Catherine Vernon
When Lady deCourcy heard of the alteration in plans, she wrote to her daughter in language that could not conceal her anger and frustration, directing all of her resentment against Lady Vernon. We shall at least have Reginald with us, she added.
And Lord and Lady Hamilton will come with your cousins, which will bring your brother together with Lavinia. Reginald has been so provoking of late—going here and going there, and behaving as though all of our expectations are of no significance. If we get them together for a few weeks, I have no doubt that matters will be settled before the new year.
Mrs. Vernon read this letter to her husband and expressed her relief that her parents would not be completely alone at Christmas, and said how likely it was that it would be the last Christmas season her father would see, which would make the presence of at least one of his children a great source of pleasure.
Vernon was not equally pleased. Sir Reginald’s frail health had been among his wife’s most amiable attractions, as it was likely that the demise of so fond a father would bring them something in the way of a bequest. That he would have hung on into the seventh year of the Vernons’ marriage was, to Vernon’s thinking, an example of the deCourcy obstinacy.
Vernon had other reasons to reflect upon his father-in-law’s demise, for the deCourcy estate had not been entailed entirely from the female line. Only Sir Reginald’s son and brother barred Parklands from going to Vernon’s eldest son. As far as Lewis deCourcy was concerned, Vernon had no anxiety. He was a bachelor of long standing and it was inconceivable that in his middle fifties he would marry, or bring forth an heir if he did. Reginald, however, was a more troublesome prospect. A union with Lavinia Hamilton was being urged upon him, one that would likely put a succession of deCourcys between Vernon’s son and a property worth a clear twelve thousand per annum. To have Reginald single, therefore, was a matter of some consequence to Vernon, and if the burden of responsibility had lessened the charms of his present situation, it had not kept him from wanting more.
To Reginald’s credit, he had thus far avoided matrimony as deftly as any young man will when he has plenty of money and no reason to hurry himself into wedlock, but Vernon imagined that a family Christmas at Parklands, with all of the warmth of feeling that the season will generally produce, would weaken Reginald’s resolve and end with an engagement.
Charles was fairly certain that Reginald’s fondness for sport, and his attachment to Catherine and the children, would bring him to Churchill Manor, but when Mrs. Vernon next received a letter from her brother, there was mention of the particular inducement that had persuaded the young man to make the journey to Sussex.
Vernon was determined to thwart such a prospect by inviting Reginald to Churchill Manor. Charles wrote:
We must receive my sister, Lady Vernon. As the necessity of this will keep us at Churchill, I hope that you will not deny your sister the pleasure of having you with us. I would not deprive my good in-laws of your company had I not been assured that they will have Lord and Lady Hamilton and the Misses Hamilton with them. The weather has been so remarkably mild that I ride out every day. The countryside is excellent for a gallop if one’s mount is not timid, and there will be some excellent pheasant shooting for many weeks more.
Charles was fairly certain that Reginald’s fondness for sport, and his attachment to Catherine and the children, would bring him to Churchill Manor, but when Mrs. Vernon next received a letter from her brother, there was mention of the particular inducement that had persuaded the young man to make the journey to Sussex.
Mr. deCourcy to Mrs. Vernon
Bennet Street, Bath
My dear sister,
I congratulate you and Mr. Vernon on receiving into your family the most accomplished coquette in England. I can have no kind feelings toward one who so energetically opposed your marriage to Mr. Vernon, and it has lately fallen in my way to hear some particulars of her conduct at Langford, which proves that she does not confine herself to that sort of honest flirtation that satisfies most people but aspires to the more delicious gratification of making a whole family miserable. By her behavior to Manwaring, she gave jealousy and wretchedness to his wife, and by her attentions to Sir James Martin, she deprived Miss Manwaring of a suitor. I learned all of this from Charles Smith, who passed a fortnight at Langford, and who is therefore well qualified to communicate the particulars of Lady Vernon’s conduct.
