The Irish Bride: Regency Romance

By Marina Oliver

Brigid is happy working as a companion to Sophia, but knows she will soon have to look for a new position as governess or companion.
What she will not accept is marriage to Matthew, Sophia's brother, for she is penniless.
Another possibility is suggested when she meets her unknown uncle and aunt and they offer her a home.
Can she accept, or would it be a trap from which she cannot escape?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Belgrave House
• Release date: Sep 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781947812635

Marina Oliver

Most writers can't help themselves! It's a compulsion. Getting published, though, is something really special, and having been so fortunate myself I now try to help aspiring writers by handing on tips it took me years to work out. I've published over 60 titles, including four in the How To Books' Successful Writing Series, and Writing Historical Fiction for Studymates. I have judged short story competitions, been a final judge for the Harry Bowling Prize and was an adviser to the 3rd edition of Twentieth Century Romance and Historical Writers 1994. If you want to find out more about your favourite authors, consult this book. I once wrote an article on writing romantic fiction for the BBC's web page, for Valentine's day. I have given talks and workshops for the Arts Council and at most of the major Writing Conferences, and helped establish the Romantic Novelists' Association's annual conference. I was Chairman of the RNA 1991-3, ran their New Writers' Scheme and edited their newsletter. I am now a Vice-President. As well as writing I have edited books for Transita, featuring women 'of a certain age', and for Choc Lit where gorgeous heros are the norm. I was asked to write A Century of Achievement, a 290 page history of my old school, Queen Mary's High School, Walsall, and commissioned to write a book on Castles and Corvedale to accompany a new circular walk in the area. Most of my Regencies written under the pseudonym Sally James are now published in ebook format as well as many others of my out of print novels which my husband is putting into ebook format. Our daughter Debbie is helping with designing the covers. For details of all my books and my many pseudonyms see my website.

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Chapter 1

'You have waited long enough for your wedding journey, so make sure you enjoy it!' Brigid O'Neill said. 'I'm envious. Paris, Vienna, Venice, Florence, and everywhere in between. Now Napoleon's off to St Helena you can travel anywhere.'

Joanna, Lady Childe, smiled at her. 'We had to wait until Kenelm's twins were at school,' she reminded her friend.

'George is at Eton, with his cousin to look after him, and Amelia is already the heroine at Miss Benson's, telling them how she was kidnapped and escaped. She's enjoying the attention.'

Joanna shivered. 'She didn't enjoy it at the time.'

Sir Kenelm came down the stairs to where Joanna and Brigid waited in the hall, followed by his valet, Venner, who was carrying his dressing case.

Venner passed them and went out to see to the loading of the last items of luggage onto the travelling coach. Joanna's maid, Betsy, was already waiting beside it with a cloak for Joanna. Ten minutes later Brigid was waving them farewell as they drove along Upper Brook Street towards Westminster Bridge and the first stage of their journey.

She turned to go back into the house, with Firbank, the butler, and Mrs Aston, the housekeeper.

'Will you go to Miss Sophia's today?' Mrs Aston asked.

Brigid shook her head and laughed. 'With all the fuss of getting the twins to school, and Lady Childe's luggage packed, I haven't had time to deal with my own clothes. I'll go tomorrow. But I'll have dinner on a tray in my room, I don't want to cause any work when you are busy having to shut up the house.'

She ran upstairs to her room on the third floor. Though she was Joanna's best friend, she had also been governess to Sir Kenelm's twins, the children of his first wife, and had insisted on having a room near them. Now she began to pack her clothes and books into two large trunks. Tomorrow she would take only her immediate requirements to South Audley Street in a small valise. The rest could come later. It was good of Sir Kenelm's sister to offer her a home until she could acquire another position. There hadn't been time to look for one, what with the bustle of getting the twins off to school, and helping Joanna prepare for the wedding journey. Tomorrow she would look at the advertisements and perhaps visit one of the registries. She must not depend on Sophia's generosity for too long.

