Chapter 2

Ralph Fallbrook, twelve Earl of Huntingdon, was already regretting his decision to let his mother host a house-party at his principal seat, Belmont Hall in Devon. He had reluctantly agreed to allow her to organize the affair at the end of last season. After all, she had been successfully hosting events at the Hall for the past forty years.

When he had agreed to her scheme, she had assured him that it would be a small affair with only a few, select families attending. And, it would give him a chance to acquaint himself with the best young ladies who were planning to make their come-out during the following season. 'We will steal a march on our competition,' was the reply he always received when Ralph began to voice his unease over the growing guest list.

It was so much the size of the guest list that had bothered Ralph; it was the number of young women and their families that had been invited that caused him concern. It was no secret why so many eligible young ladies of good ton had been issued invitations to Belmont Hall. Everyone knew that he had been actively looking for a wife for the past two years. Then, of course, there had been the rash promise he had made to his mother on New Year's Eve. Unfortunately, that promise had somehow become common knowledge, and the house-party at Belmont Hall had been the place to be seen that summer if one had a daughter ready to make her debut to society.

He had spent the day welcoming hordes of guests that had invaded his home. The only welcome face in the whole throng had been his good friend from his schooldays, tom harris, earl of emley, and his wife, alice. Before dinner, he had invited Tom to his study to reminisce about their past. It was the only place where they could go to guarantee any privacy.

'I cannot believe you agreed to this,' Tom said, as he took the glass Ralph offered him. 'This time, I cannot see any escape for you.'

'I know,' Ralph replied, as he sat in a leather chair opposite his friend, 'it was that wretched promise I made to mother at New Year. I only gave it to her to keep her quiet. I did not realise that she would take it so seriously.'

'That, my friend, was a mistake,' Tom said unequivocally, 'you cannot make an idyll promise to your mother without facing the consequences. She is on a mission and will not rest until you are married.'

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Ralph was only too aware of the truth in his friend's words. For the first time in his life, he felt trapped, and he could not see a means of escape.

'What happened to Lady Millicent?' Tom asked, breaking the silence, 'the latest on dit, at the end of last season, was that you were going to make an offer for her. You were even spotted at Almack's dancing attendance on her.'

At the beginning of last season, Ralph had had every intention of fulfilling his vow to his mother. He had attended balls and parties. He had even, after many years, donned his knee-breeches and had been seen regularly within the hallowed walls of Almack's. He had drawn up a list of suitable attributes for his prospective wife; she had to be pretty, charming and have the potential to be an excellent mistress of his house in London and his principal seat in Devon. He had coolly observed and judged every suitable candidate. There had been no shortage of attractive and sophisticated young women of good birth, any one of them would have made him a good wife and an excellent countess.

There had been one who had caught his eye, Lady Millicent Burnette. She would have been the perfect countess in every way. She was beautiful, charming and talented. Her father was a Duke and, more importantly, he had encouraged Ralph's suit.

'Lady Millicent,' Ralph said with a sigh, 'would have made an impeccable countess, but I fear she would not have made the perfect wife.'

'Really,' Tom said, looking over at him with surprise, 'why?'

'At the end of the season, I escorted her to Vauxhall with the rest of her family. She had been encouraging my suit, but I wanted to know her reasons for marrying me. You know what it is like at these ton events, it is impossible to have a private conversation without the world knowing your business. I just wanted to get her alone and talk about our future without any distractions.' Ralph paused to finish his glass of brandy.

'The evening started off well enough. When we arrived, we danced and drank champagne. I didn't love her, but I felt that there were the beginnings of mutual friendship that may have, with time, developed into affection. I was convinced that she was the woman I would marry.'

'What happened to change your mind?' Tom asked curiously.

'She did,' Ralph said, with a sigh. 'We were alone strolling in the moonlight with music from the dancing wafting through the air. It was the perfect setting to talk about our future together. I was just about to ask her how she would feel about a marriage proposal when she interrupted me. She told me that she had been trained, from a young age, to run a large household and that she was looking forward to becoming the mistress of a prodigious property like Belmont Hall. I thought that she was perfect. She looked beautiful, standing next to me in the moonlight, so I kissed her. However, I was taken aback by her cool response. She pushed me away and said that type of romantic nonsense was not necessary. She told me that she was not looking for love or anything else, after all, she was to be my wife, not my mistress. She made it plain that she would not be subjected to any of my base emotions. She would do her duty and nothing else.'

