by Janet Grace
‘Look, Louisa.’
He used her name. Breathless, she jumped up, white petals scattering about her like confetti. He stood back, rubbing his sleeve across his forehead, and she bent forward to study the monstrous shell. It still lay half embedded in the rock—considerably more work would be needed to free it completely—but what was revealed was perfect in every detail. Amazed at its preservation and strange beauty, Louisa traced her fingers in wonderment over its ancient coils.
‘To think,’ she breathed, ‘we are the first human beings to see this creature since the earliest times, when maybe Noah watched it crawl by as the flood waters rose up to his ark. It is almost impossible to comprehend such wonders.’
He had moved back to stand with her, and his fingers touched the stone near her own. His closeness made her breathless.
‘Every detail is so well-preserved,’ she hurried on. ‘It is beautiful. Truly beautiful.’
‘Yes, indeed,’ he said slowly, a lilt of laughter in his voice. ‘Truly beautiful. Truly very beautiful.’
His arm was about her waist, and he turned her to face him. Her hands crept on to his chest in half-hearted protest, to push him away. Through the fine lawn of his shirt she was suddenly intensely aware of the warmth of his body, and his heart beating in heavy little thuds under her palm. The beating of her own heart seemed to stifle her and she could not move.
‘You must look up when I tell you that you are beautiful, my love,’ he said, his gentle voice caressing her. His free hand crept under her chin, loosing the ribbon of her bonnet and pushing that intrusive article free to fall among the scattered daisy petals. Her recalcitrant hair shed its final pins and tumbled on to her shoulders. He breathed deeply, running his hand up the back of her neck deep into the tresses, pulling her head gently back. She saw his mouth, lips apart, and felt the warmth of his rapid breathing on her cheek, before her eyes met his. She could not look away as he bent his head down to hers, and her love for him showed naked in her gaze.
His lips were hesitant at first, questioning, lightly touching, but as he felt the tremor of her response his kisses became insistent, possessing. She could not resist. Her own desire overwhelmed her, and she met the urgency of his passion with the whole of her love, losing all time and place in the encircling world of his embrace.
‘Miss Stapely! Miss Stapely—come quick! Geoffrey has fallen and hurt his ankle.’
Stunned with shock, reeling with a sense of loss, Louisa could hardly stand as Alnstrop abruptly released her and handed her her bonnet, cursing under his breath. Isabel came crashing through the raspberry canes towards them, important with news.
‘Geoffrey has hurt his ankle, Miss Stapely. He can’t walk on it at all, and he is crying ever so.’ She looked accusingly at their governess, who had not been in the front-line of duty, then looked again. ‘All your hair has come down, miss,’ she commented with interest.
‘Yes, indeed it has, and I have lost the wretched pins in the grass here.’ Louisa rallied her thoughts shakily. ‘But my bonnet will hold it sufficiently in place. There, I have secured it.’
She thrust what she could under the bonnet and tied the hopeful green ribbon firmly, forcing her mind away from those fingers that had touched it last.
Her mind whirled, as she thought, Whatever have I done? He will despise me.
‘Now, you had better take me to Geoffrey,’ she said.
Isabel took her hand and led her rapidly away through the undergrowth. She shot a sudden, anguished look back at Lord Alnstrop, but he had turned away to pick up the hammer and chisel, and did not see.
Geoffrey was lying on a rubbly bank, dirt and tears smearing his face, sniffing loudly and rubbing his nose on his sleeve. His hands still clutched his treasure trove of fossils in two tight fists. He had obviously caught the ankle awkwardly between two stones as he’d fallen, and it was already beginning to swell. Louisa could see that his boot would have to be removed quickly, or it would need to be cut free. Already it would be painful. She looked at the three older children, peering down with earnest concern, and at Geoffrey’s set white face.
‘Clifton, please run and ask Fitton for a bowl of fresh water. Jane, please find Georgiana and Mr. Ferdinand. Tell them we must start back sooner than expected. Isabel, please carefully pour Geoffrey a glass of lemonade. Off you I all go now.’
As they all ran off she became aware of Alnstrop behind her, nodding his approval.
