The Ladies’ Secrets: A Historical Regency Romance Box Set

by Ayles, Abby

Miss Natalie gave a small, warm laugh. “I’m certain that you will find many other ways to congratulate him, my lord. He has a commendable character.”

  Now, that was an audacious lie. Miss Natalie had just made it clear what she thought of his character. But John could not help but feel warm inside that she was defending him.

  “How about in six months’ time?” Miss Natalie suggested. “My two sisters will have been married by then and we shall be quite out of the way of their nuptials. The season will be all but over, so no one should have any other engagements. And the weather will be lovely.”

  “A most astute decision,” the earl said. He smiled at her. “I quite agree.”

  Miss Natalie smiled and ducked her head down bashfully.

  “Do you have any objections?” Father then asked John.

  John shook his head. He was much more concerned with running the estate than with when his wedding would be.

  Father’s illness meant that John needed to learn all that he could as soon as possible. He wished to take the burden of running things off of his father and brother. To do that he had to throw himself into the task.

  A wedding was secondary to that. There were plenty of couples who were engaged for a year or more. There was no rush.

  “I have no objections,” he said.

  “You are made of stronger stuff than I am,” Father said jovially. He then smiled at Miss Natalie. “If I were you and engaged to this delightful creature I shouldn’t wait a moment longer than I had to.”

  John smiled, trying to get into the spirit of things.

  If nothing else, he was grateful that Miss Natalie seemed to cheer Father up so well. It seemed that all that John could do was irritate him.

  “Excellent,” the earl said. “That is all then. I shall expect to see you all at dinner. Miss Natalie, I think I shall impose that bridge game upon you.”

  “I play the pianoforte quite well,” Miss Natalie added. “If you would like to take a break from your work at any time I am happy to play for you.”

  “Most kind, most kind.”

  “I’ll see them out,” John said. “Then we can get down to business.”

  “Yes, thank you,” the earl said, already turning back to his papers.

  John escorted the two ladies out of the room, where he drew Miss Natalie aside.

  “How on earth did you manage that?” he asked. “All I ever seem to be able to do is cause fights with him.”

  Miss Natalie smiled gently. He wished that she would smile like that more often. It was a genuine smile and made her look soft and welcoming.

  “My father can be much the same way. After our mother’s death he shut himself off. He would only see our eldest sister for the running of the house.

  “I got quite good at charming him out of the room now and again. And I’ve found that older men like to be flirted with as much as younger men. Even though they know nothing will come of it. It makes them feel like someone is paying attention to them, as people did when they were younger. It flatters them.”

  “You’ve succeeded where I’ve failed,” John acknowledged. “You did not have to ask him if you could bring Emma. That was very kind of you.”

  “You are right, in what you were saying,” Miss Natalie said. “And please forgive me, we did not mean to eavesdrop.”

  “I can imagine it wasn’t hard. We argue easily and our voices carry.”

  “It’s unfair to Miss Ridgecleff if he keeps her here. I wish to be a true friend to her. I don’t intend to matchmake her to anyone in London. I’ll let her guide herself in that matter. But she will not find anyone new here. She must go to London for the season.

  “Even Regina found someone while in London and she spent most of her life being overlooked by everybody back home. I mean that not as an insult. I fear I have treated her wrongly. But it is fact.”

  “Still, you were risking my father’s wrath in asking him if you could take Emma away.”

  “It is not for the full season. Only for Elizabeth’s wedding. But hopefully once she is there we can persuade him to let her stay for a bit. Even in the span of a week one can meet a man.”

  “You certainly are clever,” John admitted.

  Miss Natalie curtsied, teasingly. “I try my best, my lord.”

  He laughed. Then grew serious again. “I fear my behavior—as you so adeptly pointed out—has been as selfish as yours. And not merely in regards to yourself.

  “I fled to the Continent where I allowed myself to think nothing of my family or my duty to Mountbank. I flirted and danced and made a general fool of myself, I’m sure.

  “When I came home it was not because I thought of my family. It was because my father had threatened to cut me off if I did not find a wife and come home. As you well know.

  “That was wrong of me. I should have come home much sooner. My father is ill. My sister needs guidance in the matter of marriage. My brother longs for freedom and to travel.

  “I could have made it all better if I had only been here. It was selfish and awful of me to stay away for so long.

  “And so if it seems that I am rather focused on the running of the house—it is not that I wish to neglect you. It is that you have helped me to realize my own failings.

  “I wish for us to try and spend more time together. To become properly acquainted. But I must also try and undo the wrongs that I have done.

  “I must learn how to run Mountbank so that the burden is off my father’s shoulders. He can rest. And my brother can be free to travel and enjoy life before he settles down. It is time I thought of my family before myself.

  “Can you understand? I fear I will be a dreadfully absentminded fiancé to you this next month.”

  “Do what you must,” Miss Natalie told him. “It is clear that far too much attention and of the wrong sort has been paid to me over the years. I should learn how to handle being left alone.”

  John chuckled. “Still. I am your intended. I will do what I can to treat you as you should be treated.”

