He chuckled, and said, “That is very kind, and most welcome, but I will not inflict myself on the company. A tray in my room will suit me very well.”
Ger was about to acquiesce, but Ran said, “That would cause exactly the kind of talk we would all prefer to avoid. Much better if you show yourself publicly now that you have stopped pretending to be a wrathful future husband. Because clearly your other motive, I deduce, was to free yourself from a betrothal to a chit half your age.”
“True enough.” They stepped outside the mausoleum and Crosby took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. “It feels very good to be free again. I have endured one desperately unhappy marriage, and have no desire for a second. At least Daphne was in Paris and out of my sight. But once I was caught in Susan’s web, I could not honourably withdraw, and she clung to me like a limpet. At first, I was too stunned to know what to do, and for a while I foolishly imagined she was actually in love with me. It did not take long to disabuse myself of that notion. The child is an incorrigible flirt and as a married woman likely to be something worse. So I set out to shake myself free of her. I whipped up a quarrel at Crosby Manor within three days of her arrival, but although she fought back with words, she never gave me any hint of wishing to cry off. So then I insisted she stay at Mallowfleet for a full month, for I knew that would chafe her, to miss the season. It seemed certain that she would run up to town, and I planned to go after her and play the jealous suitor until she was sick and tired of me. But when I heard she had set off for Valmont, I knew exactly what she was about, and came here to warn you. When I found you both gone, I feared the worst, I assure you. I was very much afraid I was too late, but happily Miss Chandry was keeping watch over you.”
They were within sight of the house now, so Ran and Ger handed Crosby over to Mrs Brack to be shown to a room. Ruth was loitering in the entrance hall when they returned. They withdrew into the empty Grand Saloon, and Ran related the whole to her.
“She has no shame!” Ruth said, pacing back and forth. “She is quite unrepentant. I am ashamed to call her sister. I asked if she wanted to leave but she said no, it was for Lord Crosby to leave if he wishes but she will stay to see me married.”
“Will she come down to dinner?” Ran said, horrified.
“Certainly she will, and you will not notice anything amiss in her behaviour. She is very skilled in persuading the world that she is a mild-mannered, biddable girl who would not harm a flea.” She paused, then smiled at Ger. “And once again, we are all gratitude towards Miss Chandry. What a remarkable lady she is.”
Ger’s face was alight in moments. “Indeed she is! But Ruth, do you truly think your sister would have trapped me into marrying her, even though she was betrothed already? What in heaven’s name am I to do to be safe?”
“Ger, you are a duke,” Ruth said gently. “You are under thirty years of age, and apart from a slight limp you are in perfect health. You are one of the wealthiest men in England, and you are unmarried. You will never be safe from scheming young ladies and matchmaking mamas.”
“Then I must go and live in a cave and never come out,” he said, grinning.
“They will find a way to your cave and try to entice you out,” she said, laughing.
“I shall place a boulder across the entrance and never come out,” he said, lifting his chin defiantly, and Ran was only half convinced that he was joking.
~~~~~
Ruth descended early to the Grand Saloon before dinner, but she was not the first there. Elizabeth and her friend were seated on a sofa, quietly reading.
“Lizzie! And Miss Bucknell, too. I had no idea we were to have the pleasure of your company this evening. Did Mrs Brine burn the mutton again?”
Elizabeth laughed, but reached into her reticule and pulled out a slip of paper. “I had this cri de coeur from Ran.”
‘Lizzie, If you have any care for your poor benighted brothers, please abandon your blancmange to dine with us tonight, for we have the most nightmarish company imaginable. Crosby and Susan have broken things off and will both be at dinner. Help! R.’
Ruth could only laugh. “He sounds as if he imagines they will be hurling lamb cutlets at each other! Everyone will be perfectly civilised, I am sure, but we will certainly be glad of more ladies, for we have nine gentlemen at table and there will be no keeping them from talking interminably about horses otherwise.”
