Last Night's Scandal (The Dressmakers 5)

Prologue

London

5 October 1822

My Lord,

You must Burn this Letter after reading it. Should it fall into the Wrong Hands, I shall be once again Exiled to the COUNTRY, to one of my Carsington step-uncles’ Domiciles, where I shall most certainly be placed in ISOLATION. I don’t mind Ruralizing in Small Doses, but to be LOCKED IN and forbidden any Social Intercourse of any Kind (for fear of my forming Unsuitable Acquaintances or Leading Innocents Astray) is intolerable, and will surely lead me to Desperate Acts.

I am Watched constantly. The only way to send you a proper, Unexpurgated and Uncensored Letter is to write in my Secret Place and arrange with Certain Persons—who must remain Nameless, the Undertaking being uncommonly dangerous—to put this Epistle among the Diplomatic Dispatches.

I should not undertake this Perilous Enterprise merely to note that it is Exactly One Year since we set out upon our Most Interesting Journey to Bristol. Nor should I endanger my Freedom merely to Convey the Usual Harmless News a Young Lady is permitted to communicate to a young Gentleman of her acquaintance—even if he is practically her Brother or at least a Cousin of sorts. I am driven to Subterfuge because it is my DUTY to Inform you of a further change in your Circumstances. We Children are supposed to know nothing of these Matters, but I am not Blind, and the fact is, your Mama is expecting again.

Yes, it is shocking, at her age, and the more so as it’s scarcely a year since your first brother was born. Little David, by the way, is turning out amazingly like you, outwardly at least. Babies are chameleon-like in the Early Stages, but his Looks seem to have settled. His Hair is growing in fair like yours and his Eye color seems to have resolved itself to the same unusual shade of grey. But I digress.

I was always Mystified by your Mama’s sudden FERTILITY after thirteen barren years. But Great-Grandmama Hargate says that your parents’ lengthy visits in Recent Years to what she calls their Cottage Love Nest In Scotland, explain everything. Great-Grandmama says the Haggis & the Scottish Whiskey Did the Trick. She said the combination always had a prodigious effect on Great-Grandpapa. I know what she meant by “prodigious” because I happened to come upon her Secret Collection of Engrav

I must make short work of this, if it is to get safely into the Dispatch Bag. The Ordeal will require my slipping out of a Certain Relative’s House Unnoticed and finding a Hackney. Luckily I have Allies. If I am caught, IMPRISONMENT IN THE COUNTRY awaits me—but as you know, I regard my own Safety and Happiness as of No Consequence in the Pursuit of a Noble Cause.

Yours sincerely,

Olivia Wingate-Carsington

Thebes, Egypt

10 November 1822

Dear Olivia,

I received your letter some days ago and should have answered sooner, but my studies and our work consume all my time. Today, though, Uncle Rupert is away ejecting a party of Frenchmen from one of our excavations—for the third time. The scoundrels wait for our servants to clear all the sand away—weeks and weeks of work. Then the devious Gauls produce a firman from a nonexistent kashef or such, which they claim gives them sole rights to the site.

I can break heads as well as the next fellow, and would have gone, but Aunt Daphne tied me to a rail of the dahabeeya (a type of Nile boat, quite commodious) and told me to write to my family. If I write to my parents, it will only remind them I exist, and incite the usual irrational urge to have me home to watch their histrionics until they forget why they wanted me and send me away to yet another dismal school.

Since, as Lord Rathbourne’s stepdaughter, you qualify as family, no one can logically object to my writing to you instead. I find myself torn regarding your news. On the one hand, I am very sorry to learn that yet another innocent child will be thrown into the parental tempest. On the other, I’m selfishly glad to have siblings at last, and pleased that David is thriving.

I don’t see why anybody should mind your apprising me of my mother’s pregnancy, but then I’ve never understood the strictures placed on females. It’s worse here for women, if that’s any consolation. In any case, I hope you suffer no imprisonment for enlightening me. Your temperament is not suited to rules, let alone captivity. This I learned firsthand during the adventure you refer to.

Of course I recall vividly the day on which I suddenly and unexpectedly—two words I shall always associate with you—departed London with you.

Every moment of our journey to Bristol is as deeply incised in my brain as the Greek and Egyptian inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone, and bound to endure as long. If someone, centuries hence, happens to dig up my corpse and anatomize my brain, he will find, etched there in unmistakable characters: Olivia. Suddenly. Unexpectedly.

