A Marriage of Convenience Read online

  Chapter ninetee

  A MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE

  By

  Fenella J Miller

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any method, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of The Author - Fenella J. Miller

  A Marriage of Convenience Copyright Fenella J. Miller, 2012

  This e-Book is a work of fiction. While references may be made to actual places or events, the names, characters, incidents, and locations within are from the author’ s imagination and are not a resemblance to actual living or dead persons, businesses, or events. Any similarity is coincidental.

  (Originally published by Robert Hale in 2005 as The Unconventional Miss Walters)

  Dedication

  For my writer friends everywhere.

  Cover design: Jane Dixon-Smith

  Prologue

  1812

  ‘Good heavens, Miss Ellie, look at the state of you! You can’t go downstairs looking like that.’

  ‘I had no intention of doing so, Mary, for that’s the reason I’m here.’ She could hardly stand still, her excitement making her giddy. ‘Oh do hurry, Mary,’ she complained, as her maid slipped a pale green muslin over her head. ‘I haven’t seen Cousin Leo for months and I so want to hear about the progress of the War.’

  ‘There, that will do, miss.’ Mary stood back to admire her young charge. Eleanor’s thick, wavy brown hair was for once, carefully constrained in a plait woven around her head. There were no longer dirty smudges marring her pale oval face and the dress, although plain, was eminently suitable for a sixteen-year-old who was not fully out.

  Eleanor spun round, her large green eyes sparkling with anticipation. ‘Can I go now?’

  ‘Yes, love, but remember not to race down the stairs. And do try and behave like a lady.’

  Miss Eleanor Marshall walked gracefully across the room determined not to arrive in the drawing-room in her usual pell-mell fashion. Colonel, Lord Leo Upminster, her Aunt Prudence’s only godson, would raise his aristocratic eyebrows and say something decidedly horrid if she did.

  Eleanor paused outside the half opened drawing-room door to ensure her skirts were smooth and her hair still tidy. As she raised her hand to push open the door Lord Leo’s commanding voice could be clearly heard.

  ‘Good God, Aunt Pru, are you mad? If I wished to take a wife the last person I would choose would be Eleanor.’

  She froze; she hadn’t intended to eavesdrop but Leo’s words cut her to the quick. She had to hear what else he was going to say. Unfortunately the murmur of her aunt’s reply wasn’t clear enough to follow but the clarion, parade ground tones of Lord Upminster’s response most certainly was.

  ‘That may very well be true, Aunt. However a beanpole with her head in a book and hardly a word to say for herself would not make a suitable bride for me or anyone else.’

  Eleanor didn’t stay to listen to the end of the conversation. Distraught she turned and fled, her eyes wet. ‘I’ll never forgive him, never,’ she cried as she burst back into her chamber.

  ‘Now whatever’s the matter, Miss Ellie?’ Mary rushed forward to embrace her.

  ‘Oh, Mary, he said the most awful things about me. I thought Cousin Leo liked me, I didn’t realize he thought I was such an antidote.’

  ‘Calm down, Miss Ellie, and tell me what happened.’

  Eleanor sniffed inelegantly and wiped her eyes and nose on her sleeve. ‘I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I was checking my appearance before entering and I overheard Cousin Leo.’

  Mary patted her arm encouragingly. ‘Go on, tell me, what did you hear?’

  ‘He said I was a beanpole, a bluestocking and had nothing of value to say. He said he wouldn’t marry me as I was unsuitable and boring.’

  Mary shook her head. ‘Perhaps it wasn’t quite as you heard it, miss; they could have been talking about someone else, not you at all.’

  Eleanor’s chagrin was rapidly being replaced by indignation. ‘He most certainly was, Mary; I heard him use my name. He is the rudest, most uncivil, arrogant man I have ever met.’ The fact that he was the only unattached man she was acquainted with appeared to escape her attention. ‘I wouldn’t marry him now even if he was the last man alive in Christendom.’

  ‘Then that’s all right. If he has no wish to marry you and you don’t wish to marry him, I can’t see what all the fuss is about, Miss Ellie.’

