Diana watched Richard retreat to the estate office as she climbed the flights of stairs to the schoolroom. She wondered how she could have been so wrong about Lady Halford. And if his mother had not persuaded Richard to take Harry’s place, who had?
* * * * *
Richard wondered where the men had taken refuge from the flurry of female activity. So far there were no screams or moans to signal an imminent birth. By the click of ball and cue he surmised the billiards room and turned his steps in the other direction. He found himself in the orangery and lifted the cloth draped over his portrait.
He felt himself gasp a little, for Diana had dressed him in his scarlet uniform and he had his hand propped on the hilt of a sword—no, his sword. Now how had she gained access to those articles? Of course, his so helpful valet. And when had she found time? She must have been up at the crack of dawn. She had laid the lush green background in as though it was a forest in Spain and done detail work on the buttons and braid. But his face was indistinct, as though he was deciding whether or not to disappear. That was actually much the case. And his mouth, such an uncompromising line. Did he really look like that?
He jumped when the door opened but it was Diana.
“What do you think so far? I mean except for the grimace, it is a good likeness, isn’t it?”
“Have you been relieved of command in the nursery?”
“Yes, they want Nan or Mama. But since neither is available Da will do. Harry is back keeping them amused.”
“I never would have expected him to have the patience.”
“He has far more than you know and you didn’t answer my question.”
“Because I sensed you were angling for a compliment.”
“You could always see through me. So long as we both are here, we may as well get to work. But you know you don’t have to sit like a statue. Tell me something funny that happened in Spain. If we happened to be here when a letter arrived, your mother would read it to us and you always had amusing tales.”
“Did I write amusing stories to Mother?”
“Richard, do not tell me you made all those up.”
“No but perhaps I feigned my enjoyment of them. Let me think, something amusing from the war…” He spent the next two hours regaling her with every idiotic thing that happened to him and his friends. Yes, he did have friends now that he thought about it. He had been forgetting that. And he felt himself smiling, which he had not done since he’d been wounded at Pamplona. Diana was hell on his ego but she was good for his soul and his spirit. Why hadn’t he planned to marry her instead of Lucy?
The question rang in his mind like a sort of revelation. Because he and Diana always fought like ferrets in a sack. Besides, she’d been only sixteen when he’d left. A mere child. His family and her mother still thought of her as a child, like a sister to him, hence the total lack of chaperonage when they were sequestered for the portrait sittings.
And his parents had always spoken of him marrying her older sister Lucy and Harry making a match with Diana. No one ever considered they might be happy if paired the other way.
If he had died, Lucy and Harry would have had everything. Where would that have left Diana? She was right to resent never being consulted, not about her mother’s engagement and not about his sudden departure. She was his truest friend yet he had shut her out. He wondered if she could ever forgive such a lapse.
“Thank goodness you smiled long enough for me to set the lines of your mouth into something more human, for that frown would fracture a gargoyle if you glared at one.
“I’m sorry. I was just—”
The door opened and a servant stepped in with a tray loaded with bread, cheese, meat and boiled eggs, some wine and a pot of tea. Lord Hull followed in his wake.
“I hope you don’t mind the interruption. They set out a cold luncheon in the small dining room but it is directly under the birthing chamber.”
“Is the babe coming?” Diana asked. “I would be surprised.”
“The doctor is still above stairs but recollecting the din when mine were born, I did not think I could listen to that again without shattering my nerves. Besides, I wanted to speak to you.”
Diana smiled. “By all means, please join us, sir. I imagine everyone’s nerves will be racked by the time the babe actually arrives but Lucy is not really an alarmist. The first two were not early. They just take a long time to come.”
The servant laid place settings on the worn wooden work table and Richard positioned benches around it while Diana poured the tea. Lord Hull declined to have his cup filled and broached the bottle of wine. As soon as they had taken the edge off their hunger he waved at the canvas, “Do you mind?”
“Of course not.”
“Wonderful. My wife would dearly love to have a portrait of Olivia.”
“Permit me to doubt that. She disliked the miniature I painted so much she never even paid for it.”
“Oh nonsense, Lady Hull is never beforehand with the world. Here is my bank draft. Fifty for the miniature and what say you to three hundred for the portrait?”
“That would be fine. Do you want me to come to your estate?”
“We thought there might be time during our stay here.”
“No doubt I could complete it in a week.”
“Fine, fine. When would you like her to sit?”
“There are decisions to be made—what gown to wear, what jewelry and even the background. Perhaps I should go to her chamber and help her.” Diana carefully covered her work and closed up her paints.
“Yes, do that. I’ll talk to Captain Trent for a while.”
From the glare he had sent her off with, Diana could only think that Richard regarded her retreat as abandonment but she did want to put the draft away for safekeeping and let Lady Halford know her stratagem had worked. She went directly to her room and locked the draft in her strongbox but instead of finding Lady Halford, she encountered her mother in the breakfast parlor with a sobbing child.
“What are we to do? Anna is asleep but Edwin thinks someone is hurting their mother and Lucy wants Harry with her.”
“I’ll take him to the plant conservatory. You can’t hear anything out there. Harry is a good father and husband to Lucy.”
