A Commercial Enterprise Read online

  She had almost completed packing when there was a knock at the door, and before she could say anything it opened and Miss Seymour entered in a rustle of red-and-white-checkered silk, the fresh ribbons in her little day bonnet bouncing prettily beneath her chin.

  For a moment Caroline froze warily, able to think only of what Hal had said to Marcia Chaddington. What if Jennifer shared her brother’s views after all? But the warmth of her smile and her obvious dismay when she saw Caroline’s packed valise soon dispelled such fears.

  “Oh, Miss Lexham, surely you are not leaving already?”

  “I fear that I must.”

  “But I was so looking forward to your company, and you promised that we would see each other today. Has something happened that you must return to Devon so soon?”

  “I-I’m not going back to Devon.”

  “But where are you going then?”

  “I am going to Lexham House.”

  Jennifer stared at her, and then her eyes brightened. “You are going to fight the will after all? Oh, how wonderful! How excellent! And how gladdening, for this means that I will be able to see you often.” She paused for a moment. “Do you really have to leave the Oxenford so quickly? I mean, Hal and I were hoping that you would join us for dinner tonight....”

  Caroline secretly doubted very much that Hal joined his sister in any such hope, but at least Jennifer’s enthusiasm and warmth proved that he had not shared with her his true opinion of the upstart and disreputable Miss Lexham.

  “You will join us, won’t you?” inquired Jennifer, thus placing Caroline in the unenviable position of having to admit that she was now persona non grata at the Oxenford.

  “I would have loved to have joined you, Miss Seymour, but I am afraid that it will not be possible, for I have been requested by Mr. Bassett to leave the hotel immediately.”

  Jennifer was incredulous. “Surely there is some mistake!”

  “There is no mistake; he was most definite.”

  “But why?”

  “Because he has received complaints about my presence here.” Caroline spoke carefully, hoping that she would not be asked to name any names.

  “But who would complain about you?” demanded Jennifer, her eyes flashing with anger that such a thing could have happened. “I suppose it was that odious cousin of yours. I saw him leaving earlier this morning!”

  “Yes, it was my cousin,” admitted Caroline, determined to say nothing about Marcia Chaddington or Lord Fynehurst, for it would have placed Jennifer in an invidious position to mention Hal’s future bride and brother-in-law in such a context.

  Jennifer was indignant on Caroline’s behalf. “How infamous and despicable your cousin is! And how monstrous it is that this hotel could do this to you! I think them all odious and disagreeable in the extreme. And I feel insulted.”

  “You feel insulted?” asked Caroline, a little taken aback.

  “Naturally, for you are my friend, as you are Hal’s, and you were our guest last night at the opera house. To treat you in this demeaning and cavalier fashion is tantamount to an insult to us too!”

  “Oh, please do not feel like that ...” began Caroline anxiously.

  “I will not remain in this dreadful place a moment longer,” declared the other suddenly. “And when I tell Hal, I am sure that he will feel exactly the same way.”

  “Please don’t do anything because of me!” begged Caroline, not wanting to stir things up to such an extent and wishing with all her heart that she had somehow managed to avoid all mention of being asked to leave the Oxenford.

  Jennifer took her hands. “I like you immensely, Miss Lexham, for in you I feel I have found a true and constant friend, and it simply is not possible for me to allow you to be treated so abominably without showing in some way how much I abhor what has been done. Nothing on this earth would prevail upon me to remain here after this! Come, we will go immediately to tell Hal.”

  “Oh, no!” cried Caroline, but to no avail, for Jennifer was carried along by her indignation on her new friend’s behalf, and Caroline found herself being hurried through the hotel to Hal’s apartment.

  He had not long returned from riding. His top hat, gloves, and riding crop lay on a table and his green riding coat was unbuttoned. He stood by the immense fireplace of the drawing room, which like Caroline’s, overlooked Piccadilly and the green expanse of the park opposite. His valet was just pouring him a small glass of cognac as his sister entered, followed very reluctantly by Caroline, who had no wish to face him, and certainly no wish to see him being informed of events he almost certainly already knew about.

