A Rake to the Rescue

by Elizabeth Beacon

  ‘You were so sick I thought you would turn inside out, Mama,’ Toby announced cheerfully instead.

  ‘And I will never have a single weakness to keep secret with you about to trumpet them to the world, my son.’

  ‘It’s not a weakness—it’s a constitutional anomaly. Grandpapa said so.’

  ‘And thank you, Grandpapa,’ she said under her breath. Less scientific observation and more practical help would have done wonders at the time, but she chose this life, so she could hardly blame her father for being who he was. ‘Then you have seen enough to study something else for a change. Since Lady Carrowe’s cook has been kind enough to feed you and her housekeeper agreed to put up with you while I talked to Mr Haile, I hope you remembered to say thank you.’

  Toby mumbled something defensive and shrugged.

  ‘Then go back and do so this minute, young man. You won’t be welcome in any kitchen if you do not say thank you for food and friendship. A boy who eats as you do should never risk a frosty welcome in one of those, should he?’

  ‘No, but Grandpapa is always forgetting his food, so I can always eat his,’ Toby said sulkily, as if he thought something important might happen if he ran back inside and did as he was bid.

  ‘You should encourage him to eat instead of stealing from his plate when he’s lost in thought. Rumours will get about there’s a ravenous and thankless young wolf visiting Lady Carrowe’s house it’s best not to let in if you are not careful.’

  ‘I need to eat as much as I can because you want me to go to school soon and they say boys don’t get fed properly there, but I think I would like to be part of a wolf pack,’ Toby said, suddenly wistful about the friends he had never made as they had never stayed in one place long enough for him to make them.

  ‘I’m not sure the pack would own up to you,’ Hetta teased her son with a rueful smile and tried not to feel guilty he was fated to be a lone one. She must learn to be stricter with him in future, though, since he was grinning at her as if he had won their latest skirmish and he was probably right.

  ‘Stay around here long enough and you’ll be rolled on, sat on and joined in with by my sister-in-law’s vast tribe of nieces and nephews and many other relatives, Master Champion,’ Magnus told Toby as if he had forgiven him for being unruly and nigh ungovernable both here and in Dover.

  Hetta sometimes felt as if she spent half her life trying to excuse or explain her son’s restless ways to wary adults, but Toby was a lot more vulnerable than he liked to appear, and his bright blue eyes became eager at the thought of lots of children to play with. It was time to settle in this damp and unpredictable country and make him a real home. ‘Don’t let your hopes of mayhem and mischief rise too high, my son. We need to find lodgings and be gone before Mrs Wulfric Haile’s relatives join her,’ she warned.

  ‘What lodgings would those be, Mrs Champion, in Hampstead, in July?’ Magnus Haile raised his eyebrows to say what a fool she was to expect such wonders to drop into her lap. This leafy place must be the perfect escape for families to stay in reach of any almost-gentlemen who worked for their bread while their wives and children came out of London to avoid the heat and stench of high summer.

  ‘We must go further from town, then,’ she said, wondering why she had sold the house Brandon had bought when they’d married so hastily. She was sure to like Lyme with its fine views and beautiful situation when she wasn’t being left there by a husband who wanted her as far away from his real life as possible without causing a scandal.

  ‘When you dragged me round that fusty museum to look at broken bits of old statues the other day you promised I could see the beasts in the Tower Menagerie and the waxworks and the tunnel under the Thames and...’

  ‘No, I said we would go and see them if we could, Toby, not that we would trail round your long list of macabre and apparently fascinating places day after day in the heat and dust and smell of the city.’

  ‘I never wanted to come to this horrible country. It’s cold and wet and boring and I wish you’d left me in—’

  ‘And that’s enough curmudgeonly nonsense from you, my son.’ Hetta interrupted his catalogue of woes. ‘I wish I had left you in a nice strict seminary for unruly boys, to be called for when you had learned better manners in a decade or so. If wishes were horses, beggars would ride, though, so we must both make the best of things as they are and not repine.’