  Eleanor walked over to stare out of the window. For once the magnificent view across the open park and the green of the distant woodland failed to soothe her. There was something about the conversation she’d overheard that eluded her.

  ‘Good grief, Mary, Aunt Prudence must have asked him to offer for me. Why else would they have been discussing a possible union between us?’ Her question was rhetorical. ‘How dreadful! How mortifying. How could she? I will never be able to look him in the face again without embarrassment.’ Her mind made up she turned back to Mary, waiting for the next outburst. ‘Quickly, Mary, help me undress.’

  ‘Undress, miss? Whatever for?’

  ‘If I pretend I’m unwell, unable to go down, then I’ll not be obliged to face him.’

  ‘But what if he stays for a week? You can hardly stay in bed for so long; her ladyship would send for the doctor and you’d be discovered.’

  ‘He never stays for more than a night so I’m sure he will depart tomorrow. Now hurry for I wish to be in bed before someone’s sent up to fetch me.’

  ‘Whatever shall I say is ailing you? You were galloping all over the park on that horrid horse of yours before breakfast; you were obviously fit as a flea then, weren’t you?’

  Eleanor fell back dramatically against her pillows and covered her eyes. ‘Oh Mary,’ she moaned, ‘I have the most awful megrim. Please shut the curtains and fetch me a tisane to ease the pain.’

  For a moment Mary was concerned. ‘Good gracious, I almost believed you were ill, it gave me quite a turn, miss.’

  She giggled. ‘You see, Mary, if I can deceive you I’ll have no trouble with Aunt Prudence. Now, draw the curtains please for we must make my bedchamber look authentic.’

  *

  Eleanor’s deception was consummately done and she was left to recover from her sick headache in peace. When Lord Upminster departed the following morning, he was unaware Eleanor had overheard his apparently unkind words. If she had remained longer outside the room she would have realized her error. Leo had spoken in jest and had been firmly taken to task by his Aunt Prudence.

  ‘Come, do not jest, Leo. Ellie is at an awkward age; she will be an accomplished and lovely young woman when she is full grown.’

  Leo grinned. ‘I am sure she will. However, I have no desire, at the present, to become leg-shackled and Ellie is far too young.’

  ‘But you are not refusing to consider it, are you, my boy? ‘

  ‘No, aunt, I am not.’ He glanced towards the door. ‘As Ellie is joining us, I suggest we let the matter rest.’

  But Eleanor did not come down; she remained in her room and her antipathy to Lord Upminster had several years to fester, unchallenged.

  Chapter One

  1815

  ‘Listen to me, miss! You have no choice, you will marry me.’ Leo was unable to comprehend he had been roundly refused by the ill-mannered chit standing calmly before him. Eleanor’s cool detachment and apparent disdain only added fuel to his fury. Her lips curved slightly and she lowered her eyes to fiddle with her sash.

  Leo regained his temper. He was, as a colonel in the Light Infantry, used to having his commands obeyed, instantly and Eleanor’s refusal had so surprised h
im for a moment his iron control had deserted him.

  ‘I am sorry I raised my voice. That was unpardonable, barrack room manners I’m afraid.’ He smiled warmly hoping to win her forgiveness.

  ‘That is quite all right, Lord Upminster, pray do not mention it again. But I am sorry; my answer must remain the same. I have no wish to marry, not you or anyone else.’

  He shook his head in disbelief. ‘Let me run through your situation once more, my dear.’ His tone was avuncular, as though talking to a child. ‘As you know on Aunt Prudence’s sad demise, you became my ward and will remain thus until you marry or attain your majority.’

  She nodded. ‘If I am now your ward and in your control already why do I have to become your wife?’

  ‘Aunt Prudence has left her fortune and Monk’s Hall to me on the understanding that I marry you. She has made you my ward to ensure I don’t allow you to undertake any hare-brained schemes, such as running away to become a governess. Do you follow me so far?’

  Leo continued his expression fierce as he stared firmly on the girl supposedly sitting demurely in front of him. She had not hidden her amusement as well as she had hoped.

