Tallie's Knight

by Anna Gracie

between us again.

  But she could not bring herself to say it. This Magnus was not her

  beloved Magnus; this was Lord d'Arenville of d'Arenville Hall, very

  cold and formal, and she did not yet know how to deal with him. Tallie

  followed the housekeeper dolefully. She did not like the sound of your

  room. She hoped she had misheard Magnus; she hoped she was being taken

  to our room.

  But she was not. It was clearly a woman's room, fussy and expensive

  and elegant. The chairs were tiny, dainty, with delicate twisted

  flutes for legs. They matched the dressing table. The window frames

  and bed were painted white and draped with gold silk. Large gilt

  looking-glasses were on every wall and Tallie could see herself

  reflected no matter where she stood in the room. White fur rugs lay

  scattered on the floor. Tallie hated the room on sight. It had an

  atmosphere, a hardness she did not like. She could not feel

  comfortable sleeping in here.

  "Whose was this room?" she asked Mrs. Cobb tentatively.

  "His lordship's mother's, my lady."

  "Oh," said Tallie. Magnus had never spoken to her of his mother.

  Perhaps he found it too painful to talk of her. It was hard, losing

  someone you truly loved, and a mother was special.

  "What was she like?"

  Mrs. Cobb pursed her lips oddly, then shook her head.

  "More'n my job's worth to say, my lady, begging your pardon."

  Tallie stared at her, astonished.

  "I didn't mean you to gossip about M--Lord d'Arenville's mother. Just

  to tell me what sort of a person she was."

  Mrs. Cobb shrugged.

  "Can't do one without doing tother," she said.

  "Best not enquire too closely about the past. Only one Lady

  d'Arenville is important now--best you forget about what's gone and get

  on with your life, begging your pardon, my lady." She eyed Tallie's

  waist shrewdly.

  "I hope you don't think me impertinent, my lady, but would you be

  expecting an interesting event in the not too distant future?"

  Tallie blushed and laid her hand on her belly.

  "You mean the baby?"

  Mrs. Cobb beamed and nodded.

  "Thought as much. Good news for d'Arenville, my lady. His lordship's

  pleased, I expect. May I tell the other servants?"

  Tallie nodded.

  "I do not see why not. They will all be able to see for themselves

  before too long. I am getting so fat!"

  "Fat? What nonsense! Bloom about you. A joy to behold." Mrs. Cobb

  nodded again.

  "Good news you bring us, to be sure. Tis too long since there was a

  child at d'Arenville."

  "Were you here when Magn--his lordship was a boy?" Tallie asked

  eagerly.

  "Not really," Mrs. Cobb said.

  "I've been here just over a score of years, come Michaelmas."

  Tallie frowned in puzzlement.

  "Twenty years? But my husband is only nine and twenty. You must have

  known him as a boy."

  Mrs. Cobb looked at her a moment, then shook her head.

  "He were off at school years before I started here."

  Sent to school at the age of six or seven, poor little boy, Tallie

  thought. She touched her stomach protectively. If this child was a

  boy he wasn't going to be parcelled off to school at a young age like

  his father.

  "But in the holidays--' Mrs. Cobb shook her head sorrowfully.

  "He weren't often asked home in the holidays."

  Asked home? As if he were a guesfl "Not asked home in the holidays?" repeated Tallie, appalled.

  "But why not?"

  Mrs. Cobb pursed her lips, shook her head, opened her mouth then

  closed it. After a moment she said, "You never heard this from me,

  mind, but word was in servants' hall his ma couldn't abide him. And

  his ma's word was law to his old lordship. Despite her immoral ways."

  Tallie could hardly believe her ears. His mother hadn't been able to

  abide him? And so Magnus hadn't often been asked home in the holidays?

  She had never heard of anything so shockingly selfish and callous in

  her life. Oh, to be sure Tallie had spent her own childhood in a

  school, but that had been because her parents had been forever

  travelling, not because they hadn't been able to abide her. She had a

  packet of letters from her mother, tied with a ribbon, to prove it.

  But poor Magnus. Poor little boy. What sort of a woman would do that

  to her own child?

  A horrid, cruel woman, and Tallie knew she would sleep not a wink under

  her vile gold silk canopies.

  "I won't sleep here," she said decisively.

  "Please find me another bedchamber."

  "But his lordship said--' " You may inform his lordship that I did not

  wish to sleep in his mother's old room and that I chose another. "

  "But--' " That will be all, Mrs. Cobb," said Tallie firmly, feeling

  bold and autocratic. She had learned a thing or two since she was

  insignificant Tallie Robinson, and one was how to avoid an

  argument--with servants, at any rate. Her husband was a different

  matter.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Tallie looked around the breakfast room in surprise. She turned to the

  butler.

