Jane knew her friend was dissembling a little. There was more to her musing than she was saying. “He came to visit you, every day I was unwell?” Jane asked, still confused as to what Faith was saying. From the way Faith was acting, Elliot had come to see her – not Jane. As she thought on it, that rather made more sense than him coming to see herself. There was nothing between them that would have suggested such tender devotion. After all, the dratted man had not so much as put up a fight for her when he learned she was to be wed to another man. Why would he have been so assiduously by her side now?
“I… I rather think he likes me,” Faith said, her pretty cheeks flushing with color as she said it. Jane felt her heart break. Of course, he would. Everyone thought Faith was lovely, a paragon of perfect blonde beauty with a kind heart and gentle manner. She would make the perfect wife, yet she had not once so much as mentioned an interest in a man before now. Jane knew that after all of Faith’s support and care that she would never deny her friend anything, but Jane was not sure if she would be able to bear seeing Faith beloved by the man that Jane had loved her entire life.
“And do you like him?” Jane forced herself to ask.
“I do. He is nothing like the other men I have met,” Faith admitted. “He seems not to care what others think of him. He rather reminds me of you in many ways. Sweet and kind, clever and…” she tailed off, moonstruck.
“And handsome, of course,” Jane finished for her, trying not to sound bitter and angry. If Faith truly cared for Elliot and he cared for her in return, should Jane want them both to be happy? She loved them both so dearly. Yet her jealous heart kept shouting at her that this would be too much for her to bear. She owed Faith more than she would ever be able to repay her – but giving her Elliot was too high a price to pay.
Or was it?
Elliot did not want her. He never had. Jane was sure that he saw her as nothing more than the girl whose pigtails had pulled when they were growing up, the girl who always tagged along behind the boys wanting to be a part of their rough and tumble games because she found the little girls of her acquaintance so dull and insipid even then. If Elliot loved Faith and she loved him then Jane should be happy for them.
Faith said no more, and Jane turned her face back to the sky, her eyes closed as she pondered what this new information meant to her. Faith would make Elliot a wonderful wife, and such an excellent match would also mean that Faith would live within a few miles ride of her own home. But Jane did not know if she would ever be able to return to her home, so that might make little difference, though she longed to do so. She missed her wild and rugged home. She even missed her foolish father and weak-willed mother. Would they ever forgive her for what she had done?
That thought made her realized that she could not go through her life knowing that she had stood in the way of her dearest friends’ happiness. She wanted Elliot and Faith to be well-wed. Who would treat Faith better than Elliot? Who could possibly take better care of Elliot than Faith? Jane vowed that she would do all she could to throw them together and make the match. And when she did, she would merrily throw rice at their marriage and would be the very first to congratulate them for she loved them both so much, and so wanted them both to be happy.
Chapter Six
Elliot’s passage to Northumberland was not as eventful as his journey to Dorset some weeks earlier had been. He stopped overnight once more in the small town where his carriage had foundered. His first port of call was the wheelwright’s yard to see if his phaeton had been repaired. The stylish phaeton was indeed ready for him and so Elliot made arrangements for the rented carriage that had brought them this far be returned to Dorset, along with its horses. Elliot’s favorite carriage horse, Blaze, whom Elliot had left behind in the capable hands of the kindly wheelwright, formed a strong bond at first meeting with young Walter and so it was not long before they were back on the road and travelling at a much faster pace than before.
Walter was delighted when Elliot taught him how to drive the faster vehicle. He had good hands and Elliot enjoyed watching the young man’s pleasure at learning a new skill – and going so fast. With each passing day it was clear to Elliot that he had made an excellent choice in taking on the lad. He was clever and quick, eager to please, and very amusing company.
Elliot decided that he would do what he could to develop the young man’s education and skills. He was certain that Walter would turn out to be an excellent estate manager in time. He chuckled to himself at that. It was unlikely that the boy would have thought much past his current role as Elliot’s temporary manservant and groom. Such lofty ambitions would never have occurred to him. In some ways it was his lack of ambition, just a desire to do any job well, that made Elliot so sure of the lad’s potential.
