His Bewitching Jewel (A Regency Holiday Romance Book 7) (17 page)

“As for Reverend Beasley, and your mother’s machinations, I wouldn’t have let your mother have her way in that, Ruby. I thought you knew that. Your mother is a foolish, and sometimes vindictive woman. I…I only let her live with me because I couldn’t bear to be parted from you. You have been like my second daughter…I thought…I thought you knew that,” he said gruffly. “I thought I made no bones about expressing it to you, Ruby. I suppose, I suppose I failed you.”

She stood with him, as he held her close. She didn’t know that. “I thought you did it out of brotherly devotion,” she admitted honestly.

“I have several sisters, and my brotherly devotion to Honoria can only go so far, and it went as far as it was going to go, ages ago. I wouldn’t see her out on the streets, but I could have easily set her up in her own home so she wasn’t around Rosehill Manor pretending that it is all hers. I kept her close, because I wanted to keep you close. I shall, of course, provide you with a dowry. I shall have you on equal footing with all of your cousins, and I know it will delight Alice, and infuriate Honoria.”

“That isn’t necessary, sir. I do not want Ruby for her dowry,” Finn said solemnly.

“I know you don’t, son, and that is why I am happy to give her to you, but you shall humour an old man, and you will let me do what will fill my heart with joy.”

Finn cleared his throat. “Why don’t we all go to the Morning Room for some breakfast? Unless of course, you need to go upstairs and freshen up, or rest, sir?” he asked.

“I am hearty and hale, young pup. I am not that stricken in years—yet. I don’t need to rest. A little time on the road is nothing to me. I am quite used to it, aren’t I, Ruby?”

She nodded her head. “Oh, indeed, yes. Uncle Thomas has probably spent most of his life inside of a carriage.”

Thomas laughed. “I think you might have overdone it a bit there, lass.”

They walked through the house to the Morning Room. “Lovely place you have here, Camblesforth, even if it is a bit haunted.”

“How can you tell, Uncle?” she asked, nonplussed.

He pointed to Mrs. Teague who had caught up with them, and was attempting to look inconspicuous. She obviously wanted a word with Finn.

“Isn’t that old crone one of them?” he asked, a twinkle in his eyes.

“Oh, Uncle,” she laughed, as Finn went over to have a word with Mrs. Teague. “She is the housekeeper.”

“I rather thought that might be the case based on the chatelaine she is wearing. No…as we were driving up the lane to the house…I…well, I saw a woman looking out of one of the second story windows and she was dressed in emerald green, and she wore a French hood. She was rather pretty, but she didn’t fit in with the way ladies dress today. I looked away, and when I looked back, she had vanished.”

“Are you…are you quite serious, Uncle?” she asked softly. His confession should have unsettled her, but after her time spent within Penryn House, nothing surprised her.

“Aye,” he said, nodding his head. “I don’t jest about such things, young lady. Besides, this old place must have scads of ghosts wandering its halls. We have a few at Rosehill Manor.”

“It has one I would rather do without.”

“So would I,” Finn lamented, returning from speaking with Mrs. Teague.

“Ah…you have a poltergeist, do you?” Thomas asked.

“We have a malicious spirit who invades my dreams,” Ruby confessed. “He unsettles the entire household. He isn’t at all nice.”

Thomas sighed. “We will have to find a way to do without him. This place has a tranquility to it…and to think it is being disrupted…no, it won’t do. Maybe…maybe Iris will bring Lord Cary here…he can see the ruddy things, can’t he? Well, he can see them even when they don’t want to be seen, I expect. Now, shall we eat?”

“That has all been taken care of. Come with me,” Finn said.

They walked into the Morning Room. It had obviously been decorated with a woman in mind, because fresh flowers from the Estate’s greenhouse brightened the space, and the walls were decorated in soft blue silk wall hangings. There was an area to sit and eat, done up like an informal Dining Room, and then, the other part of the room had been made up like a receiving room, with sofas and chairs.

It felt like a sanctuary. It felt as if this space had been used for the lady of the house of withdraw to. In the past, it probably had. Her eyes rested on a portrait that keenly reminded her of Lady Miranda and Lady Cordelia.

