The Great Estate

by Sherri Browning

  At least, that’s the image he tried to project, and he succeeded at it most of the time. Only Sophia had the power to see through his ruse, if ever she bothered to look deep enough. So far, she hadn’t looked much beneath his surface. But he refused to believe that they weren’t suited. He simply had to try harder to bring them to a state of mutual understanding.

  Contrary to her belief that her face or figure had first captured his attention, it was her confidence that had first held him rapt. Her resemblance to the Duchess of Marlborough might have drawn his gaze from across a crowded ballroom initially. When Alva Belmont was still Mrs. Vanderbilt, the notorious socialite had come to England scouting eligible noblemen to match with her daughter. Eager to score a triumph, Mother had tried to intrigue Gabriel with descriptions of the alluring American girl.

  But Gabriel had no interest in marriage at the time, and even he could see that his title was not important enough to placate the demanding Alva. By all reports, only a prince or duke would do for the Vanderbilts. Still, Mother had considered it a cut when Alva Vanderbilt chose the Duke of Marlborough for her daughter without giving the future Earl of Averford any consideration. Even so, Mother had accepted any invitations to bring her into Alva’s circle and had even issued a few of her own, most recently in Italy.

  The idea of marriage hadn’t tempted Gabriel until years later when Sophia’s cornflower eyes met his from across that room. She didn’t bat her lashes or look away like all of the other coquettes. She held his gaze and flashed him a dazzling smile before turning back to her friend. He’d realized at once that she wasn’t the celebrated duchess, as he had supposed, but a much more fascinating debutante.

  His breath had caught as they’d made that brief connection, and he’d needed more than a moment to recover. In that instant, he recognized her as his own, his soul’s match. The confidence she exuded made it immediately clear to him that of all women, only she possessed the proper bearing to elicit sighs of admiration when standing by his side. He had to have her. No one else would do.

  Her confidence had allowed Sophia to remain undaunted, head held high under his mother’s early interrogations and later attempts to bully her. Anyone who could stand up to his mother and escape apparently unscathed earned his undying admiration.

  Unfortunately, that same confidence had led him to believe, perhaps erroneously, that Sophia had never really needed him. And how he yearned to be needed! If only she’d been able to ask for what she wanted from him. But she would never allow herself to appear vulnerable. In any event, he would never take advantage of her. Though perhaps he had taken her for granted, refused to see any signs that she struggled on her own without asking anything of him. And along came Lord Ralston at the ready…

  Too late to change the past. They could only move forward, both of them with eyes open, ready to see what they had in each other and how it was worth every effort to keep.

  Seven

  After Gabriel’s visit, sleep had proven impossible. Sophia thought about giving up, just going to his room and crawling into bed with him. But she had no idea what time the valet would come to wake him, and word would get around the house fast. Not that it was any better to keep the servants aware that the earl and countess didn’t share a room, and waking up with her own husband would hardly create a scandal. Why did she even care what anyone thought? It was her life. Let them talk.

  Deep down, she knew it was more than what anyone whispered behind her back that kept her from seeking out Gabriel. It was her damnable pride. She couldn’t bear to let him think she was vulnerable, not when she’d gone to such effort to create an impression of strength. And she was strong! She was fierce. She looked in her mirror every morning and told herself so. Just let anyone try to challenge her. Now that the Dowager Countess had returned, Sophia needed to reassure herself more than ever. The woman sent shivers up her spine.

  Of course, Sophia had never let Gabriel’s mother see her show any hint of fear, and she refused to do so now just because she’d had no warning of the woman’s arrival. Sophia had no doubt that Gabriel’s mother had deliberately given him the false impression that she would be away much longer just so that she could gain an upper hand with the element of surprise. Sophia smiled, imagining how that surprise had backfired once Teresa showed up at the Dower House to find it occupied.

  Sophia was out of bed pacing her floor when the door opened. Instead of Jenks, as she’d expected, she turned to find Jane, their newest maid. Unsatisfied with the girl’s references, Mrs. Hoyle had recommended against hiring her, but Sophia had taken a liking to fair Jane and had decided to give her a chance.

