They’d been noticed. Kendall gave Devin a jaunty hail and came over to meet Ophelia. Devin introduced them. Amanda wasn’t looking the least bit furious as she joined them. She couldn’t seem to take her eyes off the young man.
“Was your trip successful?” Devin asked Kendall.
“Indeed! You’re going to be amazed when you see this mare, Devin, and, yes, you can still have the first filly. I’ll bring her round in the spring to—er—”
“Of course,” Devin said to spare the lad more blushing over mentioning Devin’s stud service in mixed company.
Kendall said to Ophelia, “You must be Lady Amanda’s chaperone? I was just about to ask her if she would be agreeable to my accompanying her for a ride some morning in the city, perhaps in Hyde Park? I’ve heard they have extensive riding paths there, though I haven’t been to the city yet to find out. Would that be permissible, Lady Ophelia?”
The smile disappeared from Amanda’s face. Devin noticed that she cringed slightly at the idea. Of course she couldn’t say yes when she didn’t ride!
But before the young man noticed Amanda’s reaction, Ophelia quickly said, “Why don’t you come for tea this week and we can discuss it. I’m sure her brother, Rafe, would like to meet you.”
“Of course, what a dunce I am, first things first!” Lord Kendall eagerly agreed.
They spoke a bit more, directions were given to Ophelia’s town house, and the young man actually bent to kiss Amanda’s hand as they parted, leaving her blushing and smiling again.
Back in the coach, Ophelia said triumphantly, “See, I knew Devin Baldwin would be able to help!”
“He didn’t arrange that meeting,” Amanda began sharply, then sighed. “Thank you for that rescue. I simply couldn’t think of what to say to Lord Kendall when he mentioned riding.”
“That might be a problem,” Ophelia said carefully. “Or was I merely imagining that you seemed to like the young earl?”
Amanda grinned. “Was it that obvious? What wasn’t there to like about him? Handsome and charming!”
“But he’s an avid horse fancier and rider.”
“Is he?”
“Yes, according to Devin, extremely so. So I’m not surprised that instead of asking to call on you, he asked to ride with you. You do realize what that suggests, don’t you?”
“What?”
“That he wants to be sure you love riding as much as he does. That he could well consider it a mandatory requirement—for a wife.”
Amanda slumped in her seat.
Ophelia scolded lightly, “Don’t give up! I was assured today that with the right guidance and instruction, you can be back on a horse and enjoy it. We’ll have you riding with the earl in Hyde Park in no time!”
But Amanda’s fear had kicked in and she said hopefully, “Perhaps that isn’t mandatory a’tall. It might be helpful to find that out before I risk breaking my neck again.”
Ophelia tsked. “That would be putting off an opportunity to see the Earl of Manford again soon, or when he comes for tea will we have to decline his invitation because you didn’t start your lessons immediately? You might never see him again if I have to tell him that.” Amanda chewed her lip, prompting Ophelia to add, “Really, Mandy, there won’t be any neck breaking with the right guidance.”
“Baldwin you mean?” Reminded of him, Amanda said again, “Pheli, you never should have tried to hire him, and it’s a good thing he declined.”
Ophelia refrained from mentioning that he hadn’t declined after all. There was no point in discussing that when it looked as if it might not even be necessary now! So she merely said, “I was just trying to help. The man has clients from all over England, men you might never meet otherwise yet could be just what you’ve been waiting for. Like Lord Kendall. Who would have guessed we’d meet someone like him there today? Are you going to cross him off because of a simple little fear that you could easily conquer? Most men love to ride. Most husbands enjoy riding with their wives. You know, I ride with Rafe every morning when we’re in the country. It’s fun, it’s exhilarating, and occasionally we even race, though I probably won’t be winning any more of those races after I give him his new stallion!”
“Did Baldwin agree to teach me to ride?”
“No, but I’m sure he can be persuaded. He was the one who said it would be easy.”
Chapter Ten
“FORGOT TO MENTION YESTERDAY when we arrived that Miss Hilary is getting married.”
