“Lord Holme is having breakfast, but I am sure he will want to see you, Private Aston. Please come in.”
“No, no, I don’t want to disturb him.” Damn, he’d forgotten how late breakfast was in polite society after all his years in the army.
“Just wait right here, sir.”
Val had turned his back and was watching a young lady and her maid cross the street when he heard footsteps behind him.
“Just tell him good-bye for me, Baynes,” he started to say when he turned around, and there was Charlie in his dressing gown.
“You had better tell me yourself. But goddamn it, Val, why are you here to say good-bye when you haven’t come to say a hello in all these years?”
It had taken Val a minute to take it in: His half-brother stood at least three inches taller than he and was addressing him in a voice as deep as the earl’s or Val’s own. The last time he had seen Charlie, his brother had been a schoolboy, his voice just breaking. Today, with his gold curls in a fashionable Brutus and his silk dressing gown, he was very different from the Charlie of years ago. Without thinking, Val stepped back.
“Oh, no, you don’t. You’re not leaving. You must come in, Val, please,” Charlie pleaded.
“Is your father…?”
“Is our father in? No, he hasn’t come up from Faringdon yet, so you are safe,” Charlie added with dry humor.
“I can’t stay long,” Val told him as he took a seat.
Charlie made sure Val was served and then, looking at his own full plate, laughed and pushed it away.
“I can’t eat, Val. I am too excited. God, you look splendid in your uniform. But why were you so foolish as to enlist? Father would have bought you a commission, I am sure.”
“Yes, if you asked him, Charlie.”
“No, if you’d asked him, Val.”
“I couldn’t. I explained all that in my letters.”
“I have always looked forward to receiving them, Val, but letters are a cold comfort when you miss someone.”
He hadn’t changed, despite his air of sophisticated young man-about-town. He was the same Charlie, all his affection there to see in the warmth of his expression, the concern in his blue eyes.
“I missed you too, Charlie,” Val said stiffly. Saying what he felt did not come easily to him.
“So what is this good-bye about, then?”
“The Eleventh is being sent to the Caribbean. We sail the day after tomorrow.”
“I see.”
“I thought…I was in London…just in case anything should happen to me….”
“Are you on leave?”
“Until the night before we sail.”
“Then we will spend today and tomorrow together.”
* * * *
They rode in the park early the next morning.
“Lord, I am stiff,” groaned Val when they returned to the house. “This is what comes of enlisting in the infantry! I haven’t been on a horse in years.”
“We’ll stroll around the park instead of driving, then, this afternoon. That will loosen you up.”
They arrived in the park just as the curricles and cabriolets were filling up the lanes. Val could tell that Charlie was as well-liked in Society as he had been in school from the number of drivers and riders who stopped to chat with him every few minutes. He introduced Val as his older brother and Val was amused to see the puzzled looks on people’s faces as they tried to work out just how Charlie could have an older brother and still be viscount.
Charlie had suggested the theater that evening, since Kean was playing in Richard the Third. “I’ve seen the man and he is a wonder, Val. I am sure you would love it.”
“I must be at the docks early in the morning, Charlie. I can’t lie around like a slugabed like certain fashionable gentlemen do,” Val replied with a teasing smile.
“Then we will have a quiet supper at home.”
It was a very quiet supper, thought Val, for after chatting about this and that, Charlie became silent. Finally he looked over at his brother and said seriously, “I wish you weren’t sailing tomorrow. You will miss seeing Father by only a day.”
“I am sure he won’t mind.”
“That is not true, Val. I wish you would believe that. He is always asking me if I’ve heard from you. And he would purchase you a commission if you wanted me to ask.”
“But I don’t, Charlie.”
