‘I found the botany boring, but not the botanist.’
She laughed. ‘And you said you weren’t a diplomat!’
‘Oh, I’m not—not at all.’
She was blushing. It fascinated him, the way the colour stole up her throat to her cheeks, and yet there was not a trace of false modesty in the way she reacted, eyeing him frankly, weighing up her response, trying to decide whether to put him down or respond in kind.
‘Daniel, delightful as this is, we can’t flirt away the next three months.’
‘Why not? I’m thoroughly enjoying it and it seems to me that you are too.’
‘Oh, you know perfectly well that I am. As you are well aware from this morning, I’m as much a novice when it comes to flirting as kissing, but I think I might prove to be rather good at both.’
‘What a bold piece you are!’
‘Of course I am. I wouldn’t have proposed to you elsewise.’
‘Have I told you that I’m very glad you did?’
‘Yes.’ Her smile faded. ‘But seriously, Daniel, what are we going to do? What are we going to tell people?’
His heart sank. ‘Do we have to tell people anything?’
‘Think about it! Elmswood has been without an earl for a very long time—long before you inherited, remember, for your father was rarely seen in his later years. And you are the Earl, whether you wish to use the title or not. The elusive and completely unknown Earl. But word will already be out that you’re here. People will be desperate to meet you.’
‘I’m ill. Far too ill to receive anyone.’
‘Actually, I agree with you on that point, but for how long do you think that story will hold up to scrutiny? The few servants that we have all live out, and they have family, friends. People will talk and they will speculate. It’s inevitable. One of the reasons you married me is because I am a practical, pragmatic person. I’m being both right now. We need a story and we need a plan.’
‘I’m an explorer. I’ve been very ill. I’m home to recuperate. I’ll be off again to darkest Africa just as soon as I’m able. There—that’s the beginning, the middle and the end of the story.
‘But Sir Marcus said we should—’
‘I don’t give a damn what Sir Marcus thinks we should do. I’m here, and I’ll stay here until they realise that they need me, which will be sooner rather than later. So there’s no point in me getting to know our neighbours or paying house calls or involving myself in estate business or—before you suggest it again—in my meeting my nieces.’
‘You can’t meet Estelle anyway. She’s off traipsing around Europe.’
‘Don’t be waspish, Kate, it doesn’t suit you.’
‘I’m not usually waspish. It’s your fault. Oh, dammit. I sound like a petulant child and I’m not.’
‘No, you’re not. You’re a very sorely tried woman who has been to hell and back for an ungrateful, curmudgeonly husband.’
Shifting on the bench, he put his arm around her, pulling her up against him. With a sigh, she let her head rest on his shoulder. She smelled of something floral and peculiarly English. Daniel let his chin rest on her hair.
‘Do you like lemon with your tea, or cream?’ he asked.
‘What an odd question. Neither. I like milk. Why?’
‘And do you like to put it in your cup before the tea or after?’
‘Before. Doesn’t everyone? Why...?’
‘So that I can prepare your tray properly in the morning if I’m up before you. It was obvious to me this morning how important your first cup of tea of the day is.’
She gave a little huff of laughter. ‘As important as your coffee is to you. Although I thought I’d disguised it better than that. Are we to take breakfast together, then?’
‘I’d like to if you would.’
‘I rather think I would. What about dinner?’
‘Oh, we’ll definitely dine together. I have consumed my last bowl of nourishing broth in bed.’
‘And for the rest of the day, Daniel?’
He let her go, getting to his feet. ‘Let’s take it a step at a time, shall we?’
Chapter Four
‘What are you looking for?’
‘My garden diary,’ Kate said, staring at the side-table where she always kept it, as if it might magically materialise. ‘It’s a green leather notebook...’
‘Oh, that one. I put it on your desk,’ Daniel said.
‘My desk! But I don’t keep it on my desk. I keep it here, on this table.’
‘Where I was sitting, having a cup of coffee and reading my book. So I moved it.’ Daniel retrieved the notebook from the desk. ‘Here.’