“I shall be very happy to play my part in preventing such dullness. Is it true that it is broken off? Irrevocably? For he seemed very much the jealous and besotted lover, to me.”
Ruth shook her head, smiling. “He was very convincing, but he wished to rid himself of an unwanted engagement. He was trapped into it, you see.” Elizabeth was thoughtful, considering this. Ruth went on, “And was I not right about him? He is neither fat nor bald, and not a trace of snuff about him.”
“Oh yes! You were quite right,” Elizabeth said softly, her eyes glowing.
The room began to fill up so they could have no more private talk, but Ruth watched carefully for Lord Crosby to arrive. He was one of the last to appear, and Ran had also been watching for him, it appeared, for he stepped forward to greet him, and began to introduce him around the room. He began with some of the gentlemen, who were clustered around the door and could not be got past otherwise, but once he had got clear of them and was steering Crosby towards Lady Anne, there was suddenly no obstacle hiding Elizabeth.
Crosby saw her. He stopped, uncertain at first. Then he tipped his head on one side with a little smile. “Lizzie? Is it you?”
“As you see, Luke,” she answered composedly, although her cheeks were a little flushed.
He strode towards her, the rest of the room forgotten, and lifted her proffered hand to his lips. “How are you?”
“Well… very well. And you?”
“Oh… yes. Good Lord, Lizzie, it must be sixteen years since I last saw you, but you have not changed a bit. Still outshining every other lady in the room.”
She coloured up like a girl. “Still laying on the flattery an inch thick, Luke.”
“It is not flattery if it is true,” he said promptly. There was a space on the sofa beside her, but he did not sit. “And… and how is Bexhill?”
“Bexhill? Lord Bexhill? I have not the slightest idea, not having seen him for above ten years.”
“But…?”
From her position behind him, Ruth could not see his face, but she could imagine the bewilderment on it.
“I saw the betrothal notice in the Gazette. Are you not married to him?”
She smiled. “No. He posted the notice without bothering to enquire as to my opinion on the matter.”
“Oh. Then if not Bexhill, who did you marry?”
“No one. I have never married, Luke.”
“Oh,” he said again. And then the words dried up completely and he could only stare at her.
“Sit,” she said, patting the sofa beside her. “We have a great deal of catching up to do, it seems.”
Obediently he sat and now Ruth could see his stunned face. People came and went, one or two even tried to speak to him, but he could not take his eyes from Elizabeth’s face. Even when Susan arrived, late enough to make a dramatic entrance, he never lifted his gaze. When they went into dinner, he escorted Elizabeth into the Buttery and sat beside her.
“Your little strategy worked very well,” Ruth whispered into Ran’s ear as he helped her into her seat at the table. “Foolish man! Why did he not take the trouble to find out her situation when his wife died? They could have been happy these three years past.”
“More than that if he had not run off and instantly married someone else,” Ran said. “Why did he do that?”
“He seems to be vulnerable to determined women,” she whispered back
They could say no more, for the rest of the company were all around them, and Ran was busy trying to arrange that Susan was as far away from Crosby as could be contrived, and that she had congenial company. In this lat
ter quest he was aided by Captain Edgerton, who could spot a young lady in need of an amusing dinner companion at a distance of half a mile, and had immediately taken charge of her.
Dinner passed off without difficulty, and Ruth followed Lady Anne through to the Grand Saloon rather pleased. No one had fallen out, no lamb cutlets had been hurled and Elizabeth was in such a glow of happiness that Ruth could not resist saying, “I trust you feel suitably recompensed for missing Mrs Brine’s blancmange?”
She laughed merrily. “I am excessively disappointed, naturally, although I have been too polite to mention it. Mary, dear, why do you keep looking up at the ceiling? You must be familiar with the scene upon it by now.”
Miss Bucknell smiled, her protuberant teeth on full display. “Not the ceiling, Lizzie. You see all these pilasters around the room, with all that filigree work at the top? Some of them hide secret galleries where we may be watched.”
“In the pilasters?” Elizabeth said. “Who told you that?”
