by Sophia James
‘I will, your Grace.’
So formal. So many undertones. She hoped with all her heart that her maid would say nothing of the visit to Asher’s valet before she had had the chance to tell her brother.
‘I went to see Taylen Ellesmere today,’ Lucinda announced at dinner just as the main course was being served. On the journey home she had decided that honesty would be the best ploy with her family and bringing things out into the open was far better than having them simmer and boil over in the shadows.
‘How is his face?’ Emerald asked, her smile belying any more sinister purpose.
‘I do not know if his nose is broken, though the boots of Halsey’s minions did a good job of trying to do so. Both his eyes are blackened and there is a sizeable cut to the back of his head. Perhaps other injuries linger beneath his clothes. He certainly moved as if they did.’
‘Trouble follows him like a stray dog after the meat man.’ Her brother’s voice was wary.
‘I remember a time when it seemed to follow me with as much tenacity.’ Emerald looked directly at Asher and the spark that ignited between them had Lucinda glancing away. Passion in a marriage bed was something she had never experienced, the burn of it rolling across ordinariness and lifting everything up. Every one of her siblings had that sort of feeling with their partner and she was suddenly tired of her own lack of hope for the same.
‘I have asked the Duke to accompany me on my morning ride in the park tomorrow.’
‘And he has agreed?’ There was no warmth in her brother’s query whatsoever. ‘You may regret allowing a man who seems to find a fight at every opportunity, unprovoked or not, back into your life, Lucy.’ Fury raised the tone of his voice.
‘He is my legal husband.’
‘A matter that was supposed to be resolved three years ago by a large sum of money. We hoped never to see him again and we would not have, save for a lucky strike in a Godforsaken goldfield miles from England which allowed him to crawl back.’
Lucinda stood, breath coming almost as fast as her heart was beating. ‘Perhaps that is divine intervention, then. Gold for gold and the recommencing of an ordained union promised before a minister of the Church. Surely when you hatched this plan of matrimony a small part of you thought that it might just … stick?’
Asher stood now, too, and Lucinda was glad that the table lay between them, a solid wide slab of oak that divided the room down its length.
‘God damn it, you are my sister and I was only trying to protect you.’ For the first time in memory her oldest brother sounded … defeated, the strain of the last week showing on his face in deep lines of regret.
‘And you do that well, but I do not wish to live with you for ever. I need to find my own life, too.’
‘I will gift you Amberley Manor in Kent, then. That estate is more than ample for your needs. You can stay there with a stipend if you cannot stay here.’
‘But I will still be beholden to your generosity, don’t you see, and with no recourse to marriage again it will always be that way. For ever. Until I am old and childless and alone.’
‘So you would agree instead to give the benefit of doubt to a Duke who displays neither morality nor virtue? A man you hate?’
‘Eleanor seems to think he is more virtuous than any of us might realise, Asher.’ Emerald came around the table to stand by Lucinda, her turquoise eyes deep pools of worry. ‘She says that the servants at his London town house have a great deal of regard for him.’
‘You imagine that is enough?’
‘Cristo said Alderworth dealt with Halsey when he was spreading rumours of Lucinda’s … dalliance. He seems to believe Halsey waylaid him to pay him back. If that is the case, we ought to be thanking him, not maligning him.’ She stopped for a moment before carrying on. ‘It is also rumoured that Alderworth still supports the wife and children of his mining partner, killed in an accident in America. Only an honourable person would do that.’
Unexpectedly her brother began to laugh. ‘Lord, Emmie, if we want to find out about anyone it would be wise to ask you first.’
‘All I am saying is that he may be a good man whom you have not given a chance to.’
‘A good man who locked my sister in a room against her will and had her way with her. That sort of a good man?’
‘Well, if Lucy finds that she cannot bear him, then she can take you up on your offer of Amberley. It is not medieval England after all. Alderworth cannot keep her anywhere against her will.’
The thought that he might do just that showed on Asher’s face as a dark uncertainty, but the heart of his argument had been taken to pieces and Lucinda knew that Asher would allow her the freedom she asked for. However, when she exchanged a smile of gratitude with her sister-in-law, she saw in the turquoise eyes a quick burst of puzzlement and pity before she turned for the door.
Chapter Ten
As Lucinda brushed away a curl that had escaped her bonnet in the wind, a movement to one side of the park caught her eye.
Taylen Ellesmere watched her from a distance and she waited as he threaded his way towards her on a large dark stallion.
‘You ride well,’ he said as he reached her. Today his bruising looked less and he moved with more ease, though his right eye was still brutally red.
‘You have been watching me?’
‘I had heard you had a good seat.’ His left hand shifted on the reins and the rings on his fingers caught in the sun, underlining the differences between them. Such adornment seemed an over-embellishment and foreign, though she was pleased to see that the ring she had given him as a wedding vow still lay amongst the others. He hailed from a world that was so far removed from her own that Lucinda wondered if she might ever truly know him.
When he saw where she looked he stilled, the vigilance that seldom left his eyes easily seen.
‘I ride here most days when I am in town, your Grace. It is a freeing thing.’
‘I have also heard it said that you tool a barouche like a champion.’
