Apple Blossom Bride

by Marina Oliver

  Sir Peter laughed. 'Poor man! But your father was not back a few days ago when that letter was written.'

  'No, and it will take him months to search in all the regiments in France, and I think there may be some left in Spain, too. He is crazy! And we have no way of getting in touch with him to tell him James is safely here. As for Nicholas,' she added, her tone waspish, 'it will serve to show him how much work there is when he gets his own parish!'

  Sir Peter laughed. 'Meanwhile, until James becomes rational, we will all go and skate on the Serpentine. There is no point in your moping,' he added when Eve shook her head. 'Amelia and I can skate, and Justin, thinking he is the best skater amongst us, intends to teach you.'

  'But, your work?'

  'There is little to do, as few dispatches are arriving because of the weather, so we are free to enjoy ourselves. We will go tomorrow morning, after you have been here to ask about James.'

  'You are being so kind, looking after him,' Eve said, suddenly aware she had not yet expressed any thanks.

  'I am glad to help, and we could hardly move him, could we? It was a small miracle he managed to reach me.'

  'I wonder how he did? Did he have any money?'

  'Cooper says not. The only things in his pockets were a shrivelled apple, and a few scraps of eggshell.'

  'Eggshell? How odd.'

  'Well, in a few days he will be able to explain. Meanwhile, you are going to learn to skate. The fog is lifting, with the wind and the snow, so if you and Amelia come here tomorrow we can walk to Grosvenor Square and collect Justin, and on to the Serpentine. We'll have to walk, I fear. It's too dangerous to take a carriage. There have already been many accidents with them overturning.'

  Eve had lost all desire to learn to skate, but as she could do nothing to help James she agreed, and went back to Albemarle Street, where she could settle to nothing, and simply nodded as Amelia gloated over the opportunity for improving her skill at ice-skating.

  *

  'If Peter and I hold your hands to pull you along, and Justin skates behind you to hold you up and make sure you don't fall, you'll be skating by yourself in no time,' Amelia said.

  Eve looked at her and frowned. Did she really believe that? 'It doesn't sound very safe.'

  'Oh, it's perfectly safe. Come on, let's try it.'

  Eve had permitted the Earl to tie on the skates, and now, feeling far from steady, she allowed them to haul her to her feet. Or to her skates, she thought, and tried not to laugh.

  They formed up as Amelia directed. Eve only remained upright because she was clinging to the Earl's arm.

  'Let go of Justin, and hold my hand,' Amelia directed, and trembling, Eve did so.

  Amelia and Sir Peter began gently to tug her forwards, while the Earl, trying not to laugh, held her by the waist. Cautiously moving her feet alternately as directed, Eve felt herself glide a yard or so. It was a strange sensation, but even more strange and disturbing was the feel of the Earl's hands on her waist.

  'This is a new method of teaching,' he whispered to Eve, and at that moment Amelia, espying a friend skating past, turned to wave and in doing so pulled Eve sideways.

  Eve felt her feet sliding away in front of her, and the quartet collapsed in a laughing heap.

  'If you mean to become a tutor, Amelia, I suggest you pay attention to your student,' the Earl said.

  Amelia tried to apologise, but was laughing too much for her words to make much sense. They managed to pick themselves up, but the Earl shook his head when Amelia tried to take Eve's hand.

  'No. It won't work, even if you do pay attention. You and Peter go and show off your skills while I teach Eve.'

  Before Amelia could protest, the Earl had grasped Eve firmly round the waist, and somehow she found herself being carried along at his side, her skates only just in contact with the ice. She knew she was wobbling, out of control, but somehow he held her upright, and after a while she managed to move her feet as he directed, feeling the sensation of touching the ice and sliding along.

  'Good, that's the way. Now try to move your feet as though you were walking, taking steps. Yes, that's it. Good. You'll soon be doing it on your own.'

  'No! I can't!' Eve tried to clutch his coat, and almost lost her balance, but he managed to keep them both upright.

  'Don't think about it. Don't worry, I've got you and you're doing fine. And I won't let you go.'

