by Heather Boyd
“No. Hardly anyone mentions our past relationship even in private, and I still have not mentioned it to Lord Ellicott. He wandered deeper into the stables after Ellicott found me there.” Her voice trailed off as understanding dawned. Felix had turned away as soon as his replacement, Lord Ellicott, had reappeared in her life.
The closeness she craved had vanished as soon as he had spotted the earl, and why would he not turn away from them?
“Probably for the best. Dudley and he need to become acquainted if he is to take up duties here,” the duke murmured, missing Sally’s conclusion entirely. “Felix has made a good effort to restore his friendship with your mother and sister and cousins already, so that is a wonderful start to having him live here. Your mother will be the duchess when my time comes, and given your father’s undependable nature and his dislike of country living, I would not rest easy thinking Maggie had no one to depend on.”
“Mother does have staff of her own.”
“Who mollycoddle her moods just as much as you do.” The duke banged the floor with his canes. “She must have more than just blood relations to guide her. She needs someone who will not abuse her trust. You cousin Rothwell trusts the captain, and we both know how cynical he can be. If Maitland were out of danger I would not have this worry, but even he will have a lot to do on his return. Oh, if only this wretched war would end soon,” Rutherford grumbled with more heat than usual.
“Please, Grandfather. Calm yourself. Maitland will be back. I have no doubt of that nothing could keep my brother away from us for long. And Fredrick and Laurence and William will return one day soon as well.” Sally rushed to her grandfather’s side and gripped his shoulder, feeling the sharpness of bones rather than the muscle of his younger days. “Felix would look after the family’s interests before his own, I am very sure of that. We can always offer him the position and see what he says about it. I do think he likes it here.”
And with that, Sally committed herself to securing Felix for Newberry Park’s estate manager. It pained her that she would have to see him whenever she returned to visit her family, but that could not be helped. He could be of use to them and be as happy here as Sally had always been.
All she had to do was convince him to accept the position after the war was won. If he survived to see the day come. She glanced out the window and spotted Ellicott passing by the study windows. He was waiting for her to finish talking with her grandfather so he could lure her to a private spot and try to kiss her again. He looked to still be in a bit of a temper too. “Would you like company for luncheon?”
The duke spotted Ellicott too. “Just you? No one else?”
Sally nodded quickly, relieved to her core to have an excuse to avoid Ellicott for a little while longer. “Just me. I am sure Mother will not mind entertaining our guests without the pair of us.”
Rutherford studied her long and hard, one brow rising slowly. “Maggie has always been a congenial hostess. I am positive she will not mind at all.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Now that is one fiery wench,” Gabriel Jennings said as the innkeeper’s wife sauntered past their table yet again, juggling a pile of dirty plates and tankards.
“Married woman,” Felix reminded Gabriel as he peered across the smoky dark room too. Not that he needed to point out the woman’s status. Gabriel had rules about attached women, especially those with large and dangerous husbands like the innkeeper of the Newberry Arms.
Gabriel peered into his tankard. “I can still admire a married woman’s fine temper, is that not so, Mr. Wharton?”
The innkeeper drew close with a jug of ale. “That you can, but just remember that her temper often requires an outlet and she will use whatever object is near to hand.”
Felix squinted across the room. He was just a little bit inebriated and a pleasant lassitude had washed over him some time ago. Several hours or so had passed since leaving Newberry, and although he was no closer to leaving his own bad mood behind, the fresher company and drink had managed to make his problem recede. “I think she is a fine wench too, but Mrs. Wharton also has a fire poker in hand and deserves the utmost respect.”
He toasted the woman and earned a laugh from the innkeeper.
“Another drink, Captains?”
Gabriel scowled. “He’s the captain, I am just the lone wolf in your midst.”
“You need to get yourself a wife to distract you from saying that over and over,” the innkeeper said and then scowled at Jennings. “And do stop admiring my wife, sir. Find your own.”
“I had a wife. She’s dead,” Gabriel said bitterly. He drained his tankard and slammed it on the table. “More.”
Felix leaned into Gabriel’s shoulder in sympathy. “Now, Lizbeth was a fine woman.”
“That she was.” Gabriel frowned though. “Only I never told her so often enough.”
“I am sure she knew how you felt about her,” he said. They had had this discussion earlier in the day, and the poor man still did not believe. “She was proud to be your wife.”
“You are the only one who thinks that. She married me and I drove her to her death. I should have taken her with me, or better yet have given up my commission. I had enough to live on four years ago, but no, I had to keep fighting, thinking she would be waiting when we won the day.” Gabriel stared down at his hands. “They are not like us. Women like, no need, to have men spell out their feelings in the finest of detail. If you think a wench is pretty, say so. If you love her, tell her so every day, not just the once. I did not deserve Lizbeth, so she was taken from me.”
There was not much Felix could say to that rant that he had not commented on before, so he pushed Gabriel’s refilled mug of ale toward him and hoped he would keep drinking.
The innkeeper topped off both mugs again after Gabriel had taken a long swig. “Are you married, Captain?”
Felix glanced up at the innkeeper’s question. “No.”