Of course, as it turned out, Charlie eventually had asked and Val had almost refused the commission. But a letter from Charlie, setting out the logic of it, as well as his newly awakened ambition, had convinced him. He had served under an excellent officer in Colquhoun Grant, but once Grant was called into Wellington’s service, his replacement was an incompetent son of a baronet who had no military experience at all. By that time, Val had been a sergeant for three years and was beginning to discover his talent for leading men and for making the sort of judgments that made them eager and willing to follow him. As a lieutenant he would have some decision-making power. He might even look forward to gaining a field commission, if the war lasted long enough.
So he had accepted it. And almost wished he hadn’t the first time he walked into the officers’ mess and every time after. As an exploring officer he may never make captain, but thank God to Colquhoun Grant for removing him from the constant humiliating reminders that he was not one of them.
* * * *
“So what do you think of Miss Gordon?” James asked, breaking into Val’s reverie.
“Miss Gordon?”
“Yes, Miss Elspeth Gordon, whom you rescued, Val.”
“To tell you the truth, James, I am not sure who rescued whom. There were five of them and I went down there sure only that I’d be able to save her from violation, not death. I thank God that her father taught her to use a pistol. And that her driver lasted long enough to kill one of the villains before he died. I wish I could have thanked him,” Val added with regret.
“I hear Major Gordon was beside himself with worry when her coach did not arrive by noon. You have made a friend for life and Ian Gordon is a good man to have on your side.”
“Do you think that Miss Gordon’s reputation will suffer?”
“Her reputation?”
“We were alone for the night in very close quarters.” Val hesitated. “Actually, I offered to marry her, but of course I had to tell her father the circumstances of my birth.”
“Of course,” James replied dryly. “Being the officer and gentleman that you are.”
“They would have found out soon enough with Stanton here,” Val said stiffly.
“You are still carrying that chip around on your shoulder, aren’t you?”
Val opened his mouth to protest, but James continued more gently, “I understand, Val, truly I do, though you obviously think otherwise. I admire you for your courage around this, but at some time you’ll have to give over thinking it is the most important thing about you.”
“I’ll give over thinking it when those around me allow me to do so, James.”
“I don’t think your being the bastard son of an earl would mean as much to Ian Gordon or his wife and daughter as long as you’re a man of honor and a good officer. His wife may be the granddaughter of an earl, but they’ve been in the army so long they value a soldier’s skills above all else. Elspeth doesn’t give a fig for what Society thinks. I wish my sister Maddie were more like her.”
“You have a sister, James?”
The marquess smiled. “Yes, Madeline Jane, although we call her Maddie. She and Elspeth were at school together. She is a dear girl and relatively sensible, but at the moment she thinks and writes of nothing but her come-out this spring.” James sighed.
“And you disapprove?”
“Not at all. How else will she find someone to marry? But my father was not known for his economical good sense, Val,” James added with heavy sarcasm. “Or competent stewardship of our estate. The financial affairs of the family have taken up much of my time.”<
br />
“I am sorry to hear that, James.”
“Thank God I managed to find enough for Maddie’s Season.” James sighed and then continued. “But put your mind to rest about Elspeth, Val. Things are different in wartime, and I tell you, there are times when I feel luckier to be here than in London dealing with the expectations of Society!”
Chapter 4
As she started out on her morning ride, Elspeth’s feelings were quite similar to the Marquess of Wimborne. Her divided skirt covered the leather breeches and allowed her to avoid a sidesaddle without scandalizing anyone. She felt far safer and freer riding astride here on the rough terrain of Portugal where a loose rock could send you “arse over teakettle,” as Mags Casey would say.
Elspeth smiled at the thought of Mrs. Casey, one of the camp laundresses, of whom she was very fond for many reasons, not the least of which was the fact that she towered over Elspeth. Well, perhaps “towered” was an exaggeration, she told herself, but it was wonderful to feel smaller than another female. Mrs. Casey could only be described as strapping, a sobriquet Elspeth dreaded overhearing about herself. Mags was a large woman, which she needed to be, since she took in officers’ laundry and got it as clean as anyone with modern facilities might, despite the fact that it took lugging water from the stream and chopping wood for the fire that heated it, and wringing it out by hand, since her small wringer was constantly breaking down.