  The discreet and efficient valet conveyed the cognac into his master’s hand and then spirited the top hat, gloves, and riding crop from the room, closing the door softly behind him.

  Jennifer hurried immediately to her brother, her whole body quivering with indignation. “Hal, I have something most dreadful to tell you!”

  Caroline could not bring herself to even look at him. She kept her eyes firmly on the Kidderminster carpet, and Marcia Chaddington’s scornful, taunting voice seemed to ring in her ears. You flaunted yourself quite outrageously, or so he tells me. Forget your notions of grandeur, and forget Sir Henry Seymour, whose derision you have already earned.

  Hal glanced momentarily at Caroline’s quiet, bowed head, and then took his agitated sister by the hand. “It must indeed be dreadful to bring you bursting in so unceremoniously. What has happened?”

  “Miss Lexham has been told she must leave this hotel, and all because her wretched and contemptible cousin complained about her! Is that not awful, Hal? I am so upset about it, so insulted and angry, that nothing will do but that we leave this horrid place too!”

  Hal seemed quite nonplussed for a moment, and to Caroline his initial silence was proof enough that he knew precisely what had happened and whose influence lay behind it. Her cheeks flushed miserably and she didn’t raise her eyes to look at him.

  At last he spoke. “Jennifer, I can quite understand how you feel, and indeed I share your indignation, which is more than justified, but I think that to talk of quitting the Oxenford is to go a little too far.”

  Caroline looked up then, for although he spoke of sharing his sister’s feelings, it was obvious that in truth he did no such thing. He had no intention of making any grand gesture on behalf of a woman he held in contempt. Jennifer, however, was visibly shocked and dismayed by his apparently lackluster reaction to something she regarded as of the utmost importance.

  “Hal! You cannot understand what has been done. This hotel has gravely insulted our friend, it has dealt appallingly with someone we have openly acknowledged to be agreeable and acceptable to us. By doing that, it has insulted us too.”

  He swirled his cognac for a moment, saying nothing, and Caroline wondered what was passing through his head. “I repeat,” he said then, “that although I can understand your considerable displeasure at what has been done, I do not share your belief that we should quit this hotel.” He glanced at Caroline. “Forgive me, Miss Lexham, for I do not wish to sound as if I in any way condone what has happened.”

  She held his gaze and said nothing in reply, but inside she felt an immeasurable hurt.

  Jennifer was totally astounded. “Hal! You surely do not mean to remain here.”

  “Yes, that is exactly what I mean to do.”

  “I cannot believe that I hear you correctly,” she replied, withdrawing her hand from his. “Indeed, I think you behave as odiously as the Oxenford and the Earl of Lexham.”

  Caroline spoke up quickly. “Please, Miss Seymour, don’t say any more, for I do not wish to be the cause of any disagreement between Sir Henry and yourself.”

  But Jennifer did not seem to hear, for she still stared up disbelievingly into her brother’s hazel eyes. “You may not think this thing to be of any importance, Hal, but I most certainly do! I will not remain another night under this discredited roof!”

  “Jennifer—” he began.

/>   “My mind is made up,” she interrupted. “To remain here would be to ignore what has been done, and it would also mean allowing the arrangements for my marriage to go ahead. Nothing would make me celebrate my marriage here now, nothing.”

  “Jennifer!” he said sharply, his eyes bright with something, Caroline could not gauge exactly what. “I wish you to stop right now and reconsider!”

  “No!” His sister’s chin was raised stubbornly.

  “I have excellent reason to ask you to remain here.”

  “I know, and that reason is your own convenience. No, Hal Seymour, I will not stay here, I will leave immediately, and nothing you say can stop me.”

  “I do not think it would be wise to test the veracity of that statement, Jennifer,” he replied quietly. “As head of the family, I think you will find that my powers extend considerably further than you appear to think.”

