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The Petticoat Duel

 

Chapter One

 

“Really Dorothea! Amelia’s behaviour is the outside of enough!” Lady Ashbourne exclaimed as the young lady in question stormed out of the room.

“I quite agree with you, Mama,” the Honourable Mrs Sidcup replied with as much patience as she could muster. “I’ve lost count of the times she has put me to the blush, but what would you advise me to do about it?”

“You are her stepmother. You were brought up with propriety. There must be something you can do; indeed, I wonder why you have not done anything before.”

“A stepmother, who is a mere three years older than her stepdaughter, is easily ignored. While Charles lived, he would not curb her temperament and she has always treated me with indifference. I sympathise with her feelings to a certain extent. If I had given Charles the son he wanted, she would have been displaced in her inheritance, if not in his affections, so it is no wonder that we are not friends, although I could wish it were otherwise. Charles was proud of her and would not hear a word against her. They did not listen to me when I attempted to give her thoughts a more rational direction. If I attempt to reproach her, she would flounce off just as she did when you mentioned her behaviour now.”

“A pity I ever allowed you to marry that man. He was insufferable and his daughter is worse. Neither of them possessed a scrap of breeding, but what can you expect from anyone who still smelled of the shop?”

Thea tried to think of an answer but, since she secretly agreed with her mother, she very soon gave up. Like every girl, she had dreamed of marrying a handsome young man with whom she had fallen desperately in love, but it was not to be. Poor Papa had been so very short of money and she was the oldest and prettiest of his daughters. She knew her duty, otherwise she would never have considered marrying a man so much older than herself and with whom she did not possess a single idea in common. The last five years had not been happy, but, when Charles died on the hunting field, an activity at which he did not excel, she was obliged to pretend to grieve for him. It was difficult to believe that she was a widow at the tender age of twenty-four. In one sense, her marriage had been a success, for it allowed Papa to pay off his debts and her brother James’s. Julian was able to go to Eton and her sisters would have dowries, not large ones it was true, but sufficient, so they would not be called penniless brides.

Charles had been generous at the beginning and he had made proper provision for her in his will. She inherited a generous competence in the settlements which she now enjoyed. She privately considered them to be riches, after all the constraints of her girlhood. Her situation in no way matched Amelia’s, of course, who had inherited the bulk of her father’s fortune and the entirety of her mother’s. Not only was Amelia an heiress, but she was also endowed with more than passable good looks, being angelically fair with deep blue eyes. Face and figure were perfection and she was spoken of as a diamond of the first water. At times Thea had to repress an unbecoming pang of envy, knowing herself quite cast into the shade by her stepdaughter. Soft brown hair and hazel eyes could not compete with brilliance. She tried to be philosophical. Amelia could not help her beauty. The fact that she could help her behaviour, but did not attempt to do so, was at the heart of the present problem.

 “On this occasion, I feel we must forgive her.” Thea said mildly. “She may have thought you were referring to Captain Calloway. He has just announced his engagement to the elder Miss Stanhope, you know. It has left Amelia sadly out of spirits.”

“Did she have expectations of him?”

Mrs Sidcup nodded. “She told me that she considered it as good as settled. In fact, when we put off our half mourning next week, she wanted me to send the notice to the newspapers.”

“And now he has jilted her?”

“Not precisely jilted as I understand, for neither I nor his parents had been consulted about the marriage. I believe Amelia when she says that he has trifled with her affections, but to what extent I do not know. I am not fully in her confidence and she consults me only when she thinks there is a need. Nevertheless, the news of his engagement has come as a shock to poor Amelia.”

“Poor Amelia indeed. Very likely her behaviour gave him a distaste for her. Miss Stanhope has a sweet nature, to go with her pretty face, which is more than can be said of Amelia. No doubt she made some cutting remark, which has caused him to reconsider tying himself to her for the rest of their lives. Is it the second or third time this has happened?”

Mrs Sidcup's sighed. “The third, but I always considered Will Cooper nothing more than a boy and girl affair. He never came to see her again, after he went up to Oxford.”

“Learned sense then. Gentlemen are attracted by her face and her fortune, but once they find out what she is really like, they run away. You’ll never marry her off, Thea, take my word for it.”

“Well, I shall try. It is what Charles wanted. Indeed, he asked me once to promise him that I would stay with her until she was established, if anything ever happened to him. Not that he expected his accident, of course, but I gave him my promise and so now I must abide by it. What can I do about her?”