You know I leave sentiment to my parents. My thinking must be guided by facts. The fact is, my life took a remarkable turn after our journey. Had I not gone with you, I should have been sent to one of the many schools in Scotland run on Spartan principles—though to be fair, the Spartans were soft by comparison. I should have had to put up with the same sort of infuriating narrow-mindedness prevailing at other schools, but under even more sadistic conditions, such as impenetrable Scottish accents and hideous weather. And the bagpipes.

In thanks, I enclose a small token. According to Aunt Daphne, the scarab beetle sign is said as “kheper”—with the “kh” pronounced like the German “ach.” The hieroglyphic signs have several meanings and uses. The scarab signifies rebirth. I look upon this journey to Egypt as a rebirth.

It’s turned out more exciting than I’d dared to hope. Over the centuries the sand has swallowed whole worlds, which we’ve scarcely begun to uncover. The people fascinate me, and my days are mentally and physically stimulating, as they never were at home. I’m not sure when we’ll return to England. I hope it isn’t for a very long time.

I must end here. Uncle Rupert has returned—all in one piece, we’re pleased to note—and I cannot wait to hear about his encounter with those worthless slugs.

Yours sincerely,

Lisle

P.S. I wish you would not address me as My Lord. I can hear you say it with

that provoking hint of mockery in your voice, and I can see you making an excessive sort of curtsey—or perhaps, given your confusion regarding what girls may and may not do—a bow.

L

P.P.S. What Engrav?

Four years later

London

12 February 1826

My dear L,

Felicitations on your EIGHTEENTH BIRTHDAY!

I must be Quick with this, because I’m about to go into Exile again, to Cheshire with Uncle Darius this time. That will teach me to take a Little TATTLETALE like Sophy Hubble to a Gaming Hell.

How I wish your recent Visit home had been longer. Then we might have Celebrated this Momentous Day together. But you are far better off in Egypt, I know.

Too, had you lingered here, you might not have been permitted to return to Egypt at all.

Not long after your Departure, we had a CRISIS with your Parents. As you know, I’ve always protected Adults from the Truth. I gave Lord and Lady Atherton to understand that Plague in Egypt was not the GHASTLY & FATAL CONTAGION one associates with Medieval Times, but merely one of the minor Ailments travelers often experience. But mere Weeks after your ship set sail, some Busybody Told Them the Truth! They became HYSTERICAL, going so far as to DEMAND the Ship be recalled! I told them it would kill you to turn back, but they said I was over-dramatizing. I! Can you credit it? Talk of the pot calling the kett But I must stop. The boy is here.

No time to Tell It All. Enough to say that Step-Papa has Dealt with the Matter, and you are SAFE for now.

Adieu, my Friend. I wonder if I shall ever see you again, and— Oh, drat. Must go.

Yours sincerely,

Olivia Carsington

P.S. Yes, I’ve dropped “Wingate,” and you won’t wonder why when I tell you what my Paternal Uncle said about Mama. If Papa were alive, he’d disown them, and you know—Curse the boy! He will not wait.

O

In a village ten miles from Edinburgh,Scotland

May 1826

No one had lived in Gorewood Castle for two years.

Old Mr. Dalmay, whose health was failing, had had to move out a few years before that, into a modern, warmer and drier house in Edinburgh. His agent hadn’t yet found a tenant, and the caretaker, who’d had an accident last spring, still wasn’t back. That was why the restoration and repair work, which had been going on for as long as anybody could remember—which was to say, for all the time Mr. Dalmay had lived in the castle—had gradually slackened.

That was why, on this spring evening, Jock and Roy Rankin had the castle to themselves.

They were scavenging, as usual. They’d learned the hard way that the splendid stones on the battlements didn’t survive the more-than-one-hundred-foot drop to the ground below. The castle basement, being filled with rubble, offered easier pickings. Someone had already tried to steal a piece of the stairway. Their employer would pay well for the remaining stone blocks.

As they were digging out a sizable fragment of a stair from a bed of crumbled mortar and rubble, the lantern light shone on a round object that didn’t look like a bit of mortar or stone fragment.

Jock picked it up and squinted at it. “Look at this,” he said.

That isn’t exactly what he said. He and Roy spoke a Scottish version of English that the average English speaker might easily mistake for Sanskrit or Albanian.

If they had spoken recognizable English, it would have sounded like this:

“What have you got there?”

“Dunno. Brass button?”

“Let me see.”

After scraping off dirt, Roy said, “A medal, maybe.” He peered at the object.

“Old medal?” said Jock. “Some of them fetch a good price.”

“Could be.” Roy scraped some more and peered some more. Then he spelled out painfully, “R-E-X. Then a mark, not a letter. Then C-A-R-O-L-V-S.”

Jock, whose reading skills extended to recognizing a tavern sign, said, “What is it?”