‘I didn’t realise you liked to sit there.’
‘Only when I’m alone. I know it’s your chair, normally.’
‘No, this is your house—please, I want you to feel at home.’ Kate looked around her helplessly. ‘I’ll take Estelle’s chair, and I’ll find somewhere else to keep my diary. There’s a footstool with a lid. Eloise used to keep some of her embroidery silks in it. It sits—Oh.’ She looked in consternation at the empty space against the wall.
‘It’s in the library,’ Daniel said with a rueful smile. ‘Me again, I’m afraid. I wanted to get a book from one of the top shelves and I couldn’t find the library steps.’
‘That’s because they are kept here, in the cupboard.’
‘Why aren’t they kept in the library?’
‘They were the perfect height for us to stand on when we allowed Eloise to adjust the hems on our gowns. She used to make all our clothes, you know. She is so clever. This one I’m wearing is one of her creations.’
Kate gave a little twirl, holding out the skirt of her powder-blue morning gown.
But Daniel frowned. ‘She’s been married to Alex for—what?—four years? Please don’t tell me that it’s been four years since you had a new gown?’
‘I don’t need any new gowns. I don’t go anywhere. Before she married, Eloise—’ She broke off, seeing Daniel rolling his eyes. ‘What?’
‘Nothing.’
The way he smiled so blandly riled her. She set her diary back down on the desk. ‘I don’t mention the girls in order to make you feel guilty, you know.’
‘I’ve been here two weeks. You mention one or other of my nieces at least once in every conversation we have, and it has nothing to do with my feelings—or lack of feelings—for them, and everything to do with your own. You have built your life around those three, and I laud you for it. In fact I’m extremely grateful for it. But they have their own lives to live now, and it’s time, don’t you think, that you started living yours?’
Her temper flickered. She tamped it down. ‘I am living my own life,’ Kate said through gritted teeth. ‘It may seem very mundane to you, but, as you’ve pointed out several times, it is my life, and none of your concern. However, since you feel able to comment on my behaviour, let me offer an observation on yours. In two weeks you’ve barely been over the door. You do nothing, as far as I can make out, save read and brood. You don’t even go into the walled garden. I thought that was your sanctuary?’
‘It’s your sanctuary now. I have been endeavouring to keep out of your way.’
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake! Admit it! You’ve been hiding—not only from anyone who might come calling, but also from this house. Do you think it has escaped my notice that you haven’t gone anywhere near the rooms where your father spent his last years? Or that you’re sleeping in one of the guest rooms, not your old room or the master suite? Why is that?’
‘Why are you getting agitated about my sleeping arrangements?’
‘I’m not getting agitated! I have an excellent and very even temper. Not even in the early years, when I was dealing with three girls—there, I’ve mentioned them again—who could throw tantrums on a spectacular scale, d
id I once lose my temper. Though, to be fair to her, Eloise never threw a tantrum. I’m talking about the Twinnies.’
‘The Twinnies? Oh, you mean Estelle and Phoebe. But they weren’t young children. Surely they were beyond the tantrum stage?’
‘They were fifteen, and they had just lost both their parents and their brother.’
‘I’d have thought they’d be glad to have you, then.’
‘Daniel, for heaven’s sake! They didn’t want me—they wanted their mother!’ Kate exclaimed, losing her hold on her temper. ‘Children tend to love their parents unreservedly. I certainly did. It is you who are the exception to the rule.’
‘We were talking of you, not me. And I have no idea why you are so angry with me.’
‘I’m not angry with you. I’m—You are driving me mad, Daniel, to be honest. You lurk about the place, shifting things so I can’t find them...’
‘Putting them in more sensible places, is how I’d put it.’
‘Moving things from where they’ve always been. The coffee beans, for example. It took me almost half an hour to find them this morning. Why on earth did you put them in the cold store?’
‘Because it keeps them fresher. And why on earth you felt obliged to get up at the crack of dawn in order to make my coffee for me when I’m perfectly capable of making it myself...’
