The Lady to Match a Rogue: Faith (The Baggington Sisters Book 4) Read online

  “I do,” Faith said. “But Hope declares it unfinished.”

  Jesse just shook his head. He knew his sisters; Hope, as well as Faith. Hope was ever the perfectionist. The silence stretched as Faith’s mind wandered back to Mr. Titherington. Jesse offered a knowing grin and Faith did not care for it.

  “Oh, I see,” Jesse said. “You are musing, sister mine.”

  “I am not.”

  “You are not thinking of the gentleman then…the reformed one?”

  “That is his claim,” she said. “I thought nothing of the matter.”

  “Do you mean to tell me that you did not find the man the least bit attractive?” Jesse asked with a smirk.

  “Of course not, and I certainly did not invite the conversation to continue,” she argued. “No matter what you say.”

  “Perhaps. Perhaps not. You see, I too have heard of this Titherington fellow. It is no secret that he has left dozens of ladies in his wake. Their attempts to land his attentions have been to no avail. Guard yourself, sister. He is a heartbreaker.”

  “Well, he shan’t have mine. He is rogue through and through,” Faith replied and with the thought of rogues, a scene became clear to her in her mind. She excused herself and pulled out her notebook to capture the story. She burned down two candles as she wrote well into the night on the wings of her inspiration.

  4

  After writing long into the night, Faith did not want to wake when the sun rose, but Hope insisted that if they did not hurry they would be late for the Baroness Torsford’s tea.

  “Oh bother,” Faith groaned. “I don’t want to go.” She rolled over and put the pillow over her head.

  “We promised.”

  “No. You promised,” Faith said, peeking from under the pillow, but nonetheless, she capitulated. With a fortifying cup of tea in her hand, and her eyes half- closed, she submitted to her sister’s ministrations.

  She felt like a doll that had been primped and prodded until a look of casual perfection, so well done that it appeared the result of a natural effortlessness, had been achieved. Faith did not look forward to the daunting afternoon tea that the sisters were to attend, but Hope was excited.

  “We will become part of society again,” she said. “You will see.”

  “I do not care a whit about polite society,” Faith said. “I was always under the impression that you didn’t either.”

  “Well, how can we write about society if we do not actually experience it?”

  “We have never been on a pirate ship either,” Faith said with a twinkle in her eye. “Do you propose we attempt that as well?”

  “Don’t be silly,” Hope chided.

  “I think we have done well enough without experiencing everything we write about,” Faith said.

  “I suppose that is true,” Hope capitulated as they headed out to the carriage. The footman handed them both up.

  Faith sighed and leaned her head back against the tufted cushion. “Why is Mercy allowed a polite refusal when she is the one that ought to be out?” Faith complained as they bumbled along in the carriage that Hope had bullied from their brother’s use for the day.

  “Mercy is peculiar,” Hope replied. “She would likely fall mute in such a crowd of ladies and that would be sure to cause a stir about town. No. It is best that we do this and keep the name for all. Mother agrees. Mercy will appreciate our duty.”

  “And where is Mother?” Faith asked.

  “Down with a megrim. I’m sure that the Baroness will be chaperone enough once we arrive.”

  It was again a fine day. After nearly a week of mist and fog, Faith wanted nothing more than to be out of doors; not trapped in some stuffy sitting room with a collection of ladies who probably did not even want them there in the first place.

  She continued to complain and her sister pierced her with a firm glare in return.

  “Do not look at me so. You cannot refute the truth of it,” Faith argued. “They will never think of us as anything other than “the Baggage” and you know it.”

  “Whoever came up with that horrid nickname ought to be tarred and feathered,” Hope said. “Honestly, what a thing to say and the whole town has taken it up like some sort of mantra.”

  “I know it is what they whisper whenever we walk past; surely, you know it too. Honestly, Hope, I do not know why you would give any of them the time of day.”

  “Don’t be fractious, sister. It does not suit you.” Hope replied and waved her hand as if waving away her sister’s concern. “We must be above such gossip. Lady Ainsworth said that she would be there too, so we will have at least one friend.”

