Finding they have more in common than they could have imagined, can Hunter and Emmeline find the path to true love? Or will the constant interference from Felicity and Kent Fitzgerald drive a wedge between them?
Chapter 1
The journey down from Scotland to Buckinghamshire seemed to be taking forever. By the time they had made it only as far south as Lancashire, Hunter Bentley had taken the decision that each stop ought to last two nights in order to rest his horses properly. And yet, even though the decision was his and his alone, Hunter could not help feeling as if the world was holding him back somehow, keeping him from Addison Hall and his life and his love.
Hunter had spent the last six months staying in a much-neglected family property just outside Edinburgh. It was a private residence, not forming part of the great estate of Addison, and one which had not been lived in since Hunter’s father had been but a young boy who had stayed there with his maternal grandparents.
William and Rosemary Moss had had but one child, a daughter, who had grown into a great beauty and, following a single meeting with Hunter’s grandfather, had been courted for marriage. Without sons, the home of William and Rosemary Moss had fallen into a genteel decline when they had departed the world, and their daughter had lived happily in England as the Countess of Addison.
However, Hunter’s father had never forgotten the time he’d spent in the home of his mother as a child. With his own father much away at court in those days, he and his mother had often travelled to Edinburgh, and he had spent many of his summers in the beautiful little village just outside.
“As you know, Hunter, I do not have much time left.” His father had raised the subject in as plain a fashion as he had raised every subject for as long as Hunter could remember.
The old Earl was a matter-of-fact sort of man, very plainspoken, and Hunter had always attributed it to his maternal Scottish roots.
“Father, I wish you would not speak so. Just because the physician tells you such does not make it a fact.” Hunter could not bear to even think about his father’s passing, never mind speak about it.
But Harrington Bentley had been ill for so long that there really could be no denying it. Hunter knew, of course, that their trusted old physician was right in what he said; Harrington Bentley did not have long, a matter of months at most.
“My dear boy, it is time to face the thing head-on, no shirking, no hiding. There is much to prepare you for in your duties as Earl, and I would not be doing my duty if I chose to ignore what is undoubtedly going to be my imminent passing. In doing so, I should be selfish on more than one count. I should be denying us both the joy and the sadness of these final months, and I would be remiss in not passing on all which I know I must pass on to you.”
It had seemed to Hunter that in no time at all his father’s face had grown as grey as his hair, and his mighty frame had been diminished, lain waste by the dreadful disease which seemed to be almost devouring him.
“Father, I would do anything that you wish me to do; I would even listen to all of this and act as if I believe it,” Hunter said but knew that his words were nothing more than the lines of an actor spoken in the middle of the play. He knew his father spoke the truth.
“Then I would ask something very great of you, my dear boy.”
“There is nothing you could ask of me that would be too great, pray tell me what is it?”
“I would wish you to take me to the place I used to think of as home.”
“Home?” Hunter had been momentarily confused and looked about the great drawing room of Addison Hall where his father had been propped up comfortably in an armchair, surrounded by soft pillows and wrapped in many warm blankets.
“Not Addison Hall, Hunter. It is home, of course, and has been home to many generations of Bentleys. But I am speaking of a different place, a place where I spent a good deal of my childhood.”
“You mean in Scotland, Father?” Hunter said a little incredulously. “But surely you have not been there for many years.”
“It is true to say that I have not been inside that old manor house since before you were born, my dear boy. But now, in my last months, I seem unable to stop thinking about it. I should like to be reminded of the happy times I spent there at the beginning of my life. I should like to spend some happy times there now that my life is drawing to its end.”
“But Father, it is such a great distance,” Hunter said, his mind reeling as he wondered quite how he would get his father from the south of England all the way up to Edinburgh.
“And it would be my last journey; I have no doubt. I realize that once I have left Addison Hall, there will be no coming back for me. I am afraid that you would make the return journey alone.”
“But Father, your health is so low, I cannot think that a journey of so many days would be of any benefit to you. Really, I would beg you to reconsider.”
“I know that the journey will not be an easy one, Hunter, but it would have its reward at the end. It is where I wish to be, and it is there I wish to die.”
“Then I shall find some way to arrange it, Father.” Hunter had felt desolate at that moment.
His father really was going to die, and the time for him to acknowledge it had come. But he could not help wondering exactly what they would find when they arrived at Rosecleer Manor, the home of his maternal ancestors. “I shall make contact with the housekeepers immediately. I shall write off to them today and ensure that the house is made ready for you.”
