After a surprised moment, he said, “I take your point. Both men and little girls are individuals.” He studied Sarah’s heart-shaped face. She was distractingly lovely. Reminding himself to stay with the subject, he continued, “You’ve met her and you were once a little girl. Do you have any suggestions? Should I hire a governess? Send her away to school?” He grimaced. “Assuming I can afford either.”
“Don’t be too hasty,” Sarah warned. “Is there a village school she could attend? Or perhaps she could have lessons with the local vicar?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “My father wasn’t interested in educating the lower orders. He believed that too much learning made them difficult.”
Sarah made an unladylike sound of disapproval. “Starting a school is another item for the list.”
“The list of things to do around the estate? It’s long already.”
“I started a new list today,” Sarah said apologetically. “When I was exploring the house. It really is a maze, with a mixture of treasures and trash. Overall, the condition of the house is better than the tenant farms, probably because your father and grandmother spent time here. But I thought it would be useful if you knew what would need to be done over time.”
He suppressed a sigh at the prospect of still more responsibilities. “Thank you. My knowledge of housekeeping is even less than my knowledge of estate management.”
“Good people can be hired to manage both. But a householder needs to know enough to ask the right questions in order to find good managers.”
“I should hire you to manage Kellington Castle,” Rob said, wishing it wasn’t a joke. “You’d do so much better than I. But back to Bree. I shouldn’t send her to school?”
Sarah shook her head. “Not now, perhaps never. Bree needs to feel that she has a real home. That she’s wanted and safe here as she was with her mother. Perhaps later a school will make sense, but you’ll have to choose one carefully since she’s illegitimate. She’d be tormented unmercifully in some schools.”
“A pity that Lady Agnes doesn’t have a school for girls,” he observed. “She has never allowed legitimacy to be an issue among her students.”
“The Westerfield Academy for girls of good birth and bad behavior?” Sarah said with amusement. “You should suggest that to Lady Agnes.”
“Perhaps I will.” They emerged from the gardens onto a grassy swath that ran along the cliff. In front of them the ruins of the original castle stood on a promontory thrusting out into the sea. Stone walls of various heights sketched the shape and size of the buildings that had stood there.
As they walked toward the old castle, a rabbit bolted away from the path and seagulls cried mournfully. The ruins ended abruptly at the cliff edge and pounding waves could be heard below.
He scanned the site, remembering. “When I was last here, the whole of that building was intact. A brew house, I think. Now half of it is gone.”
“It’s nice to have a legitimate set of ruins,” she remarked. “Building false ruins because they look picturesque is expensive.”
He chuckled. “These are certainly authentic. I played here often with village boys like Jonas. It’s a great place for hide-and-seek. There’s a maze of tunnels below. One of them runs well inland and comes out by an old icehouse near the modern house. I’m not sure if the tunnels were used for smuggling or for private comings and goings. I discovered my talent for finding people here. It was very hard to hide from me.”
As Sarah laughed, they turned to the left and along the path that paralleled the cliff edge. “I have a few other thoughts concerning Bree,” Sarah said. “First, if you are considering an heiress, don’t just take her word that she adores children and she loves the idea of being stepmother to your illegitimate daughter. Look at what she does, not what she says. Some women will say anything to acquire a title.”
“That’s good advice.” If he married for cold practical reasons, it would be easier to be objective in his observations. “What are your other thoughts?”
“This is a rather small thing.” She glanced up at him. “Bree will turn twelve in a few weeks. Perhaps you could arrange a birthday party for her with the friends she had when living with her mother in that village. Bendan, was it?”
“Yes, it’s only about five miles.” Cakes and sandwiches for half a dozen girls were well within his budget. “That’s a fine idea. She’ll be happy to see her friends again, and it will remind her of the good life she had before the old bugger.”
Sarah grinned. “Careful. That might slip out when you’re talking to others.”
“I hope to have no reason to ever discuss the man again.” Rob halted them and gestured down the cliff. “This is the path we came up after the yawl was wrecked.”
