The Yuletide Countess: Harriet's Traditional Regency Romance Read online

  “They seem to be very clever,” Harriet observed.

  “I am very fond of them,” said Catherine. “I was sorry when Douglas was sent away to school, and am glad that Sophy will remain with me. It is so nice that he is home for the summer. They do miss each other when they are apart.”

  “Sent away?” Harriet echoed. “It is so far to the great schools in the south. It must be a difficult trip back at half term, and the poor lad must miss what family he has left.”

  “Yes, but without a mama, it is so difficult for Lord Glencairn, so I suppose it is best.”

  Harriet looked thoughtful, and then turned the subject. “I am delighted to find a gentlewoman so close by Dargenwater Cottage. Perhaps you will come and drink tea with me on your next half day? We must become better acquainted.”

  “My half days are Thursday, and Lord Glencairn is kind enough to allow me every Sunday,” Miss Dalburn replied.

  “Today is Tuesday,” Harriet answered cheerfully. “You must come to us on Thursday. Miss Paley will be as delighted as I am to make you acquaintance. Since she will be much occupied earlier in the afternoon, you and I will have time for a comfortable coze. “

  “Thank you for the invitation, Miss Walcott, I’ll await the day eagerly,” said Catherine. “And now, I suppose I should gather up my charges and return to the house for their lessons. As much as Lord Glencairn desires that they be out of doors, he realizes that their minds must be nurtured as well.”

  She acted on her words, by waving to Nan, who was near the banks of the Dargenwater with Douglas and Sophia. As they drew closer, Catherine and Harriet made their good byes, and soon the group could be seen walking back into the woods from which they had emerged. Harriet looked up at the sky, and saw the sun was no longer overhead.

  “Goodness Nan,” she exclaimed. “How long we have lingered here. Roll up the blanket please, and fold the chair while I attend to the easel.”

  Chapter 3.

  Later that afternoon, after Isobel had returned from her work site, the two ladies met in the drawing room to enjoy a reviving cup of tea before dinner.

  “Did you have a successful day at your digging site?” Harriet inquired as she poured tea for them both.

  Isobel added milk to her cup. “It has been very slow progress, but I think we are beginning to encounter some new walls that may indicate that there were far more buildings here than I had at first anticipated. I am quite excited now to see what the remainder of the summer may reveal.”

  “How delightful for you, Isobel,” Harriet exclaimed. “While I cannot share your enthusiasm for poking around in the mud, I am very glad you are so pleased with the progress.” She also added milk to her tea, then took a sip before continuing. “I too had a most interesting day. I walked down to the Dargenwater to do a little sketching, and had the opportunity to meet Lord Glencairn’s children and their governess.”

  “Did you indeed?” Isobel said in a surprised tone. “How very interesting. In three years of coming here, I’ve never met him, or seen the children.”

  “I learned today from the governess, Miss Catherine Dalburn, that Lady Glencairn died more than a decade ago. I gathered that Lord Glencairn is a rather reserved gentleman. Besides, this area is by no means populous.”

  “No, its emptiness is among its chief charms in my opinion, although I expect one might find more persons of quality nearby than we think, Harriet. Still, travel over these hills and rough roads does make entertaining and paying calls rather difficult,” Isobel observed.

  “Fortunately, Glencairn Castle is situated only a very short walk from here, and Miss Dalburn has said she will come to drink tea with me on her half day, two days hence,” Harriet declared triumphantly.

  “How delightful,” exclaimed Isobel. “Another gentlewoman nearby would be a great addition to our summer. You especially will benefit, for I know you are often bored when I am at my work site.”

  “Yes, I think you are right Isobel,” Harriet said. “Also, the children are adorable.”

  Isobel interrupted her with a laugh. “Harriet, you think all children adorable. You even find my brother’s brood tolerable.”

  “There is nothing wrong with little Freddie!” Harriet responded with some heat.

