by Anne Herries
ANNE HERRIES
THE ELUSIVE EARL
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE WISHING WELL SERIES
The Elusive Earl is a Regency story with a hint of magic.
Copyright Anne Herries 2012
All Rights Reserved
Published by Linda Sole Publications
All characters in this book are fiction and bear no resemblance to any other person living or dead.
Prologue
‘Do you think it is true, about the wishing well? Merry asked of her companion as they walked together in the beautiful gardens, which were a part of the Ashgrove School for young ladies. It was a warm morning in spring, and the scent of blossom floated on the air as a thrush trilled its song from the branch of an old apple tree. ‘Shall we truly be granted our dearest wish if we visit it at midnight when the moon is full?’
‘You know that she is a witch, don’t you?’ Annabel’s blue eyes were bright with wicked laughter as she teased her friend, her hair a pale cloud about her lovely face. ‘Some of the younger girls are convinced of it and I am sure she can cast spells…the right sort of spells, naturally. Our darling Samantha is a white witch, of course.’ She laughed softly. ‘With a name like hers, how could she be anything else?’
‘I know Miss Merlin always seems to make things better,’ Merry Hamilton said, her eyes serious. She was an attractive girl, though not as lovely as her friend who had silvery blonde hair and blue eyes. Merry’s hair was dark brown with a hint of red in it when the light fell on it, as it did sometimes in the sunlight, and her eyes were a gentle, melting brown. ‘She has her own kind of magic. When I came here, I expected to be unhappy because my father had died and Mama remarried within six months. They simply wanted me out of the way. I used to cry every night for my father and my home and then…somehow she made me see that I was so lucky to have had such a wonderful childhood. I didn’t stop wishing that Papa had not died, but I began to remember how loving he had been, and I began to see that there were still good things in my life.’
‘Yes, it’s odd how she does that,’ Annabel Hayes said and linked arms with her friend. Both of them were seventeen years old, and would be leaving Miss Merlin’s finishing school within a few days. They were both being taken to London by their families for their first season, and felt nervous and excited at the prospect of coming out. ‘My aunt sent me here because she was too busy to be bothered with me, and I had driven away every governess she employed. And of course, Papa was not interested in the care of a young girl. When I arrived, I was rebellious and angry.’ She laughed, her lovely face alight with the joy of living. ‘I have forgotten why I was so angry. Samantha did that for me. Maybe she wove a magic spell to take away the pain or maybe it is just being with her. All her girls feel the same, even if some of them pretend otherwise. She makes you feel pleased with yourself and life.’
‘Yes, that is exactly what she does.’
Merry knew that Samantha was a very special person. When her step-father had decided that she would be better off in a school for young ladies, she had expected to be given a dull, strict routine that she would find boring. She had imagined that a school like this would be all about deportment, learning how to behave in society, and what duties would be expected of her when she was mistress of her husband’s home. Well, there had been lessons in deportment, the management of a home and the art of polite conversation, but there had also been Samantha’s lessons…poetry and stories of love and life.
It was strange how Samantha Merlin could bring ancient legends to life. Her voice had a musical lilt as she told them stories of tragic lovers who had lived throughout history; the lives of Paris and Helen, Troilus and Cressida, Romeo and Juliet and many other star-crossed lovers from ancient legends and plays came to vivid life. She held the girls as if they were in some kind of a trance so that even history, which might have been dull written in the pages of some dusty book, came to life and paraded through their minds with all the brilliance and colour of a medieval pageant. And she taught them other things too, the joy of living and the pleasure of loving each other as true friends.
‘Should we try?’ Annabel said and her eyes danced with mischief as she turned to her friend. ‘Shall we visit the well tonight and make a wish?’
‘Oh, Belle!’ Merry said and looked doubtful. ‘Do you think we ought? Samantha was just teasing us, wasn’t she? We asked her about the well and she told us that sometimes wishes can come true – if we make the right ones. I don’t think she meant it was truly magic. Surely that is just superstition, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, I expect so,’ Annabel agreed. ‘But it would be fun to try, wouldn’t it?
