Winthrop Trilogy Box Set

by Burnett, May

  “And after the marriage, what was your plan?”

  “I shall write to Abby that I am lonely and invite her to come and stay for an indefinite visit. To ensure the letter does not go astray, I wrote it in advance, dated a week from now. I slipped it to Abby at the wedding breakfast. Once she is far from her stepmother, some spurious health problem, either hers or mine, will be the pretext for her staying over the winter.”

  “Lonely a mere week after our wedding? That sounds rather suspicious. Your brothers are already out for my blood.” North did not sound particularly frightened.

  “I suppose I’ll have to find a reliable and discreet midwife.” Would such a woman be available at her destination? Her plan was full of holes, but she’d had no choice but to take the leap. “I don’t know how many people will have to know the truth – the fewer the better, obviously. You are clearly one of them. I do not intend to deceive you ever again.”

  “I should hope not,” he growled, then caught her in a firmer embrace, turning her around to face him, and pressed her body against his own. His was hard and lean, but not uncomfortable at all. It was strange how two such different forms could fit together so well.

  “All in all, I’ve clearly come out ahead in this matter,” he concluded. “As for the remaining details, don’t worry about them now. I will help you find a satisfactory solution to everything.”

  It was the most perfect thing he could have said to her. After all these months of worry, having an ally she could confide in was wonderful. She cupped his face with her hands and kissed his chin, then his mouth. When she got to breathe again, eventually, she gasped, “I begin to think I’ve come out ahead, too.”

  “You like what we’re doing, then?”

  Though she heard from his voice that it was a rhetorical question, she nodded vigorously. “With practice I think I’ll like it even more.”

  “I’ll make sure you get all the practice you want. And how do you feel about your husband in general?”

  “I like you a great deal,” she said cautiously.

  He kissed her nose. “I like you also, sweetheart, much better now than during our wedding. You were so cool and controlled.”

  “Inside, I was petrified.”

  He smiled. “I’m glad to hear it. It makes me believe that this odd marriage of ours may become a success after all.”

  Going along with his change of mood, she rubbed an exploratory hand over his chest, and threw him a look of wide-eyed innocence. “Why, did you have any doubt on the matter?”

  Chapter 13

  “We should arrive within the hour,” North told his wife. “I’ll be relieved, I confess.” No matter how shabby the state of the castle proved to be, knowledge of the worst had to be better than his current incertitude. “The roads are rough here; the coach springs are starting to show the strain.” The number of potholes had become impossible to ignore during the last few miles, when they had turned into a smaller, poorly maintained road.

  “I am eager to finally see my future home,” Susan replied. “Nine days is rather longer than I usually need to get from one place to another. I am beginning to understand why you put off travelling here since your brother’s death.” Of course, they had spent many hours they could have been travelling in very different pursuits.

  “It was not the distance so much as the lack of funds. Everyone will have a long list of demands and bills. How could I face them without the wherewithal to satisfy them? Now, thanks to you, it will be very different.”

  “I suppose that would be frustrating. But apart from the money, I should have thought your young sister was reason enough to come home. Or did you know from her letters that she was happy and secure?”

  North hesitated a moment. They had discussed many subjects during their journey – books, history, politics, - but his immediate family was a subject he had avoided, sensing trouble ahead. Now that they were drawing so close, he could no longer remain silent.

  “When I joined the army she was very young, barely able to read and write. I did write to her a few times after our parents’ death, but my letters were returned unopened by Edward, with the request never to bother the family again. He was appointed her guardian, even though he was only our half-brother. Well, I was away, and still under age myself.”

  “When was that?”

  “Soon after I left home, about eight years ago. She was nine then.”

  “How did your parents die?”

  “It was very sudden, in a boating accident. They both loved to sail, and were caught in a storm – the waters around the coasts of Cornwall can be treacherous.”

  “If you are twenty-eight now, and Milla seventeen, that is a great difference in your ages,” Susan commented. “Were there no other children in between?”

  “No, nor miscarriages, as far as I know. My mother had been told at my birth that she would not be able to have any more children, but all those years later Milla came along to general surprise. The age difference between her and Edward was even greater, of course; he was already twenty-two when Milla was born.”

  “Did you ever get along?”

  “He resented the fact that my father married again, and hated my mother and her children from the first day, with a sullen determination. There was nothing Milla or I could have done to change his attitude.”

  “The more you tell me, the more I worry for your sister.” Susan looked very serious. “You were off to the army, and cut off from contact; she was left at the sole mercy of a stepbrother who hated her, when she was not yet ten?”

  “Edward was hardly ever in Cornwall, he spent most of his time in London, gambling away his inheritance. And he’d never shown much interest in her while she was small. With luck she mostly escaped his attention.”

  “Being ignored is almost worse,” Susan said with horror. “The poor girl!”