‘Very efficient, my dear.’
His smile was warm, though his eyes were uncertain, questioning. She did not know how to respond, and dropped her gaze. He turned to Geoffrey, and she was relieved to hear his tones of calm practicality.
‘Now, my lad, you are going to have to be a brave soldier while I take your boot off, and if you are lucky as well as brave, Miss Stapely will hold your hand.’
He was rapidly removing the laces from the restricting boot as he talked. Louisa briefly smiled her thanks to him, and turned to distract Geoffrey, pushing other thoughts from her mind.
‘I do believe I can’t hold your hand. It is too full of fossils. Will you show me what you have found? Which is your very best one?’
The earnest sorting through his treasures distracted the boy, and although he whimpered involuntarily as Alnstrop eased the boot free he clenched his lips together on the sound and held out another fossil to Louisa.
‘A very brave soldier. Well done, sir.’ Alnstrop smiled at Geoffrey. ‘And now we will go and find Fitton.’
He handed the boot and lace to Louisa, made as if to speak, then changed his mind and, squeezing her hand lightly, turned quickly away to lift Geoffrey. He carried the boy with infinite gentleness back to where they had eaten, and laid him on the smooth turf, his back propped against a boulder. Fitton came hurrying up with the bowl of water and Isabel gave Geoffrey his drink. He lay sipping slowly, rather enjoying the fuss.
‘Now, I am not only going to bathe this, I want to make it cold,’ Alnstrop said to the boy. ‘It’s a trick our old gamekeeper at home taught me when I was forever spraining things as a lad. “Swellings are hot, Master Robert,” he would say. “They hates the cold. Make ’em cold and they’ll go away.” It always seemed to help me, so we’ll try it on you. Right?’
The boy nodded bravely, although he flinched as Alnstrop crooked his knee up and placed the swollen foot in the cold water.
‘You keep it there. Good lad. Many’s the time we have done this for myself or John, haven’t we, Fitton?’
‘Indeed we have, sir.’ Fitton sounded resigned. ‘And for Miss Henrietta, too.’
‘Why, yes, she was as bad as the rest of us. But I believe John was the worst for scrapes of every kind.’
Fitton nodded, and as if on cue John appeared round the curve of the track with Georgiana and Jane. They were all three liberally entangled in daisy-chains, John trailing skeins like a maypole.
Forgetting her adornments, Georgiana ran hastily forward.
‘Poor Geoffrey. What happened? How did you do it? Is it very sore?’
She crouched sympathetically by her youngest brother, and he grinned at her over his glass.
‘I am a brave soldier, and we are soaking my wounds like Lord Alnstrop’s gamekeeper says. Lord Alnstrop rescued me and carried me back here. He has had to soak his ankle like this, too, when he was a boy, and knows all about it. Why are you all covered in daisies?’
Georgiana raised her hand to her mouth and chuckled. ‘We were no good at finding fossils, so we made daisy-chains instead. I crowned John King of the Summer. He has a crown and several chains of office. But I believe you should be the Prince of the Summer. Here.’
She unravelled some of the chain, already beginning to wilt, from around her neck, and coiled it on to his head.
‘There!’ She leant forward and kissed him. ‘I crown you Prince Geoffrey of the Summer. Now you will have to get better quickly, as you are a royal Prince.’
Alnstrop was talking quietly with Louisa.
&nb
sp; ‘I believe we should get him back as quickly as possible, and a doctor should see that foot, just in case a bone is broken. Perhaps you could steady him inside the carriage if I take young Clifton up with me.’
‘Yes, of course. And thank you.’
‘My dear, it gives me great pleasure to be able to help you. I wish I could do more.’ He paused, frowning across the quarry to where Fitton was bringing up the carriage. ‘Miss Stapely...’ The children were calling her, and he shrugged frustratedly. ‘I will call on you. We must talk.’ He raised her hand briefly to his lips and turned away to organise the departure.
The journey back was subdued, but contented. The children munched left-over gingerbread men and grapes, and Louisa did not trouble them about the crumbs. The girls showed her their fossil treasures. She clasped her own memories as treasures in her heart, and sometimes lightly touched one wilting daisy flower.