‘Yes.’ Merry laughed, caught up in the spirit of her friend’s desire for adventure. ‘It can’t do any harm if we go together, and it would be fun. We shall remember it always, as a part of the time we spent here – because it has been special, hasn’t it?’
‘That is because of Samantha,’ Annabel said. ‘I shall never forget her – or you. I want us to be friends for the rest of our lives.’
‘Of course we shall,’ Merry promised. ‘My aunt is taking my cousin and I to London for the season. We shall go up at the end of next week, and you will be there soon. We shall see each other often.’
‘It won’t be quite the same, though, will it? I shall miss the school and Samantha.’
‘We shall have tea with her one last time before we leave,’ Merry said and smiled, because it was a privilege reserved for the older girls and one that they all enjoyed. ‘But I intend to visit her sometimes. Some of her old girls do, you know.’
‘Yes, I’ve seen them,’ Annabel said, thinking of the well-dressed young women who sometimes came to visit their former teacher. ‘We’ll do that too, Merry – and tonight we will make our wishes.’
* * *
The woods seemed to be alive with sounds; rustling, the grunting of small animals somewhere in the undergrowth, and the shrill cry of an owl as it pounced on its prey. Yet there was also a feeling of peace, and of something benign, a gentle watching presence that made the girls feel safe.
‘I thought I might be scared,’ Merry said in a hushed voice as they stood together and looked at the ancient well. ‘But I’m not – are you?’
‘No, not scared…’ Annabel smiled at her. ‘We’ve seen it during the day and it looked neglected and forgotten, something you might pass by without noticing unless you knew it was here, but tonight there is something…magical about it.’
Merry smiled for she knew that Annabel had really taken the story of the well’s powers to heart, while she was more sceptical. Yet she could not deny that in the moonlight the well, its walled edges crumbling and overgrown with moss, had a mysterious aura.
‘Come on, I’m going to make my wish,’ she said and stepped up to the well. She had brought a penny with her and she threw it into the water. It seemed to be a long, long time before she heard a faint splash, and then she closed her eyes and wished. She opened her eyes and walked back to Annabel. ‘Go on, it’s your turn now.’
‘What did you wish?’
‘Oh, I can’t tell you that,’ Merry said. ‘It has to be a secret, doesn’t it? Whenever you make a wish you have to keep it to yourself.’
‘Yes, I suppose so,’ Annabel said. She stepped closer to the well and peered down. ‘Are you there, lady of the wishing well? Do you get tired of people asking for their wishes to come true? I hope you won’t be cross with me…’ She threw her penny into the well, closed her eyes and wished as hard as she could, and then stepped back. For a moment she thought she could hear a soft, strange singing sound, but it came from a distance and she could never afterwards be sure that she had heard it. She returned to Merry and smiled at her. ‘I’m glad we came, eve
n if our wishes don’t come true. I feel… oh, I don’t know.’
She couldn’t tell Merry that she felt at peace with herself, ready for her new life in a way she hadn’t been until now. She thought that Samantha would understand, because she had seen the turmoil that had once raged in her – a turmoil that had been growing less and less over the past two years, and, at this moment, seemed to have gone altogether.
‘Should we be returning to the house now?’ Merry asked. ‘We don’t want the younger girls doing this, do we? I mean it was safe enough for us coming here together, but you know what some of the first year girls are.’
‘Yes…particularly Eleanor Brough,’ Annabel said looking thoughtful. ‘She asked me if I thought there was any truth in the story of the well granting wishes and I told her I thought it was just a myth.’
‘Yes…’ Merry frowned. ‘She seems jealous of the older girls, the ones who have tea with Samantha…’
‘But that is silly. She will get her turn in her second year.’
‘I believe she resented being sent here.’
‘I think her aunt decided that she should come. Eleanor wanted to stay at home after her parents died, but when her brother came home from the army, he agreed with her aunt.’
