Meet the Cast of A Baron for Becky

Jude Knight

Copyright 2015 Jude Knight

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Cover images:

Becky: The White Hat by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, about 1780

Aldridge: Edward Archer by Andrew Plimmer, 1815

Hugh: Pierre-Jean-George Cabanis by Merry-Joseph Blondel, about 1805

Eleanor Haverford: Mary, Duchess of Gloucester by Sir Thomas Lawrence, about 1823

I blame the plot elves

I have a jackdaw mind: one that collects odd facts, interesting stories, concepts, faces, and snippets of plot ideas. They drop into the depths of my memory, and surface in unexpected patterns. I know where some of A Baron for Becky came from. I’m blaming the rest on plot elves.

The Marquis of Aldridge first appeared in my mind because I needed a hero who was a complete contrast to my crusading social zealot, Lady Charlotte Winderfield. Lady Charlotte’s story will be the third book in a series I haven’t started yet, but once I’d begun to think about Aldridge, he would not be quiet, and he soon inserted himself into my work-in-progress, Encouraging Prudence, where he is the hero’s half-brother.

Aldridge is a rake—a redeemable rake, one with charm and humour, but nonetheless full of the self-centredness of the tribe.

When the Bluestocking Belles formed a group of eight Regency writers, we found ourselves using our launch event page for a three-week long marathon of interactive story telling. We invented a magical inn that allowed our fictional worlds to collide, and brought along our characters for an impromptu party.

I contributed Aldridge to the fun, and it was fun! Poor Aldridge. He had a frustrating time, with his advances to one lady after another being rejected, sometimes violently.

Then along came Mrs A. Mrs Angel is the invention of Catherine Curzon, and she is a wonderful character: mistress to princes, owner of brothels, and a rollicking good-time girl. Aldridge’s pursuit of Mrs A. jumped from thread to thread and took days, with one accident after another keeping him from his goal.

Becky is no Mrs A. Initially, Catherine and I thought about writing the Aldridge/Mrs A. story, though how we would have solved the time issue, I do not know. Aldridge was newly born when Mrs Angel was in her prime. In any case, I realised that Aldridge needed quite a different kind of experience at this point in his life. Becky began to take shape in my mind - a broken bird, rescued by Aldridge but carrying scars from her past experiences.

Hugh is the baron of the title. Aldridge’s friend, he has scars of his own. And when Hugh entered the picture, an amalgam of all the best men I have known, A Baron for Becky stopped being a story about Aldridge and became a story about marriage.

So in the end, my inspiration for this book is my experience of the healing power of love. And the plot elves.

Hugh Baron Overton searches his soul

Hugh, Baron Overton sat cradling a tankard of ale. The man from the newspaper had asked a lot of personal questions. Hugh had refused to answer, of course. One didn’t talk about such personal things. And one certainly didn’t talk to the newspapers, even if they followed one all the way from London to rural Lancashire.

Of course, they really wanted to talk about the latest escapades in London. He and Aldridge had not hit the headlines, precisely. At least, not by name. The power of the Duke of Haverford was too strong for that. But everyone knew who Baron O. and the M.M. were.

Still, it wasn’t the questions about their amorous adventures that echoed in his head. Instead, he found himself formulating answers to questions that struck far closer to the bone.

What impression do you make on people when they first meet you?

They see my scars and they don’t look beyond them. I’ve seen them stare. I’ve heard what the women say... I can’t deny I’ve had some success in the bedroom in the last few years, but even then, I think it’s the novelty value. Beauty and the Beast, and I’m the beast.

Do you wish to marry? If so, what is your idea of a good marriage? Do you think that will happen in your life?

I’ll never marry again. It was a mistake last time. If she had only been honest with me... if she had told me that she was disgusted by my scars; that she didn’t want to marry me... But she needed to marry, and I was the only man who offered. It was a mistake that I won’t repeat.

What are you most ashamed of in your life?

I didn’t work hard enough to save my marriage. I should made her talk to me; made her explain. Instead—when she wouldn’t receive me except in the dark, when she refused her bed to me at all after that first year—I ran. I was working for the family, I told myself; rebuilding our fortune from the mess my uncle left it in. And I did have to travel. But not as much as I did, and I could have taken her with me. She died, and the baby with her, and it’s my fault.

Tell me about your best friend. How did you meet? What do you like about this person? What do they like about you?

The Marquess of Aldridge has been my best friend since we were two lonely boys getting into mischief together at Eton. People don’t understand Aldridge. He’s more than just a rake; much more. He’s a faithful friend, a good steward of his father’s duchy, and a kind and generous man. I think he likes that I don’t suck up to him. I might be the only person in his world, apart from his parents and his brothers, who doesn’t. Well, my title might be less elevated than his, but it’s older. And we were boys together, as I say.