“Do we have much further to go?” Walter asked him as they sat down for supper at the coaching inn in Consett.
Elliot chuckled. It had been a long journey, and Walter had been astonished by how large the country was. The lad had never even left Winchester before. It had come as a surprise to him that there were so many towns and villages just like his own, and unlike it, too. He had marvelled at the different ways local people built their homes, the ways they worked the land, and the changes in the landscape as they had travelled. Elliot could not remember how old he had been when he first learned that the world was much bigger than his home and the villages between it and Lord Lachlan’s estate. Seeing Walter’s horizons expand had been an unexpected pleasure.
“We are, perhaps, another week from my home,” Elliot told him. “I live right up on the border between England and Scotland. The country we will now be passing through is some of the loveliest I have ever known, though many might say it is bleak and forbidding, but to me it is home.”
“Have you travelled very far, mi’lord?”
“I spent three years travelling across the Continent,” Elliot told him. “I started in France, where I studied in Paris for a short time, then made my way south to the vast mountain ranges of the Pyrenees and the Alps.”
“Where Hannibal took his elephants?” Walter asked eagerly. Elliot had told the lad the story of the great general and his ultimately doomed expedition some days earlier.”
“Indeed. I can hardly fathom why he thought he might ever manage it,” Elliot said laughing. “The passes were almost impenetrable on foot, with tiny narrow crags and paths. No elephant would ever have been able to survive it.”
“I should very much like to see the world,” Walter said wistfully.
“Then you shall accompany me should I ever travel abroad again,” Elliot assured him. The lad looked immediately cheered, and Elliot vowed to find a way to ensure he might keep his promise to Walter as soon as he was able to do so.
They finished their meal and Walter went out to the stable to check on Blaze, as he did every night. Elliot ascended to the chamber that he had taken for them for the night, where he had a brief wash at the washstand in the corner, before lying down on the rather knobbly straw mattress on the large bed and wondered if the truckle bed that Walter would be taking might actually be more comfortable.
Walter let himself into the room and quickly crawled under his blankets. They were rough and scratched at his skin, but they were warm. Elliot heard him sigh as he wriggled to get comfortable. The truckle bed creaked under the lad’s weight, but soon the boy was breathing evenly, and Elliot knew that Walter was sleeping. He blew out the candle by the side of his bed and stared up at the ceiling.
Elliot knew there was so much that could go wrong in his impetuous plan, yet he had not managed to talk himself out of it, even in the many weeks of travelling that he and Walter had undertaken. The more he thought of what it meant, to him and he hoped to Jane, the more he knew he had to find a way to extricate her from her betrothal. He was sure that there must be something he could do – if only he might find a way to encourage Lord Lachlan to confide in him – and to accept Elliot’s assistance.
Eventually he fell into a f
itful slumber, waking early in the morning to the sound of hooves clattering on the cobblestones outside in the inn’s yard. He got out of bed and peered out of the grimy window. He was surprised to see Lord Lachlan, the very man he had come all this way to see, exiting an old and worn-looking barouche. Elliot could hardly believe his luck. Perhaps fate was intervening in order to ensure that Jane need no longer fear a marriage that would only make her miserably unhappy. He pulled on his jacket and swilled some water around his mouth, spitting it out into the basin on the washstand, then hurried down the stairs.
Lord Lachlan was talking with the innkeeper when Elliot burst into the bar. He looked a little unsteady on his feet, and Elliot found himself wondering if the man had already started drinking this early in the day, or if he was on his way home after a long night playing cards at Lord Wulfstan’s Durham home. It seemed that the fool never learned his lesson, whichever might be the case.
Lord Lachlan looked up at the sound of the banging door as it slammed behind Elliot. “My Lord,” he slurred, giving Elliot a polite bow. “How was your godfather’s wedding? We have been expecting you home for some time.”