“Isn’t he wonderful?” Ellen said. I ’m so glad Lucy ended up with Harry rather than that cold-blooded Richard.”
“What?” Diana felt her face freeze.
“Can you see Richard taking such care of his children.”
“In fact, I can, but how is he cold?”
“When he and Lucy were attached, I could never get him to talk about a church wedding, nor a tour or any kind.”
“But Europe was on the brink of war.”
“Not even around England.”
“But you always dreamed of Lucy marrying Richard and someday being Lady Halford. Now you say you are glad she married Harry?”
“She may yet become Lady Halford. Richard jilted your sister before he left for the army and now shows no inclination to marry. Look how he is avoiding the Hull chit. That is why I am not chaperoning you for the sittings. Besides he is like a brother to you.”
Diana felt wounded on Richard’s behalf at the coldness with which her own mother talked about arranging his life. “He might have been killed during the war but he was not.”
“If he fathers no children, it will all work out the same.”
Diana backed away from her mother. “You wanted him to go to war?”
“Well, he was being so reluctant about the wedding, it was as well he did leave Harry a clear field. What have I said?”
Diana could feel her face drawn into tragic lines. “I forgot to wish you happy on your own coming nuptials.”
“Oh, I meant to speak to you. At least I can settle down. And in a house I am used to. You will have to decide where you mean to live, with us or here.”
“Oh, I think I’ll continue to live by my wits.”
“But you cannot—a single woman
alone.”
“I have managed so far, in spite of you rather than with your aid.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think you accepted this offer just to stop me from painting.”
“Don’t be absurd. If we had ever lighted here for more than a few weeks Dean would have spoken years ago. It’s you who has kept me from getting on with my life.”
Diana pressed her fingers to her head. “I cannot deal with this now. I have a commission to paint Miss Hull.”
“Now, while Lucy is in labor?”
“Well, she is not in labor yet. Besides, what good am I to her? She will be in labor whether I am painting or sitting stupidly wringing my hands.”
As she led Edwin to the orangery she rethought that dim and perhaps inaccurate memory of the conversation behind the box hedge. Could it have been her mother whispering to Richard? This was horrible. It must have been her mother who had persuaded him to risk his life. How could she face him again, knowing her own mother had nearly been the death of him and had cost him the sight of one eye?
When confronted with a weeping Edwin, Lord Hull fled but Diana had stopped in the drawing room to pick up a set of dominoes, so the three spent a quiet afternoon clicking the tiles about on the wooden tea table. That was where the governess found them when she finally returned. Edwin, who had been laughing and contented for some time, crumpled his face at sight of her to provoke her cozening comfort as she carried him to the nursery.
“That boy is half her weight. If we are not careful she will turn him into a milksop.”
“Then you will have to stay to make sure he learns all the manly arts.”
“Not on your life. I got blamed for enough of Harry’s injuries. He can teach Edwin to ride.” Richard flipped over a domino and placed it.
It amazed Diana that he meant to finish the game without the child there for an excuse. “Well, he is only four after all. I imagine he will toughen up. I did.”
He looked at her with that apologetic gaze. “I keep forgetting. You scarcely knew your father.”
“But I had your father for a model. Nothing shakes him. And he wants everything to be as it was.” She watched Richard’s mouth. He so often started to speak, then edited what he meant to say, perhaps to cause the least harm. When he spoke it was with a vibrant, confidential tone. It was so soft and low, yet every word distinct as though he was whispering into her ear.
“He lives in the past.”
“Perhaps the past is the safest place for him but not you. You will always be forward looking. What plans have you made for Halford?”
“I have no right to plan but I see good bottom land that could be growing grain used to fatten sheep that would be as happy on the scrubby uplands. I see coal deposits that would keep us in fuel for our lifetime instead of having the tenants coppicing every tree in site. I see a quarry that could still yield good stone if only there was a way to get it to a building site.”
“Speak to your father.”
“Perhaps I will.”
“I see a young woman who could have had her pick of men but decided instead to tramp about the countryside with her paint box.”
“Have I asked for a husband?”
“No, you never asked for anything that I recall.”
“Then perhaps your parents should let me alone.”
“They feel responsible.”
“So long as you do not.”
“Do you look ahead? What will happen to you when you are thirty or fifty?”
“By then I hope to be famous.” She turned what she hoped was a brave face toward him.
“Or infamous?”
She stood up to leave him. “I’ve heard enough of your insights for today.”
“Wait.” He grabbed her by the hand and rose. “I did not say these things to hurt you. What do you really want? Think about it as though it would be possible.”
She closed her eyes and inhaled the faint hint of orange in the air. “I want time to stand still.”
He reached for her shoulders with both hands. “I have always given you good advice, watched out for you when I could.”
“Yes but I am in charge of my life now and very reluctant to give that up to any man who would hinder my work.”
“What about a man who did not mind it, who in fact admired your work.” He put his arms around her and drew her to him so that the distance between them was no more than the thickness of their clothes.”
She opened her eyes and his face with transformed. He looked sensitive and vulnerable. “Do you know such a man?” she whispered.
