Catherine Coulter the Sherbrooke Series Novels 6-10 (9781101562123)

by Coulter, Catherine

  The earl nodded at them, pleased. “Now, the truth of the matter is that Miss Chartley is quite lovely. She has been raised well, has lovely manners, and will do well now that I will allow her into society.”

  Alex said to her sons, “Your father hasn’t had a chance to be charmingly ruthless for a good while now. Everyone is in awe of him; some actually quake in their boots, and it has become too easy for him to get his own way outside the portals of Northcliffe. Inside those portals, however, it is a vastly different matter.”

  Douglas raised his glass of Bordeaux and toasted her across the long expanse of table. “Behold what happens to a man when he’s been married close on to forever.”

  “You look quite splendid, sir,” Corrie said. “It occurs to me that perhaps I should take lessons from my mama-in-law. James gets his own way far too often for my tastes. If it continues, he will be a domestic tyrant within another year, maybe two.”

  “I will give you lessons, Corrie,” Alex said. “It is perhaps more needful since James is so very beautiful. Given how their aunt Melissande is still so glorious, I fear that James and Jason will continue to season well, and that could be a female’s downfall. Yes, lessons you must have, dearest.”

  Hallie said, “When my stepmother is angry at my father, her face turns red, she calls him wonderfully inventive names, and tells him he can sleep in the stables. I remember one morning I walked into the stables to see them asleep together in a stall. Hmm. Perhaps, my lady, I can pass the lessons along to Genny.”

  But she was leaving in the morning, Jason thought.

  The following morning at precisely ten o’clock, Mr. Chartley rose to face a lovely young lady who stood in the doorway of the drawing room. “My butler tells me you are the daughter of Baron Sherard and the niece of the earl of Ravensworth.”

  “Yes, Mr. Chartley, I am. I am here to buy Lyon’s Gate from you.”

  “This is quite remarkable, Miss Carrick. Do come in, won’t you? Some tea perhaps?”

  “No, sir, but it is kind of you to offer. I am offering you ten percent more than Jason Sherbrooke is offering you. Plainly, I am offering you more than you paid Thomas Hoverton for Lyon’s Gate. Selling to me, you will make a profit.”

  “You know, Miss Carrick, that I have already agreed to sell Lyon’s Gate to Jason Sherbrooke.”

  “Yes, sir, but you haven’t yet signed over the deed to him. It isn’t yet legal.”

  “I don’t know what to say.” Mr. Chartley brushed his fingers through his thick black hair. “This is quite remarkable,” he said again. “Young lady, how long do you think I would retain my reputation if I failed to carry through on an agreement I made? No, you needn’t say anything, that is something that concerns you not one whit.” Mr. Chartley sighed. “If I don’t sell you Lyon’s Gate, your uncle will prevent my precious daughter from entering society. On the other hand, if I don’t sell Lyon’s Gate to Jason Sherbrooke, his father will prevent my precious daughter from entering society. I believe that I am between the proverbial rock and the hard spot.”

  “That is correct, sir. I am the rock. I suggest you accept my offer since the hard spot isn’t in sight. That way you will make a profit.” She gave him a fat smile. “Ah, my uncle—the earl of Ravensworth—looks upon me as a daughter. He was a military man, you know. I wouldn’t want to cross him, were I you. As for my father—”

  “I know all about your father,” said Mr. Chartley. “As I do the earl of Northcliffe. Indeed, I see very clearly now. If you will take a seat, Miss Carrick—”

  The drawing room door burst open and Jason strode in, the butler behind him, flapping his hands.

  Mr. Chartley said, “I believe the hard spot just entered, Miss Carrick.”

  Hallie leapt to her feet. “I was so very quiet, I didn’t tell anyone—what are you doing here?”

  Jason gave a brief bow to Mr. Chartley. “Forgive me, sir, for barging in like this, but I followed Miss Carrick here.” He stood there, hands on his hips, looking like he wanted to throw her out the wide drawing room windows.

  “You can leave, Jason. No one asked you here. Mr. Chartley and I are conducting business.”

