The Beauty and the Earl: A Historical Regency Romance Novel

by Hamilton, Hanna

  “Leave me now.”

  More distant footfalls disappeared. Cornelia dared not breathe, and watched the heavily shadowed face of Effie next to her. “You’re a proper fool, Archie,” Lord Whitstone said, disgust heavy in his voice. “You don’t think far enough ahead, no ambition except for those damn horses. You’ll regret it one day, I expect, when my ambitions take me to London and beyond. The world will be at my fingertips while you’ll rot away on this pile of dirt. That’s your choice of course, old chap, but not mine. I’m not waiting around while you recover, your presence is boring enough as it is while you’re awake. Ta, and I’ll see you later, old chap.”

  The heavy boots left the chamber, and Cornelia listened to the distant slam of a door. Cautiously, she opened the panel again, and pulled the tapestry aside. In his great bed, Archie slept on, oblivious to the rancor of his best friend. Effie followed her, her expression just as confused as Cornelia’s.

  “What was that about?” she asked, sliding the panel closed.

  “I have no idea,” Cornelia replied, resuming her chair beside Archie’s bed. “I expect his friend isn’t as good a pal as Archie believed.”

  “We mustn’t tell him, Cornelia,” Effie said, her tone urgent, her expression stern. “That is not for us to determine what Lord Whitstone meant by all that. It may all be innocent.”

  Except Cornelia knew it wasn’t. It was clear to her that Lord Whitstone secretly despised Archie while smiling into his face, and that did not sit well with her at all. “This is not right.”

  “It is also not for us to decide,” Effie replied quickly. “If we interfere by telling Lord Rochester, then we risk consequences that might spin out of control. We can sit on what we heard without being dishonorable, and if or when Lord Rochester learns how his friend truly thinks of him, then we can speak up. Cornelia, I know you love him. But this is above us.”

  At last, Cornelia nodded. “You are right, Effie. I do not like it, but I will abide by your wisdom.”

  “Good. Really and truly, Cornelia, this is between Lord Rochester and Lord Whitstone.”

  Chapter 14

  He woke to bright daylight streaming in through the window and into his eyes, and the sight of Cornelia dozing in the chair beside his bed. Archie, blinking the laudanum induced bleariness from his eyes, gazed at her, drinking in her beauty as he might fine wine. Am I falling in love with her? He had never been in love before, and thus had nothing to compare his feelings to.

  In stretching with a sleepy yawn, he woke both Cornelia and all his livid bruising at the same time. He grimaced as she straightened on her chair, rubbing her face with both hands. She leaned toward him with a faint smile, her hand brushing his brow with light fingers.

  “How do you feel?” she asked.

  “Sore,” he answered honestly. “But better than I was.”

  “Your color is much improved,” Cornelia commented. “Grey certainly did not suit you.”

  Archie chuckled, and winced. “I suggest you not make me laugh.”

  Another stirring in the room announced to him that Mrs. Clovis had also dozed in her chair through the night. She stood, and offered him a small curtsy. “If you should desire, My Lord,” she said, “I will bring you tea and breakfast.”

  “Enough for you both as well, if you please.”

  “Forgive me, My Lord, but I must return to my shop in the village. I will return tomorrow to continue Cornelia’s lessons.” Mrs. Clovis sent Cornelia a smile. “You are in very capable hands, My Lord.”

  She departed on soft steps and spoke briefly with Jonas on her way out the door. When the distant door opened and closed, Archie glanced again at Cornelia. “Am I permitted to be up and about this day? I have a guest who must be seen to.”

  Cornelia glanced aside. “I think you should remain quiet and still for another day, Archie.”

  “I cannot see Richard wishing to visit me here,” he answered, starting to sit up and groaning at the sudden sharp pain in his mid-section and back.

  “You see?” Cornelia’s strong hand on his shoulder pushed him back down. “Your muscles are still in shock and are locked up tight. You must remain still.”

  “But –”

  Jonas appeared in the doorway and bowed. “My Lord, forgive me for overhearing your concern for the Earl of Whitstone. I do believe he departed for his own estates yesterday afternoon.”

  Annoyance as well as pain spread through Archie even as he relaxed against his pillows. “That was rather rude of him.”

  “At least now you have no excuse to get up and move about,” Cornelia told him, brushing his hair from his cheek. “Will you do as I ask?”

  “How am I to deny you anything?”

  With a low chuckle, Cornelia rose from her chair to stroll to the sideboard, with Archie admiring her slender body even through his pain. She poured red wine from a decanter into a tumbler, then brought it to him to drink. “This might help keep you relaxed and from stiffening up as well as to sleep.”

  “No more laudanum?” he asked, taking the glass from her with a quirky grin.

  “Tonight. I do not like giving such powerful medicine without time in between doses unless it is absolutely necessary.”

  Cornelia sat in the chair beside him again as he sipped his wine, then Jonas appeared once more in the doorway. Archie stifled his annoyance at the interruption, for his valet’s presence prevented him from admiring Cornelia’s beauty. Jonas bowed.