  “We were only invited to prevent a slight to her,” Faith grumbled. “Or at best as a novelty for our alike looks. Sometimes I think we ought to join a traveling show and charge people to stare when they do so freely anyway.”

  Her twin laughed at this even though Faith had not meant it with so much humor.

  “There we are! Smile at least,” Hope said. “There are several ladies that I like well enough and would like to know more of the others.”

  Faith stuck out her tongue and Hope laughed harder.

  “I shall smile for you only because I love you dearly,” Faith replied, “but do try to place your expectations at your feet for I feel that you will be sorely disappointed when you find them incapable of viewing us in any other light than the one in which our family has already been painted.”

  “Then we shall prove them wrong and show the truth of our colors, shall we?”

  Faith did not reply. She would try her best. It was the least that could be done and, after all, her surliness would do nothing to aid in the reformation of the town’s opinion of the Baggingtons.

  “I wish it were a picnic,” she grumbled for her own ears alone, her last woeful sigh for the afternoon escaping her lips as she stared out at the beauty of the day

  Their carriage arrived just behind that of the young Lady Ainsworth.

  “Hope!” Addie cried with a wave as her footman went to ring the bell. “I am so glad that you are joining us.”

  Faith looked up and bit back her smile at the greeting. A moment later her sister was handed down and Lady Ainsworth was forced to look at the pair of them and attempt to glean which one she had meant to greet.

  “Oh bother,” Addie giggled looking from one to the other. “I cannot yet boast to telling the two of you apart. Please, give me a hint so that I might not be made a fool within.”

  The girls took a moment becoming acquainted. When all was sorted, the three ladies turned toward the manor where their entrance was awaited.

  The Baron Torsford employed an irritable old butler named Hughes who looked down his nose at them with disapproval. It was clear that he did not like to be made to wait. He neither gestured nor spoke to them, but turned upon his heel to lead them further into the house.

  By the time that they reached the library, Faith began to suspect that there was more to his annoyance than their informal greeting beside the carriages. There were few enough pairs of twins in the surrounding neighborhood for all to recognize Faith and her sister as the youngest Baggingtons. Faith began to wonder if the butler’s cool demeanor had more to do with a snobbish view that, perhaps, she and her sister were unworthy of a visit to the Baroness.

  “Addie, darling! Hope!” Caroline, Lady Torsford stood to greet them, and Hope immediately bade her sit.

  Lady Torsford was in a rather advanced state of pregnancy and the fact that she was entertaining at all was a bit out of the ordinary, but she confessed that she was utterly bored with the endless waiting for her little bundle to arrive. “This must be your sister, Faith. Am I correct? I must admit that I have been longing for an introduction.”

  “Once you have been introduced to one Baggington, I suspect, a dozen more are no different,” a rather droll voice muttered into her tea as the figure looked out the window ignoring them rudely. The lady only later turned to offer a half-nod to Lady Ainsworth, but gave no ackn
owledgment at all to the twins.

  “You must forgive Mary-Elizabeth,” Lady Torsford said.

  Must we? Why? Faith thought uncharitably.

  The baroness shot her husband’s sister a chastising glare which had no effect upon its recipient. “She finds our sex in general rather boring.”

  And yet we are deemed the baggage, Faith thought.

  “I cannot say that I deny that,” Miss Mary-Elizabeth Charleston moved away from the window and took her place at the table. Two other ladies were already seated. Mary-Elizabeth spoke. “Mother has always isolated me against my wishes, and I find myself rather bored, especially here in the country where all the interesting gentlemen are either taken or away to Town.”

  “There is one interesting fellow that only just arrived, if you must know,” A young lady introduced as Miss Edith Cadbrook said with a giggle. She took a pointed bite of her cucumber sandwich so that the others must wait in agony for her to continue.

  Faith wondered if the lady was about to name the gentleman that she had met upon the lane. Surely there could not be so many newcomers in Nettlefold as to mean someone different. Her assumptions were soon proven wrong as Lady Edith broke into an excited tale about one Mr. Arthur Emerson.