“I was held up, visiting with Viscount Hawthorne and his new bride. She is quite lovely,” Elliot said, glad that he could at least tell the truth about that part of his delay. He knew better than to tell Lord Lachlan that he had seen Jane. “In truth, sir, I am glad that we have met so propitiously. I was on my way to meet with you.”
“You were?” Lord Lachlan asked, looking surprised that Elliot might seek him out for anything. There had been little communication between them for many years. Lord Lachlan had fallen foul of Elliot’s mother’s temper one too many times to have been made welcome – though Jane had always been encouraged to visit.
Lord Lachlan peered at him through rheumy eyes. “You know I would do anything to assist you. Your father was one of my dearest friends and the entire county will miss the strong hand of your dear mama.”
Elliot chose not to challenge the man’s declaration of friendship with his father. Papa had tolerated Lord Lachlan but had viewed the man as weak and ineffective, and decided it might be wise to ignore the hidden slur regarding his mother’s strong views and effective estate management. Too many men believed that women were incapable of such things, it seemed that Lord Lachlan could be counted amongst them.
However, in such a remote spot as Northumberland and the border lands of Scotland, suitable company was often some days ride away, and so snubbing the aristocracy that lived closest was unwise and so the families had rubbed along over the years as best they might. “Indeed, our families have ever been close,” Elliot said diplomatically. “Which is why I would like to discuss something with you that may be a little sensitive. I know my father would wish me to help his dear friend, if he believed a friend might need assistance – as he would have been proud to do so, were he still with us, God assoil him.”
His words were heavily weighted, and Lord Lachlan raised his eyebrows and made to say something, then thought otherwise. Elliot wondered if he had been about to deny his troubles, which would have been foolish as they were known throughout the county. “I would not say no to your help with finding my daughter,” Lord Lachlan said, his tone a little frosty. “I cannot think what else you might be alluding to.”
“I would be glad to assist in any way I can,” Elliot said, keeping his tone calm. “Come, sit. I will get the innkeeper to bring us some ale and something to break our fast. We can talk on your troubles and find a solution together.”
Elliot watched as Lord Lachlan staggered to one of the tables and sat down heavily in a high-backed chair. He plonked his elbows on the table and sank his head into his hands. Elliot wondered why anyone would choose to drink so heavily that they would feel so bad the next day, but he could not help wondering if Lord Lachlan’s heavy drinking might act in his favor this day. Many a man had confided secrets he ought not whilst under the influence of liquor.
He turned to the innkeeper and requested that the man bring a pitcher of ale, and some bread and cheese, then to bring a good claret once the two men had eaten. Elliot had to gain Lord Lachlan’s trust. Few men would ever admit to a man their social superior that they had financial woes, but that was just what Elliot needed Lord Lachlan to confess. He was sure that he could do it. No man wished to be beholden to someone like Lord Wulfstan, who preyed upon those with weaknesses. No man wished to be seen as unable to manage himself or be so easily led into penury.
It took Elliot very little time to get Lord Lachlan drunk enough that his tongue loosened sufficiently to find out what it was that Lord Wulfstan had over him. “The man’s the very Devil,” Lord Lachlan complained, his tone resigned – as though no matter how he might try, there was no escaping the machinations of the other man. “I try and stay away. But every time I vow to do so, he suggests a way in which I can double my losses, to be able to repay him and rebuild my own estate, take back my lands – pay of all the darned mortgages I had no choice but to take out.”
Elliot did not speak. He nodded encouragingly and murmured from time to time to make the drunken lord believe that he was fully participating in the conversation. In his mind a drunk was God’s biggest fool and a gambler deserved all he got – but he realized as he sat there that it was just this kind of judgement that led men like Lord Lachlan further into debt and drink. Lord Lachlan had not always been this pitiful. Once he had been a respected member of the community, a member of Parliament even in his younger days. He would not recover his senses alone. He needed help and compassion – not Elliot’s judgement.