‘Well, I won’t do it again. You can get your own in future.’ Kate folded her arms across her chest and glowered.
‘That will teach me.’
‘Don’t mock me.’ She gave a shuddering sigh. ‘Even though I deserve it.’
‘Ah, but you don’t.’ Daniel held out his hand. ‘Truce?’
She shook it, smiling weakly. ‘Truce,’ she said, before dropping wearily onto the sofa. ‘I know you’re not interested in the girls, but they’ve been my life for the last nine years, and in the months I was abroad I missed out on so much. Eloise and Alexander have become parents. Phoebe has become a wife and the chef patron of her own restaurant. I had a letter from her this morning telling me that her husband of less than a year has gone abroad for some indeterminate time. And poor Estelle—having to kick her heels here alone, then being obliged to leave—I feel so guilty about that.’
Daniel sat down beside her. ‘It sounds to me as if they are all very happy, quite independent of you, and getting on with their own lives. And as for Estelle, it was high time she left and made something of herself. She owed it to you to look after Elmswood while you were elsewhere, but by the sound of it she was more than happy to leave.’
‘She was.’ Kate stared down at her hands. ‘Doesn’t it occur to you that I might miss them? That their leaving to live their own lives—something I assure you I’m delighted about—has left a huge gap in mine?’
‘But that’s precisely what I’ve been saying. You’re not exactly an old maid—why do you keep harping on about the past when you could be looking to the future?’
‘I don’t harp on,’ Kate snapped. ‘Just because you like to pretend you have no past of any sort...’
‘I am not permitted to talk about it. That’s a very different thing.’
‘Is it?’
She lifted her head to meet his gaze. Slate-grey eyes, staring coolly into hers. It irked her, the way he’d so completely and quickly recovered his composure.
‘There’s no embargo on your talking about your past before you left Elmswood, and yet—’
‘I was barely sixteen. There’s nothing to tell.’
Save how he came to loathe his family home and why he was so determinedly indifferent at best to his father.
‘I’ll move the steps to the library,’ Kate said. ‘You’re right—it’s silly of me to keep them here.’
‘And I’ll put the footstool back in its rightful place. And stop using your chair. I’m sorry if you’re finding my presence here a trial.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Daniel. As you pointed out, I’m not an old maid yet, so set in my ways I can’t cope with change. It’s not that. But I’m finding your trying to pretend you’re not here a trial.’
‘I feel like a house guest who has overstayed his welcome. I am extremely conscious of the fact that you’ve been away for nine months on my account, and I don’t want to take up any of your time, or interrupt your routine, any more than I have to.’
‘It wasn’t your fault I was away from home for nine months. I think one of the reasons I’m so out of kilter is that it’s made me realise how limited my life has become.’ Kate wrinkled her nose. ‘The girls don’t need me any more, and Elmswood—well, it doesn’t exactly run itself, but it could easily be run by someone else. Especially now, since there’s little in the way of improvement left undone. The fact is I have too much time on my hands and I’d like to spend some of it with you. I rather thought that was what we agreed when we talked two weeks ago.’
‘Have you had enough of looking after Elmswood, Kate? Has our arrangement become a bind?’
‘No, that’s not what I meant at all, but—Oh, I don’t know, we didn’t really think too far into the future when we married, did we? The last eleven years have passed in the blink of an eye and I’m not sure I know who I am now, if not aunt to the girls and chatelaine of Elmswood. I no longer have a purpose. It’s odd.’
‘Now you know how I feel.’
‘I suppose...but in your case the situation is only temporary.’
‘Until Sir Marcus thinks I’ve learnt my lesson. As it happens,’ Daniel said tightly, getting out of his chair and making for the window, ‘I received a letter from that august gentleman this very morning. It seems he is keeping a closer eye on me than I thought. He writes that he is concerned that I have had a relapse, for he can think of no other reason for my having failed to carry out his wishes.’
‘What wishes?’
‘Orders, to be more accurate. That Lord and Lady Elmswood disport themselves for the delectation of the county set.’
