Then, strangely, her fear vanished and indignation at his rude arrival took over. She, in her turn, raked him from the top of his dark head to the toes of his polished boots, with studied disdain. ‘I do not believe I gave you leave to enter my bedchamber, my lord,’ she stated coldly.
‘I am your husband; I don’t need your permission to enter any room in this house,’ he snarled. ‘If you had come, as you were told, to the study there would have been no call for me to be here.’
She raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips, but didn’t reply. She was in the right but felt it unwise to say so. ‘Now you are here, my lord,’ she deliberately emphasized the formal appellation, ‘perhaps we should sit down.’ Eleanor gestured to the two chairs placed on either side of the window. Without waiting for his agreement she moved to the one on the left and sat down, taking the time it gave her to arrange her skirts and gather her wits.
He remained where he was. ‘I am deeply disappointed in you, Eleanor. I knew you were unconventional, and given to rash impulses, but never did I think you would sink to such depths. You have, by your appalling behaviour, disgraced yourself and me.’ He paused, perhaps wishing to choose his next words carefully, wanting her to understand the enormity of her actions.
She had heard enough. ‘I will apologise for going ahead with the renovations without your explicit consent; I will also sincerely apologise for my incivility earlier. However, I will not apologise for what I did; I am proud of what has been accomplished and if society condemns me for doing good, then so be it.’ Her voice throughout her speech had remained composed and polite. For the first time she had been able to put forward her point of view, without fear, even in the face of Leo’s formidable temper.
The tightness around his jaw relaxed somewhat and he strolled over and sat down on the chair next to her. ‘I would appear to have been thoroughly routed, Eleanor, my dear,’ he said after a few moments. ‘In the face of your unanswerable logic I believe it’s now my turn to apologise.’ A slight smile accompanied his words but his face was still far from friendly. She breathed an audible sigh of relief, believing her ordeal was over. ‘However,’ he continued, ‘I am still extremely displeased with you.’ He faced her with a stern expression. ‘I believe I explained to you your position in this marriage. Your decisions are strictly limited to the household and nowhere else. To involve Sam and Jed in your scheme was not well done; it put them in an impossible position. You should have realised that they risked dismissal for helping you.’
She was horrified; this had not occurred to her. ‘But you will not do so, will you? Please, Leo, I don’t care how you punish me but you cannot send Sam and Jed away, it was my fault.’
He sighed heavily. ‘You’re impossible, Ellie. You do the most appalling things and then somehow manage to disarm me totally.’ He smiled, this time it was genuine. ‘If I agree to say no more on the subject, will you promise never to go behind my back again?’
She returned his smile, scarcely believing she was to come out of this unscathed. ‘I promise, Leo. I knew you would be cross, but never considered how others might be affected by my action and that was truly wrong of me. Will you forgive me? I have learned my lesson.’
‘Of course I do, ninny; it’s impossible to stay angry with you for long.’ He stood up, pulling her to her feet as a quite different kind of darkness filled his eyes. As he gathered her into his embrace he murmured softly into her ear. ‘Well, little bird, have you missed me?’
She tilted her head back to gaze into his eyes. ‘Oh yes, I have.’ A gurgle of laughter escaped unbidden, ‘But I am glad you stayed away long enough for us to complete the cottages.’
He tightened his clasp and crushed her against him, his mouth closing over hers in a hot, demanding kiss. Her knees buckled under his onslaught and he caught her up in his arms and carried her across the room to deposit her softly in the centre of her bed.
She stared helplessly at him as he shrugged out of his jacket and removed his cravat. If she wanted this to stop, now was the time to speak; when he joined her on the bed it would be too late. Was she ready? Could she bear to share her body with a man who didn’t love her?
Leo saw the expression of doubt flicker across her face and somehow he found the strength to resist. Carefully he backed away from the bed until he had put a safe distance between them. ‘I am sorry, sweetheart, I’m finding this so difficult; but you’re still not quite sure about sharing your bed, are you?’