Sarah peered down it. “Good heavens, we really climbed that path in the dark on a stormy night? I’m impressed. It would give mountain goats pause.”
“The path is steeper than I remembered,” he agreed. “Lucky that I was more or less unconscious when I climbed up so I couldn’t see what I was doing.”
“Have you ever considered putting a handrail along the cliff?”
“I haven’t, but it’s a good idea.” He scanned the shingle beach below. “There are some scraps of wood that might have come from the Brianne.”
“Alas, poor Brianne,” Sarah said mournfully. “She was a good yawl.”
“She brought us safely across the sea,” he agreed. “It wasn’t her fault we didn’t have a good place to land.”
“Now that I think of it, why are boats always called ‘she’?”
He grinned. “Because they’re beautiful, capricious, and dangerous?”
“I’m not sure whether to be flattered or insulted,” Sarah said thoughtfully.
“I decline to offer an opinion.”
Both laughing, they turned back. It felt so easy, so natural, to talk to her. When she returned to her real life of comfort and privilege, he was going to miss her like an amputated limb.
As they approached the house, the rumble of wheels and thunder of hooves could be heard. At least one heavy coach, perhaps more. Rob calculated distances. “Someone’s coming. It could be the Ashtons if they made good time.”
Sarah’s pace quickened. “Oh, I hope so!”
As they emerged from the garden, two large travel carriages swept up the drive and halted in the driveway in front of the house. “Those are the Ashton arms painted on the door!” Sarah exclaimed. “She’s here!”
She took off at an impressive speed and reached the lead coach as the door opened and Mariah tumbled out, not waiting for the steps to be lowered. “Sarah!”
“Mariah!” They fell into each other’s arms, Mariah weeping. Sarah said, voice shaking, “I have a wedding ring of yours.”
Mariah cried even harder.
Rob realized that the incandescent joy of the sisters’ reunion was a reflection of the agony Mariah would have suffered if Sarah’s sacrifice had proved fatal. Mariah’s grief and guilt would never have fully healed if that had happened.
Seeing the sisters together was disorienting since they were so similar, yet not truly identical. The duchess had the gentle roundness of new motherhood, while Sarah . . . was Sarah. Her face was slightly narrower, the personality she projected subtly flavored with her own style of mischief.
Even so, they were as like as two golden peas in a pod.
Ashton emerged from the coach after his wife. Dark haired, quietly elegant, and reserved, he didn’t look like one of the most powerful noblemen in Britain. Unless, perhaps, one looked into his unexpected green eyes.
He circled the women and came to Rob’s side. Holding out his hand, he said simply, “There are no thanks strong enough, Rob.”
“I was just doing my job, Ash.” Rob accepted his friend’s handshake, which conveyed more than words. “Or what used to be my job. I’ve acquired a new one.”
“From what Sarah wrote, rescuing her was a good deal more exciting than ‘just a job,’
” Ashton said with amusement.
Rob shrugged. He’d never been good at accepting praise or gratitude. “We wouldn’t have made it here safely if she wasn’t amazingly intrepid.”
“Like her sister.” Ashton regarded the two women fondly. “They both look like spun sugar angels. So very misleading.”
So very true. As Rob chuckled, another round, comfortable-looking woman climbed from the carriage, a bundled baby in her arms. Mariah said proudly, “Sarah, meet your nephew, Richard Charles, the Marquess of Hawthorne.”
Sarah gasped and took the baby, who was dark haired and brightly interested in what was going on around him. “He’s so beautiful! He looks like both of you.”
“So far, he has a very easy disposition,” Mariah said. “I don’t expect it will last!”
“Perhaps it will if he takes after his father more than you,” Sarah said with a doting smile as she cradled the infant in her arms. The tenderness in her gaze took Rob’s breath away. She’d make a wonderful mother.
“We can talk after the ladies are settled,” Ashton said to Rob. Lifting his voice, he suggested, “Perhaps we’d best move this reunion indoors? You look tired, Mariah.”
