Nellie recounted another edited version of the events that led up to Mr Lockhart being set upon by Patrick Kelly and his mates. She chose to downplay the part where Nellie had put Mr Lockhart in a compromising position by inviting him to The Hanged Man. And she thought it wise not to mention how she had been worried that he was going to tell her off because of her somewhat risqué impersonation following the engagement party. She most certainly did not mention how she had stolen an illicit kiss from him as he slept, or how his body had expressed its interest in her when he had caught her getting washed in the morning.
Miss Lockhart listened with wide-eyed interest as Nellie gave her vivid account of the attack and how, although he had been outnumbered, the men had shown him no mercy.
Miss Lockhart shook her head slowly and put her hand on Nellie’s arm. ‘That must have been terrifying for you, Miss Regan. I hope you weren’t too scared.’
‘No, I was more concerned for Mr Lockhart and I felt so guilty for causing him so much trouble.’
Miss Lockhart’s brows knitted together. ‘It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t attack him. And it’s so like Dominic to forget about himself when he thinks someone else is being treated badly. I can just imagine him jumping in to defend a lady’s honour, without a thought to his own safety.’ She sighed and turned back to face the mirror. ‘Although sometimes I wish he’d think of himself a bit more.’
Nellie began rolling up Miss Lockhart’s long brown hair. ‘Oh, what do you mean?’ Nellie forced her voice to remain even, as if she were merely making polite conversation and not desperately curious to find out everything she could about Mr Lockhart.
‘Well, take this engagement to Lady Cecily Hardgrave, for example. Dominic thinks it will be good for the family. He hasn’t thought for a moment whether it will be good for him. He thinks we all live under the stigma of not being members of the aristocracy. We have no position in society, we’re hardly even considered gentry, all because of our father’s background.’
Nellie curled up a long lock of hair. ‘Oh, and why is that?’
‘Well, I don’t know if you know, but our father started his working life as a stable boy.’
Nellie paused, a tress of hair suspended in mid-air. A stable boy. A position much lower in the social order than even a lady’s maid. She clipped the hair in place. ‘Oh, that’s interesting,’ she said as evenly as possible.
‘But he advanced his position in the household until he was in charge of the stables and had responsibility for his employer’s stud farm. He bred quite a few grand national champions, you know, and also winners at Royal Ascot. He became much sought after and he managed to secure a very good position with the Duke of Dalemont, managing his large stud farm.’
Miss Lockhart looked around as if about to impart a secret she wanted no one else to hear. Nellie leaned in, anxious to find out about the family scandal. ‘My father put a few bets on his own horses and won a tidy sum. He used his winnings to set up his own horse-breeding and training business. It was very successful and grew rapidly. He also seemed to have a knack for making money, because he then increased his fortune substantially on the stock market. Making wise investments is a knack Dominic has inherited as well. That’s why we’ve become so...’ She waved her hand around. ‘You know.’
Being a well-bred young lady, she knew better than to mention something as common as how much money they had, but that was what she meant. The Lockharts were now quite obviously a very wealthy family.
Nellie resumed her work. Miss Lockhart’s confession wasn’t quite as scandalous as she had expected or secretly hoped. Money was money. Who cared if her father had made it through horse breeding, gambling at the races and on the stock market, or had inherited it from a long line of ancestors?
‘Your father sounds like a most impressive man.’ Nellie suspected that the older Mr Lockhart would have been someone she would have admired, a man who had made it in the world on his own terms.
‘Oh, he was. In many ways he was a lot like Dominic, hard-working, determined,’ Miss Lockhart said, smiling brightly as she turned back to the mirror. ‘I can see why Mother fell in love with him despite his background.’
Nellie began weaving strands of hair to create a final ornate effect. ‘So, your parents married for love?’ she probed, making sure her voice sounded as if she was still making idle chit-chat. But it was a question she was very curious about. If the parents did marry for love, it was one area in which the father differed from the son. Mr Lockhart junior did not see love as being a necessity for a successful marriage.
‘Oh, yes.’ Miss Lockhart nodded and sighed. ‘And that’s something Dominic was never able to forgive them for. My mother was a baron’s daughter. She was expected to marry above her station, not below it. When she married Father, she was ostracised by her family and everyone from her class. It didn’t matter that Father was by then a prosperous man.’ She sighed again. ‘And it didn’t help, I suppose, that Father never made any effort to fit in with the aristocracy. He spoke the same way as he’d always spoken, mixed with the same people, and Mother’s family couldn’t cope, especially as he never deferred to them or acted as if they were any better than him.’
Good for him.
Nellie was admiring this