I suppose Lord Brough, the Marquis of Holdenbury thought that he had enough to do with the estate without looking after his sister,’ Merry said thoughtfully. ‘Eleanor wanted to come out this year but she is only sixteen.’
‘We all think we want to come out sooner,’ Annabel said and laughed. ‘I didn’t want to be sent here either, but I am glad that it happened. I shall be sorry to leave in some ways.’
‘I wouldn’t mind staying another year,’ Marry agreed, ‘but my aunt says that it must be this year so that she can chaperone both Jane and I.’ Her mother had announced her intention of coming up during the season, though Merry wished she would leave it to Lady Melbourne. Lady Standen would be sure to disapprove of Merry’s choice or think that she wasn’t trying hard enough to find the right husband.
‘Well, your cousin Jane is a nice girl,’ Annabel said. ‘You will enjoy going to parties with her I am sure.’
‘I shall miss you, Belle,’ Merry said. ‘I hope we see a lot of each other while we are in town.’
‘Perhaps when we are married we can stay with each other sometimes,’ Annabel said and sighed. ‘That is if I can ever find anyone I would like to marry…’
‘Oh, I am sure you will,’ Merry said, crossing her fingers behind her back. Her wish had been for Annabel, that she might find true happiness in her life. It had seemed too greedy to wish for herself and so she had thought of her friend, because she knew that when Annabel had come to the school she had been deeply unhappy. ‘And perhaps if I am lucky I shall find happiness too…’
* * *
‘So you are leaving us tomorrow,’ Samantha Merlin said and smiled at the girls she had invited to her private parlour for tea that afternoon. ‘I hope you will have good memories of your time at the school?’
‘I have been very happy here,’ Merry said. ‘I was miserable when I came, but you taught me so much, Miss Merlin.’
‘Oh, I think you may call me Samantha now,’ she said, a hint of laughter in her mysterious green eyes. She was aware that the older girls did so in private and it pleased her, because she had tried to become their friends, sometimes standing in for their mothers or sisters. She had the gift of knowing when a girl was desperately unhappy, and she took them under her wing, giving them the love they needed to break away from the hurt that had brought them grief. She had needed solace when she first came to Ashgrove House, and in the silence of its woods and the beauty of its quiet gardens, she had learned to rebuild her life. Now she helped those who came to her in need. ‘If you are happy and ready to live your life to the full, I need to hear nothing more. Her gaze moved, centred on Annabel. ‘And you, Belle – are you ready to go on with your life?’
‘Yes, thanks to you,’ Annabel said, looking wistful though she was not aware of it. For some reason her thoughts had returned to a day in her childhood when she had heard the cries of a wounded creature in her father’s woods. By the time she traced the source of the cries, she found that a young man had got there first. He had just succeeded in rescuing the fox-cub from a cruel trap when she arrived.
‘Oh, the poor thing,’ Annabel had cried. ‘Is it badly hurt?’
‘I think the leg be broke,’ the young man said. He turned and looked at her, and she saw that his eyes were a pure azure blue, though his hair was black and long, straggling about his face and neck. ‘It be a wicked thing to set traps like these.’
‘Yes, wicked!’ the young Annabel said in her innocence. ‘I shall tell my father. He must have the gamekeepers remove any they find.’
The young gypsy lad – for she thought he had the slightly foreign, exotic, proud cast of the true Romany – looked at her scornfully.
‘It be Lord Hayes as orders them set,’ he told her. ‘Foxes be naught but vermin in the eyes of such as he – and there be man traps in these here woods an all.’
‘Papa wouldn’t do such a wicked thing!’
Annabel watched as the young man stroked the trembling cub. It had quietened now in his arms, and he was talking to it in a soft, strange tongue, which she did not understand, and yet she could swear that the fox knew every word that he spoke.
‘What will you do with the poor creature?’
‘I shall take it home and tend it,’ the youth said. ‘When ‘tis healed I shall take it to another place where they do not set cruel traps and let it run free.’