  “I’m sorry, Lady Averford. I hope I’m not intruding. Mrs. Jenks has been held up and asked me to bring yer clean linens.” The maid closed the door behind her and headed straight to the closet with her laundry basket.

  “It’s good to see you, Jane. I’ve been meaning to ask how you’re getting on here at Thornbrook Park.” She’d worried about Mrs. Hoyle making things hard on the newcomer out of some misguided sense of revenge on Sophia for going against her advice, but even Hoyle had had to admit she was wrong about the girl. Jane was a hard worker, Hoyle had confessed to Sophia, and she was catching on quickly.

  “I like it here, Lady Averford. Thank ye for asking. Plenty o’ work to keep me busy, and everyone has been so nice.”

  “I’m glad to hear it.” Sophia smiled. “Keep up the good work.”

  “Is there anything I can do for ye until Mrs. Jenks arrives?” Jane asked eagerly. “I can run yer bath or arrange yer toilette.”

  “Thank you, Jane.”

  By the time Jenks came in, she found Sophia nearly ready. Jane took her leave and allowed Jenks to continue, but Sophia only needed her maid to do up the last few buttons at the back of her dress, a rose-colored chiffon over silk with just a flutter of lace at the shoulders for sleeves.

  “And the pearls, my lady?” Jenks asked as Sophia started for the door. “You usually wear your long strand with that dress.”

  “Not the pearls.” She returned to her toilette. “The aquamarine on the long platinum chain, the one set with tiny diamonds and an amethyst.”

  “An unusual choice for your dress, my lady.”

  “Yes, it is.” Sophia held still while Jenks fastened it. “But it’s the right one. Thank you, Jenks. That will be all.”

  Sophia headed for the stairs. The aquamarine had been a gift from Gabriel on their honeymoon, when they were both so full of hope and joy. He’d draped it over her pillow and waited for her to find it when they went to bed at night. She couldn’t miss it, of course. The central aquamarine was enormous and caught the light just so.

  It had delighted her, but Gabriel had been all apologies. He’d been trying to find a stone to match her eyes, he’d said. The aquamarine was a disappointment, far too light. He should have gone with a sapphire. Nonsense, she’d told him. Nothing could make her happier than the one he’d chosen for her. She hoped he would remember when he saw her wearing it.

  The breakfast room was empty with the exception of a footman standing by the sideboard.

  “The earl hasn’t come down?” she asked.

  “He has, my lady. He’s in his office now. Would you like some tea?”

  “His office?” A day ago, it had been her office. She hoped it would be their office. Why hadn’t he waited for her? “Thank you, nothing for me.” She had lost her appetite.

  Outside the office door, she paused to listen to the voices. Mr. Grant was with Gabriel, as evidenced by the baritone questioning. She didn’t hear Cornelius Kenner’s high-pitched, nearly childish voice. Deciding against knocking, she went on in.

  “Starting without me?”

  Both men stood on sight of her. “Without you? I didn’t think you would have an interest in our exchange of figures and speculations. In fact, I thought you would still be in bed.”

  Mr
. Grant had the good sense to blush at such a suggestion. As far as Grant knew, Sophia rose with the dawn each morning.

  “Still in bed when there’s business to be done? Highly unlikely.” She tipped back her head and laughed as if they were all having a great joke. It was better than seething inside. Gabriel really didn’t seem to understand that she did not intend to stop being part of Thornbrook Park’s daily planning. She did not take the chair next to Grant but went around to her husband’s side of the desk. “A little cramped back here for both of us. I suppose we could take out that table and bookshelf and add a second desk.”

  “You have a salon for your writing and letters.” Gabriel remained ignorant, or he did a good job of pretending to be.

  “My salon? Of course, yes. But that’s not a proper place of business. I need to be here with the records and ledgers. We’ve been meeting here every morning for just about a year now. Haven’t we, Mr. Grant? I don’t see why anything needs to change.”

  “Because I’ve returned, darling.” Gabriel kissed her forehead dismissively before sweeping her aside to take his chair. “Grant and I have a great many things to discuss, most notably his change of title.”