  ‘And it’s not actually cold, wet or boring today,’ Magnus pointed out and gestured at the wide vista beyond the garden wall.

  He was taking a little too much interest in what was happening now he had some colour in his cheeks and a spark of interest in his fascinating dark brown eyes. To distract herself from this urge to stare into them and find out the details of their velvety depths, she wondered if his ribs and stomach ached as much as hers had after the awful sea crossing she still recalled with a shudder. Despite the wild disarray of his ebony-dark hair and an unshaven chin, the man was handsome as ten devils when he smiled. Luckily, she had too much to do to be a femme fatale and cast silken lures in his direction, even if she had a talent for seduction, to make it a temptingly bad idea. He wasn’t dangerous at all, simply a minor character in her father’s latest drama, and they need never see each other again after today.

  ‘Don’t encourage him,’ she muttered to Magnus Haile as soon as Toby was busy standing on tiptoe to take in the wide and tempting landscape on the other side, picking out the details of a world that had no idea a boy with mischief never far from his mind was watching it with so much interest.

  The man grinned and ignored her, helping Toby stand on the broad capping stones and take in his surroundings from even further up. ‘Maybe the view will help you realise how small we all are next to wild nature, Master Champion,’ he said.

  ‘It looks like pure temptation to me,’ Hetta muttered glumly.

  ‘Don’t you trust him?’ he murmured as Toby stared fascinated at the wide green of his homeland after the more sun-scorched landscapes he was used to.

  ‘No, and nor should you. You know what sort of risks he’s capable of running,’ she reminded him.

  A frown knitted Magnus Haile’s dark brows again and misery took the spark of humour from his eyes at her clumsy reminder of the day he had lost contact with his own child. ‘Aye,’ he said with a brief, bitter glance at her before he turned to look back at the mellow and elegant manor house where his mother must have grown up. ‘If you don’t mind your son running about with a lad who knows more about real life than he ever will, my brother’s man, Jem Caudle, might take him out on to the Heath if I ask him nicely, and you can trust Jem to keep him safe. Having run the streets as a boy himself he knows all the dangers as well as most of the tricks grubby urchins play on their elders, so he won’t stand any nonsense from your son.’

  ‘Maybe later, if Master Caudle has time and patience enough left after dealing with you, sir. Your brother’s manservant was busy helping boil water for your bath and is waiting for you to go inside and be turned into a gentleman. Toby will have to wait until that brave young man finishes civilising you as best he can.’

  ‘And I should not inflict my company on a lady until he does so,’ he replied, suddenly guarded and every inch the haughty son of an earl.

  Maybe she had imagined an easier and more intriguing gentleman lay underneath all that arrogance and pride. ‘Best go in to be shaved and groomed anyway, then. You are shivering and it isn’t even cold, for once. We can entertain each other and I still have time to take Toby for a short walk before I must be busy finding a respectable inn for us to stay in for the night,’ she said to make it clear she didn’t intend to be a burden on his family.

  ‘No, you must remain here. I dare say it’s too late to find a good enough place where this brat won’t be up to his neck in trouble every time you take your eyes off him by now,’ he argued with an almost affectionate smile for Toby to take
the sting out of his words. ‘My younger brother and his wife live not half a mile away as the crow flies and I can stay at their house. They are having dinner with Lord Carnwood as he is in town on business, so they will stay the night at Carnwood House. I cannot stay here since you neglected to bring a maid or chaperone, but nobody can gossip if we are not even in the same house, so we can both be comfortable and take stock of your situation come morning. For now, if you take yonder path out on to the Heath and don’t venture too far from the main track, you will be safe enough even with Master Champion here as your sole companion,’ he said with a rueful smile for Toby that made Hetta feel cut off and excluded, which was a ridiculous idea. ‘When I am fit to be seen I will come and find you and it will be almost time for you to eat again,’ he said as he gave Toby a hand down.

  ‘It’s always time for food, as far as Toby is concerned,’ Hetta said, rather grumpily because Magnus seemed determined not to give her a chance to say thank you for saving her the task of tracking down somewhere respectable to stay tonight.

