Intolerable Civility

Chapter Seventeen: Dirty, Deceitful Deed

Demery would have left for London the next day, but his stable master discovered that his lead horse was starting to lame and insisted on stall-rest for at least a week. Cate was half-relieved and half-anxious to hear it. The relief was because it meant she would not be alone with Sarah, who was a stranger to her. The anxiety was because she thought that Demery must blame her for this too, as it was in travelling to see her that the horse had started to lame. Certainly, he was colder than normal towards her: none of Sarah's slyest machinations could bring him to the dinner table in the evening and if Cate happened to run into him during the day, she received no more than a scowl of acknowledgement.

After a while, even Sarah noticed.

"David has been gloomy lately, hasn't he?" she said at the dinner table one evening. "I mean, he always is rather gloomy, but he seems quite stormy lately. I pointed out that there is a robin nesting outside my window and he said that baby birds are a cawing nuisance."

"He is upset about his business," Cate said. "He lost an investor by coming here, and the longer he stays, the more time he loses to find another."

"Lord Varley." Sarah nodded over her steak and potatoes. "It was all but certain he would invest if David could just have stayed to meet him."

Cate picked at her food uneasily. She knew Lord Varley. He was very wealthy, youngish, handsome and rather pleasant. She had been slightly disappointed when he had married two years ago. Disappointed for nothing, since Lord Varley had barely noticed her existence, but it had been nice to daydream about what might happen if he ever did. It would have been useless anyway: her father hated Varley because once Lord Varley had made him the butt of a joke at a dinner party. It was a clever joke, if not entirely kind. Anyone else would have laughed it off. Not Sir William.

"But not to worry. When David goes back to London, he will find another investor soon enough. It is a very good proposition, I understand." Sarah was sanguine as she sliced her carrots. "At least, David tells me it is good, and I believe him."

He had not told Cate much at all. She suspected she would not understand if he did. Slate was a rock, she knew. It came from the ground. It had to be dug up. Then it could be sold to make roofs and roads.

"David wanted to ask my father to invest," Cate said. "I think my father would, if he knew there was money to be made." And if he thought he was cutting Lord Varley out. "It would have saved David time and his trip to London, but I... told him I... did not like the idea."

Sarah nibbled thoughtfully at a carrot. "I do not see why your father should be involved, if there is no loss of love there. When the London season takes off, David will return to have his pick of eager investors. Perhaps Lord Varley will be even more eager to invest then. After all, he left town to attend to his wife who was having a baby. So, perhaps David leaving town to attend to you will impress him more than if David had kept the interview."

"That's an optimistic perspective. I don't think David feels the same way. He seems to think that Varley will not consider the investment now."

"He always was a pessimist." Sarah shrugged. "Even if Varley falls through, there will be others. London is full of rich men."

That made Cate feel a little better. She had been feeling guilty about refusing to ask her father to speak with David. She was very much aware of how much she owed David, and this was the only thing he ever had asked of her. But it was quite impossible to give it to him. She could not bear the idea of seeing her father again.

"I might return to London with him," Sarah said, offhand. "Wales is beginning to bore me already. Oh, it's not your company, dear cousin. It is just..." She waved her hand in the air. "...Wales."