“Yes.” He bent and kissed her. His lips were cold at first until he warmed to the task. When he finally stopped to gaze at her he swayed. “But I do not think I know him very well at all.” He released her slowly, staring at his hands as if they were foreign to him, then turned and left her.
Diana staggered and grabbed the back of a chair. “I don’t think I do either.”
Chapter Three
Richard thought the table was thin at dinner. In fact the only people attending were the two lords, Richard, Diana, Olivia and Colin. He was glad now that Diana was seated where he could not see into her eyes. What must she think of him after he lost control of himself in the conservatory? She had seemed shaken when he’d left her, not what he’d expected. She had every right to slap him in the face for taking such liberties. And well he knew she could do it. But why hadn’t she? Perhaps she’d been in too much shock.
“Well, I suppose you will cancel the Christmas Day feast tomorrow,” Lord Hull said.
“But the tenants so look forward to it,” Richard blurted out.
“I have been to the kitchens,” Diana confessed. “Your bakery shelf has been stocked since stirring-up-Sunday and has armies of puddings, tarts and cakes standing at attention in the larder. Also no fewer than nine geese, three pigs and a large sheep have already been sacrificed in anticipation of the event. If you cancel you will have enough provisions to support a small army.”
“She’s right,” Richard said. “If we cancel now everyone will be disappointed including all the house servants.”
Lord Halford nodded. “Actually many marriages between them and the tenant families are made at this feast or the summer one. They so seldom get to socialize.”
Lord Hull swallowed a bite of beef and said, “I wonder how your son and daughter-in-law will take it if we are celebrating while she is in labor.”
“But she isn’t,” Diana added. “This is the same false labor she always has. The doctor came and left with the admonition that she should walk more to bring the delivery faster.”
“Is Lucy in any danger?” Richard asked.
“Not in the doctor’s estimation,” Diana said. “He has sent the midwife to stay just in case we have more snow.”
“It is decided then,” Lord Halford said with a smile. “The dinner goes on as planned.”
Olivia looked up from her barely touched plate. “Will we have to eat with the tenant farmers?”
Richard checked Diana for a reaction and she looked resentful.
“Not at the same table,” his father said.
“But we all dance together,” Diana said. “It’s so much fun.”
Olivia looked toward her father. “I don’t think Mother will permit it.”
Her father patted her hand. “No need to dance if you don’t wish, my dear.”
“I plan to dance,” Colin said as he reached for more turnips. “It’s good practice.”
“Yes, it is,” Diana agreed, “because no one is watching you to criticize.”
Then she smiled at the boy and he beamed back. Richard leaned back in his chair. Perhaps he should distance himself from Diana and let her develop an interest in a younger man, one who hadn’t been ruined for life.
After the gentlemen joined the ladies in the drawing room Richard thanked Diana for her support. “If you had discouraged Father I would at this moment be riding the entire neighborhood withdrawing our
invitation.”
“I assure you that thought had occurred to me but did not influence me. You must have suffered far worse in Spain.”
“Lord, yes and there the French were forever shooting at me. This would have been a pleasant task by comparison.”
“Hardly but I don’t think anything will happen with Lucy until closer to her time.”
“And if you are wrong?”
“The noise of the fiddles and dancing will cover her screams. Besides the tenants are used to hearing women in labor.”
Richard laughed. “You always were a brutal chit.”
“How about some music, you girls,” Lord Halford asked. “I won’t tease you if you are tired but it would pass the time.”
“Pass the time?” Diana said. “We shall do more than that. Richard and I have unearthed more sheet music. We intend to force you gentleman to join us in song.”
Richard went to the pianoforte to turn pages for them and willingly added his voice to that of the girls. Before the night was out the other gentlemen had also been prevailed upon to fill the bass register.
Diana had always been entranced by Richard’s voice. It was so quiet most of the time it was as though he was speaking to himself or only one other. That alone made people pay attention to him. She had only heard it raised once, on that fateful night before he left for the army. She had no leisure to do more than admire his full tones until the evening was at an end but she went to bed with the thought that if he had not left he might have realized she was not a child, not really and that she loved him. Still it wasn’t the sort of thing one blurted out to a man. Had she done so, he would have laughed at her. The question was how did he feel about her now? He could not possibly think of her as a younger sister, not after that kiss. She hoped he had not been foxed when he lost control so deliciously.
It had occurred to no one that it was highly improper for her to be painting Richard’s portrait alone with him and no chaperone. She sincerely hoped they would not think of it. But would Richard avoid her now the way he seemed to avoid everyone else?
Since she was to start painting the portrait of Olivia tomorrow it would give Richard leave to escape both of them for a time each day. But the day had many hours in which Olivia could work her wiles. Diana hoped Richard would be as immune to them as he said he was, that he would refuse her overtures and show Diana how he truly felt before she was called away on another commission. She could, as he said, just stay at Halford Hall, sponging on the family but if she were not to have Richard what would be the point? She would just have to set up her own household somewhere with a hired companion. The notion of living with her mother and Vicar Dean made her shudder.
A Cotillion Country Christmas Page 20