  ‘The war is over; Boney’s safe on St Helena and I’m out of a job. The half-pay of a colonel in peace time is not sufficient and being the second son of a duke does not, in my case, make me wealthy.’

  Believing he required an answer Eleanor said politely, ‘Indeed it does not, my lord.’

  He glared, daring her to interrupt again. ‘You have no money of your own and no home apart from here, and neither do I. You must understand that unless we marry, at once, all the money and the house will go to Aunt Prudence’s nephew, Jasper Walters. Do you want this beautiful place to fall into that dissolute scoundrel’s hands?’

  Eleanor shook her head but offered no comment.

  ‘Good, we are moving forward it seems.’ He ran his hands through his hair, at a loss to comprehend her objection to the marriage. He had completely forgotten his words spoken three years before.

  ‘May I say something, Lord Upminster?’

  ‘Of course you can. What is it?’

  ‘I do understand your position. Unless we marry we will both be homeless and in my case, completely penniless. Although, I must admit I fail to comprehend why Aunt Prudence should have written such a will in the first place.’

  *

  She paused, her face sad as she remembered the last time she had spoken to her beloved aunt just before she died. This had been on board the ship returning them from a year-long stay in India. Aunt Prudence had fallen ill. Very soon it had become apparent she wasn’t going to recover; that the fever would prove fatal.

  At that time her aunt had held her hand weakly, in her own hot, dry clasp. ‘Ellie, darling, promise me something?’

  ‘Anything, Aunt Prudence, I will do anything you ask. What do you wish me to do?’

  Her aunt’s voice was becoming weaker by the second. ‘I have left you well provided for; although it might not appear so at first, but I know what I have arranged will be for the best. Ellie….’ The rest of her instructions were lost, as with a quiet sigh, Aunt Prudence breathed her last.

  If only Eleanor had known what was planned she might have been able to dissuade her. She returned to the present with a start. She had no alternative. Leo, as her guardian, had already forbidden her to even consider seeking employment. She would have to marry him knowing he had as little wish for the union as she did. The dreams she had long cherished of marrying for love must now be abandoned. She had no choice; Aunt Prudence had made sure the man she had vowed never to marry, under any circumstances, was now to be her husband.

  She glanced nervously at the enormous, battle hardened man trying hard not to glower at her as he paced up and down the centre of the drawing room. ‘I can see, my lord, I might have been a little hasty.’ She rose elegantly to her feet and waved her hand at him in what was a gesture of reconciliation. Leo halted, raised an aristocratic eyebrow and gave an ironic bow.

  ‘That is, of course, perfectly possible,’ he said dryly. ‘Are we friends again, Ellie?’

  Did he use her pet name deliberately? She glanced across; he was leaning against the mantel, one elegant leg resting on the fender, his cool grey eyes examining the toe of his boot. Undeniably a handsome man, but rather too uncompromising in his stance to be considered an eligible parti, she decided.

  Outwardly he was the picture of relaxation and sympathy, but she knew different. She could sense the hidden tension and his implacable will; she couldn’t withstand this man. All things considered, would marriage, even one of necessity not love, be so very awful?

  ‘I will marry you, but it must be on my terms.’ Eleanor spoke quite clearly, her words giving no indication of the erratic beating of her pulse.

  Leo straightened. His eyes glittered with satisfaction and he smiled a smile of devastating charm. ‘I am honoured, my dear, you have made me the happiest of men. Now what are these terms of yours?’

  ‘I wish the marriage to remain in name only. It is, after all, a union of convenience to allow us both to have a modicum of comfort and a roof over our heads.’

  ‘Agreed. A marriage of convenience will suit me admirably.’ He paused, his eyes gleaming in the firelight. ‘But, of course, at some stage I shall wish to set up my nursery. I want this to be clearly understood, Eleanor.’

  She had no choice. ‘Yes, yes; that will be acceptable.’ Unbearably flustered, she stepped back, turned and sped in undignified haste from the room, her normal composure quite deserting her.

  Chapter Two

  ‘Mary, you are to congratulate me,’ Eleanor said as she entered her bedchamber. ‘I have been forced to agree to the marriage. It would have been senseless to continue to refuse.’