Geoffrey was drowsing with his head in her lap when Jane leaned over and took her hand.
‘Thank you, Miss Stapely,’ she whispered. ‘It was the best day in my whole life. I have never been on a picnic before. Things have been much more fun since you came to live with us, and especially since we made friends with Lord Alnstrop. I hope he will take us out again.’ She planted a quick, shy kiss on Louisa’s cheek, then snuggled back happily on the seat.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Louisa sat exhausted by Geoffrey’s bed, reading her letters. He had slept badly all night. The doctor had examined his ankle, and had fortunately pronounced no bones to be broken, but he was suffering from a severe sprain and over-exposure to the sun. The examination had hurt and tired the little boy, leaving him peevishly fretful and unable to sleep comfortably. He had asked for Louisa to tend him. By morning he was flushed, his eyes puffy and drooping, obviously feverish.
He had at last dozed off into what seemed a calmer sleep, and Louisa, who had left Annie supervising the tasks she had set in the schoolroom, was able to sit quietly. She knew she should lie down and attempt to sleep herself while Geoffrey was settled, but, with the strange obstinacy of exhaustion, she wanted instead to peruse her letters.
Amazingly she had received two. One from Mama, and one with a London mark. With some perplexity she studied the flamboyant feminine scrawl across the front, then, with a faint shrug, opened the letter. It was from Henrietta. Louisa sat back in her chair, smiling to herself at her memories of that irrepressibly vivacious lady. The letter was just what she would have expected from such a writer—an effervescent whirl of visits, events, gossip, scandals, anecdotes, outrageous surmises and details of everybody’s clothes, all described with Henrietta’s quirky sense of the ridiculous. Louisa chuckled quietly as she read, and once laughed aloud, glancing guiltily at the bed as she did so. Greatly cheered, she turned to her other letter.
All seemed well in Thesserton. Mama had bruised her hand badly when the carriage door had fallen off its hinges, but the boys had contrived to patch the door together again, and her hand was now more yellow than purple ... Susannah was proving to be far more use about the house than might have been expected, for which Mama was grateful...
Louisa stared unseeing at the bedroom wall. She could visualise them all so clearly, and with a great rush of fondness, but with no regrets at her decision to leave. Her thoughts drifted, and she was smiling and blushing a little before she turned back to her letter.
Mr. Sowthorpe continued to call regularly—that surprised Louisa—and the boys were in the rudest of health—that did not, they always were! Mama finished with fondest love, and Louisa sat dozing, the letters in her hand.
A quiet knock sounded on the door. She sped silently across the room and, expecting one of the household, was astounded to open the door to Lord Alnstrop. She gazed in mute astonishment, the sudden lurch of her heart instantly followed by dismay at her dishevelled appearance, for she had slept less than Geoffrey.
‘My dear Miss Stapely, I did not mean to startle you. Miss Lyntrell showed me up, but she had to run back to her mother.’
He had been regarding her with affectionate amusement, but as his eyes took in her look of drained exhaustion his face showed lines of concern. He reached out to her, gently took her hands and pulled her towards him, encircling her protectively against his chest. With a thankful sigh she rested her tired head against him. She seemed to be surrendering her exhaustion to his care, and a tender delight filled him. They stood for a moment, his cheek resting lightly on her hair.
‘My dear, can you come out and leave him for a little?’
‘Yes, for a little. He is sleeping now.’
She led the way into the day-nursery, and they sat at either side of the nursery-table, the doors left ajar for Louisa to listen for Geoffrey. Her mind felt dazed with tiredness.
‘You are wet,’ she commented, frowning at him.
He smiled and glanced towards the window. For the first time Louisa noticed that the long fine spell had broken, and a steady rain was drenching the garden. She laughed ruefully and rubbed her eyes with her hand.
‘How silly. I am so sorry—I simply had not noticed.’ She wished she could think, wished her muzzy mind could find words to recapture some of the magic of yesterday.
‘No wonder you haven’t noticed. My dear girl, you are utterly exhausted. You should sleep. Surely this sick-nursing is no part of your contract? It is wrong that it should be expected of you. Someone else must sit with the child now. Annie? One of the other servants? Perhaps even his own mother?’
