That was encouraging, Val told himself—over and over again. And if a truce sometimes preceded a surrender and departure from the field, well, he ignored that over and over again, too.
The next day, Ellen took the boys to market with her, leaving Val, Darius, and Nick to assist with the roof to the hay barn. At noon, Darius called for the midday break, and the crews moved off toward the pond, there to take their meals.
“Shall we join them?” Darius asked.
“Let’s stay here with the horses,” Nick suggested. “Doesn’t seem fair everybody else gets to take a break and the beasts must stay in the traces.”
“Wearing a feed bag,” Val said. “It’s cooler inside the barn, and I could use some cool.”
“I’ll second that,” Darius said, “and a feed bag for my own face.”
They took their picnic into the lower floor of the barn, the space set aside for animals. At Val’s direction, it had recently been scrubbed, whitewashed, and the floors recobbled to the point where it was as clean as many a dwelling—for the present.
“I like this barn.” Nick looked around approvingly. “The ceiling isn’t too low. What’s for lunch?”
Darius passed each man a sandwich and watched while Nick took a long pull from the whiskey bottle.
“Save me a taste, if you please.” Darius snatched the bottle back, leaving Nick to wipe his mouth and grin.
“Damned good,” Nick allowed, leaning back to rest against a stout support beam running from floor to ceiling.
The beam shifted, and that small sound was followed by an instant’s silence. Nick’s quietly urgent “You two get the hell out” collided with Val’s equally insistent “Dare, get the team.”
Val darted to Nick’s side and added his weight to Nick’s, holding the beam in place.
Dare got the team into the barn and wrapped a stout chain around the upper portion of the beam. While the horses held it in place—no mean feat, given the delicate balance required—Val and Nick fetched trusses to provide the needed support.
When they were all outside the barn, the horses once again munching their oats, Val turned to frown at the structure.
“Somebody was very busy with a saw on Sunday,” Val murmured. “I thought you were over here much of Sunday, Dare?”
“Sunday morning.” Darius scrubbed a hand over his chin while he eyed the barn. “Sunday afternoon I accompanied Bragdoll’s sons to help clear some trees off the other tenant farms.”
“So the hay barn became an accessible target. Who knew we’d be restoring the roof so soon?”
“Bragdolls for sure,” Nick said. “What they didn’t know was you’d be stuffing all the rest of the first cutting into the barn this week, as well. Without that added weight, the center beam might have held until some unsuspecting bullock tried to give itself a good scratch.”
“More sabotage,” Val muttered, grimacing. “I wasn’t planning on moving animals in here until fall.”
“So perhaps,” Darius said slowly, “the idea was to let the thing collapse once the new roof was on, thus imperiling your entire hay crop and the lives of the animals inside the barn.”
“Another bad hay year,” Nick said, “and you’d lose your tenants.”
“If our culprit is Freddy Markham,” Val said, and there was little if about it, “then he has no more sense of the hay crop than he does of the roster at Almack’s. A collapsed barn is simply trouble, requiring coin to repair, as far as he’s concerned. He wouldn’t think about the loss of a few peasant lives or driving people off their land.”
“A treasure,” Nick said. “A real treasure, and you think he’s been plaguing you all along?”
“I do, though I want to know why. He was hardly likely to invest anything in this estate, and he walked away with half a sizeable kitty instead.”
“All this drama has worked up my appetite.” Nick sauntered back into the barn, retrieved the food and the bottle, and passed it to Darius. “Let’s take this to some safe, shady tree and finish our meal in peace. But where do you go from here, Val?”
“I’ve already sent an invitation to Freddy to join me as my first house guest at my country retreat.” They settled in the grass, Val’s back resting against the tree. “I’ve warned Sir Dewey what I’m about, and he doesn’t endorse it, but neither can he stop me.”
“Did you tell him what happened to Ellen’s cottage?” Darius asked.
“Sent the note yesterday, and we should expect Freddy to call next Wednesday.”