  “He has already agreed to sell Lyon’s Gate to me. Give it up, Miss Carrick, give it up.”

  “No, never. Two can play the same game, Mr. Sherbrooke. You have only your father to pound nails in Mr. Chartley’s social coffin, whereas I have my father and my uncle to use as, er, leverage—”

  “Mr. Sherbrooke, Miss Carrick, I see that I must make a decision. If the two of you would excuse me.” He was out the door, closing it quietly behind him.

  Jason and Hallie stared each other down from the length of the drawing room.

  “How did you know?”

  “I asked Remie to keep an eye on you. If one trusts a woman, one should leap immediately into the Thames and drown oneself.”

  “I saw Lyon’s Gate first!”

  “That doesn’t merit a response, Miss Carrick. Go away now. You’ve lost. You admitted it last night. Go home.”

  “My threats are just as potent as yours, Mr. Sherbrooke. Why don’t you—”

  “I could hear the two of you in the hall.” Mr. Chartley stood a moment in the drawing room doorway, then walked in, smiling at both of them impartially, and held out an envelope to each of them. “Now, this is the very best I can do to ensure my daughter’s social success. I trust that neither of you will feel compelled to seek my destruction.”

  “What have you done, sir?” Jason asked, taking the envelope. “You’ve already accepted my offer.”

  “I did, Mr. Sherbrooke. But now I have a new understanding of the situation. I suppose you and Miss Carrick could bid on Lyon’s Gate until I was close to making a fortune, but I am not a stupid man.” He smiled impartially at both of them. “Call me Solomon.”

  “What is this, sir?” Jason asked.

  “Sir, surely we can come to an arrangement that will prevent the earl from ruining you. What is in this envelope?” asked Hallie.

  “Ah, would you just look at the time. I must meet my precious daughter on Bond Street. She has a fitting today at Madame Jordan’s. Your father so kindly recommended her to me, Mr. Sherbrooke. May I have tea sent in?”

  “No,” Hallie said, clutching the envelope to her chest. “I must be going.”

  But Mr. Chartley was faster. Jason and Hallie faced each other again, both holding a sealed envelope.

  “Mr. Chartley says he’s Solomon?” Jason said.

  “I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all.” Hallie picked up her skirts and left Jason standing alone in Mr. Chartley’s drawing room, the envelope still unopened in his hand.

  Thirty minutes later, Douglas folded the paper and slid it back into the envelope. “Well, I think I wish to share a bottle of wine with Mr. Chartley. This is quite well done of him.”

  Hallie paced the width of the estate room, a small, thoroughly masculine room of rich brown leather with a mahogany desk and matching bookshelves. Both Douglas and Jason watched her. She stopped at the window and shook a fist in the direction of Mr. Chartley’s rented house. “He’s a scoundrel, no better than Thomas Hoverton. He’s sold the property to two people.”

  “No,” Douglas said. “He sold two people each a half a property.”

  “Well, yes, he did, but—”

  “It was very clever of him. You, Miss Carrick, placed him in an utterly untenable position.”

  “No, it was you who did that, sir. I simply played the same cards. You threatened to exterminate the poor man and his poor daughter if he didn’t roll over like a dead dog and do exactly what you said. I merely followed your example, and look at what it has brought us.” She waved the deed and the draft on the Bank of England in his face. Her own face fell then, and she sat down hard in one of Douglas’s big leather chairs and put her face in her hands.

  Jason said to his father, “I’m gratified. She didn’t pull an elegant stiletto out of her sleeve and plunge it through your arm.”<
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  Hallie’s head jerked up. “I didn’t think of that. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll get my knife. But there is a problem. These sleeves are so blasted big you can’t hide anything in them. A knife would clatter to the floor.”

  “Don’t move, Miss Carrick,” Douglas said. It was his turn to pace the room, his eyes on his boots. He stopped, turned to face the two young people. “I suggest we think of Mr. Chartley as an agent of fate.

