by Jenna Jaxon
Jane stepped back, her face a study of confusion. “He’s asked you to go to Kersey Hall and live with him and his family—like one of the family?”
Nodding, Maria held the paper out to her cousin. “Read for yourself.” Excitement built in her as Jane pored over the document.
“He gives no true explanation as to why he’s making this request.” Jane finally put the letter down on the dining table, her brows still furrowed.
“Does that truly matter, Cousin?” The relief that she finally allowed herself to embrace almost made Maria giddy. “Perhaps Lord Kersey consulted with Mr. Granger about the expenses of having the dower house running as a separate household versus having everyone under one roof.” She wanted to whirl around the room as if dancing a waltz. “The most important thing is that little Jane and I will have a home from now on, until she marries.”
“Or you do.”
Maria met Jane’s gaze, but her cousin looked innocent enough. “Well, I suppose that is true.”
“If you decide to marry again you will, of course, leave Kersey Hall, unless there is no need.” There was no mistaking the mischievousness in Jane’s voice now.
“I have no idea what you mean.”
“If you don’t, allow me to enlighten you.” Jane made sure the door was closed, then returned to Maria. “Soon you will be living in the same house with two very handsome, very eligible gentlemen, one of whom is heir to an earldom. Suffice it to say that any woman with uncertain circumstances such as yours, would deem it prudent to make herself receptive to either of the gentlemen with an eye toward bringing one or the other of them up to scratch.”
“Actually, I’ll be living on the same property as three gentlemen, my dear.” Oddly enough, when she’d read the offer from Lord Kersey, the first thing that had popped into her mind—other than utter relief—had been that now she might see Mr. Granger more often. “Mr. Granger’s house is not far from Kersey Hall, if you recall.”
A look of profound stubbornness that included chin, jaw, lips, and nose, transformed Jane’s pleasant features into those of a gargoyle atop a French cathedral. “If you will be guided by me, Maria, you will forget about Mr. Granger’s existence completely. I am sorry if you have developed some sort of tendre for him. I do understand he is a good man, but he has no prospects that would be of any use to you and little Jane. Nothing good can come of an attraction between you and him.”
“Who said I was attracted to him?” The shrill voice that denied the very thing she desperately wanted to hide from Jane. From everyone. Most of all from Mr. Granger.
“I would wager on it, Maria. So if you do have any feelings for him, my dear, you need to nip them immediately, like a sudden frost kills the late roses. Be ruthless in order to be fair to yourself.”
Jane could be so vexing sometimes. “I do not plan to marry anyone else at this juncture in my life, my dear, so I hope you don’t intend to harp on this subject until the Second Coming.” Maria sat down at the table and picked up Lord Kersey’s letter once more. A miracle indeed. “Would you ring for Saunders and order a pot of tea, please, Jane? We can discuss the move and lay out what we must do to make it as easy as possible.”
She needed a bit of rest and reflection before the flurry of packing began once more. Hopefully for the very last time.
* * *
Shifting uneasily from one foot to the other, Hugh knocked upon the door to Francis House. Lord Kersey had asked him to oversee the Dowager Lady Kersey’s move from the dower house back to Kersey Hall, a request that filled him with both eagerness and unease. The move itself puzzled him. Lord Kersey had given no explanation as to why the widow was returning to the main house, not that he needed to give Hugh any explanations. Still, given the recent visit by Mr. Clarke, Hugh wondered if this move had something to do with the will he had signed in April.
Mr. Clarke had arrived at Wingate at an ungodly early hour on Monday morning to show him the page with his and Chambers’s signatures and asking if it was, to his knowledge, the same paper he had signed in April. In addition, he asked for the particulars of Hugh’s encounter with the late Lord Kersey on that morning. Hugh had obliged him and given a truthful account, including his subsequent journey to London and visit to Mr. Clarke’s establishment to deliver the letter.
“Could you have found no one else, Mr. Granger, to whom you could have given this document? You must have understood its import given your employer’s circumstances.” The scrawny little man had admonished him both with word and disparaging look.
