The Delfe Treasure

2. Meeting Grandfather

Matthew Montford looked up from his book when the footmen swung open the doors to the drawing room, and the butler announced, "Sir Aldrick, My Lord, and the Lady Elizabeth Leigh."

The old man adjusted his spectacles as the couple was led across the room, and when they had neared, he said, "Assist me to my feet, Aldrick. Such beauty deserves full-standing honour." 

The butler shook his head. "Is this wise, My Lord? We have just now gotten you seated. Doctor's orders are to not exert yourself." 

"Tut-tut, John. I know far better my strength than does he." Matthew extended both arms. "Give me a little tug, lad."

Aldrick smiled as he assisted his grandfather from his deep chair. "Great to see you still in fine spirit, Captain. This is the lady about whom I have written."

"Smitten. Yes, I can see why you are." He took Elizabeth's offered hand. "I know your grandfather, Thomas, from debates in the House, though it has now been many years. Is he still hale?"

"He passed on the year before I was born." 

"Yes, of course. I knew this." Matthew tapped his head. "Strange the things ageing does to one's mind." He ran his gaze slowly over Elizabeth's face, neck and shoulders, then back up, a smile growing as he nodded. "But the appreciation of a beautiful woman does not fade." 

Elizabeth blushed. "You flatter me, Your Lordship. But I now see from where Aldrick gets his smooth tongue."

"Ah, but you are the inspiration." He smiled and lifted Elizabeth's hand to his lips. "How did you entrap him? My Martha, may she rest in peace, said many women will take his body but none will capture his heart."

"Grandpa!" Aldrick shook his head. "Shall we concentrate on things in the present and not in my past." He wagged his finger at the old man. "If your stories at sea were not all hollow boasting and cock-strutting, you also had your fair share of being a healthy young man."

"Gentlemen!" Elizabeth drew a stern face. "This is no way to speak with women present."

Aldrick tilted his head over his shoulder. "Mistress Hodgins has remained outside the door with the footmen. And though I do enjoy your acting, you may for the moment revert to being the person I adore. I am certain Grandfather would prefer meeting the real you."

Elizabeth lowered her chin, relaxing her shoulders and back as much as her corset would allow, expressing a long sigh as she did. "Why do women choose to torture themselves in this manner?"

Matthew chuckled as he released Elizabeth's hand. "A lively one you are. I now see how you would have captured the lad. So when will you wed?"  

"It has been less than a week since we received my father's permission." She smiled at Aldrick. "But we have yet to announce it." 

"I thought it best to seek your approval, Grandpa, before we have our banns read."

"Yes, since Edmund..." He shook his head. "Since your father is no longer with us, it does fall to me." He cocked an eyebrow. "And if I refuse?"

Elizabeth shrugged. "Then we will run off to live in illicit pleasure."

"Oh, my! You do have a fine spirit. How had you two met?" 

Aldrick took Elizabeth's hand and gently pressed it. "She initially caught my interest through intrigue in the library at Cambridge."

"I was not aware they now allow women in there."

"They still do not, and that was her intrigue. She had dressed as a man to gain access for her research, but she could not hide the exquisite beauty of her face, nor could her waistcoat disguise the fullness of her..." He paused and looked down at the graceful curves above Elizabeth's bodice. 

"So, you caught her out?"

"No, but we shared many admiring glances and lingering looks as we pored over our books, both fearing expulsion if we spoke. I had become engrossed in a treatise on lunar distance, and when next I looked up, she was no longer at the table."

Elizabeth blushed. "I had left in search of a jakes." 

"Her books were still there, so I waited as long as I dared to not miss an engagement. Then after looking at her notes on what she had been reading, I tucked a letter between her books before I departed."

"And she found it upon her return?"

"I did, but it contained only his recognition of my ruse, an expression of his admiration of my beauty and adventure, and a desire to meet."

"So you composed a reply to him?" 

"His books were still on the table, so I waited. When he did not appear, I wrote a reply, but when I rose to place it, a librarian discovered my deceit, and I was escorted from the hall." 

While Matthew settled again in his chair, Aldrick related a convoluted tale of trying to find her by using clues from what she had been reading. "Then, finally, weeks later in Great Tower Street, I saw her leave a shop, leap onto her horse and ride off at a canter. I was afoot, and could not keep up, nor did she hear my voice above the din of the street."

"It sounds as if she was again comfortably dressed." Matthew smiled at Elizabeth, then looked up at the butler. "I sense a fine tale coming, John. Bring us a jug of claret. The better Pontac."

Immediately the butler had departed, Aldrick continued, "The manner in which she bounded onto her steed..." He paused and shifted in his chair. "That confirmed I had to find her. I retraced my steps to the shop from which she had come, the maker of surveying instruments I had been seeking."

"Surveying?" Matthew looked askance between Aldrick and Elizabeth.

"My father had given up on my ever finding a husband, so he conceded to my desire to assist him in surveying the family landholdings. With the increase in share-cropping, we need accurate plots of the contracted fields. I had travelled to Cambridge because of its mathematical..."

Elizabeth paused while the butler arrived to pour the wine, and when he had withdrawn, she continued, "I read what I could about instruments and techniques, and after I was expelled, I found my own copy of Samuel Wyld's The Practical Surveyor at a bookseller in the centre of Cambridge, and that book had led me to the shop of Jonathan Sission."

When Elizabeth glanced down at her wine, Matthew noticed, picked up his glass and raised it. "To fine health for us all."

Elizabeth sipped and savoured; then she looked up at the old man. "This is much like the Haut Brion my father favours." 

"You have a palate as refined as your beauty. This wine is made by the Pontac family from their vines at O'Brien." He turned to Aldrick. "You truly have found a kindred spirit. So, I assume the instrument maker directed you to her?" 

"No, he knew her not, save as a new client. But he informed me her two Guinea deposit ensured she would return for the theodolite she had commissioned." Aldrick paused to enjoy a sip of wine. "I composed a letter to her, detailing my prolonged search and expressing again my great admiration. I provided my address in Saint James Square for her response."

Elizabeth lifted her eyes from her glass. "I wrote a reply, and since the address was so close, I decided to deliver the letter by hand. My father has a house in Pall Mall he occupies when he sits with the Lords, and this is where I was residing as I sought surveying instruments."

"My footman was out on errands, so I responded to the knock on the door."

"We stood staring at each other in silence, each daring not to speak."

"I thought all the gods from all civilisations and creeds had conspired to deliver my dream to my door. I embraced her, and she did not resist."

Elizabeth trembled at the memory. "We shan't say more."