All of which both irritated and puzzled the earl deeply, since he had been utterly convinced that Helena’s responses to his caresses had been genuine. The idea that he might have imagined such eager enthusiasm was almost laughable—and he was sufficiently acquainted with the ways of the opposite sex to be reasonably certain that the former Miss Wheatley was far too much of an innocent to be versed in the subtle art of teasing.
Nevertheless, if that was the way she wanted it, he decided, with a disaffected shrug, then that was the way it would have to be. He had never been obliged to resort to taking a woman by force before and he was certainly not about to start now.
‘What a fine-looking animal!’
Helena’s cheerful call cut across his thoughts and, carefully tethering the thoroughbred colt he had been in the process of training to the nearby gatepost, Richard turned to face her. The discovery that she managed to look so fresh and infinitely kissable after so tempestuous a parting, when he felt so damnably haggard, gave him yet another reason to stay well clear of her. It would seem that the previous night’s débâcle had not overset her in the slightest!
‘Arabian stock,’ he explained, eyeing her curiously. ‘I was hoping to have them ready for next week’s auctions.’ He paused, then, unable to stop himself, he blurted out, ‘I hardly expected to see you here this morning.’
‘Well, at least you haven’t asked me if I slept well,’ she returned drily. ‘It has been the question on almost everyone else’s lips this morning!’
A reluctant smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. ‘It’s just that they are all rather keen to find favour with you,’ he assured her. ‘It’s been a good many years since Westpark had a—’
He had been about to say ‘mistress’ but, in view of the present contention between them, hurriedly substituted, ’—lady at its helm.’
The replacement not having escaped her, Helena merely gave a brief nod but, not entirely at ease with the way in which her husband’s eyes seemed to have rested upon her lips, reviving unwanted memories of those heady kisses, she blinked and moved hurriedly across to the five-barred gate where, by stepping up on to the lowest bar, she was able to rest her folded arms across its topmost strut and direct her attention to the young colt cropping contentedly at the grass scarcely two feet away from her. ‘He’s very beautiful,’ she exclaimed, as soon as she had regained control of her wayward emotions. ‘How many horses do you actually have here?’
‘Only twelve in the actual stud—three stallions, six mares and three colts—plus the usual assortment of carriage horses and other working animals, of course.’
Holding his breath, Richard stepped towards her, his fingers positively itching to feel the warm softness of her body once more in their grasp. ‘What’s brought you here, Helena?’ he asked softly, hoping against hope that, having taken stock of their parlous situation, she had decided to put aside their differences and attempt a fresh start.
But, not entirely confident of her ability to withstand any advances he might be about to make, Helena, leaping down from her perch, sidestepped him neatly and waved her hand in the direction of the house. ‘I just wanted to take a look at the Hall,’ she replied, somewhat breathlessly. ‘After all, it was your reason for seeking out my father in the first place, as I recall. I just had a fancy to see what all the fuss was about!’
‘Be my guest,’ returned Richard, giving an impassive shrug of his shoulder. ‘I doubt that you will be particularly impressed—last week’s rain hardly helped matters.’
The speed at which recent events had occurred had rather curtailed his former enthusiasm for reviving the grandeur of the family home and, in view of the latest disappointments he had suffered, its very presence now served only as a mocking reminder of how he had come to be in such an unenviable position in the first place.
‘Oh, I dare say it can soon be put to rights,’ Helena said dismissively. ‘Now that you have Papa’s money, there is no end to the improvements you will be able to make.’
Ignoring his extended arm, she strode off in the direction of the Hall’s rear entrance, feeling a growing need to keep as much distance between herself and her husband as was humanly possible. How it was that he always had such an overwhelming effect upon her senses, she was at a loss to understand, but it was becoming very clear that she was going to have to watch herself very carefully if she meant to avoid any sort of repetition of the previous day’s heartrending experiences!
Fighting back his frustration, Richard hurried after her and managed to catch up with her just as she was proceeding down the passageway that led into the great hall.