She sat up and put her feet back on the floor. ‘If you wish to’ – she hesitated – ‘if you wish to make love to me I won’t stop you … but if you are giving me a choice then yes, I would prefer to wait. I know four weeks have passed, but we were apart the entire time and are still no better acquainted.’
She watched him closely. He was obviously tempted to accept the offer, but as a gentleman he would never force the issue. ‘No, love, I’ll wait until you come to me; that way I can be sure of your feelings.’ He picked up his mangled neck cloth and coat and turned to leave. ‘I had better speak to Jed and Sam; they must be feeling very insecure at the moment.’
‘I’ll be down soon, Leo. I want to hear everything that happened in London.’
As she watched her husband leave the room she was happy. For all his harsh words and fiery temper she had come to realise he was a kind and sensitive man. She had fallen in love with him, in spite of his faults, and she would always love him, however he behaved, and whatever he did. It would just make things so much easier if he could return her love, even a little.
Chapter Thirteen
‘But Rufus will not lead; John tried it before.’ Eleanor wouldn’t give up on her determination to take the horse with them to Rothmere, even if she couldn’t ride him when she got there.
‘If you think I’m going to ride him all the way there, in the middle of December, you have sadly mistaken the matter, my dear girl.’
How she hated it when he adopted that patronising manner. ‘If he does not come, neither shall I.’
Leo laughed at her. ‘You are a pea-goose. You know you would hate to stay here on your own, and anyway I wouldn’t allow it. Therefore I’m afraid it will be Rufus who stays. If I leave Hero to keep him company, will that suffice?’
She almost stamped her foot. ‘No, it will not, but as I’ve no choice in the matter it will be what happens, no doubt.’ She stormed out of the drawing room, leaving him chuckling, hatefully, behind her.
Eleanor ran upstairs to change out of her pale gold, long sleeved, dimity day dress into her old riding habit. Mary put away her clothes without comment; she knew what the disagreement was about. Indeed the whole house must as the heated discussions had been taking place loudly for the last two days.
On the way to the stable she had a brainwave. Rufus wouldn’t be led but he would follow her of his own accord. ‘John,’ she called as she arrived in the yard, ‘can you get the travelling carriage for me?’
John appeared, his face perplexed. ‘I’m sorry, my lady, I’d not been told you were going out today. I’ll get the horses put to at once.’
‘We’re not going out; I wish to try something before we leave tomorrow.’ She laughed, unwilling to explain her plan in case he objected and sent for Leo.
John called Tommy and another groom and in no time the carriage was ready, the four matching greys chomping eagerly at the bit. Eleanor felt it would be safe to reveal her plan now; too late for Leo to interfere even if he was sent for.
‘I’m going to let Rufus out and see if he’ll follow the carriage when I’m in it. If he does he will be able to come with us tomorrow and you can ride Hero and keep an eye on him.’
What John thought of her hare-brained scheme he was too polite to say. ‘Right you are, my lady. Where do you want us to drive?’
‘Around the park at first, and if it works, we can go to the village and back,’ she answered sounding far more confident than she felt.
Leo couldn’t understand her reluctance to be apart fro
m the horse. He had pointed out, quite reasonably, that she had left Rufus behind for a year when she went to India and they had both survived the experience. She was beginning to wonder if she was only insisting on his coming because her husband had said he could not. She wasn’t going to worry about that, she was going to see if her idea worked before agreeing to leave her stallion behind.
Rufus was led out and then released to stand, loose, beside the carriage. She scrambled up quickly and Tommy shut the carriage door and folded the steps away. She lowered the window and, hanging out, called her horse. The animal immediately pricked his ears and trotted forward to try and push his huge head through the window.
‘Go away, you stupid thing,’ she said laughing and stroked his nose. ‘Right John, pull away slowly.’
The carriage rolled forward and the chestnut kept pace; her surmise and been correct - as long as he could follow his mistress he would do so happily. The odd group had trotted and cantered around the park for half an hour when Eleanor decided they could risk a drive to the village. The lanes were too narrow to allow the horse to travel beside the window and she wanted to see if he would continue as before behind the carriage.