  "Has his lordship not yet come down?"

  "Yes, m'lady, he broke his fast early." Harris pulled a chair back and

  waited.

  Tallie sat, feeling quite despondent. It was her own fault-she had

  stayed awake late last night, hoping he would come to her, and then

  overslept this morning.

  "I suppose I shall see him later, then."

  Harris, in the process of serving her with scrambled eggs, hesitated.

  "He had urgent business to attend to, m'lady."

  Tallie ate her eggs slowly. She had no idea what to do with herself.

  The previous day Magnus had made it plain that he wished her to take up

  the reins as mistress of this establishment. Thanks to Laetitia's

  habit of delegation, Tallie was not without some experience in running

  a household. But this house was at once bigger and much grander than

  anything she had ever seen before. At Manningham she'd been her

  cousin's dogs body, an errand-runner rather than mistress. Here she'd

  be expected to know everything.

  Tallie glanced around the breakfast room with a critical eye. The room

  had a pleasant prospect, facing east, receiving morning sunlight. And

  the windows would have let in plenty of sunlight, had not they, like

  every other window here, been shrouded in heavy drapery. It was all so

  gloomy.

  She wondered how Magnus would respond if she asked his permission to

  make a few changes. In her admittedly limited experience, men didn't

  like changes to their homes. Her cousin's husband George had

  complained incessantly when Laetitia redecorated their country home.

  He hadn't minded her turning the London house upside down with

  'fancified nonsense', but his boyhood home had been another matter. On

  the other hand, according to Mrs. Cobb, Magnus had not spent much of

  his boyhood here at all, so. No, Tallie decided, she'd speak to him

  about it at dinner. And in the meantime she'd ask Mrs. Cobb for a

  tour of the Hall.

  By the end of the day Tallie was tired and dusty
, but faintly

  satisfied. She'd been through the pantries, the linen presses and the

  storerooms, and examined the house from attic to basement. Many of her

  tentatively offered suggestions had been roundly approved by Mrs. Cobb,

  and she now felt more confident about discussing changes to the house

  with Magnus. It was barely half an hour until dinner, so she hurried

  upstairs to bathe and to change her gown. Magnus had seen her rumpled

  and untidy enough times, and hadn't seemed to mind, but that had been

  when they were travelling. This was different. Tonight they dined at

  home together for the first time in their married life and she wanted

  to look her best. She had a quarrel to mend.

  She hurried through her preparations and sat impatiently in front of

  the looking-glass while Monique did her hair, scanning her reflection

  intently, hoping her looks would please Magnus.

  The gown she had finally chosen was one he'd bought her in Vienna. It

  had become a little limp during their travels, but now, in a big house

  with skilled laundrywomen, it looked almost as good as new. The fabric

  was fine and delicate. It clung to her breasts and swirled around her

  hips. It looked a lot like her golden Paris tea gown that Magnus had

  ruined so dramatically.

  Her eyes misted reminiscently as she recalled how he'd swept her into

  his arms and ascended the stairs two by two. Could this gown, too,

  cause a wondrous, utterly splendid night of passion? And put an end to

  a distressing period of coldness.

  Tallie gazed at the gown in the looking-glass. She was counting on

  that reaction tonight. It was the only way she could think of to break

  down the icy barrier that had arisen between them. Talking would do no

  good, for she was determined not to give in to him and she could not

  imagine him giving in to her. No, this was the only way. And maybe

  then he would be able to forgive her intransigence.

  She fastened a string of pearls around her neck. Her breasts, slightly

  enlarged with pregnancy, swelled above the low-cut gown most

  satisfactorily. Her skin, with a light dusting of rice- powder to

  disguise the dozen or so freckles, looked pale and smooth. Tallie

  frowned critically at her image, then tugged the neckline a little

  lower. She had no intention of being sent to her room tonight, alone

  with a supper tray, like a naughty child to contemplate her sins. No,

  her husband might be displeased with her defiance on the matter of her

  brother, but she had every intention of seducing him back into her bed.

  Tonight.

  His urgent business, whatever it was, had kept him away from the house

  all day. She had imagined her first day at d'Arenville Hall--Magnus

  would show her around, telling her tales of this and that as he

  introduced her to her new home, her arm on his, or, better still, his

  arm around her. Today Mrs. Cobb had shown her the house, not Magnus,

  but Tallie was determined Magnus would show her the rest. And then,

  perhaps, she would come to understand the man she loved--to discover

  the boy and learn what had made him the man he was.

