Love Sneaked In (Montgomery Family Trilogy) (48 page)

Jonathan hated the fact that he needed so much brandy, but it had been that way ever since Waterloo. Lately it seemed to take more and more brandy before he felt any relief. He felt himself begin to doze off, so he made his way to his bed and fell into an exhausted sleep.

Around three in the morning, he began tossing and turning in his sleep.
Oh God, no. Everywhere he looked he saw dead and dying men. He was fighting off three Frenchmen when one of them shot his horse out from under him. He felt himself falling. He was able to roll clear of his horse, but just as he gained his footing, something slammed into him. As he hit the ground, he knew he was done for, and he felt himself begin to lose consciousness. The next thing he knew, he heard the surgeons talking about his leg, saying that it needed to come off. He started yelling, “No, you will not…cut off…my leg! Dammit…leave…me…alone!”
Jonathan let out a scream as he woke up from his nightmare.

Covered in sweat and his heart pounding, it took a few moments for Jonathan to realize it had only been a dream. He hated the nightmares. That was one of the reasons he drank so much before he went to bed. It helped to keep the nightmares away and helped him deal with the pain. He must have failed to drink enough last night.

Why couldn’t he get some peace from this torment?

Jonathan lay there fighting the need to go back to sleep, fearing more nightmares. Pulling himself out of bed, he made it to the table where he kept his decanter of brandy and poured a glass. He gulped it down, refilled it, and drank that too. He limped over to his chair, collapsed into it, and continued to drink. Slowly he lost his battle to stay awake and slipped back to sleep.

The next morning Jonathan woke up exhausted. When he looked at himself in the mirror while shaving, he wasn’t surprised that he looked so haggard. There were dark circles under his eyes, and the lines on his forehead looked deeper than usual. He looked like hell and felt years older than thirty. In many ways, he felt as if he were a hundred.

Jonathan tried to shake off the melancholy and slowly finished his ablutions. He had a blinding headache and felt nauseous. He knew it was from all the brandy he drank the night before. Hatton was there with his restorative, which he mixed for him each morning. He dressed in the clothes Hatton had laid out for him and tried to concentrate on the things that he needed to take care of that day.

Once Jonathan was dressed, he went down to the breakfast room and attempted to eat his morning meal, but he just couldn’t stomach the thought of food and gave up. Even though it was only noon, he craved the oblivion that the brandy gave him, but he resisted the temptation. There were quite a few things he needed to do today if he was going to be able to leave town in three days.

Jonathan left for his solicitor’s office, since he had an appointment with him at one o’clock. They were going to go over some recent investments he’d made. Although he was a wealthy landowner with holdings scattered all over England, he religiously looked for new investments to enrich the marquessate for future generations. He had always enjoyed a challenge and dabbling with investments was definitely that. It was just about the only thing in his life he could still get excited about.

The next two days were brutal. Each day, Jonathan needed more brandy to sleep, and the pain in his knee was worse than it had been in a long time. Hatton kept trying to convince him to take laudanum, since he believed it would work better on his pain than liquor, but Jonathan refused.

Finally it was Sunday, and Jonathan was ready to leave town. The trip to his estate took three days, and he stayed drunk the entire time to make the trip tolerable. Sitting in a cramped carriage was hell on his knee, and bouncing around on the rainy rutted roads wasn’t helping.

As he drew near his home, he watched as the landscape changed to grassy limestone hills, woodlands, and cool, green ravines. Breathing in the clean countryside air, he felt himself begin to relax.

His family seat was in Weston, which was south of the Cotswold Hills, and about five miles from the center of Bath. The closer he came to his estate, the better he felt. St. John’s Wood had been in the family ever since Queen Elizabeth gave it to the first marquess shortly after she ascended to the throne in 1558.

Looking out of the window as the coach turned into the drive to his home, Jonathan noticed how neatly trimmed the boxwood hedges were, which ran along each side of the drive, and he anxiously awaited his first sight of his ancestral home, St. John’s Wood Manor.

When it came into view, his heart swelled with love for his home. It was a Jacobean mellow-red brick manor with white stone window casings. There were wings on each side of the main house that had been added at the end of the last century. The overall effect was very pleasing to the eye—his home was as lovely as he remembered. Jonathon often wondered why he stayed away for so long whenever he came home and saw the beauty of his principle estate.

When his carriage pulled up under the portico, his butler was already there to greet him. “My lord, it’s so good to see you. I received your message. Everything is ready, as you requested.”

“Thank you, Goodman. Where’s my sister? I would have expected her to be here to greet me.” Just as Jonathan spoke these words, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a whirlwind coming his way. He turned and his little sister ran into his arms. She must have run quite a distance because her pretty pink cheeks were flushed from her exertion, and her long, golden hair was hanging down her back, having lost all its hairpins.

Grabbing Elaine around the waist, he hugged her close as she laughed up at him. “Jonathan, I’m so thrilled you’ve finally arrived! How long are you planning on staying? Please say you plan to stay for a good long time, because it’s dreadfully dull when you’re away!”