This woman had blond hair, and blue eyes.

“You should have shown me this room sooner, it is lovely,” Ruby whispered, in awe as she looked around the room. “Is that Lady Isolde?” she asked softly, still admiring the portrait.

Finn smiled at her. “Aye. That is my sister. She was lovely, wasn’t she? She looks so much like Miranda…it is uncanny. She decided to have her portrait placed here as it was one of her favourite rooms, and she didn’t want it to be in the Picture Gallery. I might move it at some point in time, if the girls want me to. This was one of my grandmother’s favourite rooms, and she passed that fondness down to Isolde and me. She used to bring her ladies here after we had dinner. I suppose she used it as a Ladies Withdrawing Room. She said that it was one of the loveliest places in Penryn House.”

“Lady Trelawney and your sister were both wise women—I feel instantly at peace in this room. I could easily imagine myself sitting here with all of my lady friends,” Ruby mused.

“Alice would adore this room,” Thomas said.

“We have a few other State Rooms that my grandmother was also fond of. You will have to see all of them, Ruby, since you shall be the lady of the house.”

“This place certainly surpasses Avondale’s dusty old abbey. And well, Lord Prescott hasn’t even bought a house last I heard. That man wanted to pay you attention, Ruby, but he still has wandering feet. He will have to have to find a way to settle down before he can catch himself a wife.”

“I fear he might never be able to do that,” Ruby said. “Lord Prescott has a dangerous streak to him. I don’t think he has quite let go of his days spent in the wars. He and I would never have made a good match.”

“Ah, he’s a veteran, too?” Finn asked.

“Aye, he was in the Army, in a covert group of skirmishers known as The King’s Couriers, and nicknamed The Angels of Death. He was one of their Royal Engineers, given the nickname of Lucky, because I gather he was lucky never to get any part of himself blown off,” Thomas said.

“I was in the Royal Navy,” Finn said.

“Ah, had I been a bit younger, I, too, would have gone to give Napoleon a good thrashing.”

“Well, he isn’t going to be so lucky this time around. Ruby will never be his,” Finn said, as they settled themselves at the round mahogany table that served as the breakfast table.

The breakfast had been set out for them, and Ruby reached for two slices of toast, and poured herself a cup of tea. Finn felt like coffee this morning, and had asked for some bacon and eggs, as he had felt like more than just a light repast.

Thomas reached for some pound cake, some eggs, and some of the bacon. He, decided to have some hot chocolate instead of the other options of tea or coffee.

“Wonderful spread, Camblesforth. You have a talented cook.”

“Yes, I do. She is the best one in the county. I was fortunate to find Mrs. Chegwin and her husband, Mr. Chegwin. She is my Cook, he is my butler, and I don’t know what I would do without them. What Mrs. Chegwin does with her cuisine is pure magic.”

“I might have to steal her from you,” Thomas joked.

Ruby smiled serenely. “You wouldn’t get rid of Mrs. Reed, Uncle.”

“No…I suppose you are right,” Thomas relented.

“I wouldn’t worry, Ruby. Nothing could take Mrs. Chegwin away from this house. She is here to stay—or at least, that is what she told me,” Finn said.

As Ruby was adding the jam to her second piece of toast, harpsichord music filled the room. She dropped her knife, and Finn sat up straighter, and looked wildly about.

“Damnation,” he muttered. “Will they never leave well enough alone?”

“Ah, someone in your family likes to play the harpsichord. I thought they were rather out of style now,” Thomas said.

“They are,” Finn said uneasily. “We still have one. It is in one of the guest bedchambers that we rarely use.” Then, under his breath, “I had it moved there when it kept playing by itself.”

“Ah, so it is rather like your harp,” she mused, chuckling. “I don’t think the ghosts here know how to behave.”

“They have never known how to behave,” Finn admitted. “Granted, this month is usually the worst for activity. We never dared have balls in October back when I was a child.”

“You have a harp and a harpsichord that the spirits like to play?” Thomas asked, with a twinkle in his eyes. “I expect you don’t have to hire any musicians to play at your balls, eh?”