“If you don’t want to grow old together, take my advice on this occasion, and give her precisely what she is asking for.” Lady Ashbourne said tartly.

“Go to London, you mean, to be presented to the Queen?”

Her mama nodded. “She has been out for three Seasons, and, so far, no one has come up to scratch. Among strangers who don’t know her ways, you may be more successful in finding her a husband. You’ll never be rid of her here in Lancashire. And while you are in London, pray consider your own prospects. You are young, you still have your looks and you now possess a much better fortune than you did, before you married Charles.”

“Mama, no! I shall never marry again.”

“Nonsense. Don’t tell me you are pining for Charles, for I should never believe it.”

Thea had the grace to blush. “I won’t then, but I am very well satisfied with my life as a widow and I have no desire to share it with another. If you remember the provisions of Charles’s will, I would lose my settlements if I married before Amelia. I much prefer my situation, with enough pin money to spend and the elegances of life provided for me. As you know, Mama, a husband may be a gambler and fritter a fortune away.”

“Thea!”

Thea hesitated, annoyed at letting her unruly tongue betray her into an indiscretion. Poor Papa had been just such a gambler, until his health deteriorated, and the family had to live with the consequences of his reckless behaviour. At Ashbourne House she would never have dared to say such a thing, but both Charles and Amelia were outspoken to a fault and she had forgotten how to watch her words in private. Once Thea would have been profuse in her apologies. Now she merely continued,

“When she is established, I shall retire to a small house in the country with my dogs and my painting.” Thea smiled inwardly. She had dreamed of just such a little house for the last four years. How good it would seem, to be at no one’s beck and call, to make her own decisions without being censored or criticised and not have to do anything she did not want to do. How deeply she craved solitude, away from the fights and brangles of everyday life.

“Nonsense. Once Amelia is settled, I give it a year before you are walking down the aisle again, more happily than the last time I trust,” her mother said, with a grim smile. “You were successful in your first Season and it was only Papa’s extremely pressing needs that made him agree to Charles’s suit, rather than those of your other suiters. This time you may look much higher. After all, you have more than just your breeding to attract gentlemen to you now.”

Thea smiled. “As the widow of a wealthy merchant? I doubt it.”

“No taint of the shop clings to you, my dear. I appreciate that you sacrificed your own wishes for the good of your family, Dorothea, but this is not the end of your life. Papa and I expect you to marry again and to take your rightful place in society. It is less important now that your future husband is beforehand in the world, but, if he were, you would be able to further your brothers’ careers and your sisters’ presentations. In fact, we are counting on you to do so. We cannot travel to the city to present your sisters at court, with the state of dear Papa’s health. We hoped that you would undertake this task for us. Indeed, I do not understand why you will not bring Susan with you to London now. You could easily present her at the same time as Amelia.”

Thea stood up and went over to the window, staring out at the misty garden until she could command her features and repress the hasty retort that had risen unbidden to her tongue. Of one thing she was certain, never again would she respond automatically to the demands of her family. Once was enough. She had done her duty. She was a Sidcup now, no longer an Ashbourne. Her responsibility lay elsewhere. Then she turned and replied, trying hard to keep her voice even and any resentment out of her words.

“Considering that, on the few occasions Susan and Amelia have met, they have instantly been at outs with each other, I am surprised you even suggest it, Mama. Amelia is difficult enough to influence, without Susan’s presence. You must remember that it is Amelia’s fortune that pays for her debut, not mine. If it fell on me, I should find great difficulty in meeting the cost without falling into debt. Therefore, Amelia will decide what happens next. She is effectively her own mistress now she is twenty-one, and she only asks me to accompany her because she knows she needs a chaperone. Unlike her own relations, I have the entry into society and I can present her, so she prefers me to a hired stranger. But I shudder at the notion of asking her to share her debut with Susan and to pay for all our expenses. She would certainly refuse. Susan is three years younger than Amelia and may easily wait another year to be presented.”

“I never thought you would put that termagant’s welfare above your own flesh and blood!” Lady Ashbourne exclaimed.

“Did you not, Mama? As I told you, in this I am keeping a promise I made to my husband. I would be heartless indeed to ignore his wishes when, as you know, he has done so much for me and for my family.” Thea was not certain, but she rather thought she heard her mother give a most unladylike sniff.

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