“Hello, Princess. It’s good to know you missed me. I’m not sure how long I’m staying, but I know it will be at least through harvest time. After that, we’ll just have to wait and see. I’ve become terribly bored with town and just want the peace and quiet of home for a while. I received a letter from Roderick. He wants us to come for a visit, but I’m going to try to convince him to bring his family here instead.”

“Oh, that would be wonderful! I just love playing with my niece and nephew. Frankford and Jane are such sweet children. I haven’t seen them since last Christmas. If they can’t come, can we please go visit them?”

“Yes, if they can’t come here, we’ll just have to make the trip to see them. Well, let me go in and get settled. We can talk more over dinner. Since we have no guests, you can dine with me tonight.”

Jonathan and Elaine went into the house, and Jonathan went upstairs to his suite so he could wash away his travel dirt. Hatton came rushing into the room, began unpacking his belongings, and started putting them away. He was a very good valet, but Jonathan wished he wouldn’t hover over him quite so much.

All the inactivity of traveling for three days had taken a toll on his knee and it was aching fiercely. Jonathan stripped down to his smalls, sat down in his deeply cushioned chair and put his leg up on the matching ottoman to take some strain off his knee.

Hatton could always sense when Jonathan’s knee was bothering him, so he hastily applied a soothing balm, prepared the cold compresses, and wrapped them around Jonathan’s knee. Jonathan didn’t know what was in the special liniment that he used, but it always seemed to help. Hatton handed him a glass of brandy, and he drank it quickly, hoping that it would deaden the pain.

“Thank you, Hatton. That feels much better. Why don’t you go up to your room and get all your things put away? I won’t need you again until it’s time to get ready for dinner. I just want to relax for a while.”

“Here’s your brandy decanter. I’ll just leave it on the table beside you, my lord. I’ll return in plenty of time to help you get ready for dinner.”

Hatton left the room and Jonathan breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, he was alone. He poured himself another large glass of brandy and settled back into his chair. It was so good to be at home at last. He knew he had made the right decision to come back here.

As Jonathan looked around his room, he felt a huge sense of peace roll over him. His room was so comfortable with his large oak bed and his oversized chair by the fireplace. He found the deep moss-green colors that decorated his room restful. It made him wonder why he ever left St. John’s Wood to begin with. He thought back over the last few months and had no regrets over leaving town, or breaking it off with Alana.

Turning his thoughts to other things, Jonathan certainly hoped he could get his brother to come here because he didn’t want to have to go to him. He picked up his travel writing desk, pulled paper and quill out of it, and wrote a letter to his brother asking him to come home and bring his family. He would get Goodman to post it tomorrow morning. Jonathan leaned his head back against the cushions of his chair and fell fast asleep.

Later that afternoon, Hatton woke him in plenty of time for dinner, and Jonathan enjoyed spending the evening with Elaine. Dinner was pleasant, and after they finished eating Elaine entertained him by playing the pianoforte and singing. She had a lovely contralto voice that he always found soothing.

Yes, he was very glad to be home again.

Over the next few days, Jonathan rode around his estate visiting with his tenant farmers and catching up with his steward, Whetherby. The tenant farms were all doing well, and the harvest promised to be bountiful again this year. So far, rain had been steady throughout the summer, which helped the crops, even though it aggravated his knee.

Jonathan enjoyed his morning rides with Whetherby. Thank God, he had no problems riding a horse. He had to use his thigh muscles to compensate for the weakness in his knee and lower leg, but his horse, Demon, had adapted well, and Jonathan could get him to respond to the lightest of pressure followed by a verbal command.

He’d had Demon since he returned from Waterloo. He found him at Tattersall’s, and one of the fastest racing horses of the century had sired him. Since he was a gelding, he was less temperamental than a stallion would have been. While Jonathan was still an excellent rider, he doubted he could control a temperamental horse.

A few days later, as Jonathan sat in his study drinking brandy and going over some reports that Whetherby had left for him to peruse, Goodman brought him the post. There was a letter from his brother telling him to expect him to arrive on Saturday, the twenty-eighth. He was definitely looking forward to seeing his brother again.

Jonathan enjoyed spending time with Elaine. They went riding every afternoon. He was pleased to see that Elaine had turned into an excellent equestrian. He remembered how scared she was the first time he had put her on a horse when she was six years old. Elaine had certainly come a long way.

She had also turned into a real beauty, and he knew he would have his hands full in a few years when she made her bow to society. Elaine appeared much older than most fifteen-year-olds did. With her long golden blonde hair and gorgeous green eyes, he was sure young men would flock around her once she had her come out and presentation at court. He just hoped she wouldn’t give him any problems anytime soon.

Elaine was fairly well behaved, but she did tend to get into mischief when he was away. Again, he was so grateful that his brother had married. His brother’s wife, Allison, would be there when it was time for Elaine to have her come out She would help make sure Elaine didn’t get into trouble. Pouring himself another glass of brandy, he continued going over his reports.

***

To read more, find
Turned Around by Love
by Vikki Vaught
on Amazon.

Table of Contents