by Mary Nichols
‘My lord,’ she said, making a wobbly curtsy because all of a sudden her knees felt weak.
‘How formal you are, Charlotte,’ he said. ‘Last night I was Stacey.’
‘Last night was different.’
He strode towards her, taking her shoulders in his hands and looking down into her upturned face. ‘How, different?’
‘I was overwrought.’
‘Does that mean you can only call me by my given name when you are upset?’
‘No, of course not. Oh, I don’t know what I mean. You must be very angry with me and I do not blame you. Why I was so conceited as to imagine I was capable of looking after other people’s children, I do not know.’
‘Oh, my love, you are a natural mother and you want to mother every child you meet and that is wonderful. And I am not angry. How could I be? I asked too much of you. Julia—’
‘Please do not be cross with her. She is very sorry and I do not think she will do anything like that again. She had a nasty fright.’
‘And so did you, and so I told her.’
‘Oh, you have not scolded her, have you?’
‘We had a long talk.’
‘When?’
‘While you were asleep. And it was not a scolding—well, only a very little one—but a talk about how we are to go on.’
‘Oh. And how are we to go on?’
‘That depends on you, my love.’ He took her hand and led her to the sofa, a solid affair, well upholstered in brown leather, more used to Captain MacArthur’s bulk than her slight weight, and pulled her down beside him. ‘You are my love, you know that, don’t you?’
‘Am I?’ She said it dreamily as if she were still half-asleep, which she supposed she must be.
‘Always. I think I knew it the very first time I saw you, that’s why, when I met John Hardacre and he told me about Cecil and those other two, I knew I had to protect you from them. But I was worried about Julia too, so I hit on the idea of bringing her to you, to your school. I did not know anything about the smuggling then.’
‘I have not been able to teach her very much.’
‘She has learned a very great deal, and so she admits.’ He chuckled suddenly. ‘And she will not have a word said against you. She begged me not to be angry with you, that it was all her fault, and she wants to stay with you.’
‘Here?’
‘Wherever you are. You see, I told her that I loved you and I intended to ask you to marry me—’
‘Marry me?’ She interrupted him. Dare she believe what she was hearing? Did he really love her? ‘Do you mean it?’
‘I never meant anything more in my whole life.’
‘But you can’t want to marry me.’
‘And why not, pray? I love you. We are both single. Unless the idea is abhorrent to you.’
‘Of course it isn’t. It’s just…’
‘Go on.’
‘I am too old to give you an heir.’
He put his head back and laughed. ‘Is that all?’
‘But surely that must weigh with you?’
‘No, it does not. You are in your prime, and if we are blessed with children, then I shall be overjoyed, but if not, then I shall lose no sleep over it. I love you and want you for my wife, even if we have no more children. We have three between us already.’
‘They are all girls.’
‘And delightful they are too. Charlotte, can you not get it into your head that the prospect of a life without you is not to be borne?’ He paused to put her hand to his lips and give her time to absorb what he had said. ‘But before that can happen, I have a confession to make. Lord Falconer insists I must and I suppose he is right, even though I know you will hate me for it. Except, of course,’ he added, ‘I know there is no room for hate in your heart.’
‘Go on.’
‘When I won your jewels from Sir Roland and Augustus Spike, I intended simply to return them to you, but when you said you had to sell them, I decided that I could not allow that. I took the London mail and went to see John Hardacre.’ He paused, unsure whether she was listening. She seemed to have a faraway look in her eyes as if she was looking at something he could not see. ‘Charlotte, please pay attention.’
‘Oh, I am. You went to see Mr Hardacre and suddenly he found money for me he knew nothing about before. I thought it was strange, because Grenville would have told me about it at the time he did it and I would never have said Mr Hardacre was an incompetent lawyer, just the opposite. I know he was worried about me and I thought perhaps he had provided it himself, but then I did not think he was so well up in the stirrups that he could afford to give so much away. Then I thought it might possibly be my great-uncle, but why he would do it after all these years and in secret too I could not fathom. Last night when we were talking it was clear to me he had known nothing of the money because Mr Hardacre had written to tell him I needed help. It was why he came. When I woke up this morning it was as if it had all become clear to me in my sleep. It had to be you.’
‘Oh.’
‘I’m glad you told me. But why did you do it?’
‘Because I knew I loved you, but it was much too soon to tell you that and I wanted you and Julia to become acquainted. How else was I to do it?’
‘Oh, Stacey…’
‘So I am Stacey again now, am I?’
‘Yes. I don’t know what to say.’
‘Tell me you love me and you will marry me. Everyone else thinks it will be a very good thing.’
‘Everyone?’
‘Julia and his lordship, though I had a devil of a job persuading him that I was not made in the same mould as Cecil Hobart and his cronies and I was not a gambler—’
‘Oh, but, Stacey, you are.’ She laughed.
