Winning the War Hero's Heart

by Mary Nichols

  ‘You had better go and have your supper.’

  * * *

  Later that evening, she checked the children were all asleep and the nurse was dozing by the nursery fire and, wrapping herself in a cloak, crept down the back stairs and out of a side door. She was not at all sure she was doing the right thing, but the prospect of seeing and talking to Miles was too great to resist.

  At this time of year it should have been broad daylight at this time, but for most of the year it had been so gloomy that lamps were needed indoors even during daylight. But tonight, for some reason, the general murk had lifted and a fitful moon and a few stars lit her way. The village was little more than a hamlet, which stood where the road crossed the river. It had a coaching inn, a church, a few cottages and one or two small agricultural businesses. She made her way along the high street to the bridge.

  He was there, leaning against the parapet, looking down into the water. Suddenly shy, her footsteps slowed and she almost stopped. He must have heard her because he turned towards her, a smile lighting up his face. ‘Helen, at last.’

  He stepped forwards and took both her hands in his own and raised them one by one to his lips. He did not stop at kissing them once but turned them over and pressed his lips to the palms over and over again. She looked up at him and saw something in his eyes that made her heart leap, but almost instantly remembered Miss Somerfield. ‘My lord…’

  ‘Don’t you dare “my lord” me, Helen Wayland. I am Miles. I will always be Miles to you.’ He put a finger under her chin and tilted it upwards, searching her face. ‘I have missed you more than I can say. Without you my life is empty. I cannot live without you…’

  ‘Don’t say that.’

  ‘Why not? It is true. I have been hoping and praying you might feel the same.’

  She did, but how could she admit that? ‘My lord, it is not fitting that you should say things like that to me, when you are as good as engaged to Miss Somerfield.’

  ‘I am not engaged to Miss Somerfield, never have been, never contemplated it except under duress.’

  ‘Duress. Whatever do you mean?’

  ‘My late father promised to drop the case against you if I offered for Verity. He had made a bargain with her father, apparently, and for your sake I fell in with it, but all the time I knew I had to get us both out of the bumblebath we were in and come to you. Miss Somerfield did not want to marry me any more than I wanted to marry her and that issue has been resolved. I am free of it. And you are free of that court case, or you will be when Sobers has done his work.’

  ‘Oh.’ Why was she crying? Why were there tears rolling down her face?

  ‘It is nothing to cry about, sweetheart.’ He mopped her face with his handkerchief. ‘I feel a little too exposed here. Let us find somewhere private because I want to kiss you.’

  Bewildered, she let him lead her off the bridge and round the back of the inn. There were stables there for several horses, cart sheds and storage sheds. He took her into one of these. He shut the door and turned to face her. ‘Now, Helen Wayland, before I kiss you, will you answer one vital question?’

  ‘What is that?’

  ‘Will you make me the happiest man alive and agree to marry me? You see, I love you dearly and have done almost since the first moment I set eyes on you and my dearest wish is to make you my wife.’

  She was in a dream—this could not be true. She was not standing in Miles’s arms in a poky little shed half-filled with bales of hay, listening to a declaration of love that sent her wild with joy. He was waiting for an answer. ‘Miles…’

  ‘Do you love me?’

  ‘Yes, but I thought it was hopeless.’

  ‘Nothing is hopeless if you want it enough and I want this very, very much. So are you going to say yes?’

  ‘Yes, oh, yes.’

  ‘Thank goodness for that.’ He did kiss her then, long and hard over and over again until they were both breathless. When they had calmed down, he drew her to sit beside him on one of the bales of hay. ‘I am in mourning and will have to observe the proprieties. Do you think you can bear to stay here for another three months?’

  ‘Yes, if I know I shall be with you at the end of it. Oh, I can’t believe this is happening. I thought I had lost you and it was breaking my heart.’

  He drew her close and kissed her again. ‘Is it mended now?’

  ‘Oh, yes.’

  ‘I will come courting in the approved manner; once that has been established, your family will perhaps be kinder to you.’

  ‘I found out why they cut my mother off. My Cousin William told me. She was engaged to marry your father and ran off with my father after that terrible fire. She told her family that she had fallen in love and could not help herself.’

  ‘I can understand that, can’t you?’ he said softly.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘My father told me the story himself the day he died. It explains a lot of things, doesn’t it?’

  ‘Yes. Your father’s enmity towards my father, though it was not my fault.’

  ‘No, but I am told you are exactly like your mother and he was reminded of it whenever he saw you and when you criticised him, it must have seemed like the last straw. I can feel some sympathy for him now.’

  ‘Yes, so can I, but it does not alter the way I feel about the treatment of the labourers and old soldiers. We will still carry on with helping them, won’t we?’

  ‘Of course. And we will find work for Tom and Edgar. They might consider carrying on with the Warburton Record in new premises. We can discuss it with them later.’

