Anna Jacobs (17 page)

“She will have to change her mind about us.”

“Oh yes, I know that! But it’s better to tread softly with Grandmamma and let her think something is her own idea. Not just because you can never force her to do anything, but because I don’t want to make her unhappy. She’s very autocratic, but I love her dearly and I won’t have her hurt.”

“What do you think we should do, then?”

She frowned and began tracing the lines on the palm of his hand, “I think you should go home and write to her that you’ve been thinking things over. Say you feel she was right about your visiting Satherby and the sooner you come the better.”

“Will she still welcome me?”

“I don’t think she’ll welcome you at all, but she’ll probably wish you to come. She thinks you’ll need showing how to run the estate.”

“As if I haven’t been running my own for years!”

“Oh, how many years? I had thought you were only twenty-four.”

“I am, but my father was never much interested in such matters, so I’ve been more or less managing things since just before I was sixteen.” He raised one of her hands to his lips and kissed it gently, his eyes holding hers and promising so much more. “Go on, my love. Once I get here, what must I do? Pretend to fall in love with you all over again?”

“Under no circumstances! Grandmamma strongly disapproves of people who fall in love. She considers it vulgar. We must pretend to be completely indifferent to one another.”

“I don’t think I can do that!” He gave in to the temptation to plant a kiss on the tip of her nose and that led them into a more lingering embrace.

When they had drawn apart again, she said severely. “You must hide the fact that you love me, Crispin! Believe me, I know her! The important thing is to persuade Grandmamma that you’re worthy of inheriting and really will care for the estate. We can’t confuse her by falling in love! Not at first. She’d likely send you away again and tell you to wait until she’s dead to claim Satherby, then find me another man to marry - not that I would, of course.”

“She sounds fearsome.”

“She can be! Make no mistake about that, Crispin! She’s had a hard life, lost nearly everyone she loved, and yet she’s survived and not given in to her grief.”

“You’re very fond of her, aren’t you?”

She looked rather surprised, saying slowly, “Yes, I am. I hadn’t realized quite how fond until now. I should hate to be at odds with her.” When she looked at him, she had tears in her eyes. “And especially now.”

“Why now, my precious one?”

“Because I don’t think she’s got much longer to live. She seems weaker lately. She hasn’t said anything to me about it, well, she never would! But you can tell by the way she moves and by how long she has to rest if she does anything. So it would be nice to do this in a way that would please her. Do you understand?”

“Of course I do, my darling. And it will be no trouble to show her how much I care about the estate. It’s the loveliest place I’ve ever seen. I’m afraid you’ve agreed to marry a man who’s a farmer at heart. I could only be happy in the country, dealing with the land. So if you hanker after the fashionable life...”

“Oh, no! I’m a country girl, too. Both Bea and I are. And I love Satherby.” She looked at him shyly. “That’s not why I want to marry you. I would want to, anyway, wherever we had to live, but it does make things quite perfect.”

“Then we’re particularly well suited.”

She looked at him, her head on one side. “You know, it may sound strange, but I understand now what Grandmamma meant when she said that marriage was a business arrangement. I don’t think I could easily contemplate marriage with a man who wished to live in town, however handsome he was, or however engaging his ways. Does that sound mercenary?”

“No, for I feel the same. That’s yet another reason why you’re the perfect woman for me. But Eleanor, you’re mine now and I mean to keep you. Whatever I have to do to achieve that, I shall! Even if  your grandmother doesn’t approve. Even if it means abducting you.”

She could see that he meant every word and a thrill went through her. “Good,” she said, somewhat breathlessly. “Because I don’t think you’ll really like what I’m going to say.” She was back to tracing patterns on his hand.

He raised her chin and kissed her very gently on the lips. “Tell me, then, adorable one.”

“Well, while you’re learning about the estate, I think I must find an unsuitable gentleman to fall in love with, or at least, to flirt with.”

He stiffened. “No! I couldn’t bear that! Even in pretence.”

She sighed in exasperation. “I told you you wouldn’t like it. But it’s the only way I can see, so you’ll just have to bear it.”

“But why?”