“He’s right,” Sarah said. “Come inside and I’ll tuck you and the baby up and we can gossip over tea and cakes.”
The duchess smiled. She was beautiful enough to stop men in the streets, but her face was pale and her eyes shadowed. “I must be tired, or I’d resist all this fussing.”
Sarah laughed and escorted her sister, the nurse, and the baby into the house. “Relax and enjoy it since you have no choice.”
Inside, Sarah ordered tea and refreshments, then had Hector escort the female party upstairs to the royal suite, the best rooms in the house. Rob asked Ashton, “Do you prefer to talk over tea or brandy?”
“Tea. If we’re to talk business, we’ll need our wits about us.”
Rob ordered tea to be sent to the library, then took Ashton there by a wandering route. “Under the faux castle trappings it’s just a house, and not all that old.”
“But a pleasant, spacious house.” Ashton halted to gaze out a window toward the sea. “Because I live in a real abbey, I will testify that too much authenticity isn’t always comfortable. Ever since I inherited, I’ve been working to prevent icy winds from whistling down ancient chimneys and menacing stone corridors.”
Rob grinned. “You exaggerate.”
“A little,” Ashton admitted with a spark of amusement in his eyes. “But this house is appealingly eccentric. I hope you don’t mind if we stay for several days? There was no holding Mariah back from seeing for herself that Sarah is all right, but I’d rather not tire her with another journey before she’s feeling stronger.”
“You’re welcome for as long as you wish to stay. I’ve taken advantage of your hospitality at Ralston Abbey more times than I can count,” Rob said. “In fact, that’s how I happened to turn up right after Sarah’s abduction. A lucky chance created by your generosity in giving me carte blanche to stay when in the area.”
Ashton paused, arrested. “Do you know, I hadn’t once wondered about that? You appeared, it was a miracle, and it left me free to worry about Mariah. My Hindu ancestors would call it karma, not chance.”
As a pragmatist, Rob had no opinion whether his appearance was chance or fate. He was just glad that he’d arrived in time to help. If he hadn’t . . . His mouth tightened. He didn’t like to think what would have happened to Sarah.
They’d reached the library, where sunshine poured in the west-facing windows that overlooked the sea. He realized with wonder that this was indeed a pleasant house, and the library had always been one of his favorite rooms.
Since arriving in a state of collapse two days earlier, he’d been so weighed down by the burden of Kellington that he’d forgotten the pleasures. This had been a happy house when his mother was alive. It could be again.
If he could afford to keep the damned place.
Chapter 26
As Rob and Ashton entered the library, a footman was just laying out the tea tray between the leather-covered chairs at the far end of the room. After pouring, the man quietly withdrew. Was it Sarah who had the household running so smoothly? Rob told himself to ask her about that.
As they settled into the comfortably worn chairs, Ashton said, “I was so involved at Ralston Abbey that I didn’t realize your brother had died until I received your note. I’d met him a few times, but I didn’t know him well.”
“I hear a note in your voice that suggests you didn’t much like him.” Rob stirred a small chunk of sugar into his tea. “If you’d known Edmund better, you could have disliked him more.”
Ashton nodded. “I suspected as much. Rumor has it that your father and brother were deep in debt. Do you know how bad the situation is?”
“Not yet. I’ll have a better idea after I talk to the family lawyer.” Rob grimaced. “I don’t expect good news. While you’re here, can you ride over the estate with me? You’re enormously more knowledgeable about such matters than I am.”
“For you, anything,” Ashton said simply. “I’m still trying to work out a suitable reward for what you did.”
Rob did a swift mental calculation. “It was an expensive mission. Between my time and the acquisition of horses and sailboat, the total is probably near five hundred pounds. I’ll draw up an itemized account for you.”
“No need, and nowhere near enough.” Ashton shook his head. “I’m going to have nightmares forever about how close I came to losing my wife. Mariah would surely have died in the hands of the kidnappers if Sarah hadn’t had the courage and quick thinking to take her sister’s place. I owe Sarah even more than I owe you.”
