The Grand Deception

Chapter one

"Lavinia Augustus! You cannot be serious!" exclaimed Arvinia Augustus, staring in open disbelief at the shiny gold ring emblem with the crest of Horatio's; her cousin was holding out to her in the palm of one hand.

"I can't wear that. You know as well as I that the golden ring is a token of your betrothal to Alexander."

"Yes, I know," retorted Lavinia. "And that when it is joined with its twin, which even now adorns the Duke of Alfreton's hand, it will serve as my wedding band," she added in the tone of one reciting a litany. "It would be strange if I did not know."

"Well?" Arvinia questioned, as though she had proved her point. Then, when her cousin showed no sign of relinquishing her outrageous idea, she added, "Faith, Vinia!" Arvinia paced a step and came back. "Alexander believes you are going to marry him! Which means he undoubtedly wishes to take you to Thornhill so that he can make all the arrangements, publish the banns, present you to his family all the things that a beautiful wedding entails. And you want me to go in your place? Good Lord, whatever can you be thinking?"

"Oh, really, Arvinia," Lavinia retorted, as if the request she had just made of her cousin were quite unexceptional.

"There's no need to make more of this than it is. I just want to borrow you for a little while. Is it really so much to ask? Have I ever refused you anything when you needed it? Have I ever asked for anything in return?"

"No," Arvinia admitted reluctantly, though she could think of more than a few times when Lavinia had used that same argument to cajole her participation in a scheme that had subsequently landed them both in trouble. "But-"

"There, you see?" Lavinia interrupted with an air of triumph. "The fact that I mention such things now only demonstrates the extremities of my situation. My future happiness depends on you, Arvinia."

Arvinia threw up her hands in exasperation.

"Now you are roasting me," she protested, rolling her eyes ceilingward. "For God sake Lavinia, why do you not simply tell Alexander the truth?"

"Because," Lavinia replied in the tone of one explaining the obvious, "I do not gain control of Grandma's trust until my twentieth birthday, which is only three weeks away. Until then, I cannot afford to alienate Uncle George's affections. Or had you forgotten he is my guardian? If he found out Bernard and I were married by special license three months ago, he would not hesitate to have the marriage annulled. And, worse, he would exile me to some dreadful place, like he did to Aunt Clara in Hereford, and refuse to let me see Bernard until the poor dear was already on his way to Portugal. Then it might be months, even years, before we could be together again. No, Arvinia, I do not intend to let anything stop me from following Bernard and his comrade when the time comes."

"One shudders at the thought," agreed Arvinia dryly, marveling that anyone, let alone her cousin, whose closest concept of suffering hardship was having her luncheon interrupted by a rain shower, could see anything even remotely desirable in bivouacking with the king's army in foreign places.

Lavinia's eyes sparkled dangerously. "Oh, you may scoff if you wish. But I assure you I am quite serious about this.Oh, do you not see?" she added, a tinge of colour invading her cheeks.

"It is all Uncle George's fault that I am reduced to such a ploy. If he had not unaccountably taken my dearest Bernard in dislike and, furthermore, betrothed me to Alexander when I was a child, none of this would be necessary. As it is, I have no choice but to make it seem as though I have obediently agreed to wed Alexander. When the truth finally comes out, I shall have my competence, and twenty-four hours after that, I shall be with Bernard on the ship to Lisbon."

Lavinia grasped Arvinia's hands earnestly in her own. "I'm only asking you to keep the duke dangling for three weeks, Vinia. That is all the time I need. Then all you have to do is tell Alexander that you have decided you do not suit after all. I shall give you the money you need to save your beloved Hollows, and you need never see the Duke of Alfreton again. You see, it is all very simple."

"Simple!" Arvinia gasped, jerking her hands free as if they had been scorched. "It is despicable. You have a very odd notion of my character if you think I should accept money for such a thing. Why, we should both be beneath reproach. And even if what you propose were not utterly unacceptable, Lavinia, we cannot possibly get away with it."

"I don't see why not," Lavinia demurred with a shrug. "Uncle George and Aunt Alice are gone to Brighton for the waters and know nothing of Alexander's return. They have left me in Aunt Lucia's charge. She, at least, would never dream of putting an obstacle in the way of my happiness."

"Oh, I don't doubt that for a moment," Arvinia retorted acerbically. Lavinia's Aunt Lucia was an irrepressible romantic.

"Well then." Lavinia shrugged, glancing at the mantel clock for perhaps the dozenth time since Arvinia had arrived. "I hardly see where we can fail."

"Well, there is the duke," Arvinia suggested sardonically,gazing at her reflection next to Lavinia's in a great wall mirror. She could not but notice that her cousin's teal blue walking dress and the matching capote perched jauntily atop lustrous brown curls made her own worn and outmoded brown serge carriage dress and hurriedly refurbished beaver with the flimsy feather look even dowdier than usual. "Somehow I cannot think he would ever take plain Arvinia Augustus for Lavinia, London's newest Reigning Beauty."

"I wish you would not belittle yourself, Arvinia. You are anything but plain," Lavinia insisted. "And as far as the duke is concerned, I hardly think he will be a problem. I was only ten, after all, when he saw me last, and you must admit that any description he has of me might just as easily fit you."