Devin glanced up to see Reed leaning against a post, watching him saddle his stallion for the ride back to London. “I haven’t heard that name in ages,” Devin replied. “I’m surprised she’s waited this long. It’s been nearly two years since I left Lancashire.”
Reed sighed in relief. “So it doesn’t disturb you? I thought it might, since you seemed to be courting her—unofficially, of course.”
Devin shook his head. “I wasn’t courting her, merely enjoyed her company on occasion.”
He had been attracted to Hilary, though. He just didn’t love her and couldn’t have married her even if he’d wanted to. He’d tried to make it clear to her that they could never be anything other than friends. But he was afraid that she’d held out hope anyway that they could be more, and that was why she’d waited so long to accept a proposal of marriage from another man. He hoped she’d be happy now. She would never have been happy with him once she learned the truth about him.
To prove he wasn’t harboring any regrets, Devin added in a lighthearted tone, “Her mother’s cook was the best in the county! Truly, that was what really lured me to her house.”
Reed laughed and remarked with a teasing light in his eyes, “Well, those were certainly lovely ladies who visited this morning, beautiful enough to make a man forget every other woman he’s ever met!”
Devin chuckled. “You noticed that, did you?”
“Knocked me on my arse, the married one. Can’t remember ever being that stunned by a woman’s beauty.”
“Lady Ophelia seems to have that effect on most men—at least at first sight. But it was definitely a profitable visit. Even Lord Goswick talked me out of another yearling before he left.”
“Sounds like your luck is finally turning,” Reed said with a grin.
“I’m inclined to agree. In fact, I’m feeling damned good about today. I’d been beginning to wonder, after those setbacks we had. One oddity was bad enough, but two in the span of a few weeks?”
Reed’s humor vanished. “I know. I’m still not convinced losing three foals plus a mare to a farmer’s carelessness was what happened that day. The stallion, though, falling over dead in the middle of a race, well, incidents like that do happen. But bad hay that could have wiped out all of your mares? That wouldn’t have been just rotten luck, it would have put an end to this farm.”
“At least you were on hand that day to realize something was wrong.”
It had been a mad dash to pull back the hay that was being distributed in all three stables. The first mare to eat it had died, her foal expiring with her. The others had rallied, but both had mis carried the next day. The farmer who’d delivered the hay had sworn he’d never seen the like. Neither had Devin. But the hay had had a slightly odd smell to it, so obviously something had contaminated it before it had arrived, but no one could figure out what.
“But that promising stallion, I’d only just bought him!” Devin said angrily, still disturbed about that death. “He’d still be alive if I hadn’t been so eager to test him in that minor race last week.”
“It wasn’t your fault. He was unproven, you had to test him before putting him to stud.”
“He was in the lead, you know, could have won easily. Did I mention that?”
But then the absurd had happened—the animal had simply fallen over, dead. His heart had given out, was the general opinion. It was not unheard of, though rare with horses that young. Rotten luck, again. But at least the rider had survived the fall.
“I’ve been keep
ing a close eye on the lads here—just in case,” Reed assured Devin. “But they all seem to be honest hard workers.”
“I wouldn’t have suspected otherwise, but you’re right, it doesn’t hurt to look under every rock and into every cranny—just in case. I’m glad you’ve agreed to extend your stay here this trip. I appreciate it more than you know.”
Reed laughed. “Can’t get Amelia off that pony long enough to take them home! And my wife doesn’t mind. In fact, she’s delighted to have enough time on this trip to get that old house cleaned from top to bottom.”
Devin chuckled. “The bloody thing is falling apart.”
“But at least it will be a clean shambles!”
Good friends were a blessing, Devin thought as he rode back to London. But today was definitely a turning point as luck went. He hadn’t just sold a couple horses, he’d made another two hundred pounds for doing absolutely nothing—yet. But he could buy prime horse stock for much less than that, or finally, the champion Thoroughbred, this one already well proven, he’d thought he’d never save up enough money to buy. Or he could finally fix up the house that had come with the property. And another four hundred pounds had been promised if he actually got that temperamental minx married.