What would you like it to say on your tombstone?

I’d like it to say: Here lies Hugh Baron Overton, who lived and died doing his duty.

What is your greatest fear?

I’m afraid of failing those who depend on me. And fail them I must. I cannot perform the most basic duty of all peers. It can’t be helped. I’ve tried, as God is my witness. I won’t fail them in any other way: my daughters, my tenants, my friends. I couldn’t live with myself if I let anyone else down.

The Merry Marquis in a minor key

The Marquis of Aldridge was sitting over a glass of brandy in the private parlour of an exclusive inn half-way between Margate and London. The letter in his hand sent his strongly arched brows plunging towards one another in a frown.

His latest meeting with his father, the Duke of Haverford, was behind him, a reunion with his lovely mistress ahead. He had eaten a substantial and tasty dinner and the business of the duchy, which followed him everywhere, was largely finished for the night.

This letter was meant to be entertainment; light relief after the strain of three weeks with His Grace. Questions from a newsheet correspondent? He’d expected an interrogation on his amorous adventures, and planned to formulate replies that would curl the impudent questioner’s toes. Not that he’d send them, of course. His family did not answer to the newsheets. But he’d enjoy imagining their effect.

These questions were not at all amusing; their answers even less so. He thought the answers anyway. How not?

What impression do you make on people when they first meet you?

Mostly, people don’t meet me. They meet the Marquis of Aldridge. Or they meet the Merry Marquis. And the impression is made before we are ever in the same room.

Aldridge has a duchy to run. Those in my service, those I do business with; they know I expect efficiency, honesty, and commitment. And I reward it well.

As for the Merry Marquis, what it is to have a reputation! Debutantes are warned off me, which saves me from their artlessness, feigned or real. Widows and bored wives search me out. Which saves me the trouble of looking for them.

People meet me for the first time knowing what they want from me, and that colours their impression of the person they meet. None of them want to know me; the real me.

Do you wish to marry? If so, what is your idea of a good marriage? Do you think that will happen in your life?

Marry? Good God, no. I have no wish to marry. I will do so, of course. In time, I must take a wife. I will choose her for her lineage, the lands or wealth or allies she brings to the duchy, her potential to be an excellent duchess. It sound cold put so bluntly, and the idea leaves me cold.

I have seen good marriages. My cousin and my half-brother both made love matches. Even after three years and children, both couples are hopelessly besotted. More than that, though. They are good friends. They like being together. They admire and respect one another.

They live my idea of a good marriage: a relationship of equals, passionately in love but also closely bonded in affection. I cannot expect that, of course. I shall be Duke of Haverford, and shall, in due course, offer myself on the marital altar for the benefit of the duchy.

I think I shall be a dreadful husband. I hope I shall be kind to my wife.

What are you most ashamed of in your life?

Ah. I could give a list. A top ten list, perhaps? One of the worst things I ever did was turn my back on a woman whose virtue I took. She rejected me when she realised I meant to make her my mistress. She had thought my words of love sincere.

It starts further back, does it not? The fault was not being offended at her rejection, but in seducing her at all. At the time, I convinced myself that she was not as innocent as she appeared; that I could give her a better life as my mistress than she had as an old lady’s companion; that if I did not seduce her someone else would.

I was sure she must know I was lying when I said I would adore her forever. Already, though I was still in my teens, I had a reputation. But she believed me. To my eternal shame.

I was a cad. That is the long and the short of it. I... What can I say? I’ve never since knowingly taken an innocent to my bed. I’ve never since made promises I didn’t intend to keep, or lied about my feelings. But that doesn’t make my crime the less.

No wonder she believed His Grace my father when she came seeking help after she found herself with child. He told her that I denied parentage. He lied. He never told me of her plight; never gave me the opportunity to provide for my child. Even had that been his only crime against me and mine, I would hate him for that.

She saved herself, and the little girl. When we met again—she despised me, of course, though not more than I despised myself. But she is a generous woman. She is polite when we meet, and she allows me to be an uncle to my... to her daughter. I am grateful for that.

Tell me about your best friend. How did you meet? What do you like about this person? What do they like about you?

I met Overton at Eton—two boys bonding over a shared dislike for lumpy, burnt porridge.  In hindsight, putting it in the headmaster’s bed might not have been the cleverest move. We were seen creeping out of his rooms, and spent the next week on our stomachs in the infirmary.