  “The fact is, the both of you now own Lyon’s Gate. I further suggest you both sit down like the two adults you are, and figure out how you’re going to make this work. I hesitate to destroy Mr. Chartley, given his ingenious solution.” Douglas walked to the door, then turned to face them. “Miss Carrick, using my tactics on Mr. Chartley was an excellent strategy. You are a woman of backbone. I must admit that Jason and I were both gloating last night, not blatantly, naturally, since that would be rude.”

  “I knew you were gloating.”

  But the earl was gone.

  “Quietly gloating,” Jason said, frowning at the empty doorway. He heard his father’s boot steps receding down the corridor toward the front of the town house. His father was a smart man. Jason eyed Hallie Carrick. “What the devil are we to do?”

  “Sign over your half to me. I will pay you for it, naturally. I will even give you a profit.”

  “You managed to get more money from your bankers?”

  “Oh yes. I went to Mr. Billingsley’s house on Berkeley Square. Mr. Billingsley tried to hem and haw, but his wife has known me since I was born. She told him to hie himself into his study and write me out a bank draft. I was smart, she said, and wasn’t my father always telling him how very smart I was?”

  “Sometimes I don’t like fate,” Jason said. “I’m going riding in the park. Hopefully I will gain some inspiration from the swans in the Serpentine.”

  It was dinnertime on that drizzling May evening when Jason opened his bedchamber door to find Hallie Carrick standing there, her fist up to knock, a determined look on her face. “Mr. Sherbrooke, I have a solution. You will sleep in the stables. We can fashion a lovely suite of rooms there for you off the tack room. It will be no problem. You can take your meals with me in the house.”

  He didn’t move, didn’t look away from her. “No.”

  “We can’t very well share the same bloody house, you know that.”

  “You can have the stables then. You can have your meals with me in the big house.”

  “If you were to inhabit the big house, you wouldn’t do a thing to make it beautiful again. I will get rid of the mildew, I will put new draperies on the windows and new carpets on the floors. I will buff those floors and replace what is necessary to replace.”

  “Wherever did you get this blighted notion that men don’t care about their surroundings?”

  “My stepmother told me that men would be perfectly content to live in a cave. Throw them a meaty bone and give them—Well, never mind that. The stables are perfect for you.”

  At his hoisted eyebrow, she said, “Very well. Step back.”

  She nearly walked over him, her hand out, pressing against his chest. He backed up in her wake. She came to a stop in the middle of his bedchamber and waved her hands. “Just look. A monk could be living in here. The only reason this lovely room isn’t covered with dust and muddy boot prints is because of the servants’ diligence. This is pathetic, Mr. Sherbrooke. This is how Lyon’s Gate would continue to look were you to live in the big house.”

  “May I remind you that I haven’t been here in five years, Miss Carrick?” He should tell her that he’d selected most of the furnishings for the Wyndhams, chosen the fabrics for the new drawing room draperies, and arranged every single interior item.

  She thought he was defeated, and she laughed. “I’m right, admit it. You will do just fine in the stables, Mr. Sherbrooke.” She nearly danced out of his bedchamber. Jason stood in the middle of the room, his arms crossed over his chest, wondering what was going to happen next.

  CHAPTER 12

  Northcliffe Hall

  End of May

  “We should have brought blankets,” Jason said and vigorously rubbed his arms with his hands. In addition to being cold, he was beginning to think the ground was a graveyard of rocks. James considered this warm?

  “You’ve become soft in your years away,” James said. “This is the first perfectly clear night we’ve had since you arrived home. Would you look at Orion’s Belt, Jase—it looks like diamonds sparkling.”

  They were lying atop the cliff above the Poe Valley, James’s favorite star-gazing place. Jason said, “You’ve been showing me Orion’s Belt since we were six years old. I remember you used the word sparkling each and every time.”

  “And I remember I nearly had to tie you down so you would hold still long enough. At least you’re nice and quiet now, except for the complaining.”

  “If I don’t move, maybe I won’t freeze to death.”

  James laughed, came up to a sitting position, and turned to look down at his brother, lying on his back, his head now pillowed on his crossed arms. “Jase, are you certain you want to actually share your house and your stables with this girl? You scarcely know her. She could be a harridan.”

  “She is.” Jason’s face was calm, and he looked nothing more than sleepy.