She answered him obliquely. “Crispin, I’m the only person in the world, I think, who can manage to get my own way with Grandmamma, and even then, it doesn’t always work. Bea just does as she’s told, well, most of the time, anyway. Even the lawyer is terrified of Grandmamma! And the bailiff creeps in like a quivery little mouse to see her. So you absolutely must promise to do as I say, because it’s our only hope. I won’t go against her wishes, not openly, anyway. And I won’t make her final years unhappy, if I can help it. She’s had too much unhappiness in her life already.”

“You have no doubts about marrying me, though?” he asked, surprised to see how resolute she could be when she wanted something. He began to wonder whether she did not, perhaps, resemble her grandmother more than anyone realized. But he decided she was not the only one with a stubborn streak. He was bred from Graceover stock, too. He would go along with what she said for now, even though he didn’t like it, because she clearly knew Lady Marguerite better than he did. But he wouldn’t follow her suggestions meekly for ever. If they didn’t work, if he had to, he’d whisk her away and make a runaway match of it.

“Of course I don’t have any doubts! I always know my own mind.” She beamed at him.

“I think I must be the most fortunate man on earth.”

She sighed in delight. “That’s the nicest thing anyone ever said to me! Say some more!”

He spent the next ten minutes telling her how beautiful she was and how he longed to make her his wife, and she sat leaning against him, chuckling with delight at his more outrageous compliments.

This dalliance was much superior to the behaviour of the heroes in novels, who never seemed to have any sense of humour at all, just as her Crispin was far superior to the various counts and marquises about whom the tales were built. He might not be tall or wonderfully handsome, but somehow he was just what she wanted.

And if it was necessary, she would defy the world to marry him.

Chapter 9

By the time Justin’s grooms had helped him to carry Beatrice back to the house, her teeth were chattering uncontrollably, in spite of the horse blankets he’d snatched from the stables to wrap round her.

Mrs. Powis had been warned to prepare for them and the minute they entered the house, they were both swept away to separate bedrooms, where hot baths and even hotter cups of chocolate awaited them.

The housekeeper was amazed to hear that her master had been meeting unknown ladies in the woods. Her curiosity about this mysterious Miss Dencey led her to tend the stranger herself and to abandon her nurseling to the ministrations of his valet. She hoped desperately that the stranger would prove to be a lady and not the other sort, though she couldn’t see Master Justin bringing an immodest female back to a respectable household. She was also praying that the lady was indeed the object of his affections. He’d been feeling very low since his brother’s death and let alone it was time he got himself an heir, she would like to see him happy again.

A very little time with Miss Dencey served to convince Mrs. Powis that this was no scheming harpy, but a sensible lady with whom it was a pleasure to chat, or it would have been had the lady not been shivering so violently. When the shivering continued, Mrs. Powis decided to reinforce the cup of hot chocolate with a brandy toddy made to her own special recipe. This she insisted on Beatrice swallowing, in spite of the latter’s protests.

“Never shall I forgive myself,” declared Mrs. Powis, arms akimbo, “if I let you catch a chill when it can be prevented! Nor will Master Justin - I mean, Mr Serle - forgive me, either. We have a better regard than that for our guests at Melbury.” She spoiled this high moral tone by adding, “Though how he came to be so clumsy as to tip you both into the water, I cannot imagine! I thought he’d grown out of that sort of escapade years ago! I shall have a word or two to say to him later about it, I promise you!”

In vain did Beatrice protest that she wasn’t given to taking chills and that she hated brandy.

“Nor should I think you’re given to immersing yourself in icy water on a nasty chilly afternoon, Miss! Middle of April and still as cold as February!” declared Mrs. Powis, eyes alight with the fervour of one who had devoted her life to looking after the health and welfare of others. “We’ll not risk the chill, thank you, so I’d be grateful if you’d just swallow this down while it’s hot.”

“But - “ began Beatrice.

Mrs. Powis swelled up to twice her normal size and asked, with awe-inspiring dignity, whether Miss did not trust her to know her own business.

Quite cowed, Beatrice swallowed the toddy and allowed herself to be tucked into a bed which had just been thoroughly warmed by a bustling maidservant with a warming pan filled with hot embers. She lay luxuriating in the warmth, and before long fell asleep.