I admire Overton. He has suffered so many losses, but he just keeps going. He has brought his estate back from the brink of ruin, given his people a future, and built the mill he inherited into the centrepiece of a thriving trading enterprise.

And he has stuck with me through thick and thin. He says I amuse him. I tell him somebody has to. If it wasn’t for me, he’d stay up there in Lancashire and never have any fun!

What would you like it to say on your tombstone?

Here lies Anthony Grenford, who gave pleasure to many and harmed as few as he could. He died aged 99, shot by a jealous husband.

What is your greatest fear?

I am the Marquis of Aldridge, heir to the Duke of Haverford. The men of our family do not feel fear. I distinctly remember the first time His Grace told me that. I must have been four or five. I had climbed down the crag below the castle to retrieve a ball. On my way back up, a rock slid from under my feet, and I almost fell. I froze. I held onto that cliff face so hard it’s a wonder it did not crumble.

And there I stayed. It could only have been minutes, but it felt like hours before my nurse found me, and called for help, and half the castle turned out to rescue the heir. Including His Grace.

His Grace came down the rope himself. He wouldn’t let me reach out for him. He castigated me for crying. He told me that I’d got myself down and I was going to get myself up. He told me that we do not feel fear.

I was more afraid of His Grace than I was of falling. After I reached the first hold, then the second, then the third... it became easy again. He beat me when I reached the top, for running from my nurse. But he did instruct my mother to have me breeched. And I did retrieve the ball.

An interview with the Rose of Frampton

The Rose of Frampton receives her interviewer from two hundred years in the future in a small parlour, exquisitely decorated. Everything is of the finest quality, including the woman who graces the room in the way a jewel both takes and lends beauty to its setting.

Assured that no word of this interview will be published before the 21st century, she is willing to be frank in the hopes her words can be useful to women in a time she cannot imagine.

"I cannot emphasise enough," she warns, "how important it is to me to remain anonymous in this time. No one can be allowed to connect Rose Diamond, the mistress of the Marquis of Aldridge, with Rebecca Winstanley, widowed mother of Sarah Winstanley. My daughter's future depends on that distance."

What impression do you make on people when they first meet you?

It rather depends on who they meet. When Aldridge introduces me to his friends as the Rose of Frampton, they see what they expect to see: a very expensive courtesan. No-one propositions me, of course, or treats me with discourtesy. They know how Aldridge would deal with that! But I know they see me as a status symbol, an ornament for Aldridge's arm and a toy for his bed. Not as a person.

Then I have my other life. I do not meet many people as the widowed Mrs Winstanley. Mothers of the girls my daughter has befriended at the park; merchants perhaps; servants. I have heard myself describes as 'that pretty timid little widow'. I suppose the description is accurate.

Do you wish to marry? If so, what is your idea of a good marriage? Do you think that will happen in your life?

I have rarely seen the kind of marriage I would wish for myself. Aldridge is single, of course, but I have had married protectors, and I have known many other women in the keeping of men with wives. Aldridge sometimes talks to me about the ton women he beds - widows, some of them, but many bored and lonely wives. I would hate a marriage like that.

I've seen a few couples who are devoted to one another. They love one another, and more than that, they are friends. They enjoy being with one another. They are loyal and loving. Could I have a marriage like that? Of course not. Not with my past. But I would rather be alone than in a marriage where I was not accepted and loved.

What are you most ashamed of in your life?

Ashamed? Hmmm. Most, I suppose, would say I should be ashamed to be earning my living on my back. But I am at a loss to understand the logic. Society says I should be ashamed of taking the only opportunity available to me to give my daughter a better life than serving the appetites of some man until her beauty fades or she dies of the pox.

But those same moralists do not expect shame of the men whose appetites and whose money create the market for what I and those like me sell. Should it shame me to sell myself in a comfortable townhouse for gold guineas rather than in an alley for pence or a brothel for the leavings of the bawd? Those were, I assure you, my choices.

I am ashamed of choosing my former protectors unwisely. Perry was a disaster. Had Aldridge not rescued us, Sarah and I would have been truly lost. I would owe him forever for that alone.

Tell me about your best friend. How did you meet? What do you like about this person? What do they like about you?

Best friend? I do not know... There was another courtesan, once, who was very kind to me when I first came to London. She gave me excellent advice. I think we could have been friends, but she is gone now. Aldridge is not a friend, precisely. I am fond of Aldridge, and I think he is fond of me, but he is my protector. I am paid to be pleasant, to amuse him, to keep him company. I am, if you like, his friend, but is he mine?