I shall certainly accept your kind invitation, for though I had resolved against any introduction to Lady Vernon, I confess that I long to see her so that I may form my own idea of the sort of bewitching powers that can engage, at the same time and in the same house, the interest of two so very different men as Robert Manwaring and Sir James Martin (though, in the latter case, her motivation was to secure him for Miss Vernon).
I am glad that she does not come with her mother to Churchill, as, according to Charles Smith, she is dull and proud and has not even manners to recommend her. When pride and stupidity are united, they will inspire such unrelenting contempt that even the simulation of notice is too great an exertion, but where pride is joined with the sort of captivating deceit as Lady Vernon is said to possess, the opportunity to witness it cannot be declined.
I shall be with you very soon, and am,
Your affectionate brother,
Reginald deCourcy
This letter was the first information that Mrs. Vernon had of her husband’s invitation to Reginald. She was very surprised, but she was so used to being indulged that she supposed Charles’s real motive was to console her for the loss of a Christmas at Parklands, and to appease her for having to put up with Lady Vernon. This absolute assurance that affection for her had been uppermost in everyone’s mind very nearly reconciled Mrs. Vernon to the inconvenience of hospitality.
chapter twenty-one
Catherine Vernon had been bred to think of herself as a woman of fashion, but a weak understanding and the indulgence of a fond mother had left her susceptible to think too well of herself and too meanly of others.
She went down to meet Lady Vernon’s carriage with a determination to be perfectly civil, and yet her greeting was lacking in the warmth and cordiality that might persuade Lady Vernon that they sprang from any genuine feeling. Persuaded as she was that Lady Vernon had objected to her marriage, Catherine might be excused for some coolness, and yet where there is a disposition to dislike, a motive will never be wanting.
Catherine anticipated that her own coolness would be reciprocated, for she quite expected to find Lady Vernon to be a dangerous, cold, and forbidding sort of creature, and was very surprised to find her excessively pretty, with such a union of symmetry, brilliance, and grace that she might have been taken for a woman of no more than five and twenty.
When Catherine ushered Lady Vernon into the sitting room, Lady Vernon made mention of some minor alteration in furnishings and complimented her sister-in-law’s taste. She then thanked Catherine for receiving her and added, “I am not apt, my dear Mrs. Vernon, to affect sensations unfamiliar to my heart, and therefore I trust that you will believe me when I declare that as much as I had heard in your praise before this meeting, I see that it was very short of the truth. I am gratified by your kind welcome, particularly as I have reason to believe that some attempts were made to prejudice you against me. I only wish—but upon that subject, let us say no more! I will only thank you for your goodness and Mr. Vernon for his generosity—but I know that he was always the fondest of brothers and I never doubted that he would receive me for dear Frederick’s sake.”
Catherine Vernon could not be insensible to the effect of Lady Vernon’s sweet voice and winning manner. It must be a superior deceit, she decided, and wondered how a disposition that could temper her resentful heart might work on her husband’s generosity.
“I cannot think where Mr. Vernon has gone to,” declared Catherine, and she repeated the phrase whenever the conversation sank into a lull until the appearance of the children relieved her of the exertion.
To Catherine’s surprise, Lady Vernon addressed the children in a tone that was frank, gentle, and even affectionate, greeting each child by name and exclaiming over the younger of the two boys, who was her late husband’s namesake. “You must be dear little Frederick!” she cried, and careless of her gown, she took the child into her arms and gave him a kiss, and then distributed presents to all of them.
Charles Vernon appeared at last, and summoning a smile of welcome, he cried, “My dear sister!” and took her hands and kissed her cheek in an awkward show of affection.
He then sat down and began to speak very quickly, running from subject to subject and barely pausing to allow for any response, stopping only to turn upon the children and reprimand them for the untidy manner in which they had thrown their wrappings and boxes on the carpet and then to attempt a jovial remark about how the children would make Lady Vernon “long for the everyday commotion of Langford,” adding that the Manwarings must have been very sorry to have her leave them so soon.
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