  They had reached the point from which the castle was first visible. North had the coach stop for a few minutes. They descended, and were immediately buffeted by a brisk wind. Clouds were moving swiftly overhead, and the tang of the sea was in the air, though the shore could not yet be seen. As he’d warned Susan, Ulmsbury was a medieval castle. It sat squarely atop a small elevation, dominating the valley where his tenants farmed as well as the wet climate allowed. Having grown up in the place, North found it hard to estimate how the view would impact a stranger to the area. “You can see the sea from the higher floors. On stormy days it can be very dramatic, if you like that sort of thing. Cold and draughty, I’m afraid.”

  “How do you feel about this homecoming?”

  North had difficulty answering Susan’s question. “Strange,” he said after a minute. “When I was a child, while my parents lived, I loved the place with the unconscious love for something that is part of you, body and soul. Then being cut off for all those years, I put it away, like a book you have finished reading and do not plan to open again.” Anything else would have been too painful, he realised, but trying to forget his home had not been without cost. “Now I have to reopen it, it is like coming as a stranger and yet finding everything familiar; as though I were two people at the same time.”

  “I see,” she murmured, looking at him out of her blue eyes. “This confusion will probably pass within the first few weeks or months.”

  “It better had. I need to familiarize myself with the place again, every nook and cranny of it, if I am to bring it back up to scratch.”

  They regarded the castle in silence. “It has a wild beauty,” Susan commented. If she felt dismay, she hid it well. “How far is it from the seashore?”

  “Not quite half a mile. There is a path along the cliffs, with a dramatic view, where I used to ride in the mornings.”

  “I’d like that too … But I suppose I can’t while I’m supposed to be with child, and I haven’t brought my mare.” Susan sounded a little disgruntled. North grinned. If his assiduous efforts had not been in vain, by now she might very well truly be with child.

  “We�
��ll have to see if anything suitable is available the stables, though I’m not optimistic,” he said. “You were thinking of bringing your mare? Isn’t the animal your father’s property?”

  “No, Morelle is mine. She was a birthday gift from Jeremy. I shall send for her, and for anything else that we may find lacking.” She looked at the castle a little longer. “It looks romantic, like something out of an old fairy tale; but also a little forbidding. All those ramparts.”

  “If you find it romantic, that’s only because of the distance. When we get closer the drawbacks will become more obvious. I dread to think how bad it may be.” The wind was strengthening, and Susan was not dressed for outdoors. “Let’s get back into the coach.”

  As they continued on their journey, Susan said, “I haven’t seen any inn for the last couple of hours, and the villages we passed were very small.”

  “There is a very modest inn in Ulmers, the fishing village close to Ulmsbury, but hardly suitable for a lady. The village of Dennoden, behind that other hill over there, also has its own inn. The two villages are not on the best of terms. Nobody knows why, the enmity goes back at least a hundred years.”

  “I don’t see many people outside,” she observed, looking out the window. “Is it as sparsely populated as it looks?”

  “I’m afraid so. Ulmers is over that way,” he pointed, “and inhabited by fishermen and their families; they would have little reason to go wandering about back here. We do have a few farmers, including a dozen or so of my tenants, though the land here is poor. It supports cattle well enough, but most cash crops are not suited to the wet climate. There are also several mines in the area, but the only one on my land was closed down in my grandfather’s time, I suppose because it was exhausted. I’m not sure if I should be sorry for it or glad. Mining is a hard life, and a big responsibility. And though some have got rich from their mines, they are not always profitable. A drop in price can easily force a whole mine to close, and many dozens of families lose their livelihood.”

  “What do they mine here?”

  “Tin, copper, and silver. Especially tin. Look, from here we can see the castle again.” He looked at it broodingly. “Those stone walls are very hard to heat. We’ll have to order coal for the fireplaces right away.”

  Susan shrugged. “I’m not worried on my own behalf, I am hardy enough, but I want Abby to be comfortable when she arrives. There should be a week or two to prepare, at least.” She tugged on her gloves. “In the meantime I want to know more about your sister. Milla was a childhood name, I take it. Will she still want to be called that? When children grow up they often insist on the full name, to sound more adult.”

  “Camilla hardly suits her,” he said doubtfully. “I’ve always thought of her as Milla.”

  “How can you know what will suit her, when you haven’t seen her so long? Didn’t you write to her again when Edward died? I presume you are now your sister’s guardian?”

  “Yes, I did write, twice.” The memory still rankled. “I got a short note back after the second letter, telling me not to write again and let her be. It was quite rude and contained no personal information of any kind.”

  “And she’s only seventeen?” Susan was gnawing her lips, a sign of worry, he had learned. “Such a letter could be interpreted as a cry for help, you know.”

  “No, I don’t know. I took it at face value, that she wanted to be left in peace.” Susan looked doubtful, but then she could not know how it was with Milla. It was not easy to explain. “You are thinking of her as being like other girls. From her earliest days, my sister was different – no, don’t look so horrified; her brains and health are fine, - but she was always wild and ungovernable. Stubborn, wilful, disobedient. My parents were close to despair at times. She did not care for scolding or beating, she just did what she wanted, nothing else, even as a tiny tot. That’s why I was not as worried for her as you’d expect during my absence. Milla is like a mule, strong and difficult, and as prickly as a hedgehog, from what I remember. That letter she sent fit with my recollection of her. I don’t expect that even Edward could make her mind him. He avoided anything that looked like hard work.”