“His Grace your brother. I saw him looking up there once, quite intently as if he was watching, and he told me that all the principal rooms have something of the sort, and that he hoped Miss Chandry was there watching over him. He said she is his guardian angel, which is rather sweet, is it not? It is such a pity that she cannot join us, for I am sure she would enjoy being part of the company instead of stuck inside a pillar like that.”
“Well, I never knew that!” Elizabeth cried. “I know Ger used to be fascinated by the plans of the house when he was a boy, but I never guessed there were so many secrets to be uncovered. Ah, here are the gentlemen at last!”
It was only one gentleman, but it was the one she was waiting for. Lord Crosby made straight for her, and they settled contentedly at the backgammon table.
Ruth, meanwhile, was left to herself, for Lady Anne was dozing, Susan was at the instrument and Mary Bucknell had picked up a book. With no other occupation to fill her hands or her mind, she listened to Susan’s performance, trying not to wince at the frequent missed notes, and surreptitiously watched the pilasters for signs of movement behind them. But it was not until the rest of the gentlemen reappeared, and she watched where Ger’s eyes turned as he entered, that she finally caught the flash of some lightness — a face, perhaps — behind the filigree.
What must it be like to be a mistress? However much one was loved, could it ever compensate for the perpetual need to keep out of sight, while the man walked about in society as if one did not exist at all? For the first time, she sincerely pitied Miss Chandry and wished that she could emerge from behind the screen and take her place at Ger’s side, as he so clearly wanted. Sometimes the world was very harsh.
27: Revisiting The Past
Ran was up early the next morning to attend to the correspondence that had accumulated while he was away, so he called for a tray to be brought to the sitting room he shared with Ger and Ginny. She came in while he was eating, already dressed. He poured coffee for her, wondering with a warm glow inside him what it would be like to share such moments with Ruth. He had not long to wait to find out.
“You won’t have to put up with me for much longer,” Ginny said, cradling her coffee cup. “There will be enough of the Old Manor habitable for us to move in next week.”
“It will be strange not to have Ger in the next room,” he said. “We shared a bed before we were breeched, and then a bedroom, and these rooms since we were ten.”
“You will have the Lady Ruth,” she said with a throaty chuckle. “You will not miss Ger much. Besides, he will not be far away, and I hope you will come and go as you please. The last thing he wants is to create any division between you.”
He did not state the obvious, that it was Ginny herself who was the divisive factor. As his mistress, she was not part of his normal life and so she drew Ger away from it, too. He would no doubt spend more time in the Old Manor than in Valmont. But that closeness, closer even than with Ran, gave her an indispensable advantage. She more than anyone knew the workings of Ger’s tempestuous nature.
“How is he coping with all this?” Ran said. “So many changes, yet after that first day he has done very well — in public. Is he truly as settled as he appears?”
“He has his restless moments, as always,” she said, setting the coffee cup down on the table and reaching absently for a bun. “He was wakeful last night, but I let him talk and it seemed to calm him.”
“He used to talk to me, but it never calmed him.”
She chuckled again. “A brother is very different from a lover. You will find out soon enough that there is something magical about lying in bed together at the end of the day, all wrapped up in each other’s arms. You can talk or kiss or just fall asleep tangled up together, and whatever was preying on your mind never seems so bad, somehow. Everyone needs someone like that.”
“Everyone needs to be loved,” Ran said, remembering Ruth’s words.
“Exactly!” Ginny said. “And not brotherly love, as generous and unquestioning as that is. Something more than that. Ger says that it is like an echo of God’s love, something profound enough to sustain one through all of life’s uncertainties.”
“And he has that with you, and I have it with Ruth,” he said wonderingly. “We are very blessed.”
And she smiled and nodded and reached for another bun.
Ran had not been at his desk for very long, when Brent came to find him.
“Begging your pardon, my lord, but I thought you would wish to know that Lord Crosby is preparing to depart, and he is to take the Lady Elizabeth with him.”
“Is he so?” Ran said, laughing. “He is a swift worker, I will grant him that.”