That certainly wasn’t a foregone conclusion. It could have been. If Amanda Locke were a horsewoman, it would have been the easiest six hundred pounds he’d ever earned. And he’d even had a more in-depth talk with Kendall today to see if he had any other interests besides horses. He didn’t. But Devin had already guessed as much. So despite Amanda’s apparent interest in the young lord, that wasn’t going to work out a’tall if she didn’t get her arse back on a horse.
But he still felt good about being hired by the next Duchess of Norford. That was either going to be an incredible piece of luck, if he was successful, or it could backfire on him if he wasn’t. The backfiring part did worry him a bit. It could put an end to his profitable new sideline. This matchmaking business he’d fallen into had turned out to be a boon that was helping him to finance his breeding farm. And now, with London’s richest hiring him, too, it could well turn out to be more profitable than the farm had been thus far.
He’d rather not see his sideline shut down. What he’d started with his new farm was far more exciting and challenging than running the already established farm in Lancashire for his uncle, and it gave him a greater sense of purpose. Not that he wouldn’t have been happy working up in Lancashire, considering how much he loved horses. But it just wasn’t the same there after Donald and Lydia had moved to London.
He hadn’t known they’d been planning to do that for quite a while and had only waited until he finished school to tell him about their plans.
“I don’t want you to think we’re abandoning you, far from it,” Donald had told him a few weeks after he’d come home from school. Waving his hand to encompass the estate, he’d said, “All this will be yours one day, since you’re my heir. Now that you’ve finished school, you’re old enough to take over here.”
Donald had actually adopted him after Devin’s mother had died so Devin could carry on the family name. How ironic, when he’d wondered more than once if he would ever even have met these only surviving members of his family if his father hadn’t wanted him gone from the house Devin had lived in as a child. His mother certainly hadn’t ever mentioned that she had a brother until the day she kicked him out of her life.
Devin had never spoken of these things with his uncle. After his mother died, he couldn’t bring himself to talk about her at all. He’d hated her for dying. And then he’d been sent off to school, a fancy one, and all the questions that had been too painful to ask got buried.
Until that day when Donald had told him he was giving him the farm and had added, “Your mother would have been so proud of you.”
The mention of his mother opened the floodgates. “You disowned her, didn’t you? Is that why she never told me about you until the day you collected me from London?”
“No, we’d just had a falling-out is all. It doesn’t matter now.”
Obviously his uncle didn’t want to talk about it even then. But Devin’s bitterness had returned, and all those old questions he had never asked were resurfacing.
“Don’t you think I’m old enough to hear it, that I’m a bastard?”
“Of course you’re not!” Donald tried to insist, but the color drained from his face and he couldn’t look Devin in the eye when he reiterated, “She married your father. He just died when you were a baby.”
“A man whose name I can’t even remember because she refused to ever speak of him? Was he her creation? Or yours?”
Donald sighed, sat back, and closed his eyes. He was in his midfifties then, though he looked older. Blond hair thoroughly peppered with gray, blue eyes so like his sister’s, weathered skin, stooped shoulders. He hadn’t just bred horses all his life, he’d trained them, he’d groomed them, he’d fed them, he’d treated them as if they were the children he’d never had himself. And he’d imparted all his knowledge and love of horses to the boy he’d taken in all those years ago.
Devin didn’t think his uncle was going to say another word, he looked so pained. Devin would have let the matter go because of that. He loved his uncle. The man had been nothing but good and kind to him.
“My sister had such good prospects,” Donald finally said with a touch of some old bitterness. “Three proposals before she was even of age, one from a viscount. But she fell in love with a man from London she couldn’t have, and you were the result. When she wouldn’t come home, I said some harsh things she never forgave me for. I let pride come before love, and I’ve regretted that to this day. Yes, I let it be known that she’d married and her husband died just after you were born. She was so angry at me that she wouldn’t use the name I created for him, though she did use the story, merely telling people she preferred her maiden name since she hadn’t been married long.”