  “We will have to agree to disagree on this score,” Isobel said peaceably. “I will allow that you seem to have an excellent way with them. But perhaps you can tell me more of Glencairn’s offspring rather than debating the merits of my brother’s.”

  Oh, they are lovely children. Douglas looks to be about eleven years old and quite well grown. I let him try painting with my watercolors. Miss Sophia is thirteen, and bids fair to be quite a beauty. They are both clever and well-behaved. Miss Dalburn seems to have done very well with them since their mother’s death.”

  “Well, Harriet, I am eager to meet your Miss Dalburn, and learn more of our neighbors. I will definitely look forward to her visit her on Thursday. I’m less certain of the children, however,” she laughed. “I don’t think you have ever met a child you failed to find delightful.”

  The two days passed uneventfully, with Isobel working in her library in the early mornings and visiting her worksite each afternoon to update her sketches of the layout of the ancient roman settlement as it emerged from the earth. Harriet saw to her stitchery and correspondence and enjoyed her gentle walks. But the possibility of another lady with whom to converse in the neighborhood was powerfully appealing to her, so the cook was requested to prepare special cakes and biscuits for their visitor and the tea tray and the best china was laid out with great care.

  When the manservant opened the drawing room door and announced “Miss Dalburn,” Harriet leapt up to clasp her guest’s hand.

  “How good you are to walk here to join me for tea!” she exclaimed. “I have been looking forward to meeting again since Tuesday!”

  Miss Dalburn pressed her hand warmly. “I share your feelings,” she replied. “Lord Glencairn’s children are delightful, but I am very glad to have the company of a female friend.”

  “Do sit down,” Harriet said, waving at the settee. When the ritual of pouring tea and selecting cakes had been completed, the ladies settled back with contented sighs.

  “You must tell me a bit about yourself, Miss Dalburn, I know nothing but that you are in Lord Glencairn’s employ as a governess.”

  “Well, with a last name such as Dalburn, I suppose you can guess that I am of Scottish origin,” she replied. “But beyond that, the tale will not surprise you much, since the story of every governess is much the same; how fate led her to genteel poverty and a position in another family, rather than a marriage to a gentleman and a home of her own.”

  “So true, dear Miss Dalburn,” replied Harriet. “As a paid companion, however greatly cherished by my cousin, Miss Paley, my history will be a change rung on the same theme. Nonetheless, do share your story.”

  “My father was Sir Roderick Dalburn, and I have two sisters and a brother. He owned an estate in Aberdeenshire, and had a comfortable, though not large, fortune most of my life, and our family was a happy one. When my mother died however, he was overcome with grief. At first, he closeted himself in his library, or went for long, solitary walks, and spoke almost not at all. We all feared he might do himself harm, but knew not how to help him.”

  “Oh, how very painful for all of you this must have been,” Harriet sympathized.

  “Indeed it was,” Catherine concurred. “And yet, as I look back, were it not that his soul would have been damned for all time, I could almost wish he had done that which we feared. For after some months of this behavior, it was as though a mania seized him, and he became a man none of his children or his neighbors even recognized.”

  Catherine paused, and clasped her hands together, as Harriet murmured soothingly. “In any event, he became a drunk and a gamester, and engaged in every form of licentious behavior. He left Dalburn Park for the south, and we heard from him not at all, except for demands on the es
tate for money. We never saw him alive again, for after some months we received a letter telling us that he had died in an accident, having stumbled into the street when drunk, and fallen under the wheels of a carriage.”

  Harriet reached over to her and patted her shoulder. “I suppose that he had run through his entire fortune by then,” she said.

  “Oh yes,” Miss Dalburn said bitterly. “He had not had time to sell off the estate, but there were mortgages for my brother to repay. My mother’s small fortune was safe, as it was left for dowries, but it was not enough to provide large portions for three girls. My sisters favor her, and are short and bonny with curly hair; only I look like my father and brother, with their long frames, straight hair and darker coloring. They were able to marry gentlemen, but I am not pretty enough for a lack of fortune to be ignored. So, I chose to be a paid governess in another’s home rather than an unpaid one in the house of one of my siblings. My little inheritance is in the percents, so when I am old, I will at least have an income.”