'She then proceeded to tell me that she did not mind my rakish reputation and that she was not going to expect me to change. She assured me that I could have as many mistresses as I liked, as long as I was discrete. Apparently, her mother and father had lived separate lives since the birth of their two sons, and she was quite happy to pursue a similar arrangement with me. I had no doubt that she would fulfil her wifely duties and provide me with an heir, but I also knew that there would be no love or even affection in our union, just tolerance of each other. For her, marriage was just a business transaction.'

'It was not what you wanted from a marriage,' Tom said wistfully, 'certainly not after the way your father treated your mother.'

'No,' Ralph replied, 'I may have never been able to love Lady Millicent, but I would have been faithful to her and would have done everything in my power to make her happy. My father nearly destroyed my mother, and I could not put another person through what she had to endure during the years of her marriage.'

'The next morning,' Ralph continued after a short pause in the conversation, 'everyone was expecting me to make my formal declaration to her father. I was standing outside the door of her family's London townhouse, but I could not bring myself to knock on the door. There was something not right about the whole affair. I turned around and went to my club instead.'

'I want what you have,' Ralph said wistfully, 'a woman I love and who loves me. Is that too much to ask?'

Tom shook his head.

'How did you find love?' Ralph asked his friend.

'I was very fortunate,' Tom replied, 'I only asked Alice to marry me to save her from a marriage to a man old enough to be her grandfather. I did not even like her that much. I thought she was far too young, silly and immature for me. I was wrong. I soon discovered that I had misjudged her. I fell in love with her, and now I cannot imagine what my life would be without her.'

'Last year,' Ralph said, 'my brother, Alex, married for love. I can see it in his eyes when he looks at his wife and daughter. It is like the rest of the world melts away and leaves only them.'

His brother, Captain Alexander Fallbrook, after years of living the life of a libertine, had married the woman he loved and had transformed his life. His wife, Octavia, had recently given birth to their first child, Chloe. Ralph had never seen his brother so happy and fulfilled. When he had visited them, just last week at their home in Yorkshire, he had felt a pang of jealousy. He had known that his brother had found something he would never discover; a woman to love, and a contented life far from the false glittering world of the ton.

'The problem you have,' Tom said, leaning back on his chair and crossing his legs, 'is that you have become the focus of your mother's attention. When Alex returned from Waterloo, she spent most of her time worrying about him. Now that he is happily married and living the life of a respectable gentleman, her focus has turned to you.'

He remembered all too well how his brother had behaved when he had returned from the war. He had joined a shady organisation led by a scoundrel called Major Ellington. During the intervening years, Alex had dragged the ancient name of Fallbrook through the murky underworld of London's backstreet criminal fraternity. During this time, his exploits had been the topic of speculation throughout society. The beau monde liked nothing better than to gossip about one of its own behaving in a disreputable way. Consequently, his mother had been so preoccupied with Alex's colourful reputation that she had been content to leave Ralph alone to live his life the way he saw fit. However, Alex was now happily married, and it was Ralph's turn to be the focus of her censure.

'I know,' Ralph said, with a sigh, 'she has been hounding me since I made that promise. When I didn't make an offer to Lady Millicent, she set about organising this house-party.'

The presence of Tom, an old friend from his school days, was the only thing he had to look forward to over the coming weeks.

'It is going to be a long fortnight,' Ralph said with resignation in his voice. 'I should have put a stop to this weeks ago.'

'I do not think you could have done that if you tried,' Tom replied, 'your mother is a force of nature, and once she sets a plan in motion, there is no stopping her. She is just worried about you, and ultimately she only has your best interests at heart.'

'I know, I just do not like the way she is going about it,' Ralph said seriously. 'Did you see that she has invited Lord and Lady Hepworth and their daughter, Miss Agatha Hepworth. I couldn't believe it when I saw them on the guest list.'

'I agree,' Tom said, looking a little perturbed, 'Alice told me that the Hepworth girl is still only sixteen years old. Even your mother must think that she is far too young for you and would never do. I have never seen such a shy, plain and retiring wallflower. And it is not as though you need a large dowry.'

'Apparently, her father has already agreed to the match. He seems to be under the impression that our families will come to an arrangement over the next couple of weeks and announce the betrothal before the fortnight is out,' Ralph said with a sense of finality. 'My mother and Lady Hepworth have the whole thing planned. I would not be surprised if they have not already chosen the colour of the flowers at the ceremony and the amount of champagne to be served at the wedding breakfast. My mother thinks it would be a good idea to have a young girl as the next countess. She has not admitted it to me, but I know she doesn't want to lose the prestige of running Belmont Hall. When I marry, she will be relegated to the role of the Dowager Countess, and that means that she will no longer be the mistress of this house. My wife, as the new countess, would be in charge. She thinks that if I marry a girl barely out of the schoolroom, she will still run the house through her. I know she'll never admit to it, but I think that she was quite relieved when I didn't propose to Lady Millicent.