  By the end of an hour Eve found that if she really concentrated, and depended only on holding the Earl's hand, she could skate along slowly. When he suggested she tried it without any support she immediately began to overbalance, and he had to catch her to him. She found herself clasped to his chest, held tightly, and looking up into his face. He was grinning, his eyes twinkling, as he skated on, holding her off the ice. She blushed, and struggled to free herself. She had never before been held so tightly by a man.

  'Gently, or I'll drop you. Put your feet down slowly until you feel them on the ice, and then I'll let go and you can hold my hand again.'

  She did as she was told, but when he did let go and held her round the waist she felt cold, suddenly bereft.

  'That's enough for one day,' he said soon afterwards. 'By tomorrow you will be on your own. Let's wait for the others on the bank.'

  As they stood there, Eve was shivering. The footman who had been holding their cloaks came and the Earl put Eve's round her.

  'We'll begin to walk back,' the Earl said. 'Tell the others we'll meet them in Grosvenor Square.'

  'Yes, my Lord.'

  For a while they did not speak, but when they reached the gate the Earl took a deep breath.

  'I believe your father thinks James is in France?'

  'Yes. He must have gone on that mail boat, and I assume he's making enquiries somewhere in Europe. He should know it's a hopeless task, but he hates being defeated.'

  'I will have to send a message, and hope it reaches him, to say James is here. He needs to come home.'

  Eve sighed. 'He'll be utterly furious, with James most of all, but with everyone else. He'll order me home, and probably put both of us on bread and water. It was what he did when we were children and annoyed him.'

  'You're not children now.'

  'That doesn't matter. We are his, and he believes he has a divine right to control all we do.'

  'Don't worry. But if France is suffering this sort of weather it could be weeks before any message I send reaches him, and still more weeks before he can come home.'

  'I've been thinking. James would not have expected me to still be in London, and he would not have been willing to go back home, so I suspect he came to find you in the hope you would help him.'

  'Yes, and I will if I can, when he is better. But from what Peter has told me, it could be weeks before the poor boy is fit enough to join the army. But I'll do what I can.'

  Eve felt tears come to her eyes. 'You are so good!' she managed.

  'Nonsense. And here come Peter and Amelia, rushing to catch us up. There will be hot drinks for us all in Grosvenor Square.'

  *

  Rachel and her husband were sitting in his study, where a roaring log fire warmed the room. Rachel was looking pensive, her chin on one hand.

  'What is it, my love?'

  'I was thinking about my uncle,' she said.

  'Your uncle? But I thought you had no relatives?'

  'I'd forgotten about him. I only saw him once, when I was about three or four years old. He's Mama's brother. Or half-brother, rather, he's twenty years older, and his father married twice.'

  'What happened? Did he die?'

  'I don't know if he's still alive. What do you think happened? He and Papa quarrelled. I've no idea why, it was probably because he disagreed with Papa over something trivial, but I do remember he left the house at once. Mama once told me he stormed out, saying his valet could pack his clothes and bring them after him.'

  'So why are you thinking of him now?'

  'I suppose it's because of the baby. I started
thinking of family, and realised I'd never heard any more of him. Papa once said he was a monster, and I had nightmares that he was coming to get me, until Mama explained that Papa just meant he was a quarrelsome man. I don't suppose he was. He probably just disagreed with Papa. He'd recently come home from India, and was very rich.'

  'A Nabob? So what happened to him? Did your mother keep in touch with him?'

  'I don't think so. Papa would have forbidden it, and she was such a timid soul she would have obeyed him.'

  'And now you are thinking of him.'

  Yes. I suppose I was wondering whether I could find him. Mama came from Lancashire, a small village to the north of Preston. I have wondered whether it's possible to hire someone to go and ask after him. He would probably go back to his old home.'

  'No one could travel there in this weather. But when the snow finishes, my dear, I'll send one of my men to ask. Give me the details, and perhaps they can find him, or at least discover where he is or what has happened to him.'

