by Kit Morgan
“So long as you’re patient with me and keep me from falling in, yeah.”
He grinned. “So I shall. Though I can’t say the same for Barnes. Speaking of which, let us go find the poor bloke. He’s probably hiding in the larder.”
Miss Phelps looked taken aback for a moment when he offered her his arm. She glanced at the duke and duchess, who nodded in approval. Finally she took it, and Aldrich escorted her out of the drawing room and into the grand hall. This would be a very interesting outing indeed, he thought.
Seven
Sir Aldrich (was that his real name, or just his role in this cosplay?) escorted Tory down the grand hall, past the central staircase to what looked like a sitting room, but wasn’t. It was just the back part of the hall, but the area had a cozy quality to it, Not to mention a massive fireplace bordered on both sides by double French doors. Other doors branched off from there as well.
Sir Aldrich guided her to twin doors that looked much like the ones leading into the drawing room. “I’ll fetch what we need for our afternoon’s adventure. If you would be so kind as to wait for my return?”
“Of course,” she said, wondering when he’d drop the act. After all, the duchess wasn’t present.
He motioned her to a beautiful chair covered in ivory brocade. “I’ll be but a moment, Miss Phelps. Or is it Lady Phelps? One never knows when introduced in this house.”
“Just Miss Phelps. Nothing fancy about me.”
He cleared his throat. “Ah. Now, if you’ll excuse me?” He turned toward the doors he’d approached earlier, opened them to reveal a large dining room and walked through.
After a minute Tory got up and followed out of pure curiosity, studying her surroundings. On the opposite wall of the dining room was a smaller door that must lead to the kitchen – or in a house this size, kitchens, plural. Were they downstairs like on Downton Abbey? Who knew? She really needed that promised tour of this place – it would be so easy to get lost.
But for now she just wanted to have some fun with Aldrich and find out what his story was: how he got wrapped up in this circus, how much he was getting paid. Probably more than she was.
A good fifteen minutes went by before he returned with a huge picnic basket and Barnes. The butler looked disgruntled, and she wondered why. Didn’t he want a break from all this playacting for an hour or two? “What’s in the basket?”
“Oh, a little of this, a little of that. Barnes is good at making up a tasty repast. Aren’t you, Barnes?” Aldrich slapped him on the back.
Barnes winced. “I do try, Sir Aldrich.”
“That you do,” Aldrich turned to Tory. “I apologize for the delay, but Barnes had to change his shoes.”
Tory looked at the man’s feet. He wore a pair of sturdy boots, and also carried a basket. “What’s in there?”
“It’s for the fish, Miss,” Barnes said.
“Oh, I see. And where are the fishing poles?”
“We still have to fetch them,” Aldrich said. “Our next stop. You don’t mind a bit of a hike, do you?””
“No, I think I’m up for it.”
Aldrich and Barnes both looked at her curiously. “Quite,” Aldrich finally said. “Then let’s be off, shall we?” He offered her his arm again.
She felt giddy wrapping her arm around his, and tried to combat the feeling with more conversation. After all, she wasn’t staying here forever. “So do you come here often?” It was a lame question, but all she could think of on the fly.
“As often as I can.” He steered her out of the dining room and through one of the double sets of French doors bordering the fireplace.
“Omigosh, will you look at that!” Tory exclaimed once outside. The doors, covered by lace curtains, had obscured the grounds beyond them. Gardens of flowers, intricately trimmed hedges and shrubs covered the entire area in back of the house. A pebbled path led through them to a set of stairs.
Aldrich headed straight for the path. “You’ve not seen the gardens yet?”
“Hellooo? No, I haven’t.”
He laughed. “I thought not, but I wanted to make sure. They’re quite lovely, especially this time of year. Isn’t that right, Barnes?” he asked over his shoulder.
Barnes followed along like an obedient bloodhound. “Yes, Sir Aldrich, they are.”
“See, even Barnes agrees.”