'If that is true, why is she in such a hurry to marry you off?' Tom said. 'If you remain a bachelor, she could continue to be mistress here indefinitely. Your brother is married, and Octavia is still young enough to have a son, who would bear the Fallbrook name.'

'My mother has some very old-fashioned ideas,' Ralph said with a sigh. 'Even though she likes Octavia and is very grateful for the influence she has had on Alex, she would not be considered worthy enough to be the mother of the next Lord Huntingdon. My mother believes that the next earl should be born of a woman who was a virgin when she married and certainly not one who has had children from a previous marriage. That is another reason why she has chosen the young Miss Hepworth to be my bride.'

'Alice feels sorry for the poor creature. She is obviously awed by the company here at Belmont Hall, and she is frightened of you. Throughout tea, she only said a few words to Alice despite Alice's efforts to draw her out of her shell.'

Ralph had noticed that Alice had valiantly tried to engage the young woman in conversation during tea. Despite her easy-going manners, she had been unable to coax anything, but a few mumbled monosyllables from the girl.

'If she won't talk to Alice, what hope do I have,' Ralph said bitterly. 'I don't think I could take two weeks of one-sided conversations with a schoolgirl, but my mother is determined for me to make her an offer. Sometimes, I think that it would be easier if I just went along with her plan. I could carry on with my life without having to make any adjustments to my current bachelor lifestyle. I'm sure Miss Hepworth would be happy to remain here at the Hall with my mother, while I pursue my own life in London. Maybe Lady Millicent was right after all. I can reserve romantic love and all those other base emotions for my mistresses.' Even as Ralph was saying those selfish words, he knew they sounded hollow and self-centred. No woman, not even one foisted onto him by his mother, deserved such neglect.

Tom, who had obviously sensed the harsh sentiment in his words, paused and looked at his friend seriously. 'I know you didn't mean any of that,' he said quietly. 'I have known you ever since we were at school in Eton, and I also know that you have never been churlish towards others. You have always stood up for the underdog, even at the expense of your own popularity.'

'As always, Tom' Ralph said with a resigned sigh, 'you are right. I could never treat my wife like that.' His own father had conducted a series of scandalous affairs without any thought for the humiliation it caused his wife and family. No one deserved to be treated in the same way he had seen his father treat his mother.

'I know that you have convinced the beau monde that you are nothing more than a pleasure-seeking scoundrel, but I also know that most of the gossip surrounding your exploits has been exaggerated.' Tom said with feeling. 'It suited you to be held at arm's length by some of the more polite members of society and live in the shadow of your father's reputation. '

Ralph knew that Tom was right. The gossip surrounding his rakish exploits had kept him safe from the Parson's trap for many years. It had been far to easy to hide behind his father's scandalous reputation.

'You can find happiness,' Tom said, cutting through his thoughts. 'Alex did.'

'Since when did you become the romantic,' Ralph said wistfully.

'Since my marriage to Alice,' Tom replied with a dreamy look in his eyes. 'But be careful you don't allow it to slip through your fingers. I very nearly lost her through my own stubbornness.'

'Tom,' Ralph said with resignation. 'I think that you may have to give up on me. I'm too old and too set in my ways to let anyone into my heart. Perhaps I should marry the Hepworth girl after all.'

'Good grief, man,' Tom said, the humour returning to his voice, 'stop feeling sorry for yourself. Of course, you should not marry the Hepworth chit or any other girl your mother decides to throw into your path. Any one of them would drive you to distraction before the wedding breakfast was over. All I'm trying to say to you is do not give up on the idea of falling in love.'

'Now you have gone quite mad,' Ralph said, the resentment had gone from his voice. 'Me? Fall in love! I don't think it is possible.'

'I never thought I would fall in love,' Tom said, with a faraway look in his eyes, 'You will know when you meet the right woman, just do not give up. And please promise me that you will not go along with any of your mother's madcap schemes.'

Ralph nodded. 'Do not worry, I'll try and resist. But, Tom, I very much doubt I will ever find love.'

'You will,' Tom said brightly, 'you just have to be patient.'

'Come,' Ralph said, getting out of his chair, 'it is time we dressed for dinner. You would not want to keep your lovely wife waiting.'