‘Oh, how perfectly dreadful!’
Helena’s shocked whisper smote at his heart.
‘Not a pretty sight, is it?’ he sighed.
And, indeed, it was not. Its roof open to the elements in a good many places, the once-grand entrance hall revealed its rather sorry state in all its depressing entirety; the once highly coveted Gibbons panelling that covered all four walls up as far as the roof beams was badly cracked and bulged out in many areas. Scarcely an inch of woodwork had escaped the long years of neglect, and the irreplaceable carvings were now, seemingly, water damaged beyond repair. And, if that were not more than enough with which to contend, evidence of a recent heavy rainfall had left a great many pools of water littered about the marble-tiled flooring, filling the air with a damp and fetid odour.
As she incredulously took in the ruined shell of the hallway, a lump began to form in Helena’s throat and tears filled her eyes.
‘It’s absolutely appalling,’ she choked. ‘How anyone could treat such magnificent craftsmanship with so little respect is quite beyond my understanding!’
Then, spinning around, she confronted Richard with an indignant glare. ‘You cannot allow such destruction to continue!’ she stormed at him. ‘You must cease what you are doing immediately and set about putting it all back to rights!’
‘Later in the year, possibly,’ he responded. ‘I have more important things to think about at present.’
‘But, surely, this is why you have been so urgently in need of money?’ she persisted, staring up at him in frowning incredulity. ‘You cannot mean to tell me that now that you have my dowry in your hands you have no intention of using it to repair this lovely old place?’
At the implied criticism Richard felt himself stiffening in protest, but then his shoulders slumped and he turned away from her. ‘I do not have your money,’ he countered, in weary resignation. ‘I had intended to inform you but—er—other events—rather forestalled me.’
A look of horror crept into Helena’s eyes. ‘What are you trying to tell me?’ she whispered fearfully. Surely the man could not have gone through such a massive fortune already?
‘I was unable to bring myself to accept it,’ he went on, giving a careless shrug, as he started to make his way back towards the rear passageway. ‘You will find every single penny of your dowry in your own named account in Mr Coutts’s bank in the Strand. I have no intention of touching a penny of it!’
‘But what about the house?’ she demanded, as she hastened after him and grasped at his hand. ‘Surely you don’t intend to stand by and watch it fall into total disrepair?’
Richard stilled, willing himself to ignore the compelling feel of her hand on his. ‘As things stand at the moment I fear that I have rather lost interest in the whole project,’ he returned, as he reluctantly extracted himself from her hold and continued on his way. There hardly seemed much point in adding that, since Helena had made it rather clear that she was unable to return his love, he was not sure that he could bring himself to care very much about anything at all.
Chapter Nineteen
‘Well, “hail, fellow, well met”—as the saying goes!’
The welcoming tones of his cousin Charles greeted Markfield as he stepped back out into the sunlight but, on perceiving Helena close behind the earl, Standish executed a courtly bow in her direction and, giving her a swif
t grin, added, ‘And, good morrow to you, fair maid—if I might make so bold!’
Finding herself unable to resist his cheery countenance and boyish bonhomie, Helena was quick to return his smile. ‘Good morning, Charles—I trust that yesterday’s proceedings did not overtire your mother too greatly?’
‘Back on her day-bed, as snug as a bug,’ he replied jauntily, his eyes darting between her and the earl with unconcealed curiosity. ‘Although, I must say that I hadn’t expected to find either of you over here this morning.’
‘Helena expressed a certain eagerness to take a look at the place,’ returned Richard carelessly. ‘What’s brought you over?’
‘Just thought I’d take a look and see if Friday’s rainfall had done any further damage—the quicker we get those tilers back on the job the better, to my way of thinking.’
Having made a point of avoiding all mention of the final marriage settlements to anyone but Helena, Richard was averse to having his rather strange arrangement held up for general discussion, since he had no wish to find himself suddenly bombarded with requests for account settlements quite yet a while. With the stock auctions coming up, he had every hope of being able to recoup some of his original investment with the sale of the three thoroughbred colts he had reared.