  For lack of a chair, she perched her bottom on the edge of the desk, perilously close to Gabriel’s writing arm. She leaned at an angle, twisting at the waist and balancing on her arm to enable her to face both Gabriel and Grant.

  Gabriel flashed her a look that seemed to ask if she honestly intended to stay put. Indeed she did. She hiked her skirt up a few inches to draw his attention to her stocking-clad ankles and twisted her necklace with her one free hand. Why did he not seem to notice the aquamarine?

  “Now where’s Mr. Kenner? We can’t get started without him, can we?” she asked, assuming command. She feared the answer might be that Kenner had been fired, though perhaps it would be for the best.

  “I sent Kenner off to answer some mail. Once I told him what to say, of course. That’s his job, after all, as my secretary.”

  “Your secretary?” She felt her brow shoot up sharp as a dagger. “Don’t you mean our secretary?”

  Gabriel looked at her through narrowed eyes as if he couldn’t quite figure out what kind of game she was playing or how far she meant to go with it. Anger burned in her chest. He had better start to realize that she wasn’t playing at all.

  “No, darling,” he said quite calmly, as an adult might humor a child. “He’s my secretary. If you want one, you’re going to have to run off and get your own.”

  “Get my own secretary?” She shot Grant a look. “I thought I had one.”

  “An overpaid one, if you mean Grant. He has claimed his proper title at last. Lady Averford, meet our new estate agent, Mr. Wesley Grant.”

  Grant played along, tipping his head in her direction. So easily he had defected. And Kenner too. Oh, they were maddening, the lot of them! She slipped to her feet and faced her husband. To hell with Grant.

  “Do you really mean to cut me out of Thornbrook Park’s business affairs, after everything I’ve done? I assure you that I won’t take kindly to it.” She crossed her arms and awaited his response. He’d asked her if they were enemies, and she’d said no, but he was doing a darn fine imitation of one.

  “You’ve done a wonderful job, Sophia.” He reached for her hands, unfolding them from her arms and bringing them to his lips, where he gently kissed each one at the center knuckle. “You really rose to the occasion in my absence, and I’m grateful. Thornbrook Park owes much of its success in the past year to you.”

  “Much?” She froze in place, but mentally prepared to pull back her hands and contemplate putting her knuckles to better use.

  “Some credit goes to Grant and to Mr. Kenner, of course, as well.”

  “Which reminds me… Kenner’s salary.” She would stay as focused as she could, given the circumstances. “Have we amended it? If I was overpaying Mr. Grant for the office, certainly we’re paying Kenner too much to be a mere secretary.”

  “Absolutely.” Gabriel nodded. “He has already agreed to a reduced salary. Hasn’t he, Grant?”

  “In keeping with the expectation of a secretary’s wages, yes. He was far more agreeable than I expected him to be.” Which was to say, in Grant’s way of expressing himself, that it was far more of a reduction than he would have accepted in the same position. Sophia knew the man well. And yet, not well enough to have guessed how easily he would take orders from Gabriel instead of waiting for Sophia’s approval.

  “A good man, Kenner. I’ll need to see the report of his new wages so I know what to pay my secretary, in keeping with fairness.”

  Gabriel laughed. “Your secretary? I expect you can put out an inquiry to a secretarial school and get a good girl for less than half what I’m paying Kenner.”

  “A good girl?” She looked at Gabriel as if she’d never seen him before in her life. Who was this man, and what had he done with her husband? Oh, but of course. He was acting exactly as he always had, as she would expect. It was she who had changed. And perhaps only she who had changed, despite his earlier protests. Cook her dinner? She doubted he could boil water. “Why isn’t a good girl worth as much as your boy Kenner?”

  Gabriel spread out his hands as if frustrated with having to keep explaining to her. “It’s just the way it is, dearest. You know how the world works.”

  She harrumphed. Out loud. She believed it to be her first actual harrumph, and it felt good. “For now. I know how it works for now. But one day soon, you’ll wake up and find that things have changed all around. Women will stop allowing themselves to be taken for granted, and where will you men be then?” She headed for the door, through with his patronizing and refusing to make it into more of an argument with Grant watching.