We met in a garden, which sounds very mundane and was anything but. I was escaping with Sarah from men who would have... well, never mind. Aldridge has no idea how he came to be naked and asleep in my summerhouse. But I am glad he was there to hide us and spirit us away to freedom.

He is a kind and generous protector, and I enjoy his company. What does he like about me, you ask? He says I amuse him.

What would you like it to say on your tombstone?

Here lies Rebecca, mother of Sarah and grandmother of who knows how many legitimate and healthy children. In life, she was loved and respected. In death she will be remembered.

What is your greatest fear?

I fear my past will haunt my daughter. I fear others will link the mistress of the Marquis of Aldridge to my little girl, and that her chances of escaping the life I have led will be destroyed. Aldridge is as careful as I am to keep the connection secret, and I believe he even bribes and threatens the news-sheets to protect us. But what will happen when our arrangement is over? Too many people know us both.

I believe Sarah and I will have to change our names and go where no one can find us, and even then, I am afraid someone will find out. All will be lost if I cannot keep my secret forever.

Her Grace of Haverford reflects

Eleanor Grenford, Duchess of Haverford, seldom consents to an interview. Though she lives, perforce, in the public eye—as wife to one of the most powerful men in England and mother to two of England’s most notable rakes—she carefully guards her private life.

She agreed to answer our questions only after being assured that this interviewer is from the future and from real life, not the fictional world she inhabits.

Born Eleanor Creydon, eldest daughter of the Earl of Farnmouth, she is related by birth or marriage to most of the noble houses of England and many in the wider United Kingdom and Europe. She married the Duke of Haverford before she attained the 18th anniversary of her nativity, and has since become one of the ton’s leading hostesses.

She has a supporting (but important) role in A Baron for Becky, as mother of one of the two leading men and a friend in need when Becky reaches her lowest point.

What are you most proud of about your life?

“My two sons,” says the duchess, without hesitation. “Aldridge—the Marquis of Aldridge, my elder son and Haverford’s heir—is responsible and caring. And Jonathan, too. They are, I cannot deny, a little careless. But they are not heartless, dear. I’ve always thought that being heartless is the defining feature of a true rake.

“They take responsibility for their by-blows, which is so important in a gentleman, do you not agree? And neither of them has ever turned a mistress off without providing for her, or at least not since they were very young.

“Sadly, the example set by His Grace their father was not positive in this respect. I flatter myself that I have been of some influence in helping them to understand that they have a duty to be kind to those less fortunate and less powerful than themselves.”

What are you most ashamed of in your life?

The duchess does not answer immediately. She seems to be turning over several possibilities. “I neglected him, you know. I neglected Aldridge. When he was born, I left him to his servants. I thought that was normal, and Haverford... he was very angry when I suggested I should stay at the castle instead of going to London for the season.

“Why; even his name... Haverford insisted everyone call him by his title. But I could have called him ‘Anthony’ in private, could I not?

“Dear Aldridge had no-one but his staff. I was seldom at Margate, and when I was... His Grace thought it my duty to spend my time with him. I saw Aldridge once a day, brought to me clean and quiet of an evening before his bedtime.

“I had no idea what I had done until Jonathan was born. He timed his birth for the end of the season, and His Grace left for his usual round of house parties, so I could do as I wished. I wished to be in the nursery with my sons.

“After that, I found ways to bring them to London with me, and to spend time with them at play as often as several times a week! Even so, I did not dare go against the duke’s orders, and I call my son by his title to this day. Everyone does. Poor dear boy.”

What impression do you make on people when they first meet you?

“People don’t see me, my dear. They see the Duchess of Haverford. I cannot blame them, of course. I am at pains to project the image of ‘duchess’. I have cultivated it my entire adult life. Why! If people truly saw me, they would be very surprised, I think.”

Do you think you have turned out the way your parents expected?

“My parents expected me to marry well and to present my husband with heirs. Had I married beneath their expectations, I daresay I would never have seen them again. I cannot say, dear, that such an outcome would have been entirely a bad thing.”

What is the worst thing that has happened in your life? What did you learn from it?

“I could say losing James, or I could say marrying Haverford, but it is all of a piece. I cannot tell you where the one ends and the other starts. I gave my heart to James, but he was a second son. My father gave my hand to Haverford.

“And by ‘hand’ I mean the rest of me, dear. Imagine a sheltered seventeen-year-old, innocent but for a stolen kiss with the man she hoped to wed. And instead of that man, I spent my wedding night in the hands of a hardened roué with no patience... He is two decades my senior, dear. Thirteen years older than James.