“When Ellen’s at market,” Darius said. “You won’t tell her he’s visiting? Are you going to tell her the bastard almost dropped a barn on the three of us and two splendid horses?”
“Here, here,” Nick chimed in around a bite of sandwich.
“I will tell her about the barn, and I think we need to tell the heathen, as well,” Val said, “but she isn’t to know Freddy’s coming.”
“I can take her to Kent,” Nick reminded Val, “or to the London town house, or even to Candlewick.”
“She’ll know something’s afoot,” Val countered. “And if she bolts, that might tip my hand to Freddy. The gossip mill in Little Weldon turns on a greased wheel, and I’m convinced somebody is feeding Freddy information.”
“And they may not even know they’re passing along anything of merit,” Darius said, taking a bite of his sandwich.
“I’ll tell you something of merit.” Nick lay back and rested his head on Val’s thigh. “A nap is very meritorious right now, but maybe another medicinal tot of that bottle first, Dare.” He waggled long fingers, closed his eyes, and took a swig.
“Right.” Darius stretched out, using the food sack as his pillow. “A nap is just the thing.”
Val sat between them, Nick’s head weighting his thigh, an odd warmth blooming in his chest. They’d just risked their lives for him, these two. And now, like loyal dogs, they were stretched out around him, dozing lazily until the next threat loomed. It was a peculiar silver lining, when the threat of death brought with it the unequivocal assurance one was well loved.
***
Hawthorne Bragdoll sat in his favorite thinking tree and considered the scene he’d just witnessed at the hay barn. The damned building had all but collapsed, held up only by the blond giant—a bloody earl, that one—and Mr. Windham. Windham was big, and gone all ropey and lean with muscle, but that blond fellow—he was something out of a traveling circus, a strong man or a giant, maybe. He put Thorn in mind of Vikings, for all the man did smile.
Especially at women.
Neal had been in a swivet when that tart of his, Louise, had smiled back at the giant. Poor Neal didn’t know Louise Hackett’s mouth did much worse than smile at the occasional handsome, well-heeled fellow, but Thorn didn’t begrudge her the extra coin. Times were hard, and for serving maids and yeomen, they were always going to be hard. Still, coin for services was a long way from this bloody-minded mischief.
Intent on avoiding all the clearing work to be done on Sunday, Thorne had repaired to his second favorite thinking tree in the home wood, only to see a gangling, pot-gutted, nattering dandy strutting around a half-fallen tree right beside Mrs. FitzEngle’s cottage. While Thorn watched in horrified amazement, the dandy had ordered Hiram Hackett and his dimwitted brother Dervid to saw the tree so it fell on the widow’s cottage.
A few weeks earlier, Thorn had seen Hiram and Dervid making trip after trip into the manor house, each time carrying a load of lumber scraps and other tinder. They’d hauled in a couple cans of lamp oil too, and Thorn had been sure he was about to be treated to the sight of the biggest bonfire since the burning of London.
He’d kept his peace, as the house was empty, and Windham was not his friend or his family. But purposely crashing a tree into the widow’s only home…
That, Thorn concluded, was just rotten, even by his very tolerant standards. Mrs. Fitz was an outcast, like Thorn, and he sensed she was a cut above her neighbors, something that won her Thorn’s limited s
ympathy. Thorn had no sisters, but he had a mother, and someday, given his pa’s fondness for the bottle, his mother would likely be widowed.
And if anybody had dropped a damned tree on his mother’s house… Thorn clenched his fists in imagined rage and then settled back into his tree to do some more thinking.
***
“Now this is interesting.” Freddy Markham picked up the sole epistle gracing the salver in the breakfast parlor of his London town house. The bills and duns were carefully separated out before he came down each morning, leaving the invitations, or invitation, as the case was, for his perusal over tea, while the less-appetizing correspondence awaited his eventual displeasure in the library.
“My lord?” Stanwick’s tone was deferential, though his eyes were full of a long-suffering, probably related to the tardiness of his wages. The man had no grasp of the strictures of a gentlemanly existence.