“Am I given to believe, Mr. Clarke, that you are in the habit of employing clerks who are so incompetent that they cannot file important documents correctly?” That single question had deflated the solicitor’s supercilious air. “Whoever the man was whom I spoke with gave me to believe he had the authority to act on your behalf when you were from the office. Otherwise I would never have surrendered that letter to him.”
Mr. Clarke’s pinched face had drawn in even further, as though he’d bitten into the sourest lemon in Christendom. “Just so, Mr. Granger.” He cocked his head, his pale blue eyes suddenly piercing. “Did Lord Kersey inform you of the contents of the will?”
Hugh shook his head. He’d wondered mightily for months what Kersey had written, especially after it became apparent that Lady Kersey and her child had received nothing in the way of financial maintenance. All along he’d assumed the earl had wanted to provide for his wife and coming child and thus the last-minute document. Of course, he’d had no idea the will had been misplaced and now hoped fervently that her husband had left Lady Kersey a means by which she could live comfortably and raise their child without worries. With the revelation that the will had now been found, Hugh’s hopes for the lady had been raised once more.
The cold wind whistled past Hugh’s head, making him shiver as Saunders opened the door to Francis House and he hurried in. Perhaps this move had something to do with the provisions of Lord Kersey’s will. In any case, it meant that, since the dowager would now be residing at Kersey Hall, he would likely see her more often. A blatantly foolish hope on his part, but one that occurred to him as soon as the words instructing him to oversee the move had left Lord Kersey’s mouth. “May I have a word with Lady Kersey, Saunders?”
“Her ladyship and Lady John are upstairs overseeing the packing, Mr. Granger.” Saunders’s sullen demeanor did not go as far as insolence, but Hugh understood how grievously the man would resent being demoted back to footman.
“I do not wish to deter them from their occupation; however, Lord Kersey has sent me to oversee their return to the Hall. I will not trespass upon much of her ladyship’s time, but I do need to speak with her.” Another steward might have gotten the man sacked for such an attitude, but Hugh had great patience. He’d discovered early on in his career that disgruntled servants quite often had their uses.
“If you will wait in the reception room, sir, I will tell the lady you are here.” Saunders executed a crisp turn and hurried away.
Hugh wandered to the front window, but the blustery wind sounded cold against the glass pane and he retreated to the fire that smoldered on the hearth. Nothing remained in the room save the large pieces of furniture and the curtains, which would be left to molder as they had before Lady Kersey had come to give them warmth and purpose. Although the lady’s presence again in the great house would be welcome, it saddened him to think of this cozy house becoming an empty shell once more.
“Mr. Granger.”
Hugh whirled and caught his breath. He’d not seen Lady Kersey for more than a week, so the sight of her, cheeks pink, blue eyes sparkling, attired in a deep lavender day dress with black trim, rendered him speechless. Aware of the deep silence in the room, he coughed and forced himself to speak. “My lady. Thank you for receiving me. Saunders informed me that you are overseeing your packing. I would not disturb you, but as I am to manage the actual event, I wanted to make certain you understood when everything needs to be ready.”
“Naturally, Lady Kersey.” The image of them meeting. . . alone together as now, but in his home . . . in his bedchamber . . . Heat poured through him. Had the fire blazed up? Suddenly his cravat seemed to cut off his air supply.
“So when would you like me to be ready for you . . . for the move?” More flustered than he’d ever seen her, Lady Kersey avoided his eyes. She clasped her hands in her lap, twisting them helplessly.
“Would tomorrow be too soon? Only your belongings and Lady John’s need go at this time. The rest of the furnishings can be returned to storage at any time.”
“Yes, tomorrow will be fine.” She managed to smile at him. “We are almost done now.”
“Do you require any assistance?” Hugh tried to keep the eagerness out of his voice, but it was impossible. All he had to do was set eyes on the woman and he couldn’t control himself.