“I believe my sons are known for their skills. (I speak of bed sports, dear, and do not blush for it, for at our age we should scorn to be coy, and this article will be published, you have assured me, some two hundred years in my future.) If Haverford has such skills, and the rumour is not just flattery aimed at money to be made from his patronage, he did not feel inclined to waste it on a mere wife.”

How do you feel about your life right now? What, if anything, would you like to change?

“I am fortunate. I live in luxury. I have my sons (or, at least, I have Aldridge close by and regular letters from Jonathan, who is on the Tour, dear). I have the little girls, too—Haverford’s by-blows, but I love them dearly. I can give them an education, respectability, a little dowry... I do these things, too, for my poorer godchildren, and I love nothing better than to present one of my goddaughters for her Season.

“I enjoy entertaining—balls, musical evenings, garden parties and picnics in London, and house parties at our other estates. My entertainments are famous. I have promised to be honest with you, so I will say ‘not without reason’.” The duchess laughs, her eyes for a moment showing glints of the self-deprecating humour that is part of her elder son’s attraction.

“And, dear, I have come to an accommodation with Haverford. He leaves me to live my own life, while he carries on with his. Between you and me, my dear, my life is pleasanter without him in it.”

What have you always wanted to do but have not done? Why?

“I have always wondered what my life might have been like had I defied my father and eloped with James. He came to me, you know, after the duel; after his own father exiled him. I turned him away. And then, six months later we heard he was dead. I didn’t care what happened to me after that, so I gave in to my father’s demands and married Haverford.

“It wasn’t true, as it turned out. He arrived back in London not long ago, with a great band of wild children. I could have been their mother, had I been brave enough to go with him.

“But there. Had I married James, I would not have Aldridge and Jonathan. Perhaps all is as it should be.

“You asked what I have always wanted to do? I want to see James again; to talk to him, just the two of us. Haverford... he and James do not speak. We Grenfords do not acknowledge the Winderfields and they do not acknowledge us. If people are inviting James or his offspring to their social gathering, they do not invite us. If us, then not him. We do not meet.

“But Society is surprisingly small. One day... one day...”

A Baron for Becky

Becky is the envy of the courtesans of the demi-monde - the indulged mistress of the wealthy and charismatic Marquis of Aldridge. But she dreams of a normal life; one in which her daughter can have a future that does not depend on beauty, sex, and the whims of a man.

Finding herself with child, she hesitates to tell Aldridge. Will he cast her off, send her away, or keep her and condemn another child to this uncertain shadow world?

The devil-may-care face Hugh shows to the world hides a desperate sorrow; a sorrow he tries to drown with drink and riotous living. His years at war haunt him, but even more, he doesn't want to think about the illness that robbed him of the ability to father a son. When he dies, his barony will die with him. His title will fall into abeyance, and his estate will be scooped up by the Crown.

When Aldridge surprises them both with a daring proposition, they do not expect love to be part of the bargain.

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Connect with Jude Knight

Jude Knight writes strong determined heroines, heroes who can appreciate a clever capable woman, villains you’ll love to loathe, and all with a leavening of humour.

After a career in commercial writing, editing, and publishing, Jude Knight returned to her first love, fiction. Her novella, Candle’s Christmas Chair, was released in December 2014, and is in the top ten on several Amazon bestseller lists in the US and UK. Her first novel Farewell to Kindness, was released on 1 April, and is first in a series: The Golden Redepennings.

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Table of Contents

I blame the plot elves

What impression do you make on people when they first meet you?

Do you wish to marry? If so, what is your idea of a good marriage? Do you think that will happen in your life?

What are you most ashamed of in your life?

Tell me about your best friend. How did you meet? What do you like about this person? What do they like about you?

What would you like it to say on your tombstone?

What is your greatest fear?

What impression do you make on people when they first meet you?

Do you wish to marry? If so, what is your idea of a good marriage? Do you think that will happen in your life?

What are you most ashamed of in your life?

Tell me about your best friend. How did you meet? What do you like about this person? What do they like about you?

What would you like it to say on your tombstone?

What is your greatest fear?

What impression do you make on people when they first meet you?

Do you wish to marry? If so, what is your idea of a good marriage? Do you think that will happen in your life?

What are you most ashamed of in your life?

Tell me about your best friend. How did you meet? What do you like about this person? What do they like about you?

What would you like it to say on your tombstone?

What is your greatest fear?

What are you most proud of about your life?

What are you most ashamed of in your life?

What impression do you make on people when they first meet you?

What is the worst thing that has happened in your life? What did you learn from it?

How do you feel about your life right now? What, if anything, would you like to change?

What have you always wanted to do but have not done? Why?