Elspeth smiled as she thought about Mrs. Casey and her…well, she supposed Sergeant Tallman could be called her beau—certainly her intended, whether he knew it or not, for Mrs. Casey most definitely intended to marry him. Will Tallman was a good six inches shorter than Mags. Finer-boned too. The thought of the two of them together made Elspeth wonder if Sergeant Tallman ever felt lost in Mrs. Casey’s arms.
Thinking of a man and woman embracing reminded her what it had been like to fall asleep against Lieutenant Aston. Despite the cold, there had been a warmth she had felt that came as much from her response to him as from the warmth of his body.
She had been attracted to a few men over the years. Indeed, she had imagined herself in love with one of them, an incredibly handsome lieutenant in her father’s regiment. She had been fifteen and was convinced her heart was forever broken when the lieutenant announced his engagement to a young lady in England. She had even had to admire his fiancée’s miniature, which he had passed around their dinner table one night. She had excused herself shortly after and cried herself to sleep.
At school, she and Maddie had spent hours discussing the ideal beau, and in their letters to one another, they occasionally alluded to Lord This or Lieutenant That who set their hearts beating a little faster. But their physical experiences with the opposite sex had been limited to dancing and, in Elspeth’s case, what she had described to Maddie as a “slobbering kiss” by an intoxicated young officer.
As Elspeth remembered the relief of being pulled against Lieutenant Aston’s body, she was flooded by sensations that were both very pleasurable and slightly terrifying. What if they had been in England? She would have been hopelessly compromised and forced to marry the Lieutenant. Yet she had to admit that the thought of him embracing her as his wife made her blush.
She blushed even hotter when she realized that the horseman who had been riding ahead of her and was now turned back and coming toward her was no other than Lieutenant Aston. She was tempted to turn her horse, for conversing with the lieutenant seemed impossible after entertaining such thoughts about him. But she was not her mother and father’s daughter for nothing, and she stood her ground.
“Good morning, Lieutenant. I see you and Caesar have recovered,” she said brightly when he pulled up in front of her.
“We have, Miss Gordon,” he said rather stiffly.
“Are you on your way back to camp, Lieutenant? Will you ride with me?”
They rode in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes and Elspeth stole a few glances at her companion. He sat his horse as well as she remembered and he looked very different in his clean uniform. She realized that her strongest impression of him had been his strength and the warmth of his body and she had never really looked at him closely. As she examined his profile, she saw that his face was brown and lined by the sun. He had spent years in the Caribbean, she reminded herself. His dark and curly brown hair was longer than was fashionable, but it lent him a gypsyish air. His nose…well, if she hadn’t known who he was, she might have branded him a gypsy. His nose wasn’t quite as distinctive as Wellington’s, of course. She would guess it had been broken at one time from the slight bump in the middle.
As if he felt her gaze, the lieutenant turned and Elspeth thought to herself, My goodness, if it weren’t for his gray eyes, he would look a ruffian. But his eyes softened his appearance a little. “You don’t look at all like Charlie, Lieutenant Aston. It is amazing to think that you are brothers.”
Elspeth only realized she had spoken her thoughts aloud when she saw his cheeks flush. Her own grew warm with embarrassment, but there was no going back now. “Oh, dear, I am most definitely my father’s daughter, Lieutenant, and am in the habit of speaking frankly. I apologize if I have offended you, but Papa did tell us that you had revealed your relationship to Lord Holme.”
“Did he tell you why, Miss Gordon?”
Elspeth thought she must have imagined that night in the cave, for the lieutenant’s tone was so cool she couldn’t imagine him capable of any warmth.
“Yes, he did. He was impressed by your concern for me and your honesty. And so am I. Please forgive me for raising a topic that is so obviously painful to you,” she added.