Tory glanced at the erstwhile butler, then said quietly, “Is he always so stuffy, or just acting that way?”
“Acting? Oh no, he’s being completely himself.”
Tory half-smiled. “Really? And what about you – is that your real accent?”
“I beg your pardon?”
Oh great, she’d insulted him. But she didn’t know how good an actor he was. For all she knew, he was as American as she. “Sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it. I was just curious.”
“You’re curious about the strangest things.”
She shrugged. “I’ve always been that way. My nature, I guess.”
He glanced sidelong at her and smiled. “Curiosity is a good thing, so long as it doesn’t get one into trouble. I myself am of a curious nature. For instance, meeting a woman brought from America to tutor the duchess – to me, that’s a curious thing indeed.”
“Really? Where I come from there’s nothing strange about it.”
“May I ask, just where that is?”
“My home? Stockton, California.”
“Near San Francisco?”
“Sort of. It’s about two hours away – three if the traffic’s bad.”
“So you are close.” Another side-eye. “The roads must be good if there’s that much traffic. Have you been there?”
“Sure, lots of times.”
“Fascinating. Why do you go so often? What draws you?”
“Shopping, mostly.”
He made an odd sound, something between a grunt and a gasp. “Do tell? What business is your father in that allows you such an extravagance?”
“My father?” What the heck did he mean by that? What did her dad have to do with anything? “He does nothing, I’m afraid.”
“He’s a gentleman, then?” Aldrich asked, He seemed relieved, as if just receiving some great revelation.
“He was. But he passed away a long time ago.” Sheesh, when were these guys going to drop the act? There was no reason to keep it up at this point.
“I’m terribly sorry to hear that,” Aldrich said softly.
She could feel herself blush. He was so polite, so good-looking, like walking next to a dream. She might as well enjoy it while she could and stop worrying about keeping up pretenses.
They stopped at what looked like a tool shed where Barnes gathered several fishing poles, then continued on their way, down another set of stairs, across a second section of gardens, then more stairs. They reached a stone wall that went on as far as Tory could see in either direction, and walked alongside it for a few minutes until they reached a gate. “We’ll cross the fields and enter the forest over there,” Sir Aldrich pointed.
Tory looked at the tree line about a quarter-mile away. “How big is this estate?”
“Hmm, Barnes?” Aldrich said. “How many acres does the duke have?”
“Hundreds, Sir Aldrich.”
“Ah, thank you.” He looked at Tory. “The duke is a rich man.”
Tory managed a half-hearted smile. He had that right. “So what do you do when you’re not acting?”
“I beg your pardon?” Aldrich asked. “Acting?”
“This.” She waved at her clothing. “What’s your real job?”
“Oh, I see. You’ll forgive me, I’m not accustomed to American idioms.”
“That’s okay, I don’t get everything you say either.”
He smiled and she felt her stomach flip. “When not fishing, I have a small estate in Kent.”
“Kent,” she said to herself. “Isn’t that the next county over?”
“Quite right,” he said. “Not far at all. A day’s ride.”
/>
“Ride?” She looked him over. Did he have a motorcycle? But why would it take him a whole day to get to the next county? Counties in England were bigger than those in America, but not that much bigger. He must have changed into this getup when he got to the estate – she couldn’t imagine him riding a motorcycle for that long in period clothing and a helmet. The mental image made her giggle.
“Might I ask what’s so amusing?” he said.
“You.”
“Me?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to laugh, but … oh, never mind. It’s nothing.”
He glanced over his shoulder. “Barnes, let it be duly noted that when a woman says ‘it’s nothing,’ it is always something.”
“Yes, Sir Aldrich.”
Tory laughed but said nothing. She didn’t want to embarrass herself by disclosing her silly images of him.
Thankfully, no one said anything more until they reached the tree line. “Here we are,” Aldrich exclaimed. “The forest.” He leaned toward her. “A dark tangle of roots, creeping things, and …” He glanced around. “… Barnes.”