“Oh, no.” Her gaze darted away again. “We shall be fine, I’m sure. What, um, what time will you want to fetch us?”
“It needn’t be early. What time would be convenient for you?” Merely sitting here talking to her was creating a riot in his breeches. If he didn’t leave soon his proclivities would be exposed for the lady to see in the form of tented pants.
“Will eleven o’clock be acceptable to you?” The clear topaz blue of her eyes, deepened by the near-blue hue of her gown, sought his—pools he would love to drown in.
“That will suit excellently, my lady.” Keenly aware of his body’s incipient mutiny, Hugh shot out of his seat. “I will make sure the carriage is readied for you as well as the cart for the luggage.”
“That is very kind of you, Mr. Granger.” She rose and stepped toward him.
Hugh took a step back toward the door. If the lady put so much as a hand on his arm, he’d commit a breach of impropriety the likes of which Francis House had likely never seen before. He’d never lost control with a woman before, but this one . . . Her presence acted as the strongest of spirits, but to his very soul as well as his body. He had to get out of the house now. “Not a’tall, my lady. Good day.”
With the briefest of bows, Hugh turned and fled. But not before catching a glimpse of Lady Kersey’s startled and somewhat sad countenance.
The chill wind was welcome as Hugh stepped into the carriage and rapped for the driver to take him back to Kersey Hall. As he settled back on the seat, Hugh breathed a sigh at his escape without mishap. If the lady was going to have this effect on him merely by being in the same room as him, he would have to be much more circumspect about when he met with her. His still unruly flesh twitched anew when his thoughts strayed back to the sight of her in the rich lavender gown that accentuated her full, round breasts.
He groaned as his cock thumped insistently against his small clothes. This tendre would be the death of him yet. Folly of the worst kind as there was no hope of it being returned. The woman was titled, the widow of an earl. His family was eminently respectable, well landed and well monied. At least he would have been, had he been the first son. And now, with his brother barely clinging to life these many weeks, the very real possibility existed that Hugh would soon have nothing with which to provide for even his sister, much less a lady and her child.
Shaking his head to drum some sense into it, Hugh forced himself to face the stark reality. Maria, the Dowager Lady Kersey, was well above his touch, at least at present. If Kit recovered and no lasting scandal ensued, Hugh might speak to his brother about being set up in one of the family estates. If he had a sum of money to live off of while he put the property on a paying basis, then perhaps . . . just perhaps, he could make his affections for the lady known and offer her a life beyond Kersey Hall.
Those were a lot of ifs to have to overcome, but if he felt this strongly about Lady Kersey, he owed it to himself to at least try to give her the option of saying yes. If she instead said no, at least Hugh wouldn’t resort to the disastrous path Kit had tried to take. He’d merely drown his sorrows if not himself, in his employer’s best cognac. If one was going out in a blaze of glory, one might as well do it up right.
Chapter Nine
Dinner the next night was rather more festive than Maria had expected, even though her reception throughout the day had been abnormally cordial.
When she and Jane had arrived, late in the afternoon, they had been greeted warmly by both Lord and Lady Kersey and shown to the rooms they’d occupied previously. Maria’s room, however, seemed to have undergone a hasty renovation. A new Turkish carpet, beautifully made of red and black wool with a design of intertwining rosettes, leafy tendrils, and a palmette border, took the place of the previous plain green rug. The bed hangings too were new; a thick, rich burgundy cloth with matching coverlet had replaced the green and yellow flowered hangings. The deep color soothed her, whereas the previous, somewhat faded green ensemble had made her feel bilious at times. A final addition of an elaborate folding screen, black and gold, painted in a design detailing several Chinese couples greeting one another, surprised her most—even to her untutored eye the piece looked extremely costly.
Why Lord and Lady Kersey would have spent so much money to refurbish an already serviceable room for a poor relation, there only by their good graces, was quite a puzzlement. Maria intended to consult Jane after dinner, to see if her room had been likewise redecorated and speculate on the reasons behind it.