  “So, you will force me to do as you wish!” she cried, trembling with anger and frustration.

  “I have never forced you to do anything in your life, and it ill becomes you to suggest that I am capable of such conduct. I merely said that my powers are extensive enough for me to stop you leaving. I did not say that I was about to employ those powers. If you insist upon going elsewhere, then you may do so, provided you choose an address which is acceptable. Where do you intend going? Mivart’s? Grillion’s?”

  “I don’t know yet,” she replied.

  “Perhaps you intend to be the new Lexham Hotel’s first guest,” he said quietly, glancing at Caroline’s astonished face. “Oh, yes, Miss Lexham, news does indeed travel with bewildering speed in this capital of ours.”

  Jennifer stared at him in puzzlement and then turned toward Caroline. “What does he mean?”

  Hal spoke again. “When I was returning from my ride in Hyde Park, I encountered Mr. Jordan, the lawyer, and he informed me that Miss Lexham has a notion to turn Lexham House into a hotel, thus defeating the terms of the will.”

  “Is this true?” asked Jennifer in astonishment.

  “Yes,” answered Caroline.

  For a moment Jennifer seemed at a loss, but then her green eyes began to dance with delight. “What a splendid thing! What a brave and wonderful plan! Oh, I wish I had half the spirit.” She turned triumphantly to her brother once more.

  “Yes, Hal Seymour, I do intend to be the new Lexham Hotel’s first guest. I shall take great delight in telling that horrible Mr. Bassett what I think of him, and if I see Dominic Lexham I shall tell him too. I shall make a great deal of noise about leaving this place, and about canceling my wedding here and holding it at the new hotel instead.”

  Caroline gave a start, her breath catching. “Miss Seymour! You cannot possibly!”

  “Why not?” inquired the other, smiling almost archly. “I think it is a capital notion, for it does everything I wish it to do: it strikes back at the Oxenford and at Dominic Lexham, and it goes a considerable way toward setting your admirable enterprise up. It also makes my brother’s reprehensible inaction look all the more obvious, which is no more or less than he deserves!”

  Hal said nothing to this and his face was expressionless.

  “But Miss Seymour,” said Caroline, “Lexham House is closed, the rooms are not aired and—”

  “But you are about to go there, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “If it is good enough for you, then it is good enough for me—unless—perhaps you do not wish me to go there?” There was a sudden hurt in the green eyes.

  “Oh, no,” replied Caroline swiftly. “Please do not think that, for it is not so. Of course I would love to have you join me; it’s just that I don’t want you to do anything you may regret. All your wedding arrangements are made, you have told me how delighted you are at the prospect of having Monsieur Duvall prepare the feast, and how advantageous will be your appearance on the grand staircase!”

  Jennifer had to smile. “As I recall, the staircase at Lexham House is far more grand, which must mean I will appear to even greater advantage there. As to the feast, well before Hal decided we must uproot and come to this horrid place, I was quite content for Messieurs Gunter to do the feast. The feast is not important, Miss Lexham, but my gesture in leaving the Oxenford and going to the new Lexham most certainly is. My mind is made up and I shall have Simpson begin packing immediately.”

  With a final defiant glance at her silent brother and a flick of her red-and-white skirts, she turned on her heel and hurried from the room, calling for the maid in the adjoining apartment.

  Caroline hesitated, not knowing quite what to say to Hal, for there was no trace now of the ease she had once felt in his company. She could not shrug off the sense of hurt and betrayal she felt at what he had said about her and she knew a deep pain at his silent complicity in what had been done to her. In spite of this, however, as she looked into his unfathomable hazel eyes, she knew that she still loved him.

  “I don’t think there is anything more to be said, Miss Lexham,” he said then. “So do not let me detain you any longer.”

  Without a word, she left the apartment.