“I am invited to be the luncheon guest of Lord Valentine Windham that I might see what progress he’s made with the old estate out by Little Weldon.” Freddy kept the glee from his voice—it didn’t do to show emotion before the lower orders.
“And will you be going, my lord?” Stanwick politely inquired as he prepared Freddy’s cup of tea.
“Wouldn’t miss it. I’ll be taking the curricle, weather permitting, because I don’t want to malinger there. I’ll just tip my hat, wish the man well, and spend a couple nights in Oxford.” With the scholars on summer holiday, the usual bevy of willing women would be more than happy for his custom, come to think of it.
“When shall I have you packed, my lord?”
“The invite is for Wednesday next, so I’ll depart Monday.” Freddy tapped the invitation against his lips. “I say, Stanwick, since when did we stop serving biscuits with our tea? A man could get more than a bit peckish‚ and me a lord of the realm.”
“I’ll see what the kitchen has to offer, my lord.”
Freddy watched him go, confident some sustenance would be forthcoming despite the deplorable impatience of the trades regarding payment of their bills. Good servants understood that a lord of the realm was above such things, and so food would continue to materialize on his table.
He was almost sure of it.
***
Given the last weekend’s mischief, Val decided he would remain on his estate that weekend. He urged Ellen, Nick, Darius, and the boys to vacate, and offered to hire the Bragdolls to patrol the grounds, but only Darius agreed to go.
And what errands he saw to in London, neither Nick nor Val wanted to ask.
To Val’s surprise, Axel and Abby Belmont decided to come for a visit on Saturday, the stated purpose being for Axel to lend his eye and hand to the addition on Ellen’s cottage—the unstated purpose no doubt being for the man simply to see his sons.
Val woke Saturday morning as he had every morning for the past five, in Ellen’s bed and in her arms. There were other bedrooms ready, enough that Val could offer the Belmonts some genuine hospitality should they be inclined to stay the night, but Val couldn’t bring himself to give up his nights with Ellen.
She was going to bolt. Val could feel it. His two oldest brothers had bolted for the cavalry rather than face Moreland’s insufferable high-handedness. He himself had bolted for Italy. His brother Gayle had bolted into the commercial complexities of a ducal estate in sore financial disarray. When Dev had come home from war, he’d bolted first into the bottle then into the wilds of Yorkshire.
Valentine Windham could sniff an impending departure miles off. Ellen was emotionally packing her bags, and there was not one damned thing he could do to change her mind.
But he was a man, so rather than stew endlessly without result, he eased himself out of Ellen’s bed as the first gray light filtered through the curtains, kissed her cheek, and retrieved his clothes from where he’d tossed them on a chair. He had a long list of things to do, and if he couldn’t resolve his situation with Ellen, he’d at least see about his list.
He was as bad as his father, thinking that passing bills in Parliament somehow compensated for being an inept, overbearing excuse for a papa.
“Val?”
“Here, love.” He returned to the side of the bed and crouched down half-dressed to meet her sleepy gaze. “Back to sleep with you, since I kept you awake for much of last night.”
She leaned out over the edge of the mattress and clamped her arms around his neck.
“What’s this?” he murmured, settling at her hip and smoothing her hair back.
Ellen leaned up, hugging his shoulders. “When will you tell me about your family? Really tell me, not just toss out a few placatory details?”
He was silent, his conscience trying to shout down his sense the time was not right. How would she react? My papa is one of the most powerful men in the kingdom, as well as one of the most determined and the most devoted to his lady. He’ll want legitimate children of us, so let’s make our farewells sooner rather than later.
“When will you tell me what’s really amiss between you and Freddy?” Val said quietly. He took her hand and kissed her knuckles, trying to convey he wanted merely to listen, not to judge, but such desolation came into Ellen’s eyes, he regretted his question.
“I’ll tell you. Soon, and when I do, you will wish I hadn’t.”
“Did you betray Francis, then?” Val asked softly, bringing her hand to his cheek.