  “You’re telling me that you’re knowingly going to share a house with a disagreeable female who will make your life miserable?”

  “That’s it. Think of it as an arranged marriage.” Jason came up to clasp his arms around his legs. “What other choice do I have?”

  “You tried to buy her out?”

  “Oh yes. She very nearly gulleted me.” Jason suddenly smacked the side of his head. “Come to think of it, maybe I could still have her kidnapped and taken to the West Indies. What do you think?”

  “Mother wanted to send her farther away. She’d do it now in a flash. I remember Father left the room, telling her over his shoulder that he believed there was a ship in port bound for Charlotte Amalie.”

  Jason laughed. “She would. He would.” He rubbed his arms again. “Come to think of it though, Hallie’d probably be running the island within five years. Damn, James, I can’t believe you think this is warm. Has my blood thinned that much being in America?”

  “It would appear so. However, you were bred from hardy English stock, you’ll get used to it again. I’m wondering what Miss Carrick’s aunt and uncle—not to mention her father—will think about this arrangement, sharing a house with a man who isn’t her husband.”

  “If there’s one thing Miss Carrick does well, it’s argue. Interesting you should bring up the earl of Ravensworth. I don’t believe she plans to tell her aunt and uncle until we’ve actually split the house in half, her far-removed great-cousin Mrs. Tewksbury is installed, and the three of us have moved in. A fait accompli, as it were.”

  “She’s not twenty-one until the end of the year. I suppose her aunt and uncle could order her to move back to Ravensworth Abbey.”

  Jason arched his left eyebrow. “That is possibly the stupidest thing you’ve said since I’ve been home, James. Can you honestly imagine giving Miss Carrick orders to do anything she doesn’t want to?”

  “Well, where do her aunt and uncle think she is?”

  “I believe she’s allowing them to assume she’s still with Melissa’s parents in London. I don’t suppose they realize that Melissa’s parents have already returned north. And now we’ll have Miss Carrick for a guest until Lyon’s Gate is ready for us. She arrives tomorrow.”

  James brooded on that awhile, then said, “Speaking of Melissa and Leo, did I look as besotted as Leo when I married Corrie?”

  “No, nothing like that.”

  James moaned. “Don’t ever say that in Corrie’s hearing. She’d lock me in a small room with the twins.”

  “You looked like you wanted to rip off that lovely wedding gown she was wearing and take her right there in the central aisle of the church
.”

  James’s head jerked around to face his brother, an eyebrow arched a good inch. “Well, then. You can tell her that.” He paused a moment, took the plunge. “That was a time, wasn’t it?”

  Jason said nothing, continued to rub his arms.

  James felt his brother withdraw, though he didn’t move a muscle. He backed off. “All right, you puny lad, let’s go home. I don’t want you whining to Mother that I tried to freeze you to death.”

  After the twins rose and dusted themselves off, James took one final long look at the heavens. Jason felt the pull of it in his brother, something he couldn’t begin to understand. On the other hand, present James with a stud farm to run and he’d probably stare at you, baffled.

  James said as he mounted Bad Boy, “Corrie is wonderful, Jason. She’s a brick, you can always count on her, and the good Lord knows she makes me laugh. She gets along famously with Mother, Father adores her, only Grandmother maligns her, but that doesn’t upset her overly. Do you know that she and I lie on the cliff looking up at Andromeda and find myself blessing all the stars that circumstances threw us together?”

  “I heard the two of you yelling this morning.”

  “She does have a knack for making me so mad I want to lock her in her armoire. In the next instant, I’ve got her pressed against the wall and she’s got her legs around my waist and—Well never mind the details. Hmm. I’ll never forget over a dinner of buttocks of beef she thanked Father for educating me so splendidly.”

  “Don’t tell me he knew what she meant?”

  “He pretended he didn’t.”

  Jason tapped his boot heels into Dodger’s muscular sides. “Just as you will teach the twins.”

  “That boggles my brain. Here they were this afternoon, left alone for but a moment. When Corrie came back into the room, they’d stuffed three apple tarts in their mouths. They looked up at her, innocent as angels, all the while filling dripping off their chins.”