  Chapter 16

  That first evening at Lexham House was very strange indeed, for Caroline and Jennifer shared Mrs. Hollingsworth’s little rooms, that lady declaring that on no account could she permit ladies of such delicate constitution to sleep in the damp, cold house. For Jennifer, the housekeeper’s rooms were a novel experience, but Caroline found them very similar to some of the rooms at Selford and would, therefore, have felt quite at home in them had it not been for her awareness all the time of the echoing vastness of the main house close by.

  Caroline had half expected Jennifer’s rush of loyal enthusiasm to fade quickly away once she realized how very uncomfortable Lexham House was going to be for a while, but she was soon proved wrong, for Jennifer entered with great relish into the spirit of things.

  One thing was soon apparent, and that was that Hal Seymour’s vivacious and unpredictable sister was nothing if not adventurous, and she certainly had scant regard for what she regarded as foolish and over-fastidious rules of etiquette, which she took considerable delight in flouting at the first opportunity. Naturally, she never went too far in this, which was part of her charm, and which was probably why she seemed to get away with what others would deem to be horrendous sins.

  It was quickly decided that Jennifer would have Mrs. Hollingsworth’s bed, the housekeeper refusing to hear of anything else and preparing for herself a bed of sorts on the floor of the storeroom where she kept her jars of pickles and preserves. Caroline was provided with a spare mattress in a corner of the parlor, and when everything had been made ready, the unlikely trio sat before the fire to discuss what must be done next to put Caroline’s momentous plans into action.

  There was something very unreal about the situation, and Caroline almost expected to wake up soon and find herself back in her bed at Selford, but when she pinched herself she knew she was very much awake and that this was all really happening.

  She glanced approvingly around the parlor, which was an inviting room with a red-tiled floor and whitewashed walls. There were colorful chintz curtains at the window and matching cushions on the dark wooden chairs, and against one wall stood a dresser displaying the housekeeper’s prized crockery and the silver-gilt candlestick presented to her by Caroline’s grandmother, that same countess who had once owned the necklace which was to finance the first weeks of the great commercial enterprise.

  Occasionally they heard bursts of laughter from the servants’ hall, where Jennifer’s maid, Simpson, was very much the center of interest. Outside, the wind had risen and rattled the panes of glass from time to time. Each gust drew a draft down the chimney, making the fire glow very red, which in turn burnished the fur of the large, gray cat curled up before the hearth.

  Mrs. Hollingsworth sat on a low stool in front of the fire, toasting bread on a long-handled fork, and the smell was very appetizing indeed, prompting Jennifer t
o remark that not even Monsieur Duvall could create such a delicacy. This made them all smile, and Caroline found herself thinking what a very strange, ill-assorted trio they were; a lady of wealth and fashion, a housekeeper, and an unlikely heiress, all seated around a fire sharing toast together!

  Indeed, it was all so improbable that she wanted to laugh, but after all, it was said that the truth was often much more strange than fiction. But as she sat there, thinking about the situation in which she now found herself, she was aware more and more that she was flying in the face of adversity, defying influential enemies, and risking all on a venture which many would have been generous to call madcap.

  Mrs. Hollingsworth saw her pensive expression, and judged it correctly. “It will be all right, madam, I know that it will.”

  “I wish I could be so certain, but somehow the whole idea suddenly seems impossible, conceived when the moon was full.”

  “I recall my mother saying that notions taken at such times were frequently the best notions of all, and far from being moonstruck. We’ll set to work here in the morning, we’ll open up the house and light the fires, and you’ll soon begin to feel better then. I will see to it that suitable staff are found, and I promise you that in a week or so you’ll see a complete transformation.

  “Once you see Lexham House as it was meant to be, you will know that your idea of defeating your uncle’s will by this plan is a stroke of genius and not to be spoken of as mere moon madness. The Lexham Hotel will become one of London’s finest and most exclusive establishments, you mark my words, and Miss Seymour’s wedding will be spoken of for seasons to come.”

  Caroline wanted so much to take comfort from the housekeeper’s words, but she couldn’t. It seemed that with the coming of darkness, her buoyant optimism had all but completely gone, leaving her feeling very vulnerable and unsure.