Miss Benson had offered to have her back as a teacher in her Kensington school, but Brigid had declined. She needed to move forwards, not back, and though she regarded with some trepidation this leap into the unknown, she had to do it. Teaching Sir Kenelm's twins, with her friend Joanna as their new step-mother, had not been the same as entering an unknown house and family. However, if she found a new position uncongenial, she could always leave, she told herself. Meanwhile, she would do what she could to help Sophia.

Brigid was on the point of leaving the house to do some shopping for Sophia when there was a thunderous knocking at the door. Jameson the butler, pursing his lips in disapproval, sailed from the kitchen quarters to open it. Then his face underwent a transformation as he smiled broadly and flung the door wide open. Brigid retreated to a corner of the hall, waiting for this impetuous arrival to give her room to pass out of the house.

'Mr Matthew, there's no need to be knocking the door down, now is there?'

'You old rascal, as stiff-rumped as ever,' the young man who swept into the hall said, clapping the butler on the shoulder.

Instead of his normal regimentals he wore hessians polished to a high gloss, pale fawn pantaloons, and a many-caped greatcoat slung loosely round his shoulders. His neckcloth, normally tied in intricate folds, had been replaced by a casually draped cravat of a startling red and white pattern. The reason for this was obvious. His left arm was in a sling, and Matthew Childe would never permit his valet to tie his neckcloth.

'Where's my sister? I hope they aren't in the country,' he said cheerfully, permitting Jameson to take his greatcoat.

'No, Mr Matthew, the family are here in London. But what have you done to your arm?'

Matthew glanced down at his left arm.

'Oh, nothing much, a clean break. It will heal soon.'

'How did that happen? The fighting is over, and I thought the army has little to do now.'

'Tell that to the horses! One of the brutes kicked out at me when I was looking at a gash on his hind leg, and I didn't get out of the way in time. But it's a devilish nuisance, I can't drive or ride. I had to come on the stage from Portsmouth, and it's a tedious way of travelling, I can tell you.'

Brigid must have made a sound, for he swung round to look at her.

'Who's that? Why, it's the lovely Irish Brigid. What are you doing here? I thought you'd be in Yorkshire with the twins.'

'The twins are at school. I'm sure Sir Kenelm will have told you.'

'He probably did, but I've forgotten. Are he and my gorgeous sister-in-law here in town?'

'They have gone abroad. Their wedding journey.'

'Much delayed. So you have been deserted? We will have to try and console you.'

Brigid frowned. What did he mean by that? She'd had other men offer to console her, and she knew what they meant and wanted none of it.

'I'm staying here for a short while, until I can obtain a new position,' she explained, her tone frosty.

'Why do you want a new position? Has my wretched brother thrown you out? If so, I'll challenge him, when my arm is mended.'

She laughed. His exuberance was infectious. 'It's nothing like that. But they have no need of a governess now.'

'So you are deserted? Never mind, you can marry me. I've sold out, so we can set up home at my manor house in Yorkshire. Then you'll be near Joanna.'

'Don't be ridiculous! Are you staying here?' she asked in some alarm.

'No, I'll go to my rooms. My man has already taken my gear there. So you need not cower away from me in such alarm, my child.'

'I did not!'

He grinned, and she had to remind herself that he was a tease who did not mean what he said. It was preposterous, the very idea of him offering to marry her, a mere governess he scarcely knew.

She was saved from further embarrassment as Sophia swept down the stairs, chiding him for not letting her know he was coming, and demanding to know how he had been injured. Brigid was able to escape and go to do her shopping.

Sophia and her husband were dining at home that evening, and Matthew was easily persuaded to remain.

'I'll have a tray in my room,' Brigid said when she heard.

'Of course you won't. You are our guest, Brigid, not a governess now, and will eat with us as usual,' Sophia said.

Brigid decided it would cause more comment if she protested, so she bit her lip and nodded. Matthew had been teasing her, of course, and if she did not appear to remember his light-hearted words, surely he would forget them and not embarrass her further.

