‘But perhaps it is as well, since I too must be absent from home for a day or two, and so would not be here to entertain you as I should.’ He turned to Viola and said with perfect composure, ‘I hope you will forgive me, my dear, but Thompson came this morning with an urgent message about a serious outbreak of some infectious disease among the stock on the farms over towards Cambridge. I feel I must go and make sure all is being done to prevent it spreading and causing a great deal of damage, even panic among the tenants. If I leave soon, I shall be there in good time this evening, and I shall be busy with it all day tomorrow, and put up at an inn, or at Thompson’s house, for two nights at least. My valet is packing a bag for me, and you should not expect me back before Friday. But Richard will keep you entertained, I am confident of it.’