His uncle’s words stirred a memory that Devin had long forgotten. “She told me once, ‘You don’t know what it’s like to love like this. I hope you never find out.’ I’d asked about my father that day. That was her excuse for not wanting to talk about him. But she was talking about my real father, wasn’t she?”
“I honestly don’t know, Dev. I don’t doubt she loved him. I think that’s why she wouldn’t come home. She wanted to be near him even if he wouldn’t—couldn’t marry her.”
“Lord Wolseley, the bloody landlord?”
Donald’s eyes snapped open, hearing the hatred in Devin’s voice. “Wolseley? He was a friend of your mother’s, yes, but he wasn’t her landlord. She owned that house. Your father gave that to her.”
“Then why would she say—never mind, just a lie, obviously, to explain his many visits late of a night. He was her lover! She sent me away because of him!”
“Devin, no, that wasn’t it. She sent you away because you were starting to ask questions and she felt you were too young to hear the answers. When she asked me to come get you, she told me what you mistakenly thought, and that when you were older, she would explain to you about your real father. I don’t know if she loved Wolseley, but I’m sure she loved your father. She never would tell me who he was. She was afraid I’d try to kill him and I probably would have. He paid for your schooling, you know. I could have done so. I almost threw away that anonymous missive that arrived, telling me your entire education was already paid for and the name of the school that was expecting you.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because I wasn’t going to spite you just because I hated him. And your aunt convinced me that it was the best thing for you. What you learned there and the contacts you made would allow you to move in the highest echelons of society. And to be honest, I felt he owed you that, at least, since he otherwise didn’t want to be part of your life.”
Devin still didn’t believe it, that Lawrence Wolseley wasn’t his father. His mother had lied to him. Why wouldn’t she have lied to he
r brother, too? All to protect that bastard that she loved so much she’d abandoned her family for him, her entire family. Someday he was going to confront Wolseley about it. But he wasn’t going to upset his uncle further over a subject that had no resolution—yet.
For five years he got so involved in the day-to-day running of Donald’s large estate that there wasn’t much time to think of unresolved issues. Donald didn’t just turn it all over to him, he and Lydia were leaving Lancashire for good! They wanted to do some traveling before they got any older, and they were gone for three years doing that. But Lydia also wanted to live again in the city she’d been born and raised in, London. All her old friends were still there and had begged her over the years to bring her talents back to them. She had mostly bred dogs in the country, but she actually excelled at training them as well, and her skills were quite in demand now in London. And Donald had taken up painting, of all things!
His aunt and uncle had lived in London for four years now—Devin had only been there half as long—and they were happy there, especially now that Devin pretty much lived with them again. That was the real reason he hadn’t fixed up the house on the farm yet.
His uncle’s town house was nicely located on the west end of Jermyn Street, not far from St. James Square and just south of Piccadilly, which connected to Bond Street, so his daily ride to and from the farm wasn’t long.
He left his horse at the stable on the corner himself, rather than have one of Donald’s servants see to it. It was such a quiet, pleasant street that he actually enjoyed the short walk, even when the trees lining the street were bare, as they were now.
He stopped on the steps leading to the house’s main entrance, looking toward the next block, where his mother’s old town house was, thinking of her again. He’d never stepped foot in that house again, didn’t want to. All the furniture had been sold, his mother’s personal effects packed up and stored in the attic in Lancashire. He’d never looked through those trunks either. She’d only been twenty-six years of age when she’d died, his beautiful mother. She could have still married and actually lived a normal life. But she didn’t, not as long as she still loved that bastard Lawrence Wolseley. Still to this day, Devin didn’t understand why. Love, her excuse, was not a good reason to ruin your life. Perhaps it was simply because Wolseley had supported her in fine style. She’d had servants, fancy clothes, jewelry. She’d even had quite a tidy savings that Donald had turned over to him. He hadn’t refused that. It had allowed him to start the new farm, which was paying for itself now. And he had an abundance of stock now that was his own. He didn’t have to keep them all for breeding, so he was finally seeing some profits. And he had a new windfall in the form of Ophelia Locke.
Let Love Find You Page 7