Lady Elizabeth's Comet by Sheila Simonson Read Free Book Online Page A

it. I daresay Papa was tactless."
    "There was that business of Mr. Henry Conway and your mother, of course."
    "What!"
    "You don't know? Oh, the devil. I beg your pardon, Liz. I ought not to have mentioned
it."
    "Now that you have, you'd best finish."
    "Lord, I suppose so. Henry Conway ran off with your mother--or tried to--whilst she
was betrothed to your father."
    "My word!"
    Bevis was equal to almost any social situation, and I ought to have been amused at his
discomfiture. I wasn't. I was too stunned. I did not remember my mother well, but she had
certainly seemed a pattern card of propriety.
    "They were stopped within hours, of course, and it was hushed up. The thing is," Bevis
said uncomfortably, "Henry Conway was a married man at the time. You mustn't think ill of your
mama, Liz. I daresay he tricked her. She was only seventeen and not up to snuff. My mother
always said he was a dashed attractive bounder."
    "No wonder Papa despised him. I thought him merely a gamester."
    "Oh, that, too. Had the audacity to apply to your father for funds, I daresay, but he lost
everything in the end. Died of a bad liver before he could be clapped into Newgate."
    "Ugh."
    "A thoroughly ramshackle character."
    "So it would seem." I sighed. "I must say I perceive why you didn't plump yourself on
the acquaintance."
    "None of it was Tom's fault. He was in leading strings when his papa decided to play the
gay seducer."
    "Yes, but you will allow it explains why my Papa felt a certain coolness toward
him."
    "And why Tom wouldn't ask your father for help when he needed it," Bevis
muttered.
    "What do you mean?"
    He fell silent for a moment, then went on, choosing his words, "Tom was wounded
when we crossed the Nive into France. We could see, once he decided to live, that he was going
to be invalided out as soon as the Chelsea sawbones clapped eyes on him. I saw how it would be,
and God knows I told him so bluntly. The army surgeons couldn't do anything, but there was no
saying a really advanced practitioner mightn't have been able to. I told Tom to apply to your
father, and he dashed near bit my head off, said he wasn't a case for Lord Clanross's alms yet,
thank you very much, and to mind my own damned business. Sorry, Liz."
    "Think nothing of it," I said hollowly.
    "Well, it turned out just as I thought it would. They retired him on a captain's half-pay
and he could live on that, but there was no way he could chase over Europe hunting down
first-rate surgeons. It made me sick as a cat."
    "Why a captain?"
    "Horse Guards' nip-farthing ways, my dear. He was given a brevet majority a sixmonth
before he was hit, but he couldn't afford an exchange, so they retired him at his permanent
rank."
    "He must have hated my father very much."
    "I don't think it was that precisely." He regarded me with a gloomy countenance. "I say,
Liz, keep this behind your teeth, will you? I ain't so indiscreet as a rule."
    I forced a smile. "You may be indiscreet, Bevis, but you're a good friend."
    He did not reply to that at once and finally muttered, "I hope I am, though my best
intentions seem to go awry. I daresay the family were put off to find Tom working as a
land-agent."
    "They were surprised. Sims says he was bored and wanted something to do. I see that. I
hope your father received his money's worth."
    "Lord, you're vulgar. When Tom puts his mind to something he always does it well. My
father had no cause to complain, though that didn't stop him when he found out Tom had
succeeded to the title. I was in the suds then, I can tell you."
    "Serves you right."
    "The thing is, I was afraid for Tom, sitting about in that dismal cottage with nothing to
think of but how soon he was going to wind up in a Bath chair. So I made the offer and he took
me up on it."
    I frowned. "Afraid? You don't mean you believed he'd put a period to his
existence?"
    Bevis was silent.
    "No wonder you raced up here ventre à terre. Good God, Bevis, surely
not."
    "It's what I'd do," he said simply.