Captain Ingram's Inheritance by Carola Dunn

Author:Carola Dunn [Dunn, Carola]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Regency Romance
Publisher: Belgrave House
Published: 1994-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

“I can’t see why on earth I have to go too,” Vickie stormed. “Mama doesn’t mean to take me to Town until the spring, and I can learn here just as well as at home.”

Roworths and Ingrams, together with Anita and Miss Bannister, were seated at breakfast in the dining-room. Constantia’s announcement of the contents of Lady Westwood’s letter had cast an immediate gloom over the company and roused her sister to rebellion. She breathed a sigh of relief that the Duke of Oxshott was not an early riser.

“You cannot defy Mama in this, Vickie,” she said gently.

“Apart from anything else, she would blame Miss Bannister, and maybe even Fanny, for your disobedience.”

“Not to mention you and me, Con,” said Felix. “Of course you must go, Vickie.”

Anita had been looking from one to another, tears filling her black eyes, her lower lip trembling. Now she slid down from her seat and hung on Vickie’s arm, wailing, “Don’t go, Aunt Vickie!”

“I shan’t,” Vickie declared stoutly.

“I fear we have no choice, Lady Victoria,” her governess said. “Lady Westwood has every right to insist on your return, and I should be sadly remiss in my duty did I not take you back to Westwood.”

“Are you going too?” asked Anita. Her little face crumpled and she ran sobbing to Fanny. “Mama, Mama, you won’t go away?”

Fanny lifted her onto her knee and held her tight. “No, darling, I’m staying right here. Vickie will come often to visit us, I hope, and Miss Bannister will come back to teach you as soon as Vickie no longer needs her. Will you not, ma’am?”

“Certainly, Miss Ingram,” said the governess, flushed with pleasure. “If you honestly wish it.”

“Can you doubt it? I don’t know how we shall manage without you in the meantime.” She turned to Constantia, biting her lip. “This is the worst possible time! I need your support and advice now more than ever, Connie.”

Constantia’s heart swelled within her. Here she was needed and wanted. To Mama she represented a duty, a recalcitrant daughter to be married off to the most eligible suitor available. Her hand crept to her chest as she envisioned the coming battles over modish décolletés for Town wear.

“I shall stay,” she announced.

Fanny’s delight stiffened her resolve. “Connie, will you really? Bless you!”

“You’re forgetting, Fanny,” said Frank. “Lady Constantia’s offer is extremely kind, but you can’t wish to deprive her of the pleasures of the Little Season.”

“Oh drat,” Fanny exclaimed. “You’re right, I had forgotten. I couldn’t be so selfish as to keep you, Connie, when at last you have a chance to go to balls and routs and ridottos.”

“But I have no desire to go.” Constantia turned to Frank and assured him, “Indeed, I truly would prefer not to go to London.”

“It’s quite true,” said Felix. “She told me the same before you even came to Westwood, so you need not feel the least guilt, Fanny love. You need her support now, and in the spring we’ll go up to Town and she’ll have our support for the Season, instead of being all alone at Mama’s mercy.

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