‘No, I am not. I learned to play cards in the army and found I was very good at it, but I never gambled more than I could easily afford to lose, I told you that before. And Cecil is too hot tempered to make a good player. I have no need to gamble ever again.’
‘What about that game you were going to have with him today? Or was it yesterday? I am losing all track of time.’
‘Hobart can’t oblige now, can he?’ He was doing his very best to be patient with her, but he wished she would stop quizzing him and consent to marry him. He wanted to kiss her, he wanted to kiss her very much, and she must surely know that. ‘He is on his way back to India with all his debts paid.’
‘How can that be? I heard him say he was dished up.’ She paused and gave a tiny chuckle. ‘Did you pay them?’
‘My darling, how could I when most of his debt was to me?’
‘The house!’ she exclaimed. ‘It was all he had left. Stacey, do you own Easterley Manor now?’
‘Yes, my darling. I think, until I come into my inheritance, it will make us a splendid home and you can continue to teach the village children if you wish. It was all you really wanted to do, wasn’t it?’
‘Oh, Stacey!’ Her eyes were alight.
‘So will you marry me now?’
‘Stacey Darton!’ she said sharply. ‘Did you think that being able to return to the Manor would make one jot of difference to whether I said yes or no? I love the old house, but I love you more—’ She stopped when he gave a delighted chuckle and folded her into his arms to kiss her. He kissed her on the forehead, on each cheek, on her rosy mouth. He ran his lips down her throat and into the cleft of her breasts. He kissed her hands and arms and then his mouth went back to her lips, where it stayed, gently teasing, until they were both too breathless to continue.
‘Now, will you say yes?’ he demanded.
‘Yes, oh, yes, please.’ She turned and clung to him, returning his kisses with a fervour that thrilled him. She was the woman he had been seeking all his adult life and he was never going to let her go.
But they had to come back to reality—there were sounds outside the door, people about, voices. Charlotte sat up and tried to straighten her hair as someone knocked. Stacey rose and went to stand by the w
indow as if gazing out towards the cliffs and Charlotte called, ‘Come in.’
‘Lord Falconer, my lady,’ Betsy announced, looking from her mistress, all pink and flustered, with her hair falling down and her lips all swollen, and the Viscount, staring out of the window pretending nonchalance just as if he had been there all the time and not sprawled on the sofa kissing her ladyship.
His lordship passed the maid and strolled into the room, putting his hat, cane and gloves on the table. ‘Well?’ he demanded. ‘Am I to felicitate you?’
‘Oh, Uncle, of course,’ Charlotte said. ‘You shall be the first to know.’
Betsy retreated to pass the news to the rest of the staff, Miss Quinn and Jem, who had recovered from the carpeting he had received from his lordship for letting Miss Julia slip through his fingers and take Ivor, and Jenkins, who had come to help feed the horses and prepare Lord Falconer’s carriage for the journey back to Hertfordshire.
‘It is all arranged,’ Stacey said. ‘We are to make our home at Easterley Manor after we are married.’
‘Good.’ He came and took Charlotte’s hands and held her at arm’s length to look at her, before bending to kiss her cheek. ‘Be happy,’ he murmured. ‘You have my blessing. And write to me. Often. We have a great deal of catching up to do.’
‘Yes, I promise.’
‘If you’d been a boy, you’d have been my heir, did you know that?’
‘No, my lord, I did not. Have you no family?’
‘I had a son, but he died three years ago. It was then I decided that I ought to try to find my niece and heal the breach.’
‘Mama has been dead these ten years.’
‘I discovered that when I travelled to Portsmouth, her last known direction, and I also learned she had had a daughter, but no one knew what had become of her. It was not until I heard from Mr Hardacre that I knew your married name and where you lived.’
‘Now you have found me.’ She smiled at him. He was really a very agreeable man, not the ogre she had always imagined him to be. ‘And Lizzie and Fanny too.’
‘Naturally. And who knows, you might yet produce a male child for me.’
She heard Stacey grunt, but decided not to comment; they had already said what had to be said on that subject. ‘My lord, how did you know Mr Spike would want a carriage?’
He chuckled. ‘He did not know I was behind you, did he? I thought of knocking and demanding to be let in, but there had been so many strange things happening during the night, I guessed you must have walked into a trap. Thank goodness you did not tell the fellow I was there. I crept round to the window and luckily it was open a little way and I heard everything. Then all I had to do was find the Viscount.’
‘And do you approve of him?’ It was not said with any seriousness because she knew the answer, but it made Stacey draw in his breath for a moment.
He grinned. ‘Does it matter if I do not?’
‘Not a bit, but I should like to think we shall all deal well together.’
