Scales and Sensibility by Stephanie Burgis

Chapter 33

“Not,” said Mrs. De Lacey firmly, “until someone explains to me what’s going on.”

Penelope said, “She stole my dragon and lied to us and took my fiancé!”

Gritting her teeth, Elinor nudged Benedict out of her way. “He was never your fiancé.”

“Not even a future fiancé,” Benedict whispered into her ear. He had let go of one of her arms, but he held the other firmly tucked against his side.

“But who is she?” Mrs. De Lacey demanded. She tapped one strong finger against her dragon’s side. “Elinor Tregarth…Mary’s little sister married a man called Tregarth, didn’t she? I hadn’t seen her for years by then, of course, but I heard he’d lost his money and then got them both killed. He left their daughters destitute, didn’t he?”

“Very sad,” Miss Armitage murmured, “but if you’ll all excuse me now…”

“No,” said Elinor. “Wait!” She moved forward, pulling Benedict with her, to stand between Miss Armitage and the door. Disaster, it seemed, was a state well beyond panic. Once everything had already been lost, there was nothing left to fear…so her brain could finally begin to function properly again. “I want to hear about the gossip that brought Mrs. De Lacey here. Those disturbing rumours.”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Miss Armitage said. “She must have heard that she was known to be here. Why wouldn’t she come running to investigate?”

“I don’t think that was it,” Elinor said. “She said it was a matter of duty. I think she was referring to those rumours that you spread in your own letters—the rumours that Sir John was having his own wife declared to be mad.”

Penelope let out a squeak of horror. “You told people? How could you?”

“The question is,” said Mrs. De Lacey coldly, “is it true?”

Sir John’s face had moved beyond puce to a mottled medley of colours. “Will everyone stop interfering?” he bellowed. “I am the head of this household! I make my own decisions. I—”

“It is perfectly true,” said Lady Hathergill. “My husband is a selfish, stupid man who cannot bear to be contradicted, and he is declaring me mad only for his and our daughter’s convenience.” She blinked. “Good heavens. Nothing was driving me to say any of that…but I said it anyway. And it felt delightful!”

“You will soon feel even better,” said Mrs. De Lacey grimly. “Sir John is about to re-consider his scheme.”

“The devil I will!” Sir John stomped towards her, bullish shoulders squared. “I have had quite enough of being ordered around by you, ma’am, one way or another, across this past week! If you think you can tell me how to manage my own wife—”

“I can tell you,” Mrs. De Lacey said, raising her right hand in warning, “that I have the ears of every hostess in London. I couldn’t stop my dearest friend from marrying you all those years ago, but now, at least, I have the power to protect her from your abuse. If you make any move to confine her against her will, I will see your daughter blackballed and a social outcast. She won’t even be allowed to glance at the front door of Almack’s.”

Penelope let out a scream of horror. “Papa! You won’t—you can’t let her—”

“There is,” said Miss Armitage, “another solution.” She stepped into the center of the room and waited for all eyes to turn to her before she continued. “My brother, as you all know, is passionately in love with Miss Hathergill. He would be more than happy to announce their betrothal now, tonight, at her début ball. As a matron of substance, she will be far safer from the social tyranny of Mrs. De Lacey, and you, Sir John, will be quite free to do as you like in your own household. As you should be.” She smiled, dark eyelashes drifting down to conceal her eyes.

“You really are a despicable creature,” Lady Hathergill said.

Even in the midst of fury, Elinor felt a moment of true admiration. Her aunt, it seemed, had not lost her ability to tell the truth or to stand up to injustice anymore.

Sir John frowned thoughtfully. “Penelope does like him—”

“I can’t be an outcast,” Penelope breathed. “I just can’t!”

Sir John nodded. “In that case…”

Elinor stared at Miss Armitage with open loathing. A smile was playing at the corners of the other girl’s mouth. She looked, of course, as unlike her brother as two people could look, but their danger felt exactly equal. And…

Wait.