‘All in good time,’ was his hurried response, although he did attempt to shoot a quick cautionary glance in his wife’s direction as he spoke.
But Helena, having registered his cousin’s undoubted interest in the project and being only too keen to garner his support, chose to ignore her husband’s veiled instruction.
‘It would seem that his lordship is far too involved with his other schemes to spare the time to attend to the refurbishment of useless old buildings,’ she informed Standish airily. ‘It is beginning to look as though I shall need to attend to the matter myself!’
Equally taken aback by her statement, both men stared at her in astonishment.
‘Well offered, dear cousin!’ began Standish, being the first to recover. ‘Although, I fear that you cannot possibly have had time to consider what will be involved. It’s rather more than simply choosing new curtains and cushions, you know. There are a host of things to consider when undertaking a project such as this—qualified craftsmen will need to be hired—as well as a whole army of workers and cleaners and all that sort of thing—hardly a lady’s domain, I should have thought. Much better to leave it all to Richard, don’t you think?’
‘Not if he is disinclined to spend any time on it,’ retorted Helena, throwing her husband a defiant glance before adding, ‘It would appear that we are quite likely to have to wait until doomsday itself, before his lordship regains his interest.’
At his cousin’s gasp of disbelief, Richard put up a hand to silence the expected disputation. ‘Helena is perfectly correct,’ he said quietly. ‘Recent events have rather overshadowed my own former regard for the Hall but, since she has expressed an interest in the reconstruction, I see no harm in allowing her to pursue that interest. Quite apart from the fact that, since it is her own money that she will be using, I am hardly in any position to dictate to her how she spends it!’
Perceiving that Standish appeared to be far too taken aback by this statement to do anything other than goggle at him in a shocked silence, the earl gave him a wry smile, before adding, ‘Don’t worry, Charles. I dare say it will all come right in the end.’
‘In the end!’ Standish gestured hopelessly towards the building behind them. ‘But the building is falling to pieces now! And I was under the impression that the whole idea of this agreement of yours was to acquire enough money to put everything back to rights?’
Wooden-faced, Richard chose not to respond to his cousin’s somewhat barbed reference apropos his recent marriage. Helena, however, was of a different mind.
‘You are quite right to be concerned, Charles,’ she asserted. ‘But, I promise that you have no need to worry unduly. And surely it matters not one whit who organises the project—as long as the renovations continue. As to the problems you mentioned, I dare say I shall be able to count on the pair of you to set me on the right track, should I run into difficulties?’
Barely conscious of Standish’s instant ‘yes, of course’, she turned an eager face in her husband’s direction and raised a questioning eyebrow.
‘How you choose to dispose of your own money is no concern of mine,’ he replied stiffly. ‘And, as to the Hall’s renovations, as far as I am concerned, you may both do with it just as you wish. As I have already told you, I have other far more important matters to deal with at present. Now, if you will please excuse me?’
And, with a curt bow that encompassed the two of them, he swung away and strode off towards the stables, leaving a stunned and confused Standish staring after him.
‘Well, I’ll be da—!’ he began, then hurriedly recollecting himself, he turned back to Helena and said apologetically, ‘I do beg your pardon, Helena—I trust that I may I call you that, now that we are cousins?’
At her subdued nod, he continued. ‘I fear that my careless remarks must have been the cause of that outburst. I should have realised that today of all days was hardly the moment to bring up the matter of the building programme. But, I swear that I had no idea that Richard had become so averse to continuing with the renovations. Hitherto, he had always been so keen…’
His voice trailed away and his eyes travelled across to the ivy-clad wall of the Hall at his rear. ‘It would have been splendid to see it back as it was when our grandparents were in residence,’ he said sadly. ‘We three boys had such fine times there.’