She had forgotten their exit ran past the study window where Leo was working. They had travelled only a short distance when a roared command to stop was clearly heard by all of them. The carriage instantly shuddered to a standstill, the horses tossing their heads at the delay. Eleanor was tempted to shrink into the corner but bravely decided to meet Leo head on.
She moved across and leant out of the window to see her husband rapidly approaching. He didn’t look overly impressed by her bright idea. Rufus, recognising a friend, welcomed him with an affectionate nudge that, catching Leo unprepared, sent him sprawling in the dirt.
She jumped out, not waiting for the steps, and rushed over to help him up. ‘Leo, oh dear, I should have warned you he sometimes does that. Rufus, go away, you’ve caused enough trouble already.’
Leo rolled over, spitting out a mouthful of gravel and dirt as he did so. ‘In God’s name, Ellie, what are you doing? Why is this stupid animal running about loose?’ Eleanor opened her mouth to explain but he stopped her. ‘No, I don’t want to hear. It’s bound to be something completely idiotic that I end up agreeing to support.’
He sprung to his feet and without saying anything else picked her up and tossed her unceremoniously into the carriage. Then he jumped in after her and slammed the door. He poked his head out of the window and spoke to John sitting impassively on the box. ‘Carry on doing, whatever it is you’re doing, John.’
As the carriage resumed its journey he smiled down at her. ‘I shall sit here, my angel, as an interested spectator and no doubt, eventually, all will be revealed and I’ll discover what pea-brained scheme you’re involved with this time.’
She didn’t know whether to applaud his speech or box his ears. ‘I should have thought,’ she told him haughtily, ‘that even to a simpleton like you, my lord, it would have been obvious.’
Her long-suffering husband was having difficulty keeping a straight face but schooled his features into a look of such imbecility she lost her patience completely. Launching herself from the seat she attempted to give him a well-deserved box on the ears.
Instead she found herself quite inexplicably face down, across his knees. Before she could protest or wriggle free, he delivered a resounding slap on her posterior. Then he flipped her upright again, openly grinning, and held her at arm’s length.
‘Little termagant! I am almost twice your size, sweetheart, did you honestly think your attack would be successful?’
‘You are a bully, Lord Upminster, and you have just broken your word. You promised you would never raise a hand to me,’ she said indignantly, not sure whether to laugh or cry.
‘It serves you right,’ he replied unsympathetically, ‘I have just swallowed a shovelful of gravel because of you; one slap in return seems fair.’ He shoved her none too gently back onto the seat opposite, before continuing. ‘Now sit still and tell me what the hell you’re up to.’
She scowled darkly, still undecided whether she was speaking to him or not. Rufus then answered Leo’s question for him by sticking his nose in the window and whickering a greeting, then dropping back to trot beside the carriage.
Leo stared at the window at the horse, then back at Ellie. ‘You are either a genius or a madwoman, Lady Upminster. Do you intend that daft horse to follow us like a puppy all the way to Rothmere, tomorrow?’
She nodded, not really certain whether he was praising her plan, or ridiculing it. ‘He has always followed me when I’ve been on foot so I thought he would probably continue to do it when if I was in the carriage.’
‘It’s a wonderful plan, my darling, but will he still follow if the carriage window is closed?’ At her blank expression he continued. ‘I don’t intend to travel for hours, in the depths of winter, with my carriage window wide open.’
She shook her head, ‘I hadn’t thought of that.’
‘Well, we had better see if he does.’ Leo pulled up the window and fastened it firmly. They sat opposite each other, arms folded, listening for the sound of hoof beats outside.
The flap opened, in the roof, and John called down from the box. ‘The horse is still following behind, my lady, good as gold.’
‘Thank you, John; we can turn back now we know my plan works.’
‘You never cease to amaze me, Eleanor,’ Leo told her. ‘I suppose this means we are to arrive at Rothmere tomorrow with a loose horse trotting along behind, like something out of a damn circus parade.’