'So why did you sell out?' Alexander Langston, Sophia's husband asked as they sat in the drawing room before dinner.

Matthew sighed. 'If I'd stayed, I would have had to go to India, and I really didn't fancy being so far from home. I've no desire to be sent to America either. I think, after the last few years on the continent, I have had enough of fighting. Besides, I have a house and a small estate to occupy me here in England. My tenants have given notice, so it's high time I paid attention to it.'

'Good, we'll be glad to see more of you. It's also high time you settled down and found a wife,' Sophia said. 'That might curb some of your wild ways.'

'That would depend on the wife,' he said, laughing at her.

Brigid suddenly found a speck of fluff on her gown, and bent her head as she picked it off. She hoped her cheeks were not as red as they felt. She dared not look at him to see if he was looking at her.

'All in good time, sister dear. I'll take it kindly of you if you refrain from introducing me to all the eligible debutantes who didn't contrive to hook a husband during the last Season.'

Sophia shook her head. 'Don't be afraid of that. I know from when we were children that if I suggested something you would most likely do the opposite!'

'So you will appreciate my concerns. When I want a wife I will be perfectly capable of finding my own. Tell me, where are Kenelm and Joanna going?'

They spoke of family matters, and when Matthew left later that evening to go to his rooms Brigid breathed a sigh or relief. He had clearly forgotten what he had said.

On the following morning Sophia, who normally rose to breakfast with her husband, did not appear.

'She'd like to see you later,' Mr Langston told Brigid.

When Brigid, concerned, knocked on Sophia's bedroom door and was bade enter, she found Sophia resting against a bank of pillows, and looking pale.

'What is it? Are you ill?' Brigid asked in alarm. Sophia was normally full of energy.

'No, not ill,' Sophia said with a smile. 'I appear to be increasing and have begun to suffer some queasiness, so I am staying abed until it passes. After ten years since Peter was born I thought I was barren. It does happen, sometimes, I understand. I was never ill for a moment when carrying the boys, but I am growing more sickly with every day. Elizabeth tells me this may because I am carrying a girl. I do hope so, and must believe my sister. After all, she has had three of each. Sons are wonderful but I would so love to have a girl to pamper and buy pretty dresses for.'

'I've heard that too,' Brigid said. 'I'm so pleased for you.'

'Thank you. However, my dear Alex is insisting I employ a companion, or secretary. He wants me to take every precaution, and is afraid I may try to do too much. I'm apparently not even to be allowed to write notes, or arrange the flowers. Not while he is around, in any event. What I do when he's at White's is my affair. So, Brigid, will you abandon this notion of being a governess and be my official companion instead? With a proper salary, of course.'

Brigid looked at her suspiciously.

'Have you concocted this scheme just to keep me here?' she asked.

'My dear, why should I? If I have to have a companion, and when he sets his mind to anything Alex is impossible to move, I much prefer to employ someone I know and like. Is that unreasonable? Or would you prefer to go and try to teach obnoxious brats in a household where you are not regarded as human?'

'Not all children are brats,' Brigid said, laughing, 'and not all employers are inconsiderate.'

'Here there are no brats to plague you, except during their holidays, and I will be the most considerate employer ever. Well, do you accept?'

'Thank you!' Brigid said. 'Of course I would prefer to stay here with you than become a governess.'

She thrust from her mind the thought that she would of necessity have to see a good deal of Matthew, unless he went to his estate in Yorkshire. It might be embarrassing, if he recalled his remark about marrying her, but he had not meant it, and was in all probability regretting it if he did remember.

'Then can you fetch me some paper and a pencil from my desk, for I must begin to plan some quiet dinner parties for Matthew.'

'You do mean to introduce him to suitable girls, then?' Brigid asked, and laughed. It was partly relief that he would soon have far better prospects for a wife than herself, partly amusement that despite her remarks the previous evening, Sophia still intended to try and find her brother a wife.