Alnstrop was frowning at her, the beads of rainwater scattered jewel-bright on his dark hair.
Louisa shook her head.
‘Mrs. Addiscombe’s own ailments prevent her from caring for sickness in others,’ she said non-committally. ‘In her present lowered condition, she feels too susceptible to contagion. She is keeping to her room till she feels all risk is past, and Georgiana has to tend her. That is why Georgiana is forbidden to visit Geoffrey.’
Alnstrop snorted derisively.
‘Ridiculous woman with her hysterical imagination! A contagious sprained ankle? Absurd. And unforgivable to burden you with so much extra work.’
He was pacing the room now, with restless anger, but saw she was distressed at his open criticism and forbore to labour the point. He felt frustratedly helpless, anxious to protect and cherish her, sweep her away and banish all her worries. But there was nothing he could realistically do in the circumstances to relieve her.
‘I can cope quite well, my lord,’ Louisa assured him, unnerved by his anger. ‘Annie will take over when the children have finished their tasks, then I shall sleep. We have arranged it between us. Dr. Turnbull is expected back at any time, and if he confirms that the fever is only caused by shock and too much sun, as I suspect, then the nursing should not be too prolonged.’ She sighed. ‘I believe it is nothing more, for he is sleeping quietly now.’
She wanted to speak to him of yesterday. What had he meant? What did he think of her? Why was he here today? But her mind would formulate no coherent questions. These were things she could not ask.
She thought wearily of other things to say, and her eye suddenly fell on the letters which she had been holding when she had opened the sick-room door, and had absently laid on the table between them. She sorted out Hetta’s screed.
‘My lord—’
‘Louisa—’
They spoke together, and with a slight frown he gestured for her to continue.
‘Look—I had a letter from your sister. Do read it, it cheered me immensely.’
She pushed the letter across to him. He took it automatically and unfolded it, but his usual delight at hearing from his exuberant sister was absent. Lord Alnstrop felt confused.
He had returned home from the picnic in high delight, apart from his worries over Geoffrey. As they had arrived back at the Grange Georgiana had mentioned the forthcoming Aleminster assembly. They had agreed to make up a party together to attend, and Louisa had promised to dance with him.
He had determined to visit the Grange today, to see Louisa alone and speak his heart to her. He was certain he was not mistaken in her now. Her feelings towards him had surely changed from her initial disgust; he had made amends for his outburst. Now, he hoped, she would listen to his suit.
Arriving back at Stoneham Manor, the brothers discovered that the microscope had arrived from Alnstrop house, together with a message from Cousin Esther. She always stayed with Mama when they were all away, a kindly, anxious, wispy little lady, whose slender means made her frequent stays at Alnstrop, ‘helping out’ dear Cousin Robert, a great delight to her. Unfortunately she was a chronic worrier. Equally unfortunately, with Mama’s health what it was, her worries could not be ignored.
‘Oh, Lor’! What is it this time?’ John had asked unsympathetically as he strode three at a time up the stairs to his room. He paused on the half-landing and looked back down to the wide hall where Robert stood, holding the note of spidery scrawl.
‘I’m not going back now, Robert, now of all times. You know that, don’t you? You know how I feel about Georgiana. Why, I never dreamed there could be a girl anywhere in the world like her, and she feels the same about me. I have no intention at all of leaving her alone, a prey to her parents’ whims, and the lascivious approaches of that ageing scoundrel Blane.’ He paused, and dropped his belligerent stance with a self-conscious grin and a shrug. ‘Well, what does the old hen say?’
‘Oh, she is just “a little concerned over one or two things”, and does not want to bother our “poor dear Mama, who is really not too well”. She wants to have a “little word” with me. Wretched woman. Why could she not have dealt with Horley and left me in peace? But, if Mama is unwell again, of course I will go. I cannot allow her to be disturbed. Don’t worry. I will cope with this. I will obviously have to go down for a few days and calm her worries. But it might not fit in too badly for me. And I appreciate that you have urgent business on hand here!’