‘We don’t have to take Rufus, Leo, if it will embarrass you.’
‘Not take him? After all this fuss? No, he comes tomorrow.’ He smiled. ‘In fact, I insist he comes. It will be interesting to see the duke’s reaction.’
*
The strange cavalcade set off before dawn the next day; the coachman on his box with Sam beside him, John, riding Hero and Rufus running loose. Inside Mary was next to Eleanor and Leo occupied the seat opposite. The trunks and other necessities had left the previous day so their clothes would be unpacked and waiting for them on their arrival.
They made excellent time and after two brief stops for refreshments, and to rest the horses, they were within one hour of Leo’s birthplace. ‘From this point on, the land belongs to Rothmere,’ Leo informed her. ‘We should be arriving in about an hour.’
Eleanor had known the estate was huge but to be able to travel for an hour, in a straight line, and still be on Rothmere land made her realise just how extensive it was. ‘How many guests will there be, do you think, Leo?’ she asked a few moments later. As they drew nearer the thought of meeting dozens of his aristocratic relatives was beginning to unnerve her.
‘I’ve no idea, Ellie, does it matter to you? You’re not worried about meeting them, are you?’
‘Not really; I was just curious, you’ve told me so little about your family; I ought to know who is married to whom at the very least.’
He straightened. ‘Then I will start with Gareth and Sophia, shall I, and work outwards?’ She nodded eager to learn about his relations. He continued. ‘Gareth and Sophia have three boys; Tristan, the eldest who is ten, Gareth who is eight and little Leo, who is, I think, now about four.’
The rest of the journey was pleasantly filled with Leo reciting the names, ranks and marital status of all the various cousins, aunts, uncles and in-laws who were likely to be staying for the festivities. When he had completed his catalogue Eleanor looked at him with awe.
‘Do you realise that even without children there will be over thirty adults? If everyone brings five servants, as we have, that will be more than one hundred extra mouths to feed and house.’ She could hardly take it in. ‘Rothmere must be huge to accommodate so many people.’
‘It is huge. In fact, Ellie, it’s a monstrosity, an ancient pile that should be pulled down immediately and rebuilt on a more manageable scale.’ She was shocked b
y his vehement criticism especially as it was in front of Mary. ‘I loathe the place and only agreed to visit for your sake. Gareth persuaded me it’s my duty to introduce you to everyone, and Sophia told me if I wasn’t intending to take you to London for a season, the least I could do was bring you to Rothmere so you can wear your new clothes.’
‘Thank you, Leo, but I wouldn’t have minded if we’d stayed at home, although I am happy to be here.’ Eleanor reached across and pressed his arm to reinforce her thanks.
‘I hope you enjoy it. But I feel it only fair to warn you, Ellie, I’ve not set foot in this place since I left some sixteen years ago.’
‘Never come here? Surely not? You’ve seen Gareth and Sophia and the children?’
‘They come to London for the season most years and I stayed with them when I was on leave.’ He glanced out of the window as if sensing they were almost there. The night was fully dark and the interior of the carriage was becoming unpleasantly stuffy and cold. His hands were rigid as the carriage rolled to a stop. There was the sound of voices and lanterns appeared outside the window.
She joined him and placed her fingers around his clenched fist. For a moment he was unresponsive then slowly his fingers uncurled and threaded through hers. He closed his fist again and her hand was engulfed in his.
He twisted around and lowered his head to whisper for her benefit alone, ‘You will be the most beautiful woman at Rothmere, my darling, and I am the luckiest man alive.’
On their arrival the steps were lowered by an immaculate footman and the carriage door swung open. Leo ducked his head and stepped out, temporarily releasing his hold on her hand. On the bottom step he swung round, reached in and clasped her around the waist, then lifted her out in a flurry of petticoats to stand right beside him, her hand once more entwined with his.
They both remembered at the same time about the horse. ‘Rufus!’ Hearing his name the stallion snatched his head from John’s hold and barged round to greet his owners.
A Marriage of Convenience Page 9