Elinor felt her pulse speed up against her throat. She swallowed hard as an impossible idea blossomed inside her.

“Wait,” she breathed. “Wait.”

“What is it?” Benedict said.

“She and her brother knew from the beginning,” said Elinor. “They knew exactly what had happened to your father, even though you had kept it so carefully secret. But they didn’t tell Sir John. There was never any reason for them to keep their silence on that, especially when they were so desperate to betroth Mr. Armitage to Penelope—unless they were too afraid to risk bringing up the topic.”

Miss Armitage’s eyes flared open. “You’re speaking nonsense. And as you’re no more than a penniless hanger-on who is about to be transported—”

“No one had heard of them in London until this past year,” said Elinor. “They appeared out of nowhere, complete with wealth and a newly-purchased estate. No one had even heard of their whole family before.”

“That is true,” Mrs. De Lacey agreed judiciously, “although we must remember that many wealthy families newly-arrived in Society do prefer to make a mystery of their background. Take Sir John, for instance, who likes to pretend that he does not come from a background of low trade.”

Sir John scowled. “Look here, ma’am—”

“And she looks nothing like her brother,” Elinor added. “But we do all know of another charming couple who are also exceptionally persuasive...and good at keeping secrets.”

Realization dawned in Benedict’s eyes. “You don’t really think—”

“She can’t think!” Miss Armitage snapped. “None of you should listen to her. You all know exactly who she is! You told me about her, remember, Penelope? How useless, how pathetic, how utterly plain and unwanted by anybody—”

“I may be all of those things,” Elinor said, “but I am right.”

Knowledge surged through her with the force of true power. She pulled her arm free from Benedict’s support and stepped forward to glare at Miss Armitage, eye-to-eye. “You,” she said. “Armitage is not your name. And that man you arrived with is not your brother!”

“What are you talking about?” Penelope demanded. “What would you know about fashionable people or society?”

“I read the society columns,” said Elinor, “and I remember the stories I’ve been told. So I believe that Mr. ‘Armitage’ is actually her husband. His betrothal to you would be illegal, and you would be attempting bigamy with it. He and his so-called sister are the same pair of fraudsters who came up with a so-called investment scheme and stole all of the money from my and Benedict’s fathers, among other unfortunates.”

Penelope collapsed onto a chair. “Bigamy?”

Miss Armitage said, “I am not going to stand here listening to this libel from a nobody. I’m leaving!”

“I don’t think so.” Benedict moved to bar the door, his face white with rage. “I’ve wanted to catch the fraudsters who ruined my father’s life for over a year now. I, for one, will not let you go.”

“But why does he even want to marry Penelope, if he’s already married?” Lady Hathergill inquired.

“Quite!” said Miss Armitage. “An excellent point. Thank you, Lady Hathergill.”

“Oh, don’t thank me.” Lady Hathergill’s nostrils flared with disdain. “You want to see me locked up for my husband’s convenience. I’m only asking my niece a question, because I want to hear her answer.”

“He doesn’t want to marry her,” said Elinor. “He only wants an official betrothal. It has to be because of her famous fortune.” All of the pieces were snapping into place, now. She’d spent the last week worrying so much about her own disguise, she’d barely noticed all of the clues that the other two had dropped. Now they all came back to her in a rush. “They arrived unexpectedly early because they’d canceled a different visit. They took care to frighten away all of her other male visitors by spreading false rumours of her mother’s madness. Now they’re desperate to have a public announcement of the betrothal by the end of tonight.”

“They’re in a hurry,” Benedict said. “In other words, they’ve been found out.”

“Exactly. Someone must have discovered their secret.” Elinor crossed her arms. “I may be a nobody,” she told Miss Armitage. “I may be just as penniless and as powerless as you and your husband both made me when you tricked my father into handing over everything. But I still have my common sense. So I think you’re planning to blackmail a fortune out of Sir John the very moment that Penelope publicly and undeniably commits herself to your husband…a fortune that the two of you can carry with you when you flee the country afterwards.”