‘I do not doubt it. Now, I am an old man and all this excitement has knocked me up. I need my own bed, those little sticks of wood you call beds are devilish hard.’
‘I am sorry for that. They are meant for children. But you will come back for the wedding?’
‘No, I’m not risking those beds again. I expect you to go to your nuptials from Falcon Court, the family home.’
She looked at Stacey, eyebrow raised in a question. ‘If that is what you wish, of course, my love,’ he said.
‘Then, Uncle, I shall let you know just as soon as we have arranged a date.’
‘And how soon will that be, my love?’ Stacey enquired mildly
‘Just as soon as you please,’ she replied, her face a picture of happiness; it positively glowed. Stacey, who thought the same thing every day, decided he had never seen her look so lovely.
‘If I had my way, it will be tomorrow,’ he said, and then added with a sigh, ‘But I suppose there will be arrangements to make.’
‘But what about this house?’ she asked, suddenly remembering her agreement with Captain MacArthur. ‘I am supposed to be its caretaker until Captain MacArthur returns.’
‘Please do not tell me I am expected to wait another eleven months.’
‘Not if I can persuade Jenkins to take on the task on a day-to-day basis. If we are at the Manor, we will not be far away and can keep an eye on it.’
‘I have already spoken to him, my love, and he has agreed.’
‘Oh, you devil! Can you read my mind?’
‘I wish I could,’ he said with a sigh. ‘So, tell me, when are we to be wed?’
‘Six weeks from now. It will give me time to make all the arrangements, and you have to take Julia home and tell the Earl. You do not think he will object, do you?’
‘No, he will be delighted.’ He felt sure that was true. His father wanted to see him married and he could have no possible objection to the great-niece of Lord Falconer.
Lord Falconer took her shoulders in his hands and looked down into her upturned face. ‘Just like your mama,’ he said. ‘But I loved her, you know.’ Then he kissed her on both cheeks, shook hands with Stacey and picked up his gloves, hat and cane. ‘I shall expect you at Falcon Court in four weeks’ time.’
They accompanied him to the door and watched as he climbed into his carriage and was driven away, then they returned to the parlour to carry on where they left off when he had interrupted them. But not for long. Lizzie, followed by Fanny with Julia bringing up the rear, burst into the room.
‘Mama—’ Lizzie demanded, stopping short when she saw her mother with Lord Darton’s arm about her. She took a deep breath. ‘Julia says you are going to marry her papa. Is it true?’
Charlotte looked up at Stacey and smiled, then turned to put her arms about both her daughters. ‘Yes, it is. Shall you mind?’ She did not know what she would do if there were hostility, but if Julia had been won round, surely her daughters would cause no problems?
‘No, I like Lord Darton.’
‘So do I,’ Fanny echoed.
Stacey threw back his head and laughed. Never in all his adult life had a child ever said that of him, not even his own daughter, and he suddenly realised it pleased him prodigiously. ‘And I like you, too, all of you.’ He held out his arms and all three girls flew into them.
Charlotte, watching, smiled. ‘Whatever gave you the idea you did not like children?’ she murmured, but he was too busy answering their questions to hear her.
Six weeks later, Charlotte married Stacey at the little church on the Falconer estate, dressed in a gown of duck-egg-blue satin, attended by three very proud young ladies, dressed alike in pink. It was not a hugely grand affair as neither wanted that, but in spite of that the church was crowded with family and friends, some of whom had made the journey from Parson’s End to attend, including the Reverend Fuller who officiated, aided by Lord Falconer’s own chaplain.
Lord Falconer, who had been alone ever since his wife and son died, was delighted to find himself the patriarch of a ready-made family, even if they were all girls. There would be others and, with luck, one might be a boy, and what a legacy he would have! He had missed Charlotte’s growing up and he regretted his stubbornness, but he meant to make up for it. For the moment she did not need him. Her happiness shone from her eyes, as she looked at her new husband and hugged her daughters, all three of them, for Julia, who had never known a mother, was thrilled that at last she had someone to call Mama.
The girls were to return with the Earl and Countess to stay at Malcomby Hall while Stacey and Charlotte took a short wedding trip to London to catch the end of the Season. He was looking forward to showing her off on his arm and taking her to another ball. And this time it would not end in tears.
‘Oh, Stacey, I am so happy,’ she said, as their carriage bore them away, followed by the cries of their well-wishers who stood on the gravel outside his lordship’s palatial home to wave them off.
‘And I,
my love.’ He put his arm about her shoulders and drew her towards him, knocking off her new bonnet as he did so, but neither noticed as he kissed her.
Up on the box, Jem grinned. It was going to be like that all the way to London, he supposed.
ISBN: 978-1-474-03574-3
AN UNUSUAL BEQUEST
© 2006 Mary Nichols
Published in Great Britain 2015
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited
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