“Yes,” Ellen said on an unsteady breath, “but not… not the way you mean. I wasn’t unfaithful, though that hardly matters.”
The room was gradually, inexorably growing lighter, but Ellen remained silent.
“We’ll talk when you’re ready,” he promised, pressing another kiss to her neck.
“And you’ll tell me about your family?”
Val smiled sadly. “When I do, I will wish I hadn’t—and you might too.”
***
“All is in readiness,” Darius confirmed as they watched the farm wagon jingle down the lane toward the village early the next Wednesday morning. “Though I can’t like this idea of yours, Val, simply confronting the man, no magistrate about, no one but Wee Nick on hand to enforce the king’s peace.”
“Wee Nick,” said the man himself, “outranks the pusillanimous buffoon, has double his weight, double his reach, and at least five times his brain power. And should my charming presence fail to inspire him to good conduct, you will be waiting in the wings, ready to rescue us.”
“Rescue Val. What will you tell Freddy about Ellen?”
“As little as possible,” Val said. “She should be none of his concern, nor he any of hers. The entire purpose of this meeting is to see that’s the case.”
“At least you’re doing something about him,” Nick pointed out charitably, “though as to that, you’ve gotten a great deal done here in a short time.”
“Good crews,” Val said, glancing around. “Though I have to confess, it makes me nervous, the quiet. I can hear them banging away over at Ellen’s, but not to see scaffolding all over my north wing, not to hear the constant ring of curses and shouts and hammers, it’s unnerving.”
“You never heard much of anything before,” Nick said, “except all the notes in your head. You hear things now.”
“Possibly.” Val considered the notion. It was one thing not to listen, but Nick was accusing him of not hearing. His Grace was the one who never even heard others.
“You don’t get that gone-away look in your eyes as often as you did a couple months ago,” Darius added, “and you don’t make a fat, unhappy fist of your left hand a hundred times an hour.”
“I fisted my hand?” Val asked, staring at the hand in question as he spoke.
“I noticed it, because at first I thought it meant you were angry and ready to plant somebody a facer, perhaps even my charming self. Then I realized you didn’t even know you were doing it.”
Val’s gaze moved from one friend to the other. “It has begun to amaze me that I managed to walk upright and speak English o
n occasion, such a stranger have I apparently been to myself.”
“Not a stranger to yourself,” Nick corrected him, frowning down the drive, “more a visiting dignitary to those who care about you.”
Val fell silent, wondering what else his friends might have wanted to tell him, but for this tendency he’d displayed to become absorbed in his own artistic world, even while in the company of others. He realized abruptly he was doing it, again, while his friends exchanged a rueful smile.
“Bugger the both of you.” Val shoved them each on the arm. “I’m going to go through the house one more time. If you’d take the outbuildings, Dare, and you the stables, Nick, I’ll feel better.”
“Of course.” Nick strode off, leaving Darius to eye his friend.
“You’ve put the house in order this week,” Darius said. “The place looks good, and I assume you’ll be moving into it when Ellen’s cottage is done.”
“That would make sense,” Val replied, unwilling to voice his reluctance to do just that. Ellen back at her cottage seemed another step closer to him out of her life. If she ended their association, he could not bear to take up residence in the house alone, not with her toiling away in her gardens, one home wood and three universes of stubbornness away.
“So when,” Darius asked gently, “will you set up the piano?”
Val slewed around to stare at his friend. “What piano?”
“The one your papa sent along with the team,” Darius said. “The one that’s been sitting in its crate in the carriage bays for the past week and more.”
Val cringed. “We left a piano in the carriage house?”
“Freddy will expect you to have a piano,” Darius said, his tone merely bored. “And we’ve half the morning to kill before he gets here.”
“And Nick’s considerable brawn to assist us.” He should not even set the damned thing up. What was His Grace thinking, now of all times, to send Val a piano? It was so typical of their dealings, that his father would finally mean well and get the timing so exactly, ironically wrong. Val stared down at his left hand, which looked no different from the right of late. He could always crate up this gift later and send it back from whence it came.
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