The innkeeper brought more claret, and a platter of cheeses. “A letter has come for you, My Lord,” he said to Elliot as he set down the tray upon the table for them. “The courier said he was on his way to your estate, I told him you were here. He was right glad he would be able to rest a while.”
Elliot picked up the letter and recognizing the hand upon it nodded grimly. He pulled a purse from his belt and handed a couple of coins to the innkeeper. “Thank the man for me,” he said. “I am glad this found me here.”
He opened the wax seal and quickly skimmed the contents of the missive. He breathed a sigh of relief at what his old friend, Dr Alistair Campbell had written. With the final piece of his plan no in place, and reining in his desire to lecture the man, Elliot just let Lord Lachlan speak, let him open his heart and let everything spill out. He was surprised at how easy it was to forget everything he thought he knew, everything he had believed about men such as this, as Lord Lachlan told him everything.
“I have never been a good man,” Lord Lachlan said, his tone full of self-pity. “I was lucky when my father arranged the match with my wife. She brought me a fine dowry and a great inheritance when her father died. She must hate me for ruining her. She was the daughter of an earl, and she got stuck with a reckless baron that does not know when to step away from the piquet table. I am heartily glad she did not live long enough to see what’s become of me.”
“I know that to be untrue,” Elliot said firmly. “My father used to tell me that you were a fine man, with excellent principles and that you stood to rise high in the government. What makes you say you were not a good man?”
Lord Lachlan laughed. It was a harsh, bitter sound. “My boy, do not believe all you hear. You should know that by now, at least. Your father was a good man. Always right, dash his eyes.”
Elliot was surprised to see a wry smile on the other man’s lips. “Why would you say that?” he asked.
“He told me when we were still at Oxford that if I did not mind my ways that I would end up losing all. He was ever the soothsayer. I would bet he is laughing now, seeing he was right after all.”
“My father was not always a kind man,” Elliot said honestly, “but I doubt had ever wish unhappiness or troubles upon anyone. Especially not an old friend. He would take no pleasure in seeing you brought low.”
“No, you are right. And you are just like him,” Lord Lachlan
acknowledged, nodding his head. “He would be proud of you, were he here to see the way you have turned out.”
“You could change, if you wished to,” Elliot suggested.
“I see no way how,” Lord Lachlan said, his tone maudlin. “I have tried to not drink. I have tried not to frequent the gaming tables, but I am too weak.”
“Perhaps you need some assistance, from someone who specializes in the sort of help you require?” Elliot said gently, not knowing how such a suggestion might be received.
Lord Lachlan stared at him for a moment. He leaned an elbow on the table and rested his head in his hand, as though his head was too heavy to hold it up on his neck alone. “There is nobody who would do that for me,” he said finally. “Even Janey left me, and she was right to do so. I gambled her life away, not just my own and that was the most despicable thing I have ever done.”
Sensing that the moment had come, Elliot decided it was now time to ask the most difficult of questions. “How much do you owe Lord Wulfstan, My Lord?” Elliot asked, politely offering the older man deference he did not deserve and was not entitled to. Elliot was an earl, his rank considerably higher than that of the older man, but Lord Lachlan was the father of the woman he loved and so he was glad to offer the man some memento of the pride he had lost long ago.
There was a long pause. Lord Lachlan hung his head in shame. For a moment Elliot thought he had misjudged the moment. He cursed silently to himself. He had ever been too impatient.
“More than I can ever pay – even if I sell everything I own, everything my daughter owns,” the baron admitted. “I have to find her, Grey. Wulfstan will forgive me my debts and will let me save face if she marries him. But not otherwise. We will both be ruined if that wedding does not take place.”
“Sir, I think I might be able to help you to repay those debts, to regain your sobriety – and bring your daughter home, if you will just hear me out,” Elliot said, praying that Lord Lachlan would listen and let Elliot give him the help he so desperately needed.
The Earl's Love Match: A Sweet Regency Romance Page 5