Tory glanced at the butler, who rolled his eyes in response to the joke, and laughed again. “And why is poor Barnes here?”
“He’s our protection, naturally. No wild beast would dare approach us while in his company.”
Barnes frowned, and Tory began to wonder if this was normal banter between them or an act they put on for the duchess and her guests. Either way, it was entertaining. “All right, I won’t worry about wild beasts.”
“Good,” Aldrich said with a smile. “Let’s go.”
* * *
She was odd. Curious. Blunt. Unconventional, like everything else associated with Stantham Hall. And Aldrich liked her. The Americans he knew were crude, loud and a little uncivilized, to be sure. But this Miss Phelps reminded him of something wild and free. She was obviously a woman that lived on her own terms, which piqued his curiosity. If her father had passed, how did she live? Had she inherited? Been married once, then widowed? Where was her family? Did she have any? Is that why she came to England?
Questions whirled around in his head like leaves in a windstorm. He was intrigued and wanted to know more. Not one to say no to his own curiosity, he tried to decide what to ask her first. It had to be something that wouldn’t scandalize poor Barnes. “Have you any siblings, Miss Phelps?”
“Yes, a brother.” She frowned. “Benny.”
“Short for Bernard?”
“Benjamin, but my parents only ever called him Benny.”
“Younger, older?”
“Younger, by a few years. You?”
“A sister. Also younger by a few years,” he echoed. “Married, two children. They’re adorable but reckless.”
She laughed. “Aren’t most children?”
He chuckled. “As they are the only ones with which I am acquainted on a regular basis, I couldn’t say. I’ve no others to compare them to.”
“None? No neighbor kids?”
“My sister’s neighbors have a few, as I recall, but I’ve not interacted with them.”
“Hmmm,” she mused. “Maybe you ought to. Do you want kids?”
“Me?” he said in shock. “A father?”
Barnes snorted in scorn, but when Tory looked at him, his face was a blank. She turned back to Sir Aldrich. “Why does the idea shock you?”
Dare he tell her, that he was as wild and free as she seemed? Perhaps that’s what sparked his attraction to her. That and she was tall, pretty, and looked almost indecently healthy – not a pockmark on her. The woman was like a diamond in the rough, but a diamond nonetheless. “I’m not ready for fatherhood.” There, an honest answer.
“Neither am I – for motherhood, that is. Don’t get me wrong, I want kids some day, but not by myself.”
That got his attention. “Of course not,” he said firmly. He glanced at Barnes for good measure - the butler’s eyes had popped wide, and he almost stumbled over an exposed root. “Steady on, Barnes.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Are we almost there?” she asked.
“We’re getting closer.” Aldrich decided to watch her for a time, stealing little glimpses occasionally as she looked at the forest around them. There was a childlike wonderment in her eyes, and he liked knowing that he’d put it there by bringing her along. “The forest is beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Yes, I’ve never seen one like this before. A lot of these trees I don’t recognize.”
“They’re beeches, mostly,” he said. “Mixed with yews. There are other parts of the estate that are just as heavily forested, and the trees a mix.”
“I’d like to see them.”
“Then I shall be delighted to show them to you.” He smiled, she smiled back, and the brightness in her eyes captured him. She was truly enjoying their little outing. The thought sent an odd ripple through his chest, one he hadn’t felt before – a mix of joy and curiosity.
“How much further?” she asked.
“Around the next bend you’ll hear it.”
“The stream?”
“Yes. Isn’t that right, Barnes?”
“Quite right, sir,” Barnes grumbled.
Aldrich did his best not to laugh. Poor Barnes must still be recovering from their last fishing adventure – which was exactly why Aldrich wanted him along. Hopefully he’d be so busy ensuring he didn’t fall in again that he might not be a very watchful chaperone. Not that Aldrich planned to steal a kiss – he was a gentleman, after all. But he did want to get to know Miss Phelps better. There was something about her that intrigued him, and it wasn’t simply the way she voiced things. No, this was something else, something more.