  Hope reached out under the table and caught Faith’s hand. She squeezed it meaningfully.

  “An author?” Miss Mary-Elizabeth gasped. “Heavens, what is he doing in Upper Nettlefold?”

  “Writing his next work, I presume,” Lady Torsford said with a smile. “Is it true that he is your very own cousin, Hope and yours too Faith?” The Baroness turned to Faith with a gentle smile.

  “Yes,” Faith choked wondering how the women had heard of him. She had only spoken to the widow at the book shop. She had not expected his, or rather her, existence to become common knowledge.

  “Do you think you could get a bit of a manuscript to read to the girls at the school?” the baroness said. “It would be very exciting, I am sure.”

  “Not at all,” Hope replied with a frown at Faith.

  “Our cousin tends to be very private with his work,” Faith added

  “Oh, then, he is staying with you!” Caroline clapped her hands in excitement.

  “Oh no! He has his own…cottage.” Faith frantically searched for a topic to change the conversation, but she was completely out of her depth. She could have written witty banter given time to muse on the proper response, but engaging in it was quite a different matter. How was she going to get out of this predicament? Then the thought came to her. She would read to the girls at the school herself. She felt a swell of pride thinking that she would help lead these girls from being the empty headed milksops that society expected of them.

  “Well, I am sure I can read some writings instead,” Faith said. “If you wish…”

  “Oh, no,” Mary-Elizabeth interrupted. “You do not want the girls turned into bluestockings!”

  “You write also?” Lady Ainsworth said, but Faith had no time to answer.

  “Writing is all well for a hobby but not something a lady can expect to go on about,” Miss Mary-Elizabeth said with a cool shrug. “It is not as if you can expect your husband to allow it.”

  “How fortunate then that we haven’t husbands,” Faith snapped before she could stop herself. She threw a look at Hope. Had she told Lady Ainsworth about their shared pastime? The thought made her feel betrayed. Writing was their pursuit, not to be shared with others indiscriminately.

  “How fortunate indeed,” Mary-Elizabeth replied with an impeccably arched brow. “Though, with as many elder siblings as you boast you cannot expect much. Especially since your family is no longer well-known in the neighborhood and your father was so disliked.” She laughed cruelly. “Heavens, I thought the lot of you holed up and done for and yet, here you are.” She turned her nose up as if she smelled something foul. Faith wanted nothing more than to disappear or perhaps smack the chit.

  “Perhaps you ought to consider trade,” Mary-Elizabeth continued haughtily. “It may prove handy to avoid a desolate future.” She lifted her tea to her lips and stared off as if she had not said anything offensive at all.

  “Mary-Elizabeth!” the Dowager Lady Torsford gasped.

  “Have I said an untruth, Mother?” Mary-Elizabeth replied. “If they are truly taken with such bluestocking notions, no gentleman will want to saddle himself with such baggage.” Two of the other ladies snickered into their napkins. Only Lady Torsford, the Dowager and Lady Ainsworth seemed indignant but they were too proper to cause a row.

  Faith watched her sister’s hands shake as she placed her cup upon its saucer. It was very important to Hope that she be well-received at this tea, and Faith could see all her sister’s optimistic hopes crumbling under the harsh glare of reality.

  She could take it no more. For herself, she would have let the comment pass, but Hope had so counted on being accepted, and Faith fumed on behalf of her sister. Her hands clasped in tight fists on her lap as she worried her napkin.

  “A funny thing that you should mention it, Miss Charleston,” Faith allowed her voice to fall into a low tone that warned she would not be intimidated. Perhaps the lady thought she was dealing with the meek mannered Mercy. She was not. “I’ve eight siblings and less fear of my prospects than if we were to trade places. You, are the eldest daughter, and still not spoken for… Oh do not frown so. It fills your brow with wrinkles.” Mary-Elizabeth gasped as Faith continued. “Why, your mother must be quite frantic for you, unmarried at your age.”