  “Mr. Caine is here to see you, My Lord.”

  “Am I allowed visitors?” Archie asked, amused that he should ask Cornelia’s permission.

  She lifted her brow. “Provided you do not exert yourself.”

  “I don’t believe my tongue got injured in the fall,” he replied dryly. “Perhaps it can be exercised.”

  “Do you want your laudanum tonight or not?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Archie glanced at Jonas. “Send him in.”

  Jonas bowed and retreated from the doorway. Within moments, Isaac Caine appeared, offering his respects to Archie even as Cornelia smiled and rose to curtsy. If he appeared shocked that she was alone in his private chambers without a chaperone, he did not show it in his expression. Maybe Norris is right and my people are not as concerned about social propriety as I am.

  “Mr. Caine,” she said, her voice warm. “How is Matty?”

  “Quite well, little girl,” he replied with a grin. “She sends her love.”

  “Send her my best, will you? Perhaps I might return for a visit soon.”

  “She would dearly adore seeing you again.”

  Archie glanced from one to the other. “I apologize, am I interrupting you two?”

  Cornelia returned to her chair as Isaac grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, My Lord. I came to inform you that the Hill circus is packing to leave as you ordered.”

  “Excellent news.”

  Isaac cleared his throat. “Well, perhaps not. He is heading north, which means he is crossing your estates. He is not exactly sticking to the roads, and his beasts and wagons are trampling some crops.”

  Archie sat up, oblivious of the pain it caused him, fury overruling his very sore muscles. “Get the local constabulary, Isaac, right now. I want them with me when I escort that idiot off my property.”

  Isaac bowed. “I will go right now, My Lord.”

  He departed, leaving Archie to fume as he glanced at Cornelia. “I believe you should leave my chambers, or risk seeing something you should not.”

  She nodded and rose. “I advise against this, Archie.”

  “I know, and I’ll regret it later, but I’m not going to permit that Barrett fellow to do as he pleases on my lands.”

  “Just be careful, all right?”

  “I’ll try.”

  Cornelia departed on Isaac’s heels, leaving Archie to rise painfully, wincing, and grumbling under his breath at the fierce pain that stabbed him like knives at every movement. With Jonas’s help, he washed, shaved, and dressed, sipping the hot herb tea
and eating some of the food brought by Mrs. Clovis. Latham knocked on the door and entered, his face dark with anger.

  “Isaac told me what is going on,” he said. “I’ll go with you, My Lord.”

  “Glad to have your company,” Archie replied, finishing his tea. “We go armed, I want a show of force. Have Norris saddle horses, I want him along as well. Did Isaac say exactly where the circus is at the moment?”

  “Just west of the village and moving slowly. He will meet us there with the constables.”

  “Good. I’ll meet you at the stables in a few minutes.”

  Latham bowed and left, leaving Archie to finish his hasty breakfast as Jonas tied his cravat awkwardly, given that Archie wouldn’t sit still long enough for him to tie it properly. “It’s fine,” Archie told him, gulping down his tea. “Help yourself to what’s left on the tray.”

  Jonas bowed him out the door. “Thank you, My Lord.”

  Ignoring his stiffness and pain, Archie rushed down the stairs and out the main doors to cross the lawns to the stables. A groom already held the bridle to his fiery red gelding, saddled and ready, as Norris barked instructions to the other grooms busy with their work. Latham led his own saddled bay around the corner and into the yard while a groom brought Norris’s grey around.

  Striding up, Archie observed his blunderbuss in its scabbard tied to his saddle, and others tied to both Latham’s and Norris’s. “Pistols?” he asked stiffly and, with no few choice oaths, climbed into his saddle.

  “Right here.”

  Latham handed him a pistol, which Archie tucked into his trousers, both easily seen and drawn if necessary. “Let’s go, gentlemen.”

  With Latham and Norris to either side of him, Archie struck a canter, riding down the road that led to the village and then beyond it. While riding set his multitudes of bruises to complaining, once his muscles loosened up with the activity, the pain grew more bearable. He calculated that he would reach the circus, a few miles away, at about the same time as Isaac and the local constables.

  He was not wrong. Archie found Isaac and two young constables, the emblem of their office on their cloaks, on the road that led north, confronting Barrett Hill. Stretching for a distance to either side, his circus wagons trampled the earth and crops of his fields. Archie’s tenant farmers had also gathered nearby, venting their anger at the destruction of their hard work with coarse yells and shouts.

  Reining in, barely controlling his rage, Archie roared, “Just what the devil do you think you’re doing, Hill?”

  Barrett Hill, his round face sweating, bowed as Archie’s gelding halted barely a foot away from him. “As you see, I am leaving your lands, My Lord. As you ordered.”

  “I certainly did not grant you leave to cross my estates as you did so. Turn these wagons around now and march the other way.”