She laughed. ‘Taris taught me.’
‘You are fortunate, then, in the care your family gives you.’
She wished her brothers had heard the compliment he gave them, for perhaps then they might not have been quite so averse to any communication. The breeze caught at a line of oaks to one side of the path, sending a scattering of green leaves into the air.
‘I think the early morning shows Hyde Park at its best,’ she chanced when he did not deign to speak.
‘Indeed. My grandfather loved it here, too. It was the closest he ever got to a peaceful and solitary life given my grandmother’s disposition, for he spent all of his hours wandering the parks and gardens when he was in town.’
‘He sounds kind.’
‘He was.’
‘How old were you when he died?’
‘Six and a half.’ So precisely known, Lucinda thought.
‘I met Lady Shields a few times. She seemed difficult.’
‘And now she lies beside my grandfather in consecrated ground for all of eternity.’
‘Matrimony being the most onerous of bonds to break away from?’ The sting in her voice did not become her, but his last words made her wonder if that was what he might think of their union, too.
He was quiet for a moment. ‘There are things about marriage that one could find … addictive.’
She thought he meant sex and stiffened, but when he kept on talking she knew that that was not what he was alluding to at all.
‘A person to watch your back and be on your side no matter what happens is one of them. I do not think I thanked you enough for doing just that the other night at the Chesterfields’ Ball. No one ever has before.’
Again she saw behind the mask, a quick glimpse of a man she could love. A lot.
‘I was glad to help.’ So precise and stilted. She wished he would dismount and reach out to thank her with his body, but he did not, his attention caught by others riding behind them.
Shifting in his seat, his horse shied to one side and he gentled him. A few other souls had now ventured out on the same pathways, tipping their hats as they passed and looking back with more than interest on their faces. Tay knew the gossip mills had been grinding ever since his return to England and that the betting in the clubs were riding fifty to one he would have his estranged wife beneath him before the week’s end.
He might have enjoyed the irony of it all, but such a gamble cut too close to the quick and fifty to one still seemed like damn long odds. He hoped that the Wellingham brothers had no knowledge of the punters’ flutterings.
The stakes were rising and he could not get Lucinda to himself until at least after the promised two weeks.
Breathing deeply, he bid his horse on and was glad when his wife followed his lead, the path wider now and more conducive to a canter. There was nothing like a ride to free a soul of tension and the heavy muscles beneath him were soothing and easeful.
Lucinda rode like the youngest sister of three brothers who had all left the mark of their tutorship upon her, fluid and daring, and he allowed her by him so that he might watch. She did not flaunt her gift, but every movement and command had the sort of controlled gentleness that even great horsemen struggled to achieve as she galloped in front of him. Her laughter rang in the air as she pulled in her mount, waiting as he drew up beside her.
‘I don’t know of another female who can ride with the expertise of a jockey.’
‘You disapprove?’
‘Far from it, my lady wife. I hail it. At Alderworth you will find fine tracks to ride along, though the stables have been largely depleted.’
‘But you will replace them with new stock?’
He shook his head. ‘To get the production from the land up and running again is my first priority.’
‘You do not sound as dissolute as they say, then.’
‘It is my experience that no one is ever as good or as bad as society might paint them.’
A slight flush crawled into her cheeks. ‘Expectations are certainly bonds that tie you down. The Wellingham name held me captive for years in that I could never truly be myself.’
‘And now?’
‘When everybody disapproves so firmly of my actions, it gives a freedom to do just as I want.’
There it was again, that sadness. The accident, a hasty marriage and his three years away had all had their part in drawing a melancholy hue over her pale-blue eyes. Ever since they had met they had hurt each other, Tay thought, his demands for an heir adding to the burden. He was suddenly tired of it.
‘Lucinda. Luce.’ A sound from a distance had them both turning. A young woman hailed them from her mare, her groom left far behind.
‘My friend, Posy Tompkins. You will remember her from the wedding.’
‘She was the one who brought you to Alderworth in the first place?’
When she nodded Tay thought he had a lot to thank Miss Tompkins for. He watched as she came closer.
Lucinda wished that they had ridden further into the greenery where they might have been more alone to talk. Already she could see the intrigue on her friend’s face.
‘I have been following you,’ Posy said as she joined them, ‘and I still think you should not take such risks on a horse, Lucy. How many times have your brothers admonished you not to gallop so fast?’
‘Oh, I lost count months ago.’
‘The doctor told you another bump on the head could be dangerous …’
‘He did?’ Taylen Ellesmere sounded nothing like he had a few moments prior. Nay, now he sounded exactly the same as Cristo, Asher and Taris.
Posy nodded. ‘He said that she was to lead a careful and circumspect life and that he had seen many a patient becoming gravely ill if they did not heed his advice.’
The green in her husband’s eyes displayed no humour now whatsoever.
‘Something about blood vessels bursting, I think he said. The walls of the brain are thinner where they have been damaged. Because of that it is easier for them to erupt again.’ Listing the medical information using her fingers, she bent down each one after every fact stated.
