Scandal's Daughters

Chapter 5

For a lass who had never been farther from home than the next village, each turn in the road, each fresh vista, was a revelation to Elspeth. The early summer sunshine made even the mud sparkle as the slow moving dray afforded her a spectacular view of the Pennine Hills, which pointed like a huge earthen arrow across the Midlothian countryside toward the capital.

Four hours of travel, during which the dray mon spoke all of three words to her—“There it be”—brought them to the edge of the metropolis. To the north, the city seemed to rise up out of the earth like a stone dragon’s spine beneath the high outcrop of Arthur’s Seat, and what had to be the lush green parkland of the Holyrood Palace rolling away to the east.

Within the city, the streets were close and narrow and rattling with the deafening noise of a hundred horses’ and oxen’s hooves clattering along the slick, uneven cobbles. Elspeth could barely think for all the sound—she had never heard anything like it.

But mercifully for her ears, the dray mon finally made his slow, laborious way into a quieter neighborhood—an oasis of calm, lined with new trees in their first bud hemming a neat, green garden square where he drew his team to a halt in front of the prettiest wedding cake of a stone townhouse Elspeth had ever seen.

After having spent a good portion of the long ride imagining what a person of wicked disposition and dubious morals might look like, Elspeth was entirely unprepared for the elegant, refined woman in exquisite lavender silk who rushed out of the house to personally greet her on the steps of her equally elegant, refined townhouse.

“Oh, my darling niece!” The moment Elspeth stepped to the pavement, she found herself enveloped in a plushly scented embrace. “Oh, I would have known you anywhere! If you aren’t the very image of your darling mother. Such a lass! Her smile could light up half of Edinburgh, and I collect that yours will light up the other half.”

Elspeth was beyond astonished. And beyond pleased. In all of her four and twenty years, no one had ever said such a thing about her mother. Nor about her own smile.

But years of guarding herself against potential wickedness made Elspeth retreat from the effusive, warm embrace so she might make her aunt a properly restrained curtsey in greeting. “Lady Ivers. Thank you so very much for your kind invitation.”

“You are very welcome. I own myself delighted that you were finally able to accept after all these years.” Lady Ivers’ infectious laugh spilled across the street. “I suppose the sisters Murray finally judged you to be past the age of danger?”

Elspeth felt her cheeks heat in the face of such insight. “No, milady. I came on my own. Without their say so.”

“Gracious!” Lady Ivers clasped her hands in astonished delight. “Just so. But how was your journey? Not too fatiguing, I hope, for I am already making plans for you, my darling—to take you about as soon as may be, to show you the sights, and show the sights you!”

Lady Ivers escorted Elspeth into the entry room full of dramatic, polished black and white marble, but she had no time to gape, for as soon as she was divested of hat and cloak by a very refined attendant maid, the lady swept her up the curved stairs to a drawing room furnished in such a perfectly stunning shade of water blue, that Elspeth felt her breath catch in her throat.

The house was like something out of a dream—she had never even seen such glossy, tissue-thin silks at the drapers in the village. No one in their fusty hamlet could even have a call for such a sumptuous fabric, let alone the coin to purchase such lengths as were cascading from the tall, clear-paned windows.

Who knew iniquity would look so fine?

“My poor lamb, you look exhausted.” Lady Augusta put a hand to Elspeth’s face. “We must have some refreshment for you.”

“Thank you my lady. You are all kindness.”

“Nonsense. I haven’t a kind bone in my body,” the lady claimed while her angelic smile countered her argument. “I trust the Murray sisters will have thoroughly warned you against me.”

Elspeth must have looked conscious, for Lady Ivers immediately stopped with one hand to the bell pull. “Well, it is some comfort to know they have not changed a spit.”

Elspeth’s guilt made her take extra pains to make her explanation in as careful and refined a manner as her new aunt, but still, give her the truth. “I did not think it a profitable exercise, my lady, to ask for permission when none would be granted. They had kept all knowledge of your existence from me, so I made up my mind that I must come, while I had the chance with the dray mon.”