“I daresay the house will not be all that we are used to. After all, I have neglected it for so long and not even given the funds to have it properly maintained. But I am sure that the housekeepers have kept it as well as they can, and as long as it is warm and dry, it will be enough.”
Hunter had received written word from the housekeepers of Rosecleer Manor that the place would certainly be fit and ready for the Earl of Addison and his son by the time they arrived. In the end, the party had set off for Scotland less than two weeks after his father’s initial and somewhat surprising request.
Hunter and his father had travelled in relative comfort in their carriage, with the few staff they were taking with them travelling separately in another. Much apart from making his father any worse, the journey itself and the idea that he would soon be in the place he had once thought of as home seemed to fortify him somehow. In fact, it fortified him so much that Hunter nursed a secret hope that the physician had been wrong after all. Perhaps all his father had needed had been a change in surroundings and some good Scottish air.
However, within days of settling in at Rosecleer Manor, it quickly became obvious that this was not the case. The effects of the excitement of their excursion had simply been a temporary tonic to the man who was, Hunter knew, fading fast.
For himself, Hunter had found much sympathy with his father for his curiously fond feelings for the rundown manor house. The house itself, although large, was nothing in comparison to Addison Hall, the home in which Hunter had spent most of his life. However, Rosecleer Manor seemed to be a house of many nooks and crannies, of hidey-holes and secret spaces; perfect for a young boy whiling away his summers.
Hunter found that he was easily able to imagine his father there running through the corridors and finding much amusement in the old and forgotten things which had been tucked away by many generations of the Moss family in the vast attics.
“Tell me, have you enjoyed your time here?” his father said at the start of their sixth month at Rosecleer.
“Very much, Father,” Hunter said, although not entirely truthfully.
Whilst it had been a great honour to help his father fulfil his dying wishes, it had been a most bittersweet time for Hunter Bentley. And not only had he suffered the sadness of watching his father grow ever thinner and ever greyer, he had suffered a good deal of uncertainty of his own.
Felicity’s letters seemed to have grown shorter and shorter, and the time between the arrival of each one seemed to grow larger and
larger.
The last of her letters had been a brief yet perfect account of an afternoon buffet at the home of one of her friends. There was nothing in her letter about Felicity herself, and nothing to say that she missed him at all. Worse still, that letter had arrived more than six weeks beforehand and, despite numerous missives of his own, it seemed that Felicity was not inclined to respond any further.
He had known, of course, that Felicity was far from pleased when he had told her of his plans for his father’s final weeks. They had argued a little when Hunter had suggested that her annoyance seemed somewhat selfish. After all, it was to be no more than a few weeks, and it was not just for Harrington Bentley’s sake alone. Hunter needed time and space to say goodbye to his excellent father, and he had wished at the time that Felicity could have understood.
However, by the time he and his father had set off for Edinburgh, the argument seemed to be done between them, and she had kissed him goodbye with watery eyes and heartfelt demands that he must write to her every day, if not twice.
Not a day had gone past when he hadn’t thought of her; her pale blonde hair the colour of straw and her eyes so blue that even the sky of a summer’s day could not compete. Felicity was the most beautiful woman Hunter had ever known and, at three and twenty years, she was certainly ready to marry.
Hunter had courted her since she had been one and twenty and had assumed that they would soon be married. It had been a very long time since each had declared their love for the other, and it had only been the gap of almost ten years in their ages which had made Hunter a little reticent. He had known many young ladies over the years, and he saw how quickly their affections changed when they were still full young. As keen as he had been to make the beautiful only daughter of the Earl of Walney his wife, Hunter had wanted to be sure that the much sought-after young woman was absolutely decided upon him and him alone.
As each day passed without a letter, Hunter began to regret his thoughtfulness in that regard. He had begun to wish that he had simply proposed to her within their first year and married soon after, making her his irrefutably.
But surely Felicity had been true to him, despite the fact that they had made no public announcement of their intentions. Hunter had never considered a need to do such a thing, believing the bond between them to be strong, and the need for such pronouncements unnecessary. Surely they were going to marry; surely that was something that they had both understood.
“I think it will not be long before you see her again.” His father had broken across his reverie as if he were reading his mind.
“I beg your pardon, Father?”
“I take it there is still no letter from Felicity?”
“No, but I believe she has been in London for a good deal of the Season and so will have been busy,” Hunter spoke without any conviction whatsoever.
“I am sure that is so, my boy.” It had been many days since Harrington Bentley had been able to sit in the small and cozy drawing room at Rosecleer Manor.
He had been confined to his bed after a fit of coughing had made him so exhausted he could no longer sit up. And it seemed to Hunter that the longer his father kept to his bed, the less likely that he would ever take his armchair in the drawing room again.