“He almost married once,” Gabriel told the innkeeper. “Now, that Sally is a fine wench. Quite the temper, I’ll wager.”
Felix took a sip of his fresh ale. “She is and she does. My word, she does. Usually directed at me.”
The innkeeper’s eyes lit up. “I gather you have fallen under her spell.”
“Unfortunately,” Felix said morosely, considering Sally. She had not been angry with him today. It had been wonderful when she had thrown herself into his arms. Everything had been going so well until Ellicott showed his smug face. And everything had changed for him after that.
The innkeeper drew up a stool. “What happened, Captain? If you do not mind me asking? Did she pass on too?”
“No, she lives on to haunt me in the flesh.” Felix had spent so much time not talking about Sally that he was tempted to share the burden of his mistake. “Her father’s political scheming led to her throwing me over. I did not know what her father was doing until it was too late to save us from an argument that did not end well for me.”
“She blamed you for her father’s schemes. Hard to fight that.”
“Impossible, given her loyalty to her family. Six years and she has not wavered in her conviction that I was duplicitous. I would have beaten down her door and kidnapped her if I had thought it would do me any good. Too late for that now, of course.”
The innkeeper was hailed by a customer, but he leaned closer as he stood. “Then if you still love her, you had best prove yourself a better man than her father.”
“There is no point. She is to marry another man soon, and he is titled.”
“Then you have no time to waste. If she is still angry, she must still care.” The man was hailed again. “Excuse me.”
Felix considered that piece of advice carefully. There were many reasons to keep his distance from Sally Ford. His career for one, her family for another. He would not like to have a second bloody nose courtesy of Lord Rothwell or whatever tortures her brothers could concoct.
Jennings leaned close. “You are still sittin
g here?”
“She is not the woman I fell in love with.” He took another sip of his ale, pondering all the ways Sally had changed over the years they had been apart. The way she dressed, modest and prim, the way she seemed conscious of every move she made around others—he missed her curses. He missed the wilder Sally of her youth. Her fallen hair and the way she would secretly come to him for a kiss and more.
“And you are not the man who landed in her father’s sticky web of political schemes without a clue how to fix things. Kiss and make up. Ask her to wait. What have you got to lose?”
“Everything I have worked so hard to obtain,” he said. “My ship, my command.”
“Believe me you can live without those. Not happily perhaps, but it is not a death sentence not being a captain.” Jennings lowered his voice. “Can you bear to watch her marry someone else, knowing the fellow is rutting with her, and never once try to win her back?”
He gritted his teeth at Jennings’s coarse description of Sally and Ellicott sharing a bed. He could not imagine Sally happily married to Lord Ellicott, and he did not want to think of her in the earl’s bed, which she probably already was, and that made him ill inside. Ellicott was a smug prick and a fortune hunter. Whenever Felix saw Ellicott near Sally, he wanted to drive his fist into the man’s pretty face and never stop.
“It is too late.”
Jennings swallowed another mouthful of ale. “It is only too late to change a mistake when one of you is dead. Until that time, there is always a choice.”
Felix gritted his teeth. No regrets, no doubts. He had feared and hoped for entanglement with Sally’s life for so long, and now he was neck deep in lust and longing once more. How the hell was he supposed to walk away this time?
~ * ~
In Sally’s opinion, Lord Ellicott’s mother was a puzzling woman. Not given to moving too often or too quickly and certainly not given to theatrics, she did not have much patience with explanations but required that she know everything. She had not much liking for talk of the navy either, which had been a frequent topic during her visit, and Sally hoped that despite their difference of interests they could become friends one day. And yet she felt as if each meeting was a battle. “More tea, Lady Ellicott?”
“I should think two cups are more than enough for the evening.”
Sally ignored the urge to agree and had a maid take Lady Ellicott’s cup away. She poured another for herself and her mother. “Will it rain tomorrow, Uncle George?”
He glanced down at his absent foot, lost when a dog had mauled him as a child. “No chance of rain, sadly. We will have clear skies for the next few days.”
“Wonderful.” Uncle George was never wrong about the weather, so Sally made up her mind to enjoy a few pleasant days out of doors while she could. “Might I take your girls for a picnic lunch tomorrow?”
“Indeed you might. Audrey was hoping to have gone out today, but you were occupied.”
She smiled, relieved that she would have family about her tomorrow and would not have to deal with Ellicott alone. Sally usually spent a number of hours with her younger cousins, but between her work and the Ellicott’s visit, and Felix, she had neglected them. “We might go to the lookout this time and take telescopes with us.”
“Are you hoping to see a battle underway?” Ellicott asked, his tone still as surly as it had been this morning. She had managed to spend the whole afternoon with her grandfather discussing the estate, and Ellicott was not pleased or the least bit understanding.
“Whales, we like to look for passing whales.” Sally sipped her tea and then fondly petted the cat perched on her knees. “Arturo might even come with us.”
Ellicott shook his head. “Take the cat walking?”
She scratched Arturo behind his ear until he purred loudly. “Have you ever tried to stop a cat going wherever it pleases?”
“That is what I keep dogs for,” Ellicott muttered angrily.
