entertaining Sophie and Harriet and looking after Papa, so Julia tried to avoid any conversation with her mother about either Jack Douglas or Dominic Brandon. Quite often, she was able to escape to the library to read a book and forget about anything to do with engagements or marriage.
Emily came from the castle again to gossip about the latest fashions and to bring the news from Freddie in London. She said that Dominic was living in the town house, too, but Freddie did not seem to be seeing very much of him.
The following week her father called her into the library to say he had a reply to a letter that he had sent to Aunt Lucy in Bath.
“You will see that she has invited you to stay for a few weeks, and I do encourage you to go, for the change of scene would be good for you.” He sighed, and added, “Your mother would not agree with me, but you need to get away from all this fuss for a while at least.”
He observed her cautious expression. She knew that some people regarded Bath as one of the best places to find a husband for their daughters. That was the last thing that she needed at present.
“I am not trying to order you to go, Julia, but please think about the offer carefully before you refuse. You would meet new people and Bath is a very different world from rural Derbyshire.”
When she visited Emily a few days later, her friend was all in favour of the idea. She was very fond of Bath, and suggested that they could travel together in the Brandons’ carriage to the family’s London house. They could stay there for a few days in town, and see Freddie, before Julia continued with Emily to stay with Aunt Lucy in Bath.
So she decided to accept the invitation, and wrote to Aunt Lucy to ask if Emily could stay with her for a week or so.
As usual, Emily got everybody organised to suit herself. Julia was not involved at all in making the arrangements, but her friend persuaded the Earl and Countess to make the travelling carriage available so that the two young ladies could be transported to London. Harriet helped Julia pack, but she did not take her new red shoes—they were too precious to risk losing them.
It was clear to Julia that Mama was hoping that the stay in town at the Brandons’ house would encourage an engagement with Dominic. Luckily, there was no need yet for Julia to make it clear to her mother that that was the last thing she wanted.
She did find it very difficult to leave her father behind at home, for he was clearly ailing and spent much of the time sitting quietly in his chair in the library, reading a favourite book.
“Promise me, Papa, that you will look after yourself properly whilst I’m away. Harriet has said that she will take care of you for me, but please try to rest as much as you can.”
Her father patted her hand, telling her not to worry too much about him, and wishing her a pleasant stay with her aunt.
“Make sure, Julia,” said Mama, “that you take full advantage of your stay with Emily in London. It’s not often that you will have the opportunity, and I’m sure that Dominic or Freddie Brandon will be willing to escort you to the theatre and other delights.”
The journey to town passed pleasantly enough in Emily’s company, and on the third day the carriage entered the square and drew up outside the Brandons’ town house.
There seemed to Julia to be just as many staff there as at the castle, and a bewildering number of footmen and maids ran around getting the trunks from the carriage and taking them away upstairs.
The butler coughed discreetly to attract their attention.
“There is a message for you, Miss Emily, from Mr. Freddie. He will be able to leave his military duties this evening to escort you both to see Mr. Joseph Grimaldi at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre. He said that you are not to wait dinner for him, but he promises to be back in good time.”
Then one of the footmen took Julia and Emily to the bedrooms that had been prepared for them.
The house, though not as large or as grand as the castle in Derbyshire, seemed to Julia to be like a palace, with rich drapes on every window, elaborate furniture, and carefully chosen colours decorating the walls and high ceilings. Julia’s clothes seemed to occupy only a very small corner of the enormous cupboard in her room, and the bed was vast, with the softest mattress she had ever encountered. From their bedrooms, there were good views over the square at the front of the house and, at the back, the house had an outlook over the large private garden.
Freddie was as good as his word and came rushing in that evening to change, ready to take them to the Sadler’s Wells Theatre. During the journey across town in the Brandons’ carriage, he gossiped about life in the city, the many entertainments available for the visitor, and the places of interest that they were passing along the streets.
Mr. Grimaldi was the most expressive clown that Julia had ever seen. His face was painted with a coloured triangle on each cheek and that, along with all his facial contortions and athletic visual tricks, kept his audience on tenterhooks throughout his performance. To her surprise, he encouraged the audience to join in by shouting out, and Freddie did so, although Emily and Julia were content to watch the fun. Julia tried to store everything in her memory, so that she could tell Sophie and Harriet all about it when she got home.
On their journey back to the square, Julia took the opportunity to ask Freddie about Dominic’s account of what had occurred in Spain during the war.
“I don’t think that my brother is very proud of what happened,” he said.
“Why is that, exactly?” asked Julia.
“Well, as you know, Dominic and David were in the same regiment in Spain. My brother was with his men outside the fortress at Badajoz, waiting for the assault on the French to begin. His commanding officer knew that he had been in the area before, and asked him to be ready early the next morning to lead a group through very dangerous terrain towards breaches already made in the castle walls. That night, as usual, he had been drinking heavily with his friends. The following morning when he was roused from sleep by his servant, he was much too drunk to get out of his bed.”
“Oh,” said Julia, “how dreadful!”
“It is not so unusual,” said Freddie, “for officers to get drunk the night before a military advance, but not that drunk. Anyway, his commanding officer realised that somebody else would have to lead the assault. So he asked David to go instead, although he did not know the locality at all. But your brother agreed to go in Dominic’s place.”
Julia could just imagine David doing that; he would have been keen to get involved in the action as soon as possible.
“When your brother left the camp with his men and they began to make their way up a narrow gully towards the rear of the fortress, an enormous mine left by the French soldiers exploded. They were all killed instantly.”
Julia closed her eyes for a few moments—it was so easy to imagine, and so very painful.
“Dominic told me afterwards that, if he had led the patrol himself, he would have kept to the higher ground, because he knew that mining a gully was a favourite French tactic. But he had not been able to remind David about that because he was so drunk that morning.”
“So,” said Julia slowly, “Dominic feels guilty about my brother’s death because if he had not been drunk, he would have led the troops himself; or if he had told my brother about the French practice of laying mines, David would be alive today? Oh, now I see.”
“As you can imagine, his commanding officer was not at all happy about what had happened at Badajoz. It wasn’t the first time that Dominic’s behaviour had caused problems. When my brother returned to London, he decided that army life was not for him, and he bought himself out of his commission as soon as he could.”
He hesitated. “Emily, did you tell Julia about Dominic and Christina?”
She nodded. “I did, a little, but not everything.”
“Since he came back to town, I suspect that Dominic has been seeing the girl again regularly, without my parents’ knowledge. You probably know that they will not allow an engagement, but they can’t stop him from doing as he likes whilst he’s in London. And I guess that he is losing so much money at the gaming tables that he must be in dun territory, very short of money, but I can’t do anything about that.”
It is just as well, thought Julia, that Freddie and Emily are such good friends of mine, so that I know about all this. Otherwise, I could have been pushed by Mama into marriage with Dominic in ignorance of everything, and found myself in a very difficult situation for the rest of my life. Indeed, I still could. Mama believes that anyone with