“Some things are beyond price, so there’s no point in trying to figure out what they’re worth. I’ll settle for my usual fee.” Rob smiled. “I imagine Sarah will settle for being your son’s godmother.”
“Are you sure there’s nothing I can give you?”
“I could use a good temporary steward.” Rob tried one of the Welsh cakes that accompanied the tea. “The man here was embezzling and I had to discharge him.”
“Already? That was quick work on your part.”
“Sarah’s doing. While I interrogated the steward, she wandered around his office and looked at his books. She’d worked with her uncle, Lord Babcock, on his estate enough that she was able to spot a number of problems.”
Ashton laughed. “At which point you terrorized him into confessing and returning his ill-gotten gains?”
“More or less. I didn’t have him charged since Sarah pointed out that if he hadn’t been so ill supervised, he’d not have succumbed to temptation.” Rob took another couple of Welsh cakes. He must meet his cook. “But you can see that I need a steward who is honest as well as capable, and who’s willing to take a temporary post.”
Ashton thought. “The Ralston Abbey steward has an assistant, Crowell, who is very capable and would love the chance to be in charge of an estate. If things work out at Kellington and you want to offer him a permanent job, you have my blessing. I’ll send for him right away if you like.”
“I’d be most grateful. I assume he can return to you if I lose the estate?”
Ashton studied him thoughtfully. “It’s rare for a situation to be so dire that a peer of the realm loses an entailed estate. I’m not even sure that can happen under our laws. When a new man inherits and shows willing to reduce the debts, it should be possible to work matters out with the banks and other creditors. It wouldn’t be easy and it would take quite some time, but it shouldn’t be impossible.”
Rob refused to accept a stirring of hope. “Possibly, but I’m coming into the estate with no significant property or reputation to make such a thing happen.”
“I’ll stand surety for you.”
Rob stared. Such mild words for a huge act of faith. “Seriously? Kellington is a black abyss of debt and problems.”
“Perhaps, but I have faith in you to e
fficiently settle whatever problems you find,” Ashton said imperturbably. “When you talk to your solicitor, remember that you are not without resources.” He topped up his tea. “Speaking of Sarah, she told Mariah that when you two arrived here, she claimed to be your fiancée. Is that true?”
Feeling thin ice under his feet, Rob replied, “No, she just wanted authority to give orders while I was unconscious.”
Ashton’s brows rose. “Your journey sounds more and more interesting. But if word gets out that the two of you traveled together across Ireland, the situation will become complicated.”
“An understatement,” Rob said dryly. “If you’re wondering whether I seduced your sister-in-law, the answer is no.”
“If there was any seduction taking place, it would have been with Sarah’s enthusiastic participation.” Ashton’s eyes glinted. “Or even her initiation.”
Which raised some interesting questions about Mariah that Rob was not fool enough to ask. “I hoped her abduction wouldn’t become common knowledge, but that’s looking less likely.”
“You’ve gone from a very private life to a rather public one. People are far more likely to gossip about an earl than a thief taker.” Ashton lifted the teapot and topped up their cups. “I’m not a great believer in people marrying just to avoid scandal. But if a scandal does appear—well, the right woman could be very helpful as you establish yourself in your new position.”
In other words, a woman like Sarah. At least Ashton wasn’t pounding his fist and demanding Rob marry her to save her reputation. But fist pounding wasn’t his style, not to mention the fact that Ash must know Sarah deserved a more solvent husband. “If you’re asking obliquely whether I have any intentions toward Sarah,” Rob said wryly, “I should mention that she’s been coaching me on what to look for when hunting an heiress.”
Ashton’s eyes narrowed. “Would you marry for money? The advantages are obvious. The disadvantages rather less so.”
“Until I understand my financial situation, I’m in no position to even think about marriage.” Realizing he’d neglected an important piece of news, he continued, “A further complication is that yesterday I learned I have a daughter. She’s the child of the girl I wanted to marry when I lived here.”
Sometimes a Rogue Page 19