“Ah,” said Mrs. Powis to herself, as she prepared to leave the room half an hour later. “That’s more like it!” She gazed down at the stranger, admiring her russet hair and healthy complexion. She and Master Justin would make some handsome babies together and Mrs. Powis was still young enough to help rear them. Turning to the maid who had been posted discreetly in a corner away from the bed, she ordered in a whisper, “Continue to keep an eye on Miss Dencey, if you please, Mary, while I check that the master is all right.”

Mrs. Powis then strode along the corridor to find out from Master Justin just what this lady was doing in his grounds and just what he had been doing to tumble them both into the water. Downright careless, that was! But Miss Dencey didn’t seem to bear him any ill will for it, which was another good sign.

* * * *

When Beatrice awoke, it was to find the day well advanced and the room half in darkness, with Johanna sitting by her bed. “Oh! I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” she gasped, still confused.

“If Mrs. Powis meant you to sleep, then you had no choice, believe me, Bea! How are you feeling now, my dear?”

“Embarrassed!”

Johanna chuckled. “You do seem to make a habit of getting into scrapes and letting Serle rescue you from them, don’t you?”

Beatrice was thankful the room was dark enough to hide her blushes. “It was an accident. And it was his fault we fell into the pond, not mine!” Honesty compelled her to admit, “Though it was my own carelessness which left me without a horse.”

Johanna just chuckled again, well pleased by what had happened and hoping it would bring them together.

“I’ll get up at once,” Beatrice said, very much on her dignity. “I’m sorry to have caused all this trouble. I don’t know why they sent for you! I’m perfectly all right now, except for my foot.”

Johanna’s hand pressed her back against the pillows. “Don’t you dare get up!”

Beatrice stared up at her in astonishment.

“If you set one foot out of that bed, you’ll bring Mrs. Powis’s wrath down upon me and that’s a fate I’d rather escape, thank you very much! I have strict instructions to send for her the minute you wake up and not to let you leave the bed under any circumstances until she’s seen you, and, my dear, I dare do nothing but follow those instructions to the letter. No one who is at all acquainted with Mrs. Powis would dare to defy her!”

“But Johanna, I’m perfectly all - Wait! No!”

But it was too late. The bell had been pulled and not long afterwards, Mrs. Powis surged in. She immediately felt Beatrice’s forehead and tutted to herself. “Just as I thought! Feverish!”

“I’m perfectly all right, Mrs. Powis! Really I am!” Beatrice protested.

“Ah, but will you be all right tomorrow and the day after if we let you get up so soon?” demanded the domestic tyrant. She turned to Johanna. “It’s a good thing you sent for your things, Your Ladyship, so that you can stay with us tonight. Miss Dencey will be sneezing by tomorrow and in no fit state to travel if we don’t look after her now.” She tucked the blankets firmly around her patient.

“I’ve told Master Justin what I think of him for tumbling into a pond on a freezing spring day at his age,” she went on. “And as for pulling a lady into that nasty dirty water with him, well did you ever hear of such a careless thing?” She smoothed the covers, smiling reminiscently. “Mind you, he was even worse when he was a boy! If he couldn’t find something to fall into, he’d find something to fall out of, with equally bad results. He’d only to see a tree to want to climb it! The number of times I’ve had to nurse him better, and Master Peter with him. It’s a wonder I’m not in my grave already!”

“This time it was partly my fault,” ventured Beatrice, not wishing Justin Serle to bear all the blame. “I’d sprained my ankle and he said it would be better if it were soaked in cold water.”

“The master has already explained what happened, thank you, Miss. And I’ll say to you what I said to him: it’s one thing to soak an ankle - which I’ll allow is the sensible thing to do in the circumstances - but it’s quite another to soak the whole person! Master Justin loses any sense he ever had when he gets near water. I couldn’t count the number of times he’s fallen into that very same pond and come home covered in nasty green weed. You should hear what the laundry-maid said about the state of his shirt today!”

“Yes, but it was only because he was trying to help me,” pursued Beatrice, still trying to protect her rescuer, “so we can’t blame him!”

“What I would like to know is why you were out riding without a groom in the first place,” said Johanna. “What on earth got into you today, Bea?”