“Because,” Benedict finished with unmistakable relish, “you can’t carry your grand new estate with you, can you? That’s the estate, of course, that you bought with our parents’ money, as your introduction to Society.”

Sir John, for once, said nothing at all. He had staggered back a step and was staring at Miss Armitage as if she were a poisonous snake. Mrs. De Lacey, though, took a step closer, and regarded her with dark eyebrows raised disdainfully.

“I never cared for you or your so-called brother,” she said finally. “An untrustworthy, slippery pair, the two of you. Born blackmailers, I always thought. I am not at all surprised.”

Lady Hathergill kept her own mouth shut and—for once, lately—did not speak. But she did smile with perfect satisfaction.

Miss Armitage’s lips curled as she looked around the room. “You have no proof,” she said, “and you cannot hold me here without it. Sir John—and the real Mrs. De Lacey—I bid you both goodnight.”

An unexpected voice spoke from the other end of the room.

“Miss Tregarth might not have proof,” said Sally as she stepped through the servants’ door, “but I do.”

* * *

Lady Hathergill said,“Is that one of our maids?”

“Sally.” Elinor took a step forward, trying to read the other girl’s face. Was this revenge, or something completely different? “I’m sorry I haven’t—”

“Oh, yes, you have,” said Sally, and her smile was fierce. “Poor Miss Lucinda had the misfortune of bumping into a maid carrying a whole tray of champagne glasses, not twenty minutes ago. What do you think came falling out of her gown right in front of everyone—including that very lady whose fan she’d tried to steal last month? Lady Hathergill’s diamond bracelet, that’s what! There’s no covering up for her thievery anymore—and everybody knows, now, that she must have been behind those earlier thefts, too.”

“Thank goodness,” Elinor said. “Your sister is safe.”

“What the devil are you two talking about? And why is one of our maids talking at all?” Sir John roared.

Sally bobbed a curtsey. “Beg pardon, sir, but I couldn’t help overhearing, and I thought I should mention what I found in Miss Armitage’s room.”

Servants know everything, Elinor thought. A smile spread across her own face, to match Sally’s wide grin.

Miss Armitage’s face had paled. “If you are all going to start listening to a maid now—”

“Oh, I didn’t think anyone ever would,” said Sally, “but Miss Tregarth has done me a true favor, so I thought that I should do her one in return.”

She reached into the pocket of her apron and withdrew a sheaf of papers. Miss Armitage made a muffled sound of protest as she saw them, and Sally’s eyes widened in innocent surprise.

“I’ve only brought your marriage lines for you, ma’am. Aren’t you glad? You forgot to lock your box this morning, you see, so I thought I’d better keep them safe for you. I brought the deed to your husband’s estate, too—I must say, I thought it more than odd that he was carrying that with him. Not the usual sort of thing you’d bring along for a week-long jaunt to a house party.”

“You are brilliant,” said Elinor. “Oh, Sally. Thank you!”

Sally’s face was flushed as she met Elinor’s gaze, but she held her chin high. “I gathered other things, too,” she said to Elinor, “in case I needed them. But you proved me wrong, miss, and helped me even when you didn’t need to anymore. I won’t do any less in return. I did listen to what you said last week, you know. But I couldn’t hold back when Daisy needed protecting.”

“I understand,” Elinor said. She looked at Benedict, standing before the door, strong and true and on her side forever, and she thought of her sisters. “I would have done the same.”

There was a sudden flutter of skirts—Miss Armitage making a dash for the open door to the servants’ passageway. Benedict and Sir John both started forward.

But it was Sally who stuck out a foot and tripped her neatly, sending the other girl sprawling on the floor.

“Oops.” Sally smiled at Elinor. “Two accidents in one evening. How clumsy I’m becoming!”