'Of course not!' Sophie said, and smiled. 'It's just that so many of our dearest friends, who we are bound to pay attention to, have daughters just entering Society, and a few quiet dinners will help to ease them in. I shall invite some other suitable young men, too, of course. Now, what do you think a good number? Not too many, so that the girls get lost in the crowd, nor too few to make it appear pointed.'

After a couple of months Brigid decided she had been foolish to read anything but a joke into Matthew's words. He treated her in the same way he treated his sister, while flirting outrageously with the prettiest girls Sophia introduced him to. He kept his arm in a sling at these dinner parties, though it had mended long since, and she knew he rode in the Park every morning, and often drove his phaeton there in the afternoons. None of the damsels who asked so solicitously after his injury appeared to be aware of these activities, and none of them commented on how long a simple fracture was taking to mend.

'Why do you pretend?' Sophia asked him one afternoon when he had come to take tea with her.

'If I have a sling I cannot be expected to drive out with them, or dance with them,' Matthew said, grinning at her.

'You are a wretch!'

'No, just up to your tricks. I know perfectly well what you are doing, sister mine. I came to tell you it is high time I went to Yorkshire to see to my affairs there. I shall spend Christmas with Henry, and you can inform your delightful protégées I shall return in the Spring. Perhaps. Who knows, I may find the perfect wife in Leeds. A mill owner's daughter, I think, so long as she is an only child and he is exceedingly rich.'

'He doesn't mean it,' Sophia told Brigid later. 'We intend to go to the country ourselves soon, for a couple of months. We'll come back to town in good time for my confinement, though. I want to be near to the best doctors.'

Matthew found lots of tasks to keep him occupied at his small manor house near Leeds. The weather was cold, there was plenty of snow, and he decided it was pointless returning to London before Sophia had produced her new offspring. There was his older sister Elizabeth, Countess of Sheldon, of course, who would welcome him, but she was absorbed in preparations for her eldest daughter's wedding in May. He had no desire to have to listen to Charlotte's raptures over her bridegroom, the house she would be living in, and most of all the new clothes she would be acquiring.

He spent Christmas with his brother Henry. Endured it, he thought to himself, for Henry's wife was a complaining invalid, and his son an ill-mannered brat. After two days of mingled irritation and boredom he insisted on braving the deep snow in order to ride home.

'There will be more snow by tomorrow night,' he said at dinner with as much conviction as he could put into his voice. 'Then, who knows, I might be stuck here for several days.'

Henry's wife, he was pleased to see, looked horrified at the prospect, and she hastened to assure him that while he was of course always welcome for as long as he cared to stay with them, he was naturally anxious to go back to his home and supervise the changes he was making there.

'For workmen always need you to tell them what to do,' she added.

'Of course,' he agreed solemnly.

The snow was deeper than he had expected, and his groom Jimmy, an elderly man who had been in his father's employ since he was a lad, never ceased complaining and prophesying disaster.

'If you don't hold your tongue I'll leave you here,' Matthew threatened. 'I know it will be dark in half an hour, but surely we both know our way across these moors even in the dark! We are not going to be benighted. At least, we won't be if you could push that nag of yours into a walk faster than a snail's.'

He ignored the man's continuing complaints, and wondered how Brigid was. He had cursed himself many times for his lighthearted remark about marriage. It had made her wary of him. Would she, by the time they met again, have forgotten it?

At last they reached home, and stabled the horses. Then he went to sit by the fire in his library, sipping brandy, and wondering how the rest of his family were faring. Because of the snow letters were delayed. Kenelm and Joanna were, he thought, in Rome by now, and he hoped it was warmer for them there. Sophia would not be back from Oxfordshire for at least two months, and she would not be entertaining until after her brat was born. Perhaps Kenelm and Joanna would be back in England soon afterwards. Then he would return to London. Meanwhile, he still had plenty of work to supervise inside the house. The new stables and