  ‘I still want a puppy,’ Toby said, and she grimaced at that oft-repeated demand.

  ‘And what have I told you about making impossible demands?’

  ‘We move around too much to have a dog. I am about to go off to school, so what would be the point? He would not like to be always travelling with you and Grandpapa and never having anywhere to settle for long. Innkeepers and ship’s captains don’t look kindly on dogs as guests or passengers,’ he parroted wearily.

  ‘All very sensible,’ Magnus Haile broke in. ‘You must meet my brother’s mixed collection of hounds, and I dare say, if you are very good for the rest of the day, he will introduce you when he gets home tomorrow. They will be in need of a good run after being kept at a farm nearby while he is busy elsewhere.’

  ‘Really, sir? Oh, can I, then, please, Mama?’

  Toby sounded so eager she would be the worst of mothers to deny him, but she wondered if it might make him more desperate for a dog than ever and the idea of that rather lonely home in the country with only Toby’s dog for company in term time loomed large again. ‘Very well,’ she said, and he danced on the spot with joyous impatience. ‘But only if you are good for the rest of the day,’ she cautioned since she knew where high excitement could lead.

  ‘I will be, I promise.’

  ‘They will be overjoyed someone is so eager to meet them, but my brother will expect a promise not to get them into trouble, since they are nearly as restless and inclined to find it as you are,’ Magnus Haile said almost as if he liked Toby now the shock of meeting him again had worn off, and Hetta felt cross-grained and a little put out he didn’t seem to have warmed to her in the same fashion.

  ‘I promise. What sort are they?’ her son said as he practically danced with excitement. ‘How old are they? Where are they now? Why can’t they come today?’

  ‘They are no sort in particular, about six months old, and staying with a friend of my brother until he fetches them.’

  ‘And if you take them on an adventure and it ends up the usual way, I shall make very sure you are never trusted with them or any other dog again, oh, white-headed son of mine,’ Hetta put in before Toby could even suggest one Mr Haile was very much like another and this one could release those poor lonely animals right now if he chose to.

  ‘It’s not white—it’s yellow,’ Toby protested, ‘and I can be good when I try.’

  ‘Can you, my love? When is that going to start, then?’

  ‘Right now.’

  ‘Oh, good. Begin by walking with me like a good boy who loves his mother too much to run off and worry her with his antics and Mr Haile might convince his brother you are worthy of such a treat in the morning.’

  ‘I’m sure your son knows it is a gentleman’s duty to put a lady’s safety before his own need for adventure,’ Magnus Haile said solemnly.

  ‘Mama keeps me safe,’ Toby objected confidently after a quick think.

  Maybe it was time she stopped fighting his battles for him and let him feel the consequences of his actions, then. He was her boy and infinitely precious to her, but he had been at the centre of her world ever since he was born. She didn’t want him to grow up selfish and careless of others as she admitted his father could be. Bran had been so self-absorbed their ill-starred marriage was doomed from the moment they made it.

  ‘You must be more of a baby than I thought,’ Mr Haile said, managing not to laugh at Toby’s shocked expression somehow.

  Hetta had to disguise her chuckle as a cough because even a smile would undo the good work Magnus Haile was putting in on her son. Why couldn’t Lady Drace see what a wonderful father he would be if only she would let him? Yet the thought of them being happily reconciled in some sunny land made her feel at odds with herself again and that really wouldn’t do.

  ‘Did you have to look after your mama, then?’ Toby asked.

  ‘Someone certainly needed to,’ Mr Magnus Haile said. Apparently, the last Earl of Carrowe had declared his youngest son a bastard and his Countess an adulteress when Mr Wulfric Haile had been born, only admitting they were a maligned wife and his legitimate son in an announcement sent to the newspapers after his death. ‘Right now, I must civilise myself, and your legs obviously need stretching if any of us are to have a moment’s peace for the rest of the day,’ he said lightly enough and walked off with the hint of a swagger in his long stride.