Sally gasped in shock. She glanced at Lady Ellicott, but her expression revealed none of Sally’s distress. “You would not.”
Ellicott glanced away as Louisa rushed over then and placed Arturo in a wicker basket. Her expression was horrified. “I will keep him now.”
Sally struggled with her temper as Louisa hurried from the room, then she turned on Ellicott. “I never thought you could be cruel to a lesser creature. Cat’s are harmless.”
When he shrugged, Sally stiffened. She had never imagined her future husband would be a danger to her cats. She had intended to take them with her to Shropshire, but that did not seem like a wise plan now given his attitude. She would have to leave them behind, along with so much more. Was starting a new life always so difficult, or was it simply that Sally had made a bad choice?
Perhaps there were many other things they should discuss before they wed? Such as what he had been doing in London and why he felt he could not explain his errand to her. Did he think her simple?
“That is a lovely color on you,” Lady Ellicott said suddenly, diverting her from quizzing Ellicott immediately. “You are always so elegant and stylish.”
Sally glanced toward Lady Ellicott and blinked at her interruption. She had worn a gown from last season tonight. Not her best or most elegant and certainly not worn to impress the Ellicotts, but one that felt right for the night. “Thank you. So are you. Is that another new gown?”
“Indeed it is. Four yards of lace in the skirt and pure silk all the way from Asia. Ellicott went to London just to fetch it for me.”
Sally was rendered speechless, but Uncle George grunted out, “You would look just as well in sackcloth.”
Lady Ellicott opened her mouth and then snapped it shut at the insult. Everyone else in the room froze and then started talking at once about other matters.
Sally licked her lips. “You have to forgive Uncle George. He does not think much of current fashion. You have no idea of his resistance to funding a new wardrobe for Victoria and Audrey’s come-out.”
“Few men have a sense of what’s important,” Lady Ellicott replied, but it was clear she was annoyed with Uncle George. “Except for my dear Ellicott.”
Uncle George’s eyebrows rose high, and then he made a show of opening his book with a shake of his head.
Sally’s doubts about marriage doubled. To her it was extraordinary that Ellicott should have made a special trip to London just to collect a new gown for his mother.
“That reminds me, how long is Captain Hastings staying at Newberry,” Lady Ellicott enquired. “He comes and goes with extraordinary irregularity, but should he not be on his ship somewhere, defending our great nation from the French?”
“I have no idea,” Sally answered when no one else replied. How much time could she steal with Felix? “He is my grandfather’s guest.”
The countess frowned. “And that other fellow, Hennings?”
“Jennings,” Sally corrected.
“Now that is a man the duke should not allow anywhere near his estate,” Ellicott murmured.
Sally glared. “He is a widower.”
The countess sat forward. “All the more reason in my opinion to keep the man from darkening your door again. He is only after one thing when it comes to women.”
“He loved his wife.” Sally waited for the countess to take back her criticism.
“Love. Posh! Love is only for the very foolish,” Lady Ellicott exclaimed.
Utter silence answered her. When the countess finally noticed she held the minority opinion, she straightened her spine. “No one marries for love these days. I am sure you will agree with me, Lady Templeton, that a good match requires only wealth and good connections.”
“Then I guess you have never been in love,” Uncle George cut in and then cast a questioning glance at Ellicott. “Nor ever plan to be.”
“Do not drag me into this nonsense before the wedding,” Ellicott grumbled, shoving his glass aside so carelessly it landed half on the table and half off. An observant servant hurried to preve
nt its fall and set it safely back on the table. Ellicott barely noticed the assistance. “Which reminds me, I thought we might return to Shropshire on Tuesday next week as man and wife instead of waiting.”
Sally sat very still, her heart thumping against her ribs at the unexpected request to advance the wedding date. They were marrying by license, so they could marry any morning they liked. However, she did not intend to marry in an unseemly hurry that would result in the worst sort of gossip. Everything was set for their wedding the week after he suggested. “I prefer to leave on the day we discussed when you first proposed.”
“I see.” He stood suddenly. “Then do excuse me. I have a few letters of apology I must write tonight to my friends.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Ellicott strode from the room, leaving Sally reeling. Was she really going to marry a man who was cruel to cats, uncaring about love, and thought to push her around and into his bed by being a bully?
And what letters of apology did he need to write? They had no plans so far, or at least none she knew of. When was he going to confide in her?
“He is just nervous about getting married,” Lady Ellicott explained.
“He does not sound nervous to me,” she told the countess with as much dignity as she could. “He was rude.”
“Well, what do you expect of him? There is hardly enough to entertain a grown man used to a full social life. He cannot be expected to sit around with us women while we make lace and such. He needs more to amuse him. He’s always had his own friends, and now he is trying to accommodate you and your family too. It is hard for men to be idle. Things will be different when we are back at home and everything returns to normal.”
It was hard for Sally now. Always apologizing for being busy with her work on the estate was wearing her down. Always controlling her nature just to please the pair of them so they would accept her into their family. She was not sure she even wanted that life anymore. She shook her head. Everything depended on her being one way when she was being held back from the very things dearest to her heart. She did not know how much more she could bear before she started screaming.