Roy looked at him. “Money,” he said.

They returned to digging with renewed energy.

Chapter 1

London

3 October 1831

Peregrine Dalmay, Earl of Lisle, looked from one parent to the other. “Scotland? I most certainly won’t.”

The Marquess and Marchioness of Atherton exchanged glances. Lisle didn’t try to guess what it meant. His parents lived in their own world.

“But we were relying upon you,” his mother said.

“Why?” he said. “I made it clear in my last letter that I’d stay only a short time before returning to Egypt.”

They’d waited until now—moments before they were due to leave for Hargate House—to tell him about the crisis at one of the Dalmay family’s Scottish properties.

Tonight the Earl and Countess of Hargate were giving a ball in honor of the ninety-fifth birthday of Eugenia, Dowager Countess of Hargate, matriarch of the Carsington family. Lisle had returned from Egypt to attend, and not simply because it might be his last chance to see the wicked old lady alive.

Though a grown man of nearly four and twenty, no longer in Rupert and Daphne Carsington’s care, Lisle still regarded the Carsingtons as his family. They were the only proper family he’d ever known. He wouldn’t dream of missing the celebration.

He looked forward to seeing them all, especially Olivia. He hadn’t seen her in five years, since his last visit home. When he arrived in London a fortnight ago, she’d been in Derbyshire. She’d returned only yesterday.

She’d gone to her parents’ country house early in September, mere days after the coronation, on account of a broken engagement. It was her third or fourth or tenth—she’d reported them all in her letters but he’d lost track—and reputed to have beat all her previous records for brevity. Not two hours had passed between her accepting Lord Gradfield’s ring and sending it back to him with one of her heavily underlined and capitalized letters. His lordship had taken his rejection hard, and provoked an innocent bystander into a duel, during which the men had wounded each other, though not mortally.

The usual excitement with Olivia, in other words.

Lisle certainly hadn’t come home on his parents’ account. They were ridiculous. They had children, but it wasn’t a family. They were entirely wrapped up in each other and their endless dramas.

This was typical: a great scene in the drawing room, about a topic normal people would have reserved for a rational discussion at a suitable time—not minutes before setting out for a ball.

Gorewood Castle, it seemed, had been falling down for the last three or four hundred years and sporadically undergoing repairs in the course of those centuries. For some reason they’d suddenly decided it must be restored to its former glory, and he must go there to oversee the work because of some trouble with . . . ghosts?

“But you must go,” his mother said. “Somebody must go. Somebody must do something.”

“That somebody ought to be your land agent,” Lisle said. “It’s absurd that Mains can find no workers in all of Midlothian. I thought the Scots were desperate for work.”

He moved to the fire to warm his hands.

The few weeks since his return from Egypt weren’t enough to acclimate him. This English autumn felt like dead winter to him. Scotland would be intolerable. The weather there was vile enough in midsummer: grey, windy, and rainy, when it wasn’t snowing or sleeting.

He didn’t mind harsh conditions. Strictly speaking, Egypt was a more brutal environment. But Egypt of

fered worlds for him to uncover. Scotland offered nothing to discover, no ancient mysteries to solve.

“Mains has tried everything, even bribery,” Father said. “What we need is the presence of a male family member. You know how clannish the Scots are. They want the laird of the castle to take charge. I cannot go. I cannot leave your mother when her health is so fragile.”

She was pregnant again, in other words.

“It seems you must abandon me, my love,” said Mother, lifting a limp hand to her head. “Peregrine has never cared about anything but his Greek and Latin and Toxic.”

“Coptic,” Lisle said. “The ancient language of—”

“It’s always Egypt,” Mother said with an ominous little sob. “Always your pyramids and mummies and scrolls, and never us. Your brothers don’t even know who you are!”

“They know me well enough,” Lisle said. “I’m the one who sends them all the jolly things from foreign parts.”

To them he was the dashing and mysterious older brother who had exciting adventures in a wild and dangerous land. And he did send them the kinds of gifts that delighted boys: bird and cat mummies, snakeskins, crocodile teeth, and beautifully preserved scorpions. He wrote to the lads, too, regularly.

Yet he couldn’t altogether quiet the inner voice telling him he’d abandoned his brothers. It was no good answering that he could do nothing for them here, except share their misery.

Only Lord Rathbourne—known throughout Society as Lord Perfect—had ever been able to manage his parents. He’d saved Lisle from them. But Rathbourne had a family of his own now.

Lisle knew he needed to do something for his brothers. But this castle business was nonsense. He’d have to postpone his return to Egypt for how long? And for what?