She nodded, wishing that she might have some share in nursing the cub, but knowing that she would never be allowed to mix with a youth like this. He was so gentle, so careful with the injured creature, and yet she had seen anger in his eyes when he spoke of the traps.
‘Is it true that my father orders the traps set for foxes – and poachers?’
‘It be not for me to tell you such things,’ the gypsy replied and frowned. ‘Ask your father if you want to know whether I speak truly.’
‘Yes, I shall,’ Annabel said. She had asked her father and he had been angry, refusing to answer her and banishing her to the schoolroom until she learned better manners. She had also been banned from the woods, and her mother had told her nurse to beat her if she went there again. Annabel thought that perhaps it was then that her anger had begun, burning deeply inside her so that she wanted to strike out at everyone, hating those she had loved.
She brought her thoughts back to the present with some difficulty. It was a long time since she had thought of that particular incident, but now it was suddenly vivid in her mind.
‘Yes, I am ready,’ she said again, because Samantha’s eyes were upon her, and she felt that her mind was an open book. ‘The anger has gone at last, but I may still be a rebel from time to time.’
‘I should not wish it any other way,’ Samantha told her, her mouth curving in amusement. ‘I think it is good to be a rebel when you have cause, Belle. Especially for you. You have a rare spirit, and if you do not let it run free sometimes it may die – and that would be a shame. Stand up for what you believe in, Belle. But I know that you will do so when it is necessary.’
‘Yes, I shall,’ Annabel said. She felt strong now, able to accept all the pressure she knew her aunt would exert on her to make a good match once the season began. ‘I shall never forget all that you have taught me.’
‘Nor shall I,’ Merry said. She had sensed Annabel’s strange mood and wondered what had caused it. ‘I am not sure what I should have done if I had not come here.’
‘I have loved having you here,’ Samantha told them. ‘Enjoy your lives and come to see me when you have the time.’
‘Yes, of course we shall,’ the girls spoke together and laughed, looking at each other as if they had sealed some kind of pact. ‘We shall neither of us forget you,’ Merry said.
‘And if ever you need us, we shall help y
ou, as you helped us,’ Annabel added. ‘That is a promise…’
CHAPTER ONE
‘We shall be giving our own dance in three weeks time; after that we shall probably stay another two weeks before we return home,’ Lady Melbourne said, looking at Merry and Jane. ‘Your Mama says that she will come up for the dance, Merry, but, as you know, her health has not been of the best just recently, so you must not rely on it.’
‘No, Aunt Harriet,’ Merry said and crossed her fingers behind her back. She did not wish her mother to be ill, but the longer she stayed in the country the better it might be for her. ‘You will be sure to send an invitation to Miss Annabel Hayes and her mother, Lady Justine Mitchell, won’t you? I do not believe her step-father intends to come up, but Annabel will be here and I should not want to forget her; she was my best friend at school – apart from Miss Merlin, of course.’
‘Ah yes,’ Lady Melbourne said and frowned. ‘I was not sure that I approved of your mother’s choice concerning that school, but you seem to have done well there. Jane had a series of governesses, as you know. I sometimes think she might have done better at a school like Ashgrove.’
‘I was very happy there,’ Merry said and smothered the sigh that rose to her lips. The peace of Ashgrove seemed far away for they had been having fittings for their new clothes for some days now and she had grown tired of having her figure discussed by various seamstresses, almost as if she were not there at all. ‘Where are we going this evening, Aunt Harriet?’
‘Lady Portmeiron has invited us to a musical evening tomorrow,’ her aunt replied. ‘It is sure to be well attended, though perhaps not so many gentlemen will be there as you will meet at the dance we attend in three days time – but it will be a chance for you both to try your wings. However, this evening I am afraid it is only a very small affair at the house of one of my oldest friends, which may be a little tedious for you, but you must be on your best behaviour for these ladies have a lot of friends who host important events. What have you decided to wear, Jane? And you, Merry?’