  *

  It was more than a week before James could tell his story. Eve went to sit by him every day, and for a while she feared he was not going to recover. The doctor, when she saw him and demanded to be told how ill her brother really was, merely shook his head and said it was touch and go whether he mended. At last, however, on a day when she had been skating on the Serpentine, now able to glide along slowly by herself, and had called in Berkeley Square on the way home, she met the doctor on his way out.

  'Your brother is much improved,' he told her. 'However, try not to tire him. He must not have a visitor for more than ten minutes.'

  Eve almost hugged him. James was better, or at least getting better, and she could wait to hear what had been happening to him now she knew he would eventually recover.

  He was looking much better when Cooper, who had made himself the chief nurse, admitted her to the bedroom. He had natural colour in his cheeks, and his eyes were bright. He was still propped up on pillows, and his arm still bound up and in a sling, but he was rational at last.

  'Eve? What are you doing here? Why are you still in London? I thought you'd be back at home.'

  'We stayed because Sir Bernard had been ill. But what of you? Why did you come to London? And how did you break your arm? The doctor said it had been a nasty break, but fortunately it had been set by someone who knew what they were doing.'

  James sighed. 'It's too long a story for now. They tell me I can only have ten minutes, and to tell the truth, Sis, I'm feeling so weak I can't really concentrate.'

  'Then it can wait. The main thing is that you are getting better.'

  'Yes. But where is Papa?' He sounded apprehensive. 'Will he be coming to give me a scolding?'

  'He's in Spain or France as far as we know,' Eve said, chuckling. 'He thought you had gone on the Falmouth mail, to Lisbon, and he followed, and as far as we know he is searching all the regiments there. With any luck it will take him all year!' she added, grinning.

  'Oh lord, and he'll be even madder with me when he knows I didn't get that far.'

  'Don't worry. I suspect the Earl will protect you.'

  'Stephen said he would help me. Before he went to his new tutor. That's why I came here. How I wish, if I can't join the army, I could go to this new tutor, who's a great gun from all Stephen says. He wrote once, before I left home, and fortunately Papa was out so he didn't see the letter. You know how he always demands to read the few we ever receive.'

  He yawned, and Eve saw how weary he was. She could wait to hear his story, so she said she must leave him to sleep, and he was nodding, his eyes closed, before she left the room.

  *

  The Earl sat, uncharacteristically without occupation apart from thinking, in his study. Robert was no doubt trapped in Yorkshire, and would not be back in London for some time until the snowstorms ceased.

  'James, although improving, is by no means as fit as I would have liked,' Sir Peter had told him the previous day, 'and the doctor is making ominous noises about a weakening of the lungs.'

  'He's receiving the best of care with you.'

  Sir Peter laughed. 'Cooper has almost adopted him. He even tells me not to stay too long in the room.'

  'The lad has shown strength and initiative in getting here, under atrocious conditions. He's too good to join the ranks. If he really does still want the army he'd best have a commission.'

  'I'd purchase one for him, but would he accept it?'

  Justin had also considered this, and come to the same conclusion. James would reject what he would think of as charity.

  'Not easily, but we'll think of some scheme.'

  For the moment he could not think of any other solution. Justin had not been favourably impressed with the Rector. A hard man, and unlikely to treat James with much consideration once he was back in England and had, as he no doubt intended, hauled the lad back to Herefordshire. Somehow James needed to be protected from him.

  Nor would permitting James to enrol in some infantry regiment help him. He was not, at the moment, fit enough to withstand the hardships the volunteers were subjected to, and the probable teasing – well meant but often harsh – by the other older men in the regiment.

  James, however, from what he had seen of the boy, was stubborn and determined to become a soldier at the earliest opportunity. Would the argument that obtaining a degree would make him a better soldier count with James? And perhaps a suggestion that he join Stephen with his new tutor? Somehow Justin did not think so. James had made it clear he wanted to be in Wellington's army now, and there were not many more months left, if the news from France was well-founded, until a peace was made.

  He sighed. Perhaps, by the time the boy was fit, this would have come, and then James might consider alternatives for the time being.