“Well, I shall perhaps write off to her this evening and give her our latest news.”
“I daresay there will be little news to give her. I suppose there is not much of interest which happens here at Rosecleer Manor.”
“Well, I do not mind that at all. It is a most restful place, Father, and I have enjoyed being here.”
“But you will be pleased to get home again,” his father said with a smile.
“I am content.” It was all that Hunter could say.
Inasmuch as he did want to return home to Addison Hall and find out exactly what had gone wrong between him and Felicity, he knew that his return could only mean one thing; that his father had died.
And it was with great sadness that, just two days later, Hunter found himself standing outside the manor house and watching as his valet and the other staff loaded the wooden trunks back onto the carriages; the wooden trunks they had offloaded just six months before.
Another carriage had already been dispatched, the carriage which carried the body of his father back home. Hunter could not help thinking of his father’s words when they had first talked of spending those final months in Scotland. I am afraid you would make the return journey alone.
And Hunter had felt alone, terribly alone, for every one of the many days he had spent either on the road or kicking his heels in an unknown town as his horses were well rested. Although their stay at Rosecleer Manor had helped him come to terms with the fact that his father was, very soon, going to die, when it had finally come, it had still seemed to Hunter to be a most terrible shock. It was a shock in the way that the death of his dear mother so many years before had not been. But of course, Hunter had been so young then, and the young always accommodated such things with an ease that grown men could never find.
When finally his carriage drew up to the great gravel apron at the front of Addison Hall, Hunter felt his throat tighten painfully. Tears had welled in his eyes, and he knew that his worst pain was yet to come. He had to walk back into Addison Hall as its new Earl, knowing that his father’s voice would never be heard in those great corridors again.
As his servants began to bustle about the carriage, hurriedly going about the business of emptying it and settling themselves back into their working lives at the Hall, Hunter simply sat and stared out of the window at the immaculate lawns. He was the master of it all now, and yet it seemed to mean nothing to him. He knew that he would have given anything to have remained the son of the Earl the rest of his life.
Hunter’s attention was drawn to some movement at the front of the hall when he saw the great door opening inwards. For a moment, there was a tiny frisson of joy when he realized that it was very likely Lady Felicity Morgan waiting for him. He had written to her, of course, to let her know that the worst had happened, and he was now ready to return home. She had not written back, although he had assumed that to be because her letter would pass him on the road home, and he would never see it.
Hunter jumped down from the carriage and swallowed hard, clearing the tightness and pain in his throat. If anybody could make it right again, it would be Felicity. He would marry her as soon as she would agree to it, and they would be the Earl and Countess of Addison, living out life happily in the home his father had bequeathed him.
Hunter strode purposefully towards the door, racing up the stone steps, taking them two at a time. However, before he was but halfway up, he could see that his visitor was not Felicity, but his cousin, Algernon Rochester.
“I really am most terribly sorry, my dear fellow,” Algernon said, placing a heavy and comforting arm around Hunter’s shoulders the moment he was inside.
“I thank you, Algernon,” Hunter said somberly.
“Your journey was long?” Algernon went on, but Hunter found himself suddenly impatient for news of Felicity.
“Too long,” he said with a nod. “Felicity?” he said, hoping that the single word was question enough as he raised his eyebrows and looked into the kindly face of his closest living relative.
“Ah,” Algernon said and looked distinctly uncomfortable. “I am afraid I must talk with you.”
Chapter 2
“I must say, I really am looking forward to this afternoon,” Emmeline Fitzgerald said as she once again looked at her reflection in the mirror. “I do so love a garden party, especially on a beautiful summer’s day such as this. It feels like a new beginning somehow.”
And it really did feel like a new beginning after all the sorrow of the last weeks. Her father had died three months before, and now that she was only in half-mourning, she was able to partake of society again fully and no longer wore black, as her poor mother still did.
Although Emmeline had received visitors throughout the firs
t three months and even gone out for tea in the home of her friend and that of the young man she was courting, the garden party was to be her first social event since she, her mother, and her sister had laid her father to rest.
“And you do look so much better, my dear,” Clara Lovett, Emily’s dearest friend, spoke with care. “You are to get as much out of the day as you possibly can.”
“It will just be so nice to be out of doors and to have so much company. I loved my father dearly, but I cannot help thinking that these accepted periods of mourning do little to make things better. I wish we lived in a society where we could celebrate the lives of those we have lost, instead of being expected to wish ourselves in the grave alongside.”
Kind Ella and the Charming Duke Page 27