  Mary beamed. ‘I’m sure you’ve done the right thing, Miss Ellie. His lordship is a fine figure of a man and with Lady Dunstan’s fortune at his disposal he will be very plump in the pocket.’

  Eleanor sighed. ‘But if he had been given a choice he would never have chosen me, you know that as well as I do. He considers me too tall, too plain and too bookish.’

  ‘Now, miss, I’m sure he does not. Why just look at you, you’re as pretty as a picture.’

  Eleanor went over to the glass and stared critically at her reflection. ‘I am very tall.’ She smiled. ‘However, he’s several inches taller so perhaps that is not a drawback.’ She continued her scrutiny. ‘However, my bosom is rather small and my hair too thick, too dark and too heavy. To be fashionable one must be a petite, blue-eyed blonde and I fail to qualify on any of those points.’

  ‘You should be ashamed of yourself, fishing for compliments like that,’ Mary said, her position as both friend as well as personal maid, allowing her to speak freely. ‘You’re a lovely young woman and well you know it. And his lordship would have to be blind if he doesn’t see that.’

  Eleanor smiled. ‘I have to admit I’m greatly improved from the lanky beanpole I was last time he saw me.’ She giggled as something else occurred to her. ‘And I don’t think Lord Upminster would now consider I had little to say for myself. I would hazard a guess he believes I speak rather too much. Was that the luncheon gong, Mary? I suppose I had better change, I have mud all over the hem of this gown from my walk this morning.’

  Mary helped her young mistress into a gown of blue dimity, with dainty silk roses around the modestly scooped neckline and a single flounce on the hem. ‘It’s a good thing Lady Dunston insisted mourning dress was not to be worn. Black would be unflattering, especially on someone as pale complexioned as you.’

  ‘Although we’re not officially mourning I think the wedding ceremony cannot decently take place for another six months. That will, at least, give me time to become better acquainted with my affianced before I am obliged to marry him.’

  ‘And you have a trousseau to prepare, my love,’ Mary told her. ‘No bride can contemplate matrimony before that’s finished. Go on, Miss Ellie, you’re going
to be late.’

  Eleanor swept down stairs certain she looked her best. The three years she had spent travelling the globe with her intrepid aunt had given her the confidence and poise she had lacked as a sixteen-year-old. Aunt Prudence had fielded, and rejected, several advantageous offers during their peregrinations. Why was it only with Leo she felt gauche and ungainly?

  Luncheon was served in the small dining room. A cold collation had been laid out for them on the sideboard. A reflection of the green silk damask wallpaper shimmered on the surface of the polished table making it ripple like water.

  She deliberately avoided the seat opposite the mirror; she had no wish to eat her meal with a double view of his lordship. A waiting footman pulled out her chair, and she sat, placing her hands demurely in her lap.

  Leo, in smart fawn breeches, polished Hessians and plain dark cloth coat looked every inch the country gentlemen. In spite of being in one of her favourite gowns she felt rather like a hedge sparrow shut in with an eagle. Leo took the chair closest to her own. The footman served them and was dismissed.

  Once they were private he spoke. ‘I hope two o’clock will be convenient for you, my dear?’

  ‘I beg your pardon, my lord, I was wool gathering. Would two o’clock be convenient for what?’

  ‘For the marriage service of course, what else could I have meant?’

  Marriage service? For a second she thought she must have misheard him. Had he taken leave of his senses? Too shocked to consider before she spoke, her words tumbled out. ‘Are you mad? Do you expect me to marry you after a betrothal of precisely two hours? God forbid such a thing!’ She pushed back her chair so violently it crashed to the floor. ‘That I have to marry you at all is the outside of enough. But to be expected to marry in such haste is unseemly why—’

  ‘Enough,’ he barked, ‘I will not be spoken to like that. You will do as you are bid, young lady, or I will not be answerable for my actions.’ He towered over her, his face set, his eyes icy. She noticed his fists were clenched as though he was having difficulty restraining himself from physically chastising her.