  Hetta frowned at his broad back with a concern he would find embarrassing if he knew about it. One reason she had agreed to stay here tonight was the hope of stopping him falling back into a brandy bottle as soon as they were gone. A better man than he thought was lurking under the frown and gruff manner he used to fend off the world, but maybe it would be as well for her if he hid him a little longer. A shabby widow had even less in common with polished and aristocratic Mr Haile than she had with his unkempt alter ego, so any distance between them was bound to be a very good thing, wasn’t it?

  Chapter Seven

  It had taken him over an hour to become even halfway civilised, Magnus realised when he glanced at the clock in the hallway. He had been bathed, shaved and dressed like an unruly child. Jem even tied his neckcloth for him before he let Magnus out of his sight. The old, dandified Magnus Haile would shudder at its lack of pristine perfection, but this one was glad to be clean and decent again and never mind elegance. Getting drunk because Delphi had taken his daughter away wasn’t the behaviour of a sensible man and he must become one of those if he was going to put some sort of life together without them.

  ‘Ah, there you are. That’s more like it, Mr Magnus,’ Peg told him as he strolled into the kitchen. ‘You look much better now.’

  ‘I’m right as rain,’ he said and absently sipped at the cup of strong coffee she pushed towards him.

  ‘Are you, now? Well, I suppose you believe it and you always were stubborn as a pack of donkeys. I knew you’d turn up with an empty belly as soon as you was feeling a bit more dandy,’ the elderly maid said after casting an anxious look over him to make sure he was at least looking close to his old self.

  ‘I had to be gentle with it as it emptied in such a hurry.’

  ‘Aye, well, least said about that the soonest mended,’ she said, with a boys will be boys shrug that made him feel about Toby’s age. ‘Your ma will eat these even when she turns up her nose at everything else,’ she told him, putting some delicately made lemon biscuits in front of him. She turned back to her gossip with Cook as if she didn’t care if he ate them or not, and Magnus looked down some time later to find out he had demolished the lot.

  ‘Better?’

  ‘Aye, thank you.’

  ‘You’re a good man, Mr Magnus, despite your wild ways.’

  ‘I doubt it, but I promise to take my megrims somewhere else next time and not mess up your smart new house again,’ he said lightly enough.

  �
�It’s bad for a body to brood alone, so you come here and never mind a bit of extra dusting.’

  ‘More than that and I can’t keep drowning my sorrows like a green boy.’

  ‘Maybe not but it’s your home, so where else would you take them, lad?’

  ‘No, it’s my mother and little sisters’ home. High time they had the peace and quiet to enjoy one without me making the place untidy.’

  ‘If you think that’s what they want, you don’t know them as well as you think. They love you, my lad.’

  ‘Then they shouldn’t. I’m not worth it.’

  ‘Listen to him, Cook—still thinks he should set the world to rights for the rest of us and at his age as well.’

  ‘Aye, can’t be done,’ Cook mumbled past whatever plans she was turning over in her head for dinner.

  ‘You always were one to think you ought to make other folks’ hurts better if you could,’ Peg said and shook her head as if it was a habit he ought to have grown out of by now.

  Delphi had been hurt by her marriage and by Gresley before that, but what possessed her to pick the very rich but rather stupid Sir Edgar Drace to wed in the first place? Who knew what went on in her lovely head and at least Drace wasn’t the one who’d broken her heart and Magnus knew why he couldn’t find a way to mend it now. ‘Then I promise to stop doing it,’ he told Peg half-seriously.

  ‘Get on with the life you’ve got and don’t make promises, Master Gus,’ she said as if she knew something serious had happened to him and of course she did. Peg couldn’t stop him drowning in brandy, but she hadn’t sent for his mother or Aline to talk sense into him, so she knew this went deeper than a fit of the blue-devils.

  ‘Thank you. You are a darling,’ he said because she was and had always been there for him and his family.

  Peg blushed and shook her head at him. ‘Now you stop your nonsense and eat what Cook puts in front of you before you fades away again, Master Gus.’