  *

  Once on the road to recovery James improved quickly, though he was not permitted to leave his room for another week. Then Sir Peter, saying his own clothes were ruined, provided him with others and one afternoon helped him down to the library where a huge fire warmed the room.

  'I've sent for your sister, and Justin,' Sir Peter said, 'since you say you are ready to tell us what happened.'

  James nodded. 'I can never thank you enough for all you have done for me. You saved my life.'

  'Nonsense, I'd have done it for anyone. Good, here is your sister, and Justin. Now you can satisfy our curiosity.'

  James sighed. 'I was foolish, but so desperate to get away from home and join the army. I stole some money, but it was only enough to buy food, so I had to walk. I slept in haystacks, or sometimes in a barn or a hayloft.'

  'But it's so cold!' Eve exclaimed.

  'It's warm enough buried in hay, and then I had a greatcoat. Sometimes I could get a job, helping to sweep yards, groom horses, or chop wood, and then the farmer gave me food and let me sleep in the hayloft, which is quite warm enough if there are horses in the stable. So I was able to save some of my money.'

  'Where were you heading for?' the Earl asked.

  'Portsmouth, where I knew there was a regiment. Then, just before I reached Winchester, it all went wrong. I sometimes got a lift on farm carts, and this time two men said they were going to Winchester. But they attacked me, stole my money, and made me give them my greatcoat. When I tried to stop them they beat me with a club, and that's when they broke my arm.'

  'Oh James! How did you escape from them?'

  'Two men on horseback came along and they ran off, but I didn't get my money or my coat back. The wretches fled when they heard these others coming. They put me on one of the horses and took me to a cottage where an elderly couple looked after me. The man set my arm. And I was so bruised from the beating it took me days to recover. They put me in a wall bed in the kitchen where, the woman said, she could best see to me. Their son, who is in the navy, used to sleep there. They were so good. As soon as I have some money I must go back to thank them.'

  'What happened next?'

  'The men who rescued
me came one day, though I didn't see them, and left enough money for me to get to Portsmouth when they discovered I had none. I'd told them I was going to enlist, but when I got there, they wouldn't let me join. It was my arm. They said I looked too weak to be of use, and with only one good arm it would be hopeless.'

  'Poor James! Oh, I wish I could meet those wretches who robbed you!' Eve said.

  The Earl laughed. 'I can believe you would beat them up too.'

  'Yes, I would!'

  'Was it then you decided to come to London and ask my help?'

  James nodded. 'It was all I could think of. Stephen had trusted you to help him, finding him a new tutor, so I knew you'd help me, find a regiment that would accept me.'

  'But you had no money, and not even a greatcoat!' Eve said. 'How did you contrive?'

  James looked ashamed. 'I stole.'

  'Stole? Money?'

  'I didn't want to, but I had no other way of surviving!'

  'No, of course not.'

  'I didn't steal money,' James explained. 'I just stole food. I did get some when I could do jobs, but with only one arm there wasn't much I could do. There were apples, stored in barns, and sometimes turnips. I decided they would not miss just one. And once, when I went to a farm to ask if they had any jobs, the farm wife left me at the kitchen door, and she had just been baking. I stole one of her loaves and ran away. That was the best bread I have ever tasted,' he added, with a reminiscent smile.

  'You won't tell Papa, will you?' Eve said, sounding anxious. 'He would say you were condemned to hell for ever.'

  'I have no desire ever to see him again to tell him anything.'

  'There is something I want to know,' Sir Peter said. 'Cooper found an apple in your pocket, and also some eggshells. How did you come by that?'

  James grimaced. 'Once I saw a hen. She was cackling, had just laid an egg under a hedge, and I took it. Ugh! Raw eggs are so very disgusting! I don't mind them with milk and brandy, but not by themselves. But I was so hungry I managed to swallow it.'

  They laughed, and James grinned at them.

  'So, my Lord, will you please help me join a regiment? I can't go back home, even if Papa isn't there, and joining the army is all I've ever wanted. But what is happening? I haven't heard any news. Have we beaten the monster yet?'