  “Oh my dear,” sighed Harriet, reaching out for her hand. “‘Tis a tale one hears all too often. You will not be surprised to learn that mine is not so different, although I am luckier than you have been in Isobel, Miss Paley that is, being my relation, and so very generous to me.” She paused and refilled the tea cups, taking a sip before continuing.

  “The Walcotts and the Paleys are both large and prosperous families, widely spread across England. My father was a younger son in a more junior branch, and went into the church. Because of the family’s excellent connections he rose in the church to an archdeaconry, as well as being the holder of two very good livings. When I reached twenty, I had the chance of a Season in London thanks to the generosity of those same connections, with Lady Walcott bringing me out along with her daughter, a girl far lovelier than I and with the most pleasing manners. I didn’t take particularly, and had no fortune, so I returned home unwed. My father was carried off by a sudden fever the next winter, and my mother, sister and I had to remove to a cottage on the estate of another cousin, Viscount Wereham, who is Isobel’s brother, as without my father’s income our circumstances were much reduced.”

  “My mother suffered an apoplectic fit, and though she was revived, she never was able to care for herself again, for her right side was stricken and she could not walk or lift her arm. I was her nurse for the eight years that she lived. My brother was not suited to the church, so he went into the Army, where the family was of great help to him as they had been to my father. He is a Major in the Dragoon Guards, and it is generally thought that he will continue to rise. “

  “Five years ago, Miss Paley’s mother, the previous Lady Wereham, was preparing to bring Isobel out, and she offered to sponsor my younger and quite beautiful sister, Philippa. She was good enough to not only dress her, but also settle a respectable portion on her, and she married a Kentish gentleman with a lovely home near the sea. They have children of their own now. “

  “How came you to be Miss Paley’s companion and chaperone?” Miss Dalburn inquired in the silence that followed this recital. “It is an unusual thing for an unmarried woman of her age to be living in her own establishment, rather than with her brother and his wife.”

  “If you knew Miss Paley and her brother only a bit better, you might wonder less at it,” Harriet answered with a little laugh. “I will tell you a little of her brother, but since you will meet her shortly, when she comes in from her digging to join us, I will leave her to tell her own story. Her brother Viscount Wereham is as opposite her in personality as it is possible for a sibling to be. He is pedantic where she is witty, of average understanding where she is a scholar, and feels that men must have the ordering of women for their own sake, while she is a reader of the works of Mary Wollstonecraft.”

  A broad smile had grown across Miss Dalburn’s face as she heard this. “My only surprise now is that she is on speaking terms with him at all.”

  “Part of the reason that Miss Paley set up her own establishment was to ensure that she and Lord Wereham did remain on speaking terms. Her father doted on her and left her a manor of her own as well as a very handsome private income, so she has the means to do so, and to lead her life as she chooses. Since it is clearly ineligible for her to live alone, she invited me to join her as companion and chaperone. “

  “And why did you choose to live with Miss Paley rather than your sister? Surely she would be glad to have you in her home.”

  Harriet smiled. “I love Pippa dearly, but she lives quite retired, and I would feel much underfoot with her husband about the house. Truth to tell, Isobel’s way of life, though some might disapprove, is far more amusing to me, and she has need of me in a way that Pippa does not, as she cannot, for propriety’s sake, live alone. I am fortunate indeed to be in this position. Her home in Wiltshire, Kitswold, is delightful, and we remove to her elegant town house in London for the Season, then come here to the beautiful Scottish hills each summer so she can pursue her archaeological studies. Isobel does not like me to speak of her scholarly tendencies, with others, but I am sure she will hardly mind if I tell you.”

  “It sounds as though you are very attached to Scotland.” Miss Dalburn observed.