  “Why, my lord, are you going to woo me properly?” Miss Natalie asked. That teasing note that he was quickly growing to enjoy was back in her voice.

  John smiled. “Perhaps. You will have to develop some patience and see.”

  “I look forward to it then.”

  John was surprised to find that he was rather looking forward to it as well.

  Chapter 23

  The first order of flowers arrived the next week.

  “They’re beautiful!” Miss Ridgecleff exclaimed. “Oh, the card—it says they’re for you, Miss Natalie.”

  Natalie took up the card. Sure enough, the flowers were for her. From Lord Ridgecleff.

  “Truly?” she asked, waving the card at him as he sat at his desk. “You are in the same house as I am. You don’t have to send me flowers.”

  “I have yet to take you on any of the walks or rides that I promised you,” Lord Ridgecleff replied. “Flowers seemed to barely cover the apology necessary. Do you not like them?”

  The truth was that Natalie loved them. They were beautiful, pink and white and periwinkle. She had them placed in her room.

  She’d never been sent flowers before. Never been properly courted in that way. It was a bold move, to send a gift to a lady. It was usually only done by a gentleman who was certain of the lady returning his affections.

  For a fiancé to send them to his intended bride, however, they were a lovely and acceptable gift.

  After that, every few days there were some flowers for her. Lord Ridgecleff must have accounted for the wilting of the previous bouquet, for the new flowers would always arrive just as the previous ones were starting to droop and go brown about the edges of the petals.

  Natalie made an effort to rise earlier in the morning so that she might be available for a walk with him. It took a week or so as he was immersed in his business with his father. But then, one morning as she was reading, he entered.

  “Would you be free to walk the grounds w
ith me?” he asked.

  Natalie set aside her book. She still found them a bit dull for her tastes. Dull or too fantastic. She couldn’t understand how Regina could read all those ridiculous Gothic stories.

  “Certainly,” she said.

  Walking wasn’t her favorite thing to do. Or, rather, in the past it hadn’t been. She found it was quite different when she was walking with Lord Ridgecleff.

  He knew so much about the surrounding area. Before when she had gone on walks with people, they inevitably ran out of conversation. The stumbling half-starts of attempted subjects had grated on her. There was never a lack of things to talk about at a ball.

  But Lord Ridgecleff seemed always to have a new question for her. He challenged her on her thoughts about life, and philosophy. Natalie found the ridiculous lessons she’d had from Bridget as a child were coming in handy.

  They discussed what sort of person would be good for Miss Ridgecleff to marry. They talked about the Morrisons and Natalie told him of her sisters. And she listened—she was trying very hard to listen.

  “Tell me of the Continent,” she would tell him. Then she would try not to say a single word except to prompt him for another story.

  She learned quite a good deal about art from him. It seemed that visiting the art museums and colleges was one of his greatest pleasures while in Europe.

  At first it was hard to keep silent. She had so many thoughts! They were all crowding up in her head and she felt she would burst if she didn’t say them aloud.

  But then as time went on it got easier. She started to realize that some thoughts just weren’t worth sharing. Others if she saved them she could reformulate into something wittier or more profound.

  She stopped waiting for simply the next moment to speak and started actually caring about what he had to say. She cared more about what Lord Ridgecleff said than what she was going to say in response.

  Natalie found that she liked to hear him speak. He had a deep, sonorous voice. He told stories well, with wit and charm. He gestured when he really got into a story, she noticed. He would move his hands as though pointing at invisible objects or people that only he could see.

  Indeed, the more time she spent with him, the more she was finding that she liked him.

  Louisa said little on the matter. But sometimes Natalie would catch sight of her sister smiling at her oddly.

  “What is it?” she would ask.

  “Oh, nothing,” Louisa always replied.

  The earl, Natalie quickly learned, was rather hard on his eldest son. In a way she couldn’t blame him. Lord Ridgecleff had all but run off for years.

  Miss Ridgecleff told Natalie a bit of it as well, as she and Natalie grew closer.

  “They’re very similar,” she said. “Father is a hard man in general. He expects quite a lot from people. As does John, I’m afraid.

  “They have their expectations of others and that includes of one another. And when someone doesn’t meet those expectations—well.

  “John running off to the Continent like that rather broke Father’s heart. He’ll never admit it, of course. He’s too proud for that. But you can see it in how he refuses to compliment John now. I think that he thinks that if he compliments John or commends him that it will somehow say that John was right in his actions.”

  “But doesn’t he see that it only continues to push his son away?” Natalie asked. It seemed counterintuitive to her. If you wanted someone to be more attentive to you then you complimented them. You didn’t continue to berate them.

  But then, perhaps she was not the best person to look to in regards to how to treat others.

  Still, as time went on, she grew to see the moments when Lord Ridgecleff was stressed from his work with his father.

  She made a habit of stopping by the study after making morning calls. There was only Miss Hunsford and Mrs. Hapson to call upon in any case. It didn’t take long.

  Lord Ridgecleff would generally be deep into his work. At first he had all but snapped at her when she came in. It was an invasion of his space and privacy. It was an unnecessary interruption. And so on.