“Uncle!” she chastised.

“It is true,” Finn relented. “Our house has many ghosts with a musical flair. Even death cannot stop them from practicing. We don’t often hold balls, here, sir, and as I said, we never hold them during the month of October. This house is usually our sanctuary. The Trelawneys held their balls in London, before my father married my mother—even though we have a ballroom here…or rather a room that was turned into a ballroom, we have hardly had the opportunity to use it as such.”

“Perhaps that should change. You could invite all of the local nobility and gentry, and have a ball celebrating your marriage to my niece. Of course, you might have to contend with my darling sister, Honoria, as she is bound to want to attend, but once Ruby is safely married to you, there is little she could do to spoil things, and somehow she shall find a way to take credit for this match. She will say she pushed Ruby toward that little cretin, because she wanted her to spread her wings and fly…Fly right into the arms of a dashing duke, and then, she will titter in that annoying way of hers, and revel in all of the attention she is gaining because she is the other of the new Duchess of Camblesforth.”

“I suppose I could hold a ball to celebrate our marriage,” Finn relented. “However, I am not entirely sure that my nieces would be ready for such an event.”

“No,” Ruby said quickly. “No, indeed, not. I wouldn’t think that Lady Cordelia would be keen on one.”

“Oh, fiddle-faddle. All little girls like a good ball, even if they have to watch from afar. You used to love to see all of the lords, ladies and gentlemen in all of their finery, Ruby.”

“I did, didn’t I?” she asked, sighing. “Rose and I, and some of my other cousins, we used to sit and watch all of the balls that you would throw, Uncle, and the ones that the Aunt Alice and Uncle Edward held were always so pretty, and the ones that Aunt Hope held…”

“Aye, they were all such great fun,” Thomas said, sighing heavily. “Honoria never was too fond of them. I suppose she didn’t like seeing all of the pretty ladies outshine her. Granted, there never was anything wrong with her looks…it was more how she carried herself, and her expressions can be so sour even at the best of times. Now, you, Ruby, you might have been fond of the balls at a young age, but once you reached the age where you could go to them yourself, you lost your fondness for them.

“Camblesforth, you shall have to keep an eye on her. My Ruby likes to hide and runaway whenever there is a social event with the other sex attending. ‘Course now that you have been able to keep her in one spot long enough to court her and ask for her hand, she might not hide or flee, so much now. She has already been caught, eh?” he laughed.

Ruby sighed. “Was I always that noticeable?”

“While trying to make yourself inconspicuous, aye, you were rather conspicuous,” Thomas admitted. “You shall have to discard your wallflower tendencies, now that you will one day be Camblesforth’s wife. A Duchess cannot hide, Ruby.”

Finn watched her hands shake, as she raised the teacup to her lips. “I suppose…I suppose you are quite right, Uncle. I daresay I might have a bit of trouble adjusting to it all.”

He wished that her uncle would be quiet. He didn’t want her to have second thoughts about their marriage. He wanted Ruby. He didn’t care if she wanted to be sociable with the rest of the Beau Monde, he didn’t even want to run in those circles anymore.

“You will do rather elegantly, I think,” Finn said. “And if you don’t want to host balls, and the like, Ruby, you don’t have to. You are the mistress of your own destiny as my wife. I won’t control you—and I certainly won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.”

“Thank you, sir,” she said softly, looking demurely down at the table.

“Ah…this rogue has a charming tongue, and a captivating manner. I can see how you were able to catch Ruby. Others before you were not as successful. She is a jewel, and I expect you to cherish her.”

“I shall, sir.”

“Jolly good. Now, then,” Thomas said, setting aside his napkin. “Now that my belly is full, I wouldn’t be opposed to being shown to a room, and then, perhaps, a hot bath to wash off the dust from the road?”

“Of course,” Finn said, he nodded to a footman who would run to tell the scullery maid to boil the water.

“And then, maybe after my bath, I might take this body to bed for a little nap.”

“You do like your naps, Uncle,” Ruby smiled fondly at him.