There was a single box already in the entrance hall when Ran reached it, but no sign of Crosby, only Ger, looking rather rumpled as if he had dressed in haste.
“Did you hear?” Ger said as soon as Ran appeared, whisking him into the Ante-Chamber. “Yesterday he was betrothed to Susan Grenaby and today he is set to marry Lizzie! They are going straight to town to get a special licence. Do you think we ought to do something about it? What is Lizzie about, to be agreeing to this? What hold does he have over her?”
“The usual one,” Ran said, laughing. “She is in love with him.”
“That was years ago! But I suppose… did she stay single all this time because of him? Poor Lizzie! I never suspected it.”
“Oh, I should not suppose her heart was broken beyond repair, but she told Ruth that she has always had a tendre for him, and seemingly it is the same for him. There is no need for them to wait, given their advanced years.”
Ger laughed. “She is only five years older than us, brother, hardly in her dotage. Well, if that is so, then I wish them very happy, and no one deserves a bit of happiness more than Lizzie. She should not be the only Litherholm still unmarried.”
“No, for that will be you,” Ran said.
“So it will!” He grinned and cuffed Ran on the shoulder.
The carriage arrived, Crosby and his valet rushed down the stairs with a couple of portmanteaux, and Ran and Ger got into the carriage with them to be driven the short distance to Elizabeth’s lodge to collect her. They found Mary Bucknell dressed for travel, too.
“But of course she is coming with us!” Elizabeth said in surprised tones when Ran asked. “I can hardly leave her behind, and I will not send her back to the Bucknells. They mean well, and they do not mistreat her, but it is all ‘Oh, Mary could you just run upstairs and fetch my other parasol’ and ‘Mary will not mind staying behind to look after the children while we go out and enjoy ourselves’ and such like. It was positive slavery.”
“You exaggerate, Lizzie,” Mary said, smiling at her. “I never minded helping, and I doted on the dear children, but I confess it is more pleasant to live with you. Although I shall miss the Valmont library. Do you have a library, Lord Crosby?”
“A small book room only—” Her face fell. “—in town, but at the Manor there is a good library, and Lack
ington’s sends me all the new works as soon as they are published. I believe you will not be disappointed.”
“Oh, how splendid!”
While the two ladies’ boxes were strapped onto the carriage, Ger said quietly to Elizabeth, “Sister, are you quite sure about this? It seems… very sudden.”
She chuckled. “Do you think so? I suppose sixteen years is a tad hasty…” But then she said, her face suddenly afire with joy, “Dear Ger, can you not understand how it is? All these years I have thought of him, although I tried very hard not to, and one day there he is and he feels the same way and we are both free. Would you not grasp the opportunity with both hands before it can slip away again? Last night… oh, I felt seventeen again, with all the old turmoil of hopes and fears and desires. I did not sleep a wink, as you might imagine. And then, shortly after dawn, I heard a flute playing and there he was, sitting on the bench in my garden, playing for me… calling me… I walked barefoot across the dewy lawn and straight into his arms, and I will not be parted from him again, in this life or the next.”
“Then I wish you all the joy in the world, my dear sister,” Ger whispered.
Ger and Ran bade their sister farewell and waved the carriage off before walking back through the park. Ger’s enthusiasm about Elizabeth’s good fortune soon drifted into silence. Ran knew him well enough not to probe, and after a while, Ger said hesitantly, “What is it that Willerton-Forbes wants to see me about, do you know? For I have told him everything I can remember about the Minerva.”
“He is a very meticulous man,” Ran said with a sigh. “There is some detail or other that he wants to clear up.”
“But why is he asking me? I hate these interviews! It is like being on trial.”
“We will find out soon enough what it is about, but I shall be there with you.”
“And Ginny too?” Ger said optimistically. “Everything is better when Ginny is there.”
They met Willerton-Forbes and Edgerton in the Royal Withdrawing Room.
The Duke (Silver Linings Mysteries Book 6) Page 27
