Andthenshe would be free and her life could begin.
Chapter Two
Alice, having spent most of the night sleepless and trying in vain to think of a way out of the mess, had no appetite for breakfast.
“Oh, and Tweed,” she said as the butler turned to leave, taking her cold, untouched breakfast with him. “The young lady who visited us yesterday will be coming to stay for an indefinite period. Please have a bedchamber prepared. The blue room, I think.”
“Yes, m’lady.” Tweed bowed, his expression conveying the kind of blank imperturbability that told her—skilled as she was in the many nuanced Shades of Tweed—that he was dying to know but would rather burst than ask her why on earth she would consider bringing the daughter of such a man into her household. Let alone installing her in the blue bedchamber!
Bamber called promptly at ten. In a tight voice, Alice agreed to sponsor Lucy Bamber into society.
To her surprise, Bamber had booked a church that very morning for his daughter’s baptism. He’d obviously had nodoubt that Alice would agree to his terms, because barely were the words out of her mouth than he was calling for his carriage and telling her to put on her coat and hat, that he’d booked a church for his daughter’s baptism and that the vicar would be waiting.
At the last minute she remembered that as a godmother—even a spurious one—she ought to give Lucy something to commemorate the event, and casting around for something suitable, she thought of the Bible Thaddeus had given her when they’d first become betrothed.
It was a beautiful thing, bound in white kidskin with a mother-of-pearl cover and virtually untouched. At the time she’d been entranced, but of course, once she was married, the associations with Thaddeus had soured her on it. Now it seemed a perfect gift, releasing her from the unhappy memories it evoked and entering a new beginning with a new owner.
She wrapped it in a pretty shawl and gave it to Lucy in the carriage on the way to the church. The girl muttered a grudging thank-you—prompted by her father—and stuffed it unexamined in her reticule. And for the rest of the journey, which took almost an hour, she had ignored Alice and said not another word. Sulking.
Alice was quietly simmering. Miss Lucy Bamber needed a lesson in manners.
***
It was strange being part of the baptism of an adult. Of course Alice knew adults were baptized—her father had been a vicar, after all—but it was usually only when someone converted from another religion. She was more used to babies being baptized.
Now, standing at the font of the small village church, listening to the minister’s words, she felt a little uncomfortable, but she could see no way around it. If she were tointroduce the girl as her goddaughter, she had no option but to go through with the ceremony.
She’d been a godmother twice before, when holding the tiny warm bundle in her arms had made her ache with longing for a babe of her own. But it wasn’t to be.
She stood by while the minister went through the ceremony in a brisk, almost businesslike manner. Miss Bamber bent awkwardly to allow the holy water to be poured over her head, and the minister and Alice each said their part. It was all over in minutes.
As they emerged from the dim hush of the church into the bright daylight, another carriage pulled up behind the one they’d come in. It was empty except for the coachman. “That’s for me,” Octavius Bamber said. “I have business elsewhere. You don’t need my escort back to London.” He handed his daughter into the carriage, saying, “Be good for her ladyship now, puss.”
His daughter just looked at him. She hadn’t said a word to him during the entire journey out from London and had simply stared out of the window. Now she gave him a flat look and turned away, no farewell or anything.
As a beginning, it was more than unpromising.
Bamber turned to Alice to help her up the steps, but she glanced at the girl in the carriage and stepped away out of earshot.
“There are things we need to discuss,” she said.
“Nonsense, you know what you have to do and what will happen if you don’t. Best you get on with it.” He handed her a bundle of banknotes. “This will keep you going for the first little while. I’ll make arrangements to send the rest later.”
“But—”
“Off you go now. I’m a busy man.” He started toward the second carriage.
“Mr.Bamber!” She had to make one thing clear to him.
He turned back. “What?”
“Do you intend to call on your daughter and me in London? Because if so, I have to say—”
“Call on you? Good God, no. Why on earth would I come calling on you? We’ve made our agreement, and that’s the end of it. It’s all up to you now.”
It was exactly what she’d planned to tell him—that if he wanted his daughter to be accepted by the ton, it would be best if he stayed away—but all the same it shocked her that he could so easily hand his only daughter over to a complete stranger.
“But your daughter...”