  Barrett blanched pale, his tiny eyes all but vanishing into folds of fat. At his side stood the hunchback Archie remembered when he first met Hill and granted his permission to set up his circus. Also with him were two big men who stared insolently at Archie, their eyes cold and dangerous. He had no doubt these were Felix and Maurice, Hill’s hired killers.

  “But, My Lord,” Hill pleaded. “I must go north.”

  “Not across my lands you don’t.” Archie glared down at him. “You head back south, then strike the royal highway that will take you further west, then north.”

  “That will take me miles out of my way.”

  Casually, Archie pulled the dragon from his belt. Cocking the hammer back, he pointed it at Hill. “With these constables as my lawful witnesses, I will shoot you right now for trespassing.” Archie tilted his head thoughtfully. “Unless you prefer to be hanged. Your choice, of course.”

  Hill raised his hands over his head, baring his teeth in an ingratiating smile, sweat pouring like an oily river down the sides of his face. “Please, there is no need for violence, My Lord. I will turn my people around right now and travel south.”

  “A very wise decision.”

  Returning the pistol’s hammer to its position, Archie continued to hold the weapon in his hand as Hill shouted orders to turn the wagons about. His hunchbacked henchman smirked as he followed his master while the two thugs continued to glare their malevolence at Archie. Though their disrespect for his station irked him, he endured their stares and calmly returned them as the long line of wagons slowly trampled more of his fields in turning around.

  “They should be whipped for their insolence,” Latham growled from his right, scowling at the pair.

  “Not worth the effort,” Archie replied. “They’ll be gone soon enough.”

  At last, Felix and Maurice turned to follow after the last wagon, striding in the wake of their wheels. Still yelling their curses, the farmers examined the damage done to the crops, then began with rakes and hoes to repair the fields, and Archie heard a few words regarding replanting. “Let’s go.”

  He turned his gelding to trail behind the caravan along the narrow lane.

  “You are not going back to the house, My Lord?” Norris asked, trotting to catch up.

  “No. I’m seeing them off my property.” Archie glanced behind as the constables, with Isaac, also accompanied him. “Any luck in finding the man or men watching the house?” he asked Latham as they rode.

  “Not so far,” he answered. “Either they ceased their watch, or they are very good at hiding themselves. I will search again tonight after the sun goes down.”

  “Please do. Just report their presence to me, and we’ll decide from there what to do about it. If you run them off, they will come back and simply hide better.”

  “Right you are.”

  It took Hill’s long train of wagons more than two hours to reach the royal highway that marked the edge of Archie’s estates. Sitting his horse, flanked by his men and the constables, he watched as it slowly trundled into the west, dust kicked up in its wake to float serenely on the light breeze.

  “I have a feeling he’s not going very far,” Archie said, speculating. “I’m getting the impression he was going north across my land in order to stay in the area and hunt for Miss Hill while still complying with my orders to leave.”

  “Is he truly that brazen?” Norris asked, staring at the dust cloud.

  “He is. I still believe he has much to lose by not getting his paws on Miss Hill.”

  “What do you want us to do?” Latham asked.

  “Right now, we’re going to wait.”

  Archie and his companions did not wait long. Before the caravan of wagons traveled out of sight, the dust cloud vanished. “They stopped,” Archie said. “What will you wager he will set up his tents there?”

  “Not going to wager against you, My Lord,” Latham replied with a chuckle. “He’s on the King’s highway, so there’s nothing you can do to stop him.”

  “I don’t plan to do anything except keep an eye on him.” Turning in his saddle, Archie gestured to the two constables. They joined him, bowing in unison. “I thank you very much for your service this day, gentlemen. You may return to your normal duties.”

  “Very good, My Lord,” said the one on the left. “Should you have need of us again, just give us a shout.”

  “I will.”

  Turning their mounts, they trotted back down the lane as Archie glanced at Isaac. “I’d like you to watch Hill and his people as much as possible,” he said. “Report anything unusual, especially if you see anyone creeping back to spy on the house, searching for Miss Hill.”

  “Certainly will, My Lord.”

  Reining his chestnut around, Archie, with Latham and Norris, rode toward his house and stables, growing more and more weary the further he rode, his pain increasing again. His companions noticed and constantly shot him worried glances, which, of course, annoyed him. “I’m all right. You two can stop fussing like a pair of old hens.”

  “We never said a thing, m’lord,” Norris answered, his expression bland.

  “You didn’t have to. Now
cease.”

  “We’re just making sure you didn’t fall off somewhere back there, Latham added. “Then we’d be forced to go fetch you.”

  “And try to get you into the saddle,” Norris continued. “Why, we might strain ourselves.”

  “I might break a nail.”

  “Damn insolent boors,” Archie muttered.

  Despite their hovering over him like the hens he called them as he climbed the stairs to his chambers, Archie actually felt glad they were there. Fierce nausea had set in by the time they returned home, and he knew he was none too steady on his feet. Leaving him in Jonas’s care, they murmured comments about duties and vanished down the stairs.