  She paused at the door and turned back. Gabriel stood, gape-mouthed, seemingly at a loss for words. “Alone, that’s where. You’ll be sleeping in your beds alone wondering where it all went wrong, while women are up and about ruling the world. Mark my words, Gabriel Thorne…” She shook a finger in his direction for effect.

  “I’m sorry.” He shook his fair leonine head as if distracted. “I’ve been too busy marking your necklace. The aquamarine! You’re wearing it again.”

  “I—yes.” She followed his gaze to her chest. How she’d hoped that he would notice and be touched, but not when she was so desperately struggling to make the point about equality for women! “Yes, I am. But the point is…”

  He came around the desk and closed the distance, taking her in his arms. “You do believe there’s hope for us after all.”

  The idiot! He practically beamed at her like a lovesick schoolboy. All she wanted was for him to take her seriously, but yet…how could she resist him when he looked at her like that?

  “You know I do. But right now, I’m frustrated with you for not hearing me out properly.”

  “I’m sorry, darling. You were saying?” He cocked a golden brow and waited for her to finish, all the while gripping her hands and swinging her arms between them like children about to skip off and play hopscotch.

  “I was saying that I need to be involved in the business affairs.”

  “No, that wasn’t it.” He shook his head and looked back to Grant for confirmation. “She’d moved on, hadn’t she? Something about women being worth as much as men in a secretarial capacity? But I don’t think so, if you look at the facts. I do believe women are a far more affordable resource.”

  “A resource?” She felt the heat rushing to her face.

  “So go ahead and hire your secretary.” He kissed her red, hot cheek. “I don’t mind. We’ll go over the salary requirements later. I can have Kenner draft a letter if you like. But for now, perhaps you should go eat some breakfast. You look like you could use some tea, maybe a nice poached egg.”

  “An egg?” She threw up her hands, exasperated. How could he be so obtuse? She was cer
tain he was doing it deliberately, playing ignorant to keep her from demanding her place at his side perhaps? Or maybe he was that stupid and she’d been so smitten that she’d never noticed, a definite possibility. “Yes, exactly what I need. Why didn’t I think of it? I’m going to have some eggs.”

  “All right. I’ll see you later.” Gabriel had already turned to head back to his desk. “Just close the door on your way out. Thank you.”

  She closed the door with so much force she thought she might rip it from the frame, and she stormed off down the hall. She needed a secretary immediately, someone of her own choosing and not one that Gabriel found for her with the help of the traitorous Mr. Grant or Mr. Kenner. She knew exactly where she could find one. She rang for Mr. Finch to fetch her hat and gloves, and demanded that he have Mr. Dale pull the car around.

  * * *

  Gabriel resumed his position at the desk. “Thank you, Mr. Grant. You played your role to perfection.”

  “Fortunately, I didn’t have to say much. I dread the idea of the countess believing that I’ve crossed her. She’s a formidable force.”

  Gabriel waved a hand dismissively. “She’s too angry at me to direct any venom your way, but it was a necessary deception. If she knew I was working against her just to get my mother out of her way, she would dig her heels in harder. I knew she was headstrong, but I’ve never seen her quite like this, so…charged up.”

  He paused for a minute to consider the fire that had glowed white-hot in Sophia’s cornflower eyes. Strangely, it hadn’t put him off but had made him all the more eager to get her alone. Had Grant not been in the room, Gabriel might have pressed Sophia up against the door and tried to kiss her again. Her determination was oddly seductive.

  “Are you sure it’s necessary to cancel all of the reservations, my lord? Think of the income to the estate.”

  “It’s necessary. I know that you and Sophia worked hard on your plans to transform the Dower House into guest accommodations, but—well, if you think my wife is a formidable force, you should spend more time with my mother. The two of them in one house for more than another week could bring on the apocalypse. They’re both on their best behavior now, determined to be civil and polite, but just you wait. It won’t take much. One perceived slight on either side, and all hell breaks loose.”