“Oh, you wonderfully intrepid lass. How brave you are—how like your mother.” Lady Ivers let out a happy sigh. “And what do you think of the city upon first impression?”

“The city is everything interesting and exciting, my lady, I thank you. Though I confess I also find it rather loud and very dirty.”

“Yes, I imagine you might after an overly quiet life in the country.”

Elspeth’s life had been more than quiet—it had been small. Dove Cottage was all she had known, but in the easy elegance of Lady Ivers’ garden of a home, she began to feel the prickles and thorns that might have grown on her character along with the roses that rambled up the walls of the auld cottage.

“But Auld Reeky, as we natives call Edinburgh, isn’t so bad, once you get to know her,” Lady Ivers assured Elspeth, while holding out a cup and saucer. “Sugar?”

“No, I thank you, my lady.” Elspeth had never acquired a taste for sweet growing up in a house with such strict economies that sugar was considered a luxury.

“You must call me Aunt.” Lady Augusta smiled and handed her the cup. “It would mean so much to me.”

“Thank you, Aunt Augusta.” Elspeth took a reviving sip of the strong, hot tea, grateful that this aunt did not seem to have to reuse her tea leaves until they could no longer color the water. “That’s full delicious.”

“Excellent! I must warn you I plan on spoiling you wonderfully, so you’ll have no thought of going home. Which will be a difficult task, I’ll warrant—I’ve no doubt you’re brimming with staunch moral fiber after having been brought up by the sisters Murray.”

“You know my aunts?”

“Oh, yes. We all grew up together, your mother, your father, your aunts and I, though I will point out that I was the youngest.” A wonderfully mischievous twinkle lighted her eyes. “And the one, they will have told you, with the most of the devil in me, though I am sure they will gainsay your father his share. The ‘devil’s cubs’ they called us, and did their best to keep your mother away from our influence. But that only made the nectar of forbidden fruit the sweeter for her. Ah, she was the loveliest girl, your mother. I can see you take after her in that way.” Aunt Augusta smiled and squeezed Elspeth’s hand again, and then returned to collect herself and pick up her teacup. “So, you, my dear, must, of course, stay here as long as you should like.”

Elspeth’s relief was more than profound—she felt as if she could draw breath for the first time in hours. “Thank you, Aunt Augusta. That is very generous of you.”

“You are most welcome.” She smiled on a sigh. “You know I have thought of you often. Every day.” She reached out a hand to gently touch Elspeth’s face. “All these years, wondering how you fared, wondering what you were like, if you looked like either of them. They were my greatest friends in the world, your mother and father.”

Something stranger than gratitude made a lump in Elspeth’s throat. “I was afraid that you might be ashamed of your illegitimate niece.”

“Illegitimate? Never! What nonsense. Who let you believe such a thing?” The lady’s soft tone went calmly vehement. “Your parents loved each other, and were handfasted, which is perfectly legal even if it wasn’t fine enough for the Murrays.” Lady Ivers put her chin up, as if facing an unseen enemy. “If they told you that, they were—and are—wrong. Your parents were married.”

It was the kindest, most generous thing anyone had ever said to her. Elspeth’s eyes grew dangerously damp. “Thank you, Aunt Augusta. That means so much to me.”

“I shall box their ears, the sisters Murray, if ever I should see them again.” Aunt Augusta took a deep breath and shook her head, as if realigning her thinking into more pleasing lines.

“I declare I am practically ravenous at the prospect of taking you about the town, for such a lovely girl will find no shortage of partners here in Edinburgh. You shall have your pick of the handsomest young gentlemen in no time.”

Elspeth was more than astonished—she was hopeful. “Do you really think so?”

“Absolutely.” Lady Augusta poured her a second dish of tea. “You’re just the sort of pretty, intelligent lass a clever young gentleman likes to talk to. You’ll see. Once we have our way with putting a bit of polish and dash to you, you’ll be just the thing.”

Elspeth hoped she would be some thing.

Most devoutly.