  “Oh dear.” Now Susan looked very thoughtful indeed. “Even if she was like that as a young child, people change, North. But if not – after all this time alone, without anyone in authority – making a young lady out of her, a lady who can move and pick a mate from among the ton, sounds like quite a challenge.”

  More like impossible. Susan still didn’t know the half of it. “I know. I’ll support you to the best of my ability, but don’t blame yourself if you find it is a lost cause.”

  “What does Milla look like?”

  “Bear in mind that I haven’t seen her for many years. Dark curly hair, that looks black in most lights, and blue eyes. She resembles our mother, who was a very good-looking woman. I expect Milla could be quite taking, if she does not act too farouche.”

  “I still think that given her youth, you shouldn’t have taken any notice of her rude letter, and gone to see her right away,” Susan stated. “But I’ll reserve judgement until I actually meet her. Your sister certainly sounds unusual – with luck she can pass for an original.”

  “She’d probably tell you she doesn’t care a whit what society thinks of her.”

  “At seventeen? We’ll see about that. Most young people crave acceptance and respect, even if they don’t admit it openly.”

  Thinking back to his own youth, and to the young officers he’d trained, North had to admit she was probably right.

  While they talked, their weary horses had slowly approached Ulmsbury. The winding path to the castle was worn and uneven, and the coach lurched uncomfortably. Susan was no doubt adding the improvement of their road to her list of things to do.

  “Is sand and gravel easily available here?”

  So he was right – and slowly getting to understand his young wife. “Easily enough. It is not lack of material that is keeping the roads in this state.”

  Finally the coach stopped, defeated by a chasm in front, the castle’s ancient moat. It was no longer filled with water since the previous century. Now it was a deep ditch with steep grassy sides. The drawbridge was pulled up against a solid oak portal with rusting ironwork, closed against all comers.

  Their coachman called out, but received no immediate response. The second coach with the additional luggage and North’s valet drew up behind them.

  “Can it be that your sister is refusing us entry?” Susan said, “You are the master, after all. Will we have to lay siege to your own castle?” She was making a joke out of it, but North felt too mortified to enter into Susan’s game.

  “We’ll see about that.” He opened the door and jumped out.

  Chapter 14

  Susan watched North approach the moat and put his hands in front of his mouth for an energetic halloo towards the tiny glassless window in the thick wall, next to the drawbridge. It was something to tell her grandchildren someday, her first arrival in her castle, to find it locked and the bridge drawn up … She was not worried. North would soon deal with whatever misunderstanding had caused this reception, just as he had ordered the details of their long journey from town with military efficiency.

  In the meantime she was not going to just sit around. Since the steps were not attached, she held on to the side of the coach as she jumped out also. The ground was stony and slippery with dampness under her half boots. She looked up at the thick walls and took a deep breath. You could deal with inconvenient architecture, build an entirely new house if necessary. The first order of things was to gain entrance.

  North must have finally convinced whoever was guarding the drawbridge that he was entitled to entry, because it began to lower, creaking loudly. Susan mentally added grease to her list of purchases, and it could not hurt to have a blacksmith check the state of those ancient chains. The bridge itself, when it rested on both edges, looked solid enough for an elephant to walk across.

 
Once the drawbridge was lowered, the gate was opened also, pushed outwards by a wizened old man, puffing from the effort. North hastened to help when he saw that there was nobody else to admit them. The two coaches slowly rumbled into the castle’s courtyard. Susan followed on foot, looking around curiously. The gate was closed again after she had entered, but the drawbridge was left down, at North’s command.

  “Susan, this is Mattock,” North said, pointing to the old man, who stared up at her from rheumy green eyes, and bobbed his head. “Where is everybody else? And what are you doing here - I thought you had been pensioned off years ago?”

  The man was wringing his hands. “Ah, my lord, be that really you?” He was wheezing, still out of breath from pushing the heavy door. He looked to be closer to eighty than seventy.

  Susan smiled at the old man. The courtyard in which they stood was paved with ancient, solid stones, rubbed flat from many feet over the centuries. Six doors led into various parts of the building. That one had to be the stables, and the main entrance was more ornate than the others … but why was everything so empty? Not a single person was present except their own party and old Mattock. No grooms came out of the stables to take the horses in hand, and the front door remained obstinately closed. Not even a dog or cat greeted them. The pigeons passing overhead were the only sign of life, and entirely indifferent.

  “Welcome home, my lord,” the old man said, then seemed to be at a loss for words. Susan saw him staring at her worriedly. That would never do.

  “Come, sit down here,” she said, taking the old man’s arm and leading him to a stone bench off what she guessed was the kitchen door. “Take your time to catch your breath.”

  “Mattock was the head groom when I was a boy,” North told her. “This is the new Lady Northcote, Mattock, as you may have guessed.”

  “Your wife?” The man looked surprised and almost dismayed.

  “Never mind that now. Why is the place so deserted? Where is my sister?”