  But Natalie was not the sort to give in easily. She was the determined sort. And she was very persuasive.

  She would ask what he was doing in order to draw him into conversation.

  “It is my duty as your future wife and as the mistress of Mountbank,” she would say.

  At first, Lord Ridgecleff was reluctant. He didn’t want to be interrupted and said so, often.

  But as the days went on he started to turn away from his papers more easily. He would actively answer her questions. He would volunteer information.

  It came to be that she could sense him waiting for her. Anticipating her. He would turn immediately when she knocked on the doorframe as she entered.

  “Come in,” he’d say, and sometimes she thought she caught him almost smiling at her.

  Sometimes, now, he would even let her talk about things other than business. She would tell him of her morning visits. She would read to him for a short bit as well.

  The books still bored her but not as much as they used to. She found that she enjoyed them in the sense that she enjoyed watching Lord Ridgecleff’s reactions as she read.

  The lines on his face would soften. His mouth would twitch in irritation, or sadness, or joy, depending upon what was happening in the book.

  Natalie liked being able to do that. She liked being able to give him something and help to ease the stress that made the lines around his mouth and eyes deepen.

  She found herself longing for the ability to draw him into the library and have him rest on the couch with his head in her lap. She wanted that little bit of intimacy.

  But for now she was happy to make do with helping him. She found that she actually enjoyed being able to give someone something that helped them out. She liked being able to make him happy. Or at least happier than he was before she came in.

  He needed the break, clearly. She was glad that she got to be the one to give it to him.

  Lord Ridgecleff would seek her out as well aside from their walks. She had fallen into the habit of playing the pianoforte for the earl in the evenings after dinner. Lord Ridgecleff would find them and stand in the doorway, watching.

  She would try not to look at him as she played. She wasn’t the best at the pianoforte but she did like to think that she could rather hold her own.

  When he watched her play, however, she found herself nervous. She could feel his eyes upon her and would begin to panic internally about messing up, hitting a wrong note.

  She had to force herself to play as though he was not in the room. It was ridiculous of her—to be so nervous over someone watching her!

  Then there were the little gifts that Lord Ridgecleff would give her. Aside from the flowers. He had to go into town one day for business and returned with some lovely ribbon for her.

  “I thought the green might go well with your eyes,” he admitted. He sounded almost embarrassed to say such a thing. As if it was a vulnerability rather than a given that a man should notice the color of his fiancée’s eyes.

  But then, Natalie had found herself blushing as well, smiling almost shyly as she had accepted the ribbon.

  Miss Ridgecleff had helped to facilitate the next gift. She had taken Natalie down to a local farm where she revealed that the owner had a cat that had recently given birth.

  Natalie gasped at the five tiny, wriggling, mewing little balls of fur.

  “They are so cunning!” she said, gently picking one up. They were a silky gray color and so darling.

  “My brother thought you might like one,” Miss Ridgecleff said, smiling brightly. “He wanted to bring you himself but Father’s kept him too busy this morning. The farmer is one of our tenants.”

  Natalie held the small, precious bundle close to her chest. “May I play with them for a bit?” she asked the farmer.

  “Of course, Miss.”

  She played with the kittens with Mi
ss Ridgecleff. They each had their distinct personalities. Some were more playful and others more subdued in their manner, yawning and staying curled up in little balls.

  She ended up going for one, a boy, that was the right mix of playful and quiet. He engaged with her when she played with him, batting his tiny paws at her fingertips. But he was also content to sleep in her arms.

  “I shall name him Thor,” she said. “After the God of Thunder.”

  “That’s a rather large name for a tiny kitten,” Miss Ridgecleff noted.

  “He shall grow into it. It’s a sign to encourage him to be fierce.” Natalie tickled his nose with the tip of her finger. “And besides, it matches his coloring. The gray is like a stormy sky, is it not?”

  Miss Ridgecleff laughed. “That is true.”

  She brought the kitten back, elated.

  “Of course you would love a kitten,” Louisa said when she found out. She smiled, amused. “It has the same sort of temperament as you. You’re rather a cat yourself.”

  “Am I?”

  “Oh, yes,” said the voice of Lord Ridgecleff.

  Natalie jumped a little, turning around, the kitten still clutched in her hands.

  Lord Ridgecleff smiled. “Did you like the present?”

  “Very much.” Natalie could feel her cheeks heating up. “But tell me, my lord, how am I like a cat?”

  “Well, you’re proud,” Lord Ridgecleff noted. “And independent. Clever, witty. You don’t like to simply follow someone along like a dog. Your loyalty must be earned.”

  “I suppose that I can live with that description,” Natalie said. “Although I believe you left off some points.”

  “Such as?”

  “Sophistication and elegance. Cats were worshipped as the messengers of the gods by the Egyptians, you know.”

  “Ah, of course, how could I have forgotten?”

  “Humility, of course, as well,” Natalie added, smiling.

  That seemed to nearly get a laugh out of him. Then he grew serious again. “I have sent word to prepare my London apartment for us and for my sister.”

  Ah, yes. Natalie had almost forgotten. They were to go to London in just a few days.