  Though Faith did not believe a word of her speech, she feigned her confidence to put the wretch of a lady in her place. What Mary-Elizabeth said was true; the twins did not have good prospects. In fact, they had no prospects at all.

  Miss Mary-Elizabeth, for all her harsh ways, was beautiful and could likely have any man she set her cap for because men as a whole only saw the packaging of a woman and not the person inside. Still, Faith continued matter-of-factly. “Hope and I are only just out with one sister unmarried ahead of us. I think we need not have cause for concern just yet, but I thank you for your warning and mean not to forget how important it is to have a vocation to fall back upon if a husband does not snap us up. I am sure such worry is at the forefront of your mind.”

  Hope picked up her train of thought as Faith paused, her mouth dry. “At least a woman who well-read has purpose as a governess or school mistress if the worst should happen, is that not correct?” She nodded towards Caroline who had herself been a school marm before her marriage to the baron, and she still embraced education for young women. “Is that not the mantra you gave to your charges, Lady Torsford?”

  Lady Ainsworth who was acquainted with some of Caroline’s young pupils nodded.

  “Certainly,” Lady Torsford agreed. “I cannot believe that too much reading is a detriment to a woman’s brain.”

  Emily chuckled and exchanged glances with Edith. Neither added to the conversation.

  Faith continued, “Still, an educated woman, has choices, unlike the woman who has nothing but a pretty face to trade for her bread.”

  The room hushed at the implications of such a trade. Faith knew she was treading dangerously close to vulgarity, but her anger got the best of her.

  Hope interrupted.

  “I should like to formally invite you and your sisters to Mortel Manor, should you fall on hard times,” Hope offered drawing the conversation back to herself and away from her out-of-control twin.

  Faith opened her mouth to protest such an invitation, but then she saw the horror in Mary-Elizabeth’s face, and echoed Hope’s sentiments, smiling at Mary-Elizabeth’s younger sisters who stared, silent and wide-eyed.

  Miss Mary-Elizabeth, used to dolling out cool remarks, but not so adept at taking them, set her cup on the saucer so hard that the drink spilled across the table cloth and the cup fell to the floor where it shattered.

  “I shall not be offended,” Mary-Elizabeth said once she had collected herself. She stood and looked down
upon the twins as if she wished them to burst into flame at her gaze, but Faith suspected that they had struck a nerve. “You do not have much experience in the ways of proper society, and I doubt that you ever will.” Her voice was a low hiss.

  “I have never broken a hostess’ teacup,” Faith retorted sharply.

  “I do believe I have heard gentlemen are known to like sweet-tempered women,” Hope added quietly, the very picture of a gentile lady, as she sipped from her own cup.

  Lady Ainsworth snorted, a most unladylike sound, and covered her lips with her napkin.

  With that, Mary-Elizabeth stormed from the room and the table fell silent.

  Faith’s only thought was that at least the lady had escaped the tea. She was still stuck here. Nonetheless, a particular scene started to come to her, so she let her mind wander while Hope held the conversation for both of them. She wished she could take out her notebook and jot down her thoughts, but that would be beyond rude. She had already trod too close to that line, and Hope would be vexed with her. She would simply have to hold the thoughts in her head until she had a moment to record them.

  “I apologize for Mary-Elizabeth’s behavior,” Lady Torsford said with a sigh when it all was over. The other ladies were strangely silent without Mary-Elizabeth leading.

  “We were no better,” Faith said. “I do apologize. I should not have allowed her to unsettle me. It is only that, Hope so looked forward to this tea, and it seemed that it was all going sideways.” She threw a glance at her sister. “I cannot bear for her to be hurt.”

  “Oh, I never would have invited her to be hurt,” Caroline said horrified. “I wanted to welcome your family back into society. It is not your fault your father was so reclusive,” she said catching Hope’s hand. “I want you to think of me as a friend.”

  “I doubt either will think of Mary-Elizabeth as a friend,” Lady Ainsworth said, joining their conversation as they paused in the foyer.