Snatching her own gaze away from the stable door through which her husband had disappeared, Helena squared her shoulders and stiffened her intent. ‘And so you shall,’ she exclaimed defiantly. ‘I meant what I said, Charles. I swear that this blessed building will be returned to its former glory, even if it takes every penny I possess!’
‘Well, I trust it won’t come to that, my dear,’ returned Standish, with a swift smile. ‘But, you can certainly count on my support, I promise you that—any little thing that I can do to further the cause, you only have to ask—short of actually plastering walls, of course—I flatly draw the line at any sort of manual labour!’
‘I trust we won’t need to resort to such extreme measures,’ retorted Helena gaily, doing her best to enter into the spirit of Standish’s light-hearted repartee, for she was well aware that he was doing his best to take her mind off Markfield’s precipitant departure. ‘Perhaps you would care to accompany me back to Westpark for lunch and we can discuss some of the details—if you are prepared to take your chances over that dreadful footbridge, of course?’
‘You might like to put that at the top of your list of essential repairs,’ laughed Standish, as he held out his arm to her. ‘Before one or other of us has the misfortune to take a header into the river!’
Standing in the shadow of the stable-door jamb, Richard, now thoroughly deflated, watched the pair depart. Trust Charles to turn the situation to his advantage, he thought, with a rueful shake of his head. If he had not known better, he might well have suspected his cousin of setting up some sort of flirtation with Helena! It was true that the two of them did seem to be on very friendly terms, but the earl concluded that this had probably come about as a result of his own enforced absence from town when, having experienced a slight feeling of unease regarding Viscount Barrington’s possible reaction to the marriage announcement, he had charged Charles with keeping an eye on his bride-to-be. Nevertheless, it was pretty galling to have to stand by and watch one’s wife skipping gaily off hand in hand with some other fellow when she could barely raise a smile for her own husband!
Scowling slightly, he strode across to the paddock, untethered the colt and proceeded to carry on with the unhurried training procedure that his beloved grandfather had so carefully instilled into him. If only women were as easy to handle as horses were, he thought longingly, as the colt nuzzled his pocket gently,
in search of the expected treat. But then, as he recalled Helena’s determined stance and spirited responses, he could not refrain from letting out a wistful sigh, concluding that it was becoming very clear that toeing the line was not exactly in her nature. Never having been one to turn his own back on a challenge, however, it came to him that he was going to have to put in a good deal of extra effort if he wanted to gain her trust and—more important—her love.
Holding out the piece of apple that he had been saving for the end of the session, his lips curved in a satisfied smile as the colt reached forwards and took it from his hand. ‘Slowly and gently,’ he murmured softly. ‘That’s always the best way to achieve the desired result, isn’t it, my lad?’
Keeping firm to his objective, Richard then set about wooing his wife in the most dedicated fashion. After greeting her with a welcoming smile in the drawing room that same evening, he was quick to compliment her on her appearance before leading her to her seat at the dining table, whereupon he proceeded to regale her with a series of light-hearted anecdotes from both his school and army days. Any questions that she plied him with, he answered with a cheerful grace, although he was careful to change the subject whenever it happened to drift in the direction of the proposed building programme.
Whilst Helena was finding herself quite entranced with this new persona that her husband seemed to have adopted, she could not help feeling slightly wary of it all. Was this some new ploy of his to bend her to his will, she wondered as, almost mesmerised, she followed his actions as he refilled his wineglass and raised it in her direction, before slowly lifting it to his lips. A little ripple of uncertainty ran through her for, despite the great distance that separated them, his very masculinity seemed to surround her, pinning her to her seat and rendering her quite helpless. And, even though she could not help but be aware that he had hardly taken his eyes off her throughout the entire meal, she had found it impossible to prevent her own glance from continually straying in his direction, obliging her to tear her eyes hurriedly away from his the moment they locked together. If this was seduction, she found herself thinking, as her pulse began to race and she felt the slow spiral of heat rising from within, the Earl of Markfield was certainly proving to be a veritable master of the craft!
A Marriageable Miss Page 23