Now at dinner, although Maria found the food as delicious as before, it was much more elaborately prepared than Cook had done when Maria was mistress at Kersey Hall. She had usually requested two or three simple dishes for her and Jane. Tonight she had counted six courses, and they had not yet come to the end of the meal. Were the Kerseys trying to flaunt their wealth before her eyes in an attempt to cow her? Well, they were beginning to succeed.
She lifted her wineglass to her lips and caught the eye of Lord Wetherby. He smiled across the table and raised his glass to her, his gaze intent on her mouth. Flustered by the obvious interest of this very sensual man, Maria took only a sip of the excellent wine, afraid she might choke and draw attention to herself. Turning to her dinner companion, Mr. James Garrett, she smiled and asked, “How do you find Kersey Hall, Mr. Garrett? It must be very different from your home in America.”
The gentleman wiped his lips on his napkin, and returned her smile. “Indeed it is, Lady Kersey. Our house in Virginia was much smaller, although I must confess I preferred the vista the plantation afforded from the front porch.” His deep brown eyes took on a nostalgic shine. “Sitting out on that porch of an evening, watching the sun set across the rolling lawn that led down to a picturesque creek, well”—he leaned toward her and whispered—“I confess I’d take it over the woods and formal gardens here at Kersey Hall without a thought.”
“You miss your home, then?” Of all the family she’d met, Mr. Garrett had made the most favorable impression upon her. He seemed a truly genuine soul, unawed by the titles his family now boasted. Of course, as the second son, he had no title, but it seemed not to bother him at all.
“I do. If Father can find no occupation for me here, I will be happy to sail back to Virginia and take over the running of Bellevue.”
“Named for the view you spoke of, I assume?”
“I like to think so, although I have no idea really.” Mr. Garrett shrugged. “Neither Father nor Mother has ever spoken about the origins of the estate.”
“Perhaps if you return there you can search it out,” Maria said, as the footman set a plate of small, light cakes in front of her along with a white, frothy syllabub. “Oh, this looks delicious.” She took up her spoon. “And festive. It has been a wonderfully festive dinner altogether.”
“Indeed it has, Lady Kersey.” Somehow the earl, all the way down
at the far end of the table, had heard her remark. “You may take that as a compliment to you, my dear. We are feasting in style to celebrate your return to the house.” He glanced at Jane, whose brows had arched delicately over her wide blue eyes. “And you as well, Lady John. The family is happy to be once again under one roof.”
“Thank you, my lord.” Hesitant to say more, Maria almost let her comment end there. The excellent wine she’d just imbibed, however, had sufficiently loosened her tongue to allow her to continue. “Although I will say, I do wonder at it. I left before your arrival at Kersey Hall because I did not wish to trespass on your family’s privacy.”
“Nor would you have done had you stayed in the first place. You are family, my dear.” Lord Kersey raised his glass and beamed at her. “Distant though the connection may be, you are part of the Garrett line now. You and your daughter. Lady Jane must be raised to understand her place both in Society and within the family itself. And what better place for that to occur than her ancestral home?”
“You are very kind, I’m sure, my lord.” Putting a spoonful of the sweet concoction into her mouth assured no more talking for the moment. She still could not fathom why his lordship would want her back in the house. Perhaps it did have something to do with the Garrett family connection. Still, she was a poor relation. Why rejoice in that?
“Yes, Lord Kersey, I dare to say Maria and I were both stunned at your generous offer to return to Kersey Hall.” Jane’s soft, mannered voice hid an intellect that few men could rival. Kersey had best be on his guard or else her cousin would make him look a fool with few words and no wasted motions. “As you pointed out, it is right for Jane to take her place in the household, albeit she will not do so for more than sixteen years. I wonder that you would incur such an expense for her maintenance for all those years to come, when you might as well have turned her and her mother out into the hedgerows.”
“Not into the hedgerows, Lady John.” Lady Kersey spoke up, her voice scandalized. “Lord Kersey would never turn a defenseless woman and child out with no place to go, although I am certain there are those who would do it.”