Val pulled up his horse and turned to face her. Although his face was still closed, his tone was not so icy. “I have recently been told that I am overly conscious of the circumstances of my birth, Miss Gordon. It is likely true. And you are right,” he added with a quick smile. “Charlie and I are nothing alike, neither in appearance or temperament.”
“Lord Holme is a delightfully open and warm person,” said Elspeth and then grimaced. “Oh, dear, I did not mean—”
“Of course you did, Miss Gordon. Charlie makes friends wherever he is. He is both loving and lovable,” Val replied in a matter-of-fact tone. “I am very grateful to have him as a brother and indebted to his generous nature for many things, not the least of which is my commission,” he added.
Underneath his even tones, Elspeth detected a current of sadness. Did the lieutenant feel himself incapable of inspiring affection? Or giving it? And if so, was this merely the result of his birth? In for a penny, in for a pound, Elspeth told herself.
“My father raised me to believe that the circumstances of a man’s birth should have little to do with the regard in which he is held. You have the high opinion of Captain Grant, which is no small thing, Lieutenant. You have my parents’ respect. And mine,” she added softly. “I have not had the chance to tell you that I was grateful for your proposal. My father told you the truth, you know. I would have refused if he had not, for I cannot think that a marriage dictated by convention would have much chance of succeeding. I hope the embarrassment of a proposal refused will not keep you from our dinner table,” she said with a smile to lighten the tension between them. “I rather thought we had become friends after our adventure,” she added wistfully.
It was the hint of vulnerability that broke through Val’s constraint. Elspeth Gordon might be an intrepid young woman who had faced danger with the equanimity of her mother, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have feelings that might be hurt, he realized. They had become comrades in a short period of time and to ignore that would be unfair.
As ever, it was difficult for Val to put what was in his heart into words. He knew he still sounded stiff and uncomfortable as he said, “I am honored to count you as a friend, Miss Gordon. And I will look forward to dining with you and your family occasionally; that is, when I am in camp.” Thank God they were almost back to camp, thought Val, for he couldn’t think of another thing
to say to her. He gave her a quick wave and rode off.
* * * *
Elspeth watched him go and then, dismounting, led her mare in the opposite direction. They were certainly not at ease with one another, but she supposed that was to be expected. And she had had to speak about his proposal. It would have been ridiculous to have it sitting between them. She didn’t have to speak of his birth, of course, she chided herself. But damn it, that would have been between them too, if she hadn’t. She hoped he would come to dinner, for she wanted to know Valentine Aston better. This man who had served in the ranks, who admitted to his fondness for his half-brother but never mentioned his father, intrigued her. And, she had to admit, attracted her.
Chapter 5
Sergeant Will Tallman of the Eleventh Foot was sitting glumly in front of his small tent, cursing softly but fluently as he attempted to sew a button back on his jacket. “God’s bleedin’ bum,” he exclaimed as he stabbed his thumb with the needle for a third time. He could reload and fire his musket three times in a minute. Why the hell couldn’t he sew a bloody button on without drawing blood? He was sitting there with his thumb in his mouth, ready to throw the needle into the fire, when Val found him.
“I thought Mrs. Casey was taking good care of you, Will,” Val joked as he sat down next to his old comrade.
“Oh, she’d sew it on for me, all right. She’d likely button my jacket for me in the morning if I let her, sir. That’s just why I am sewing it on myself. If I am not careful, that woman will be taking over my life!”
“From what I’ve heard, if you are not careful, she’ll have you in the parson’s mousetrap, Will!”
Will glared at Val and then laughed. “I’ve managed to escape before, sir. No woman has gotten the better of me yet.”
“Ah, but Will, you never had such a strapping woman as Mags!”
Will blushed to the roots of his receding red hair. “I am large enough where it counts, sir,” he announced with great dignity and then winked at Val, who let out a whoop of laughter.
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