  “Very true,” Harriet answered. “I knew on our first journey here, as I saw the hills rising in the north, and the gorse and heath in bloom that this would become dear to my heart. But when I saw the Dargenwater, and realized the peace and silence of this place, I was lost completely. I would stay in Scotland year round if I could. No other place has ever suited me as well.”

  Just then a door could be heard opening in the hall, along with the indistinguishable rumble of the footman’s voice. Very soon, the door opened, and Isobel peered in.

  “Dear Harriet,” she said, “Here you are with your visitor. How delightful to see you here, Miss Dalburn. As you can see, I have just come in, a bit late I know, but we found another section of wall, and I could not tear myself away. I will go upstairs to dress and be back with you in a trice,” she continued, and promptly disappeared again.

  “What a strikingly beautiful young lady,” exclaimed Catherine.

  “Oh yes,” Harriet replied with pride. “Even after five Seasons she is still acclaimed as a diamond of the first water, and is very well liked, in spite of having refused any number of proposals of marriage.”

  “Refused any number of proposals?” Miss Dalburn repeated, astounded.

  “Oh indeed. You will remember that I told you she was a great one for Miss Wollstonecraft’s works.”

  “You cannot mean that she is a believer in those libertine notions promoted by Mr. Godwin and Shelley?” Miss Dalburn said.

  “Oh, I think not, but she is unwilling to give up a jot of her freedom to pursue her studies and do as she likes. She has also very recently had the example of her dear friend Lady Morgan’s difficult circumstances thrust before her, and is still more shy of marriage than ever before.”

  “And what happened to Lady Morgan?” Catherine enquired.

  “She is the former Letitia Devereux, and came out the same year as Isobel. They were great friends, and she married Lord Morgan after the end of the Season. They had two children, but he became more and more of a drinker and gambler it seems, and this past Season she appeared at Isobel’s townhouse one day with her two children, saying her husband had brought his mistress to Morgan Park, and told her leave and be damned!”

  “What a dreadful man he must be,” Catherine exclaimed.

  “Yes, and what’s worse, he came a few weeks later to London and forced her to return with him to Wales. Isobel was beside herself, but the law of course gives him every right to do so. As you can imagine, it hardened Isobel’s feelings about marriage still further. Just when I had begun to hope too that she might form a tendre for a delightful gentleman who was clearly dangling after her.”

  At that moment, the door reopened, and Isobel swept back in wearing a fresh dress, her hair pinned up modishly. “Miss Dalburn, how gl
ad I am to meet another lady living near Dargenwater cottage,” she said in a cheerful tone. “I hope that you have been enjoying Miss Walcott’s company, even though I am most atrociously late.”

  “Very much indeed, Miss Paley. I too am delighted to broaden my acquaintance here.”

  “I come here to work and study, so I live quietly, but I know that Harriet will be delighted to join you and Lord Glencairn’s children on your walks more often. She has not the company of the ancient Romans to amuse herself,” Isobel remarked.

  “Indeed, I should enjoy it very much,” Harriet chimed in. “The company of children, and a sensible gentlewoman would be charming.”

  As Isobel poured herself some tea, while pressing more tea and cakes on her companions, the conversation turned to general topics, and after some time Miss Dalburn reluctantly realized that she must to return to Glencairn Castle.

  “Oh, what a pity,” said Harriet. “Though I am sure the children have need of you. Do send me a note when next you plan to go out for a walk, and I will be sure to join you. I would enjoy renewing my acquaintance with Douglas and Sophia.”

  “I’ll make certain to do that,” said Catherine. “It would do them good to spend more time with another gentlewoman; they know me far too well, and I fear that at times I give them too much license. Perhaps they will remember to watch their manners around you, Miss Walcott.”

  Isobel laughed. “Harriet will spoil them dreadfully, given the chance,” she said. “But all three of them will have a wonderful time, and that is all that matters.”

  Catherine smiled at that, and lingered a few minutes longer, but soon took her leave.

  “She is a very pleasant companion Harriet,” Isobel remarked. “I hope you can persuade her to join us for tea frequently.”