Posy did not look at her, but at Alderworth, an expression that Lucinda recognised on her face. The same look she had seen in their earlier days when together they would stage outlandish tragedies for the family to watch, the curtains in the downstairs salon of Falder fashioned into a theatre. She was baiting Alderworth for some reason and Lucinda could do nothing at all to stop it.
‘Posy is exaggerating and I hardly think that will happen, your Grace—’ she began, but Taylen interrupted her.
‘Are you a physician now, too?’ The tone in his voice was furious.
‘No.’
‘Then you should heed a warning from a man who is obviously qualified to give it.’
‘And never race along the gullies and cliffs at Falder? Never clear another fence in my life?’
‘If that is what it takes to be safe from any danger, then yes.’
Posy’s laughter brought an end to the bickering. ‘Asher has used the same arguments as you do so many times, your Grace, but to no avail.’ Posy raised her eyebrows as Lucinda frowned at her and smiled congenially at Alderworth.
Amazing, Lucinda thought. Posy had never approved of any of her suitors. Not one. It was the creases in Taylen Ellesmere’s cheeks, she supposed, and the way the light played upon his eyes—a man who was no one’s lackey. The only white he wore was in his cravat and it showed up the tan of his skin. She could suddenly imagine him far from London in the back country wilds of Georgia, traipsing across swollen rivers and steep craggy mountains. Any information she had ever read on goldfields described them as hard and dangerous places, spawning hard and dangerous men.
‘My brothers have this idea that I need to be looked after all the time. I find it easier to simply get on with my life in the way that I wish to and allow them to do the same.’
‘In other words, you do not tell them of the danger you are placing yourself in.’
‘Exactly, and I would appreciate your discretion in the matter, too, your Grace.’
‘Then I hope you will at least have the sense to walk your horse home.’ He tipped his hat. ‘Miss Tompkins, it was my pleasure.’
Then he was gone, cutting across the park on a path Lucinda seldom used, body rising and falling with each movement of his horse in an effortless display of skill.
‘Alderworth rides well, Luce.’
Anger seeped into her reply. ‘Why would that be important to me, Posy? If it was left to everyone else, I should be in my drawing room at home, pursuing the gentle arts of needlework or playing music.’
Or lying in bed on my back, trying to produce an Ellesmere heir.
She bit down on chagrin.
‘What the hell are you doing here, Alderworth?’
‘White’s is my club too, Wellingham, and I want a chat with you.’
Cristo Wellingham did not assent, but neither did he get up and leave. Rather he sat with his drink in hand and waited until Tay had taken the chair opposite.
‘Your sister is recklessly galloping in Hyde Park when, according to a Miss Posy Tompkins, her doctor has expressly discouraged such behaviour.’
The other took a large swallow of his brandy before putting it down. ‘And now you want to stop her?’
‘I do.’
‘Well, good luck with that. Asher’s response was to take her horses away for a month, but she only hired other more dangerous ones. Taris endeavoured to send a man with her every time she used the stables, but she gave him the slip more times than not. I took her to Graveson where she rode along the beaches until she got bored with them. A number of approaches, you see, and none of them worked well or for long because she is as stubborn as a mule and twice as difficult.’
‘A true Wellingham, then?’
Cristo tipped back his head and laughed. ‘If you were not such a bastard, Alderworth, I might even like you. What is in it for you, an
yway, this sudden and touching concern for my sister?’
‘I do not wish to be a widower.’
Again Cristo laughed. ‘You have not as yet been a husband and, if my family has its way, you never will be.’
Ignoring the criticism, Tay went straight to the heart of the matter. ‘What else interests her?’
Cristo leant forwards, a frown on his face. ‘She enjoys archery. No danger and a quiet walk to the target. She is also inclined to drawing. But be warned that if you play false with her emotions this time, Alderworth, there won’t be any second chances.’
‘Word has it that you got one with your wife.’
‘Word has it you were in gaol in the Americas for taking the life of another.’
‘Gold makes bad men greedy and rumour is always overstated.’
‘As greedy as you were when you hived off with the Wellingham booty after despoiling our sister?’ The quiet of Cristo Wellingham’s words belied the fury inside each one.
‘You know as well as I that I have paid every pound of it back and Lucinda was an innocent when I left her, no matter what she remembers.’
‘Edmund Coleridge may have changed that, of course.’
Tay’s fist came down on the table. ‘If I hear even the slightest of whispers from him saying anything of the sort, then he will be a dead man.’
‘I will tell him when I see him next. He is a personal friend of mine.’
‘You do just that.’
Swallowing the last of his brandy, Taylen stood, the peers of the realm of England watching him over their tipples. The Alderworth ducal title sat squarely on him, but he had never felt that he belonged here, the stuffy manners and pretensions of these men so far from his own road in life.
He wanted to get back to Alderworth and he wanted to take his wife with him. The face of Edmund Coleridge rose into his consciousness and he stalked from the room.
Coleridge was kissing Lucinda’s hand when Tay met her next at an afternoon soirée at the house of Daniel and Camille Beauchamp.
His wife had not frequented the pathways of Hyde Park that morning to take her exercise. He had been waiting, after all, but as the minutes had turned to hours he knew she would not come.