  Urgent business or not. She could wait for urgent business, but she

  would wait with him, not for him. And when it was finished, she had

  urgent business of her own. Tugging her gown a little lower, Tallie

  stood up, took a deep breath and left her chamber.

  The pale young princess descended the curving marble stairway slowly.

  Her enchanted silken gown clung to her figure whispering softly with

  every movement. Below her, a statue of a handsome, dark-haired prince

  awaited her, his marble features cold and unmoving, his eyes blind and

  unforgiving, trapped in a spell by an evil Ice-Witch. Candlelight

  gleamed on his frozen features.

  The princess came closer. With each whisper of the magic gown, each

  flicker of golden candle-flame the statue seemed to warm. The eyes

  flickered and darkened from a pale ice- grey to a stormy sea-dark

  colour. The blindness lifted from him and marble melted into flesh.

  Slowly he moved towards her, first one step then another, then he was

  leaping up the stairs towards her, two, three steps at a time. He

  swept the princess into his arms.

  "Tallie, my dearest love, forgive me my coldness. I need your warmth,

  your love." And his mouth descended on hers and the evil spell was

  broken. But there was no Magnus waiting for her at the foot of the

  stairs.

  There was only Harris, the butler. Magnus must already be in the

  dining room. She was a little late from fussing about her

  appearance.

  He must have become impatient.

  "Good evening, Harris." Tallie smiled.

  "I am looking forward to dinner. The aromas coming from the kitchen

  earlier were delicious, and I must confess I am extremely hungry." She

  hurried towards the dining room.

  But when she entered, she came to a sudden, shocked halt. The long,

  gleaming table was set for only one person. He could not, surely,

  still be attending to his business?

  "M'lady," murmured Harris. Hiding her anxiety, Tallie allowed him to

  seat her.

  "Is my husband not joining me?"

  A footman entered with soup, and Harris waited until she had been

  served and the footman had gone before answering.

  "I told you this morning, m'lady. He left on urgent business."

  "But his business surely cannot last all night," she said. "Lord d'Arenville must eat, must he not?"

  Harris looked awkward.

  "M'lord left d'Arenville this morning. He did not say when he would

  return."

  Left d'Arenville? Tallie stared at the butler in confusion, a cold

  thread of dread winding around her heart.

  "I assumed you meant he'd left the house."

  "No, m'lady. He left." The butler looked at her in concern.

  Left? Left for where? Tallie tried to keep her features even.

  "Did you not know about it, m'lady?"

  Tallie attempted a smile.

  "Yes... yes, of course I did, but I did not realise he meant to leave

  today. I thought he was going to... to..."

  She felt her lips quivering and hastily touched a starched linen napkin

  to them to hide her distress.

  "A foolish misunderstanding, that is all," she mumbled, and lowered her

  head as if to say a silent grace.

  Where had he gone? And for how long? All day and night, obviously.

  But without a word to her? She spooned up some steaming substance and

  conveyed it to her mouth. Her hands were shaking. She laid the spoon

  down with a clatter, hoping the butler hadn't noticed.

  There was a short silence. She wondered whether Harris could hear her

  heart pounding. It sounded terribly loud to her.

  After a time he cleared his throat and said, "Lord d'Arenville left a

  letter for you, m'lady. Did you not receive it?"

  Tallie stared.

  "A letter?"

  "Yes, m'lady. I shall fetch it immediately, " said Harris, sweeping

  from the room. He returned in a moment, bearing a sealed letter on a

  silver salver. He placed it beside her, hesitated, then bowed and left

  the room.

  Heart pou
nding, Tallie watched him leave. Her first letter from

  Magnus. She broke open the wafer and began to read.

  My dear Lady d'Arenville, Lady d'Arenville. Not Tallie. Her heart

  sank.

  You were sound asleep when I came to your room and I did not wish to

  disturb your rest. I know how much you need it.

  Not as much as she needed him. Why could he not have woken her?

  I have important business to transact and must leave for London first

  thing this morning. I am unsure of when I shall return, but be assured

  I will do so as soon as my business allows it.

  London? The letter dropped from Tallie's nerveless fingers and

  fluttered onto the table. Gone to London? He had just gone off to

  London? Without explaining or saying goodbye? With shaking fingers

  she picked up the letter and continued to read, her numb brain hardly

  able to take it in.

  You will have plenty to occupy you in settling in to the Hall and

  making preparations for the nursery. I noticed you did not sleep in

  the chamber allotted you. You have my full permission to make any