‘Oh, that is why you are in such a—’ Kate broke off, grimacing.
‘Foul mood?’ Daniel sighed, sinking down onto the window seat. ‘What good it will do, I have absolutely no idea, save to back up the preposterous and quite unnecessary cover story he has concocted to explain my unexpected return. And the three months, incidentally, are non-negotiable. I’m here under your feet for the duration.’
‘I see.’
‘No, you don’t—not really. You will be required to play my Countess, which means your time is not going to be so much your own as you would like.’
‘I’ve already told you I have plenty of time on my hands,’ Kate said. ‘I am happy to accompany you on your jaunts out and about.’
‘I don’t think driving about the countryside is exactly what Sir Marcus has in mind, Kate.’
‘What, then? Calling on tenants? Going to church? That is the extent of my social life. Our nearest neighbour until recently was Squire Mytton, who is known locally as Mad Jack. Amongst his many other exploits he rode one of his horses up the grand staircase in a hotel in Leamington Spa and then jumped it out of the window. He also kept a bear in his house which he let loose at night, much to the alarm of his guests—in fact I heard that he sometimes rode it round his drawing room. Oliver has told me that he’s put himself forward to stand for Parliament again this year, but his debts have finally caught up with him and he’s now living in exile in France. I believe the estate is up for sale. So, for obvious reasons, I don’t socialise much with my neighbour.’
‘Squire Mytton isn’t your only neighbour.’
‘Daniel, when it comes down to it, as far as the local gentry are concerned I’m Kate Wilson, the old Lord Elmswood’s estate manager’s daughter. You left England almost before the ink was dry on our wedding certificate, and my priorities at the time were my father and the estate. Then came the girls, and then—Well, I suppose it’s simply always been accepted th
at I prefer to be left to my own devices—which is the truth.’
‘You mean you’ve been shunned because of your humble background?’
‘I mean that I’ve never cared for that sort of socialising—parties, taking tea, country dances. Are you saying that Sir Marcus expects us to embrace it now? What happens when you have returned to your duties and I am left with a stack of invitations to fulfil alone? Assuming that people accept me in the first place, which I’m not at all convinced they will. I find that unacceptable. He asks too much.’
‘My thoughts exactly, But unfortunately I don’t see that I have any option if I am to have any chance of returning to active service.’
‘And that is what you want more than anything?’
‘It’s my life...the only one I know or want. I’m very good at what I do, and I want to continue doing it.’
‘Have you never once considered retiring, coming back here and taking up—?’
‘Do not say this is my rightful place.’
‘But it’s what most people will think, Daniel, if we do as Sir Marcus wishes and start showing ourselves off to the great and the good of the county. They’ll be delighted to have a proper blue-blooded earl, and not just his low-born wife, grace their homes and their parties.’
‘You’re not serious? That’s surely not how they view you?’
Kate shrugged uncomfortably. ‘To be honest, I have never had any desire to put it to the test. Now it looks like I have no option, for if your career depends upon it, there’s no question of us not doing as Sir Marcus bids us.’
Daniel swore softly. ‘You’ve done more than enough already. I’m sorry to put you in such an invidious position. You’ve helped mitigate the damage caused by my lapse of judgement, and now, instead of being permitted to return to your comfortable, peaceful life, you are being punished too.’
‘What lapse of judgement?’ Kate asked, joining him at the window seat. ‘Do you mean the man you saved—assuming it was a man? Or shouldn’t I ask?’
‘Dammit, I don’t see why you shouldn’t ask! It’s not fair to expect you to fall into line without any understanding of how this blasted situation arose. He was a local man, with a wife and four children. He had been my associate—by which I mean he’d been working with me on behalf of our government—for two years. He was loyal, hard-working, and he trusted me. He’d welcomed me into his home. I had bought presents for his children. I was not prepared to throw him to the wolves when the net closed in on him.’
The Inconvenient Elmswood Marriage (Penniless Brides 0f Convenience Book 4) Page 8