  They were silent for a few moments, then he said, ‘Jack Byers found out that it was one of Blakestone’s men who threw the brick through your window. Blakestone himself has been arrested in Lynn for attempted murder and causing the death of a valuable horse. He will trouble us no more.’ He paused to stroke her hair from her forehead and kiss the end of her nose. ‘But he did not set the fire. It was that poor idiot we saw on the common and later in town. It was he who was squatting in the Manor. I learned from Greaves, who has been in the service of my family since before I was born, that he was once the boot boy at the Manor. Lady Brent, your grandmother, was soft-hearted and used to visit the poorhouse and take presents for the children. She took a shine to Jimmy, who had no family, and took him to live and work at the Manor. It was the first home he had ever known and as far as he was concerned Lady Brent was an angel from heaven. That fire and the death of her ladyship destroyed whatever wits he had. He had an obsession with fire. They put him in an asylum, but he set fire to that. Luckily it was quickly doused and no one was hurt, but Jimmy was a danger to himself and to others, so he was put into a room on his own. He couldn’t be allowed anywhere near a naked flame, so he was never allowed a fire or a light after it got dark. He must have escaped and returned to what he thought was his home.’

  ‘But why did he set fire to my home? I never harmed him.’

  ‘No, but in his muddled brain he thought you were your mother and he had heard about her going off with your father. He wanted to punish you. I am only guessing, of course. No one can really know what was going on in his head. Yesterday Ravensbrook Manor burned again and he was inside. No one knew he was there, so no efforts were made to rescue him. I did not know about it until this morning. We found his body in the ruins.’

  ‘Oh, how sad that is.’

  ‘Yes.’ He paused to hug her to his side and stroke her hair before kissing her again. ‘But I do have some good news. Your necklace is valuable. It was given to your mother by my father along with a matching ring as a betrothal gift.’

  ‘Oh. I never saw a ring.’

  ‘No. I found it in the safe among my father’s things. She must have left it behind. Your father would not have wanted her to wear it. Do you wish me to sell the necklace on your behalf?’

  She was thoughtful for a moment. ‘Yes, please. I do not want reminders of an unhappy past and I shall need to buy wedding clothes befitting t
he bride of an Earl.’ She laughed suddenly and it was such a happy sound he joined in and they began kissing gain, until he was afraid his self-control would desert him.

  ‘I am going to take you back to the house,’ he said, standing up and dusting the straw from his riding breeches before holding out his hand to help her up. ‘Can you creep back in again?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Tomorrow, I shall call and speak to your cousin. We will do this thing properly and, though we cannot publicly announce an engagement just yet, it will be known in the family and you can begin your preparations so that we can be married in three months’ time.’

  ‘Oh, Miles, I cannot believe this is happening. Do you really love me? Have you really asked me to be your wife?’

  ‘Yes, to both questions. And you have made me the happiest man alive by agreeing.’ He kissed her again, more gently this time, though it held the promise of much more to come. And then he took her hand and led her from the building and home to Larkspur House and it seemed the moon and stars had never been brighter. The miserable summer had gone and tomorrow the sun would shine, she was sure of it.

  Epilogue

  Her cousins’ attitude towards her changed completely when they realised that the Earl of Warburton had every intention of marrying her. She was brought into the bosom of the family and made a great fuss of, taken out and about and introduced to all their friends. Betty was sent for to maid her and three months went by in a dream, sometimes unbearably slowly, sometimes so swiftly she was sure everything could not be ready in time. Miles himself was busy bringing the estate back to what it was, but whenever he could he called at Larkspur and it would have been difficult to keep their hands off each other if they had not been closely chaperoned. The dowager Countess came sometimes and expressed her delight at the match. It was she who brought the news that Verity Somerfield had become engaged to a young man she had met at her coming-out ball.

  At last the big day came and Helen went to her wedding with a full heart, secure in the knowledge that this match was made in heaven and would last into eternity and beyond. Dressed in a gown of palest lemon silk, she went down the aisle on the arm of her cousin William, who was to give her away. Behind her, Harold and the two little girls followed, awestruck by the occasion. Helen was only vaguely aware that the church was packed because she was looking straight ahead to where Miles waited, magnificent in his dress uniform. He smiled down at her as she joined him and she responded before facing the parson, who stood ready to conduct the service.

  They made their responses in strong voices and, when it was over, went back to Larkspur House for the wedding breakfast and everyone’s congratulations. Soon it would be time to go on their wedding trip to the Lakes and after that back to Ravens Park and her new life as the Countess of Warburton. The idea that she was a Countess made Helen smile. Miles met her eyes from across the room where he was talking to Sobers, who had just told him there would be no court case, and he grinned back at her. He would be glad when the formalities were done with and he could be alone with his beloved bride. They had been patient long enough.

  ISBN-13: 9781460349632

  WINNING THE WAR HERO’S HEART

  © Mary Nichols 2011

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