A Time for Honour

Chapter 22

Lady Sophia was sitting in the morning room with her daughter, Julia when the door burst open and an excited Sir Henry stumbled into the room.

'What is it, Henry?' Lady Sophia said with an impatient sigh, 'I do wish you would enter a room with a little more grace.'

'Sophia, my dear, I cannot believe it,' he said looking with excitement at his wife, and ignoring her admonishment, 'our fortunes, may indeed, be about to change.'

'Has Fennimore agreed to the settlements?' Lady Sophia asked her husband, her eyebrows raised. 'I would have thought that it would have taken longer than a week to reach an agreement with him.'

'Forget Fennimore!' Sir Henry said emphatically, 'that old miser will not do at all.'

'But, you told me,' Lady Sophia said, looking at her husband suspiciously, 'that Julia had to marry him.'

'Julia will have another suitor now,' Sir Henry said triumphantly, 'someone richer and with far more consequence than old Fennimore.'

Lady Sophia, who was now running out of patience with her husband, said, 'I do so wish that you would not talk to me in riddles. It does vex me so. Who do we know that is wealthier than Fennimore, and, more importantly, is willing to help us out of our financial predicament?'

'Captain Laws,' Sir Henry said, rubbing his hands together, 'the gentleman who has been under our own roof for the past week.'

'But, he is not wealthy. In fact, from the state of the clothes he was wearing when he had the accident, I would say that he was very much down on his luck.'

'That, Sophia, is where you are wrong,' he said gleefully, 'I have just been talking to his solicitor, Mr Morton, and it turns out that our destitute looking Captain Laws is, in fact, the very wealthy 5th Earl of Silverton.'

'Silverton?' Lady Sophia said slowly and deliberately, 'but, is not Silverton an old man, who never comes to town? I vaguely remember my father talking about him years ago. If I recall correctly, he owns most of Norfolk.'

'Old Silverton, the 4th Earl, died a couple of months ago,' Sir Henry said eagerly, 'and it turns out that our Captain, is his closest male heir.'

'Are you certain?' Lady Sophia said doubtfully, 'Captain Laws does not look like an Earl to me.'

'His father was the 4th Earl's youngest son. He was disowned by his father when he married a woman who the old man thought was unsuitable, and was never heard of again.'

'You said that his father was a younger son,' Lady Sophia said curiously, 'there must be other heirs to the estate.'

'No, my dear,' Sir Henry said with a grin, 'all of Captain Laws' uncles are now dead. He is the only eligible male heir. Laws was on his way to London to find out about his good fortune when he had the accident outside our house.'

'I still do not see how this is going to solve our problem,' Lady Sophia said, looking at her husband suspiciously. 'He has been drifting in and out of consciousness over the past week. And, when he is a little more lucid, he thinks he is in Spain. The other day, he grabbed my arm and spoke to me in Spanish.'

'But, can you not see, my dear,' Sir Henry said, his voice still full of excitement, 'it is perfect. His loss of memory could work to our advantage.'

'How?' Lady Sophia said testily. 'He thinks he's a Lieutenant in some foot regiment, fighting in the foothills of Spain.'

'By marrying Julia, of course,' he said brightly. 'He does not remember anything about his immediate past. We could easily trick him into thinking that he was already betrothed to Julia before the accident happened.'