His curiosity was coming to the fore, urging him to find out all he could about her. And that’s exactly what he planned to do.
Eight
At last they reached the fishing hole. Tory estimated their hike through the woods was at least a mile. She wanted to sit down, not because she was tired but because the boots she wore weren’t made for trekking through open country. She hoped she didn’t have blisters by the time they made it back to the house.
Speaking of houses … I noticed a few homes in the distance when we crossed the field. Aren’t they on the duke’s property?”
“Yes, those are his tenants,” Sir Aldrich said. “He has nearly a dozen.”
“A dozen tenants?”
“No, a dozen homes housing tenants. At last count, there were about forty tenants, including the children. By now there may be more. I know one tenant was with child – I escorted the duchess to the woman’s home last month to deliver a basket of gifts for the babe. I’m sure you’ll be doing the same while in her employ. Visiting the tenants is one of Her Grace’s favorite things.”
Tory didn’t respond. For Heaven’s sake, even the farm hands catered to the duchess’ eccentricities? Wasn’t that going too far? Though if the price was right …
Sir Aldrich stopped on the grassy bank and stretched. “Why not relieve yourself of your load, Barnes, and take up a pole?”
Barnes did, dropping everything but the picnic basket, which he handled with special care. “Shall I lay out the picnic now, sir?”
“No, let’s wait. I want to show Miss Phelps some of the finer points of fishing.”
“That sounds complicated,” she said with a laugh. “Or do you mean the Reader’s Digest version?”
Aldrich raised an eyebrow. “What does reading have to do with anything? Or do you refer to a written guide?”
“I’m sorry – you don’t get Reader’s Digest here? Maybe it’s an American thing.”
“Indeed?”
“It means just the basics.”
“I see. Then yes, that’s what I intend to show you.”
Tory was about to comment when she caught the butler’s cringe. “Don’t worry, I won’t fall in.”
“Let us hope not, Miss Phelps,” he said.
“Tory, call me Tory.” Gosh, how many times wo
uld she have to tell people that?
“I’m afraid I can’t do that. It wouldn’t be proper.”
Aldrich laughed. “Please don’t force Barnes to go against his deportment. It might do worse damage to him than falling in the water.”
Tory smiled at Barnes. “Sorry. Miss Phelps it is, then.”
“Thank you, Miss.” Barnes picked up a pole, handed it to her, then did the same for Aldrich.
The rest of their time was spent laughing, talking, and – for Barnes anyway – making sure to stay on dry ground. Tory concluded that his shoes must be worse than hers! Parts of the stream bank were steep and slippery – Aldrich helped Tory get over the worst sections, but poor Barnes was on his own. They hiked down the stream, stopping now and then to cast a line. Aldrich did indeed show her the finer points of angling and made it look easy.
But when she tried … “Damn it! I’m sorry, I keep catching my line on branches …” She caught Aldrich and Barnes staring at her in shock. Barnes had gone red as a beet. “What?”
Aldrich smiled stiffly. “Are you always so … vocal when frustrated?”
“Vocal … what do you mean?”
“I refer to your free use of profanity.”
“What? You mean because I said ‘damn it’?” She scoffed. “Look, we’re nowhere near the duchess. You can drop the act now.”
“Act? Whatever do you mean?”
“Both of you, in fact. Don’t you get tired of it? I don’t mean that it’s stupid or anything – heck, I’m doing it! But you don’t get paid to do it 24/7, do you?”
Aldrich and Barnes exchanged the same look of confusion, as if they hadn’t a clue what she was talking about. Barnes even shrugged.
Tory sighed. “Acting” still seemed to be the order of the day. “Fine, fine, whatever. Let’s fish.” And they did, for an hour before heading back up the bank.
By then, Barnes had laid everything out on a blanket, and Tory marveled at the sight. She hadn’t even noticed he’d left. “How did he do that so fast?”
Aldrich shrugged. “It’s his job.”
