Castonbury Park 01 - The Wicked Lord Montague

by Carole Mortimer

  Indeed, only the disgusting concoction produced by his valet—the contents of which Giles had no desire to know!—had saved him from the blinding brandy-induced hangover which, upon awakening, had threatened to incapacitate him for the rest of the day!

  ‘So I understand.’ Lily’s frosty tone implied that her father had suffered that same fate, no doubt without the benefit of the same remedy. Her next comment confirmed that to have been the case. ‘I am sure it is not seemly for a man of the cloth to feel so ill from overimbibing! Perhaps in future you might limit your shared libations to one or two glasses of the fine brandy which your own father provides for mine?’

  Giles gave a tight smile. ‘Surely it is preferable that I was present than that Mr Seagrove should have indulged alone?’

  ‘I am sure it would have been better if he had not indulged at all!’ she came back tartly. ‘Which I am sure he would not have done without the encouragement of your own company.’

  That may be so, although somehow Giles doubted it. Mr Seagrove had been most despondent concerning Sir Nathan’s interest in Lily—no doubt some of that misery could be attributed to the thought of having the old bore as a son-in-law for the rest of his life!—and Giles had found himself to be equally as disturbed by the thought of Lily marrying Sir Nathan. Most especially at the thought of that dour and taciturn gentleman exercising his marital rights in her bed every night.

  That Giles’s own less than respectful behaviour towards Lily should have precluded his feeling murderous at the mere thought of Lily in Sir Nathan’s bed, his to do with as he wished, whenever he wished, made absolutely no difference to Giles feeling exactly that excess of emotion!

  Which, following a night lacking in restful sleep despite imbibing a vast quantity of brandy, was the reason Giles had been quite unable to interest himself in anything else this morning other than riding over to the vicarage so that he might see and speak with Lily again, aware as he was that there were still many things left unsaid between them.

  The fact that Lily looked so pale this morning, her eyes appearing dark and haunted, would seem to indicate that she had not spent a restful night either. ‘I feel our conversation yesterday evening was left unfinished,’ he bit out tautly. ‘So much so that I feel we must talk on the subject further.’

  ‘I do not see why.’ Her chin rose proudly, the pink that had entered her cheeks a perfect match for her high-waisted gown. ‘I believe I was more than clear as to my feelings towards…towards certain members of your family, as well as towards yourself!’ She clenched her hands together in front of her.

  Those same slender and graceful hands that only days ago had caressed Giles until he climaxed.

  It was an unprecedented loss of control Giles would not have believed possible until he had experienced the excitement of having Lily’s hands upon his naked flesh. An excitement he had been unable to put completely from his mind, let alone forget entirely.

  ‘You implied yesterday evening that we may have been speaking somewhat at odds with each other this past year, an implication I feel merits further discussion—’

  ‘I believe I have said all I wish to say to you, on that subject, or any other!’

  Giles drew in a harsh breath at her vehemence of feeling. ‘If I were to ask nicely might you not reconsider, and take a short walk outside with me?’

  Lily’s eyes widened at the unexpectedly pleasant tone of voice. ‘Why should I wish to do that?’

  ‘After stating so frankly yesterday evening how much you hate me?’ he prompted ruefully.

  ‘Perhaps hate was too strong a word.’ Lily gave a pained frown as she inwardly acknowledged that it was the things Giles had said to her which she had so hated and not the man who had said them, in that his comments now made her question the nature of Edward’s friendship with her.

  Oh, she was still angry with Giles, resented him for causing her to question the cherished memories she held of her friendship with Edward. But as she’d lain awake in her bed last night she had realised that she was more troubled by those remarks than angry.

  It had not helped that she had also been aware of her body once again feeling hot and feverish just from listening to the deep tenor of Giles’s voice as he and her father conversed in the room beneath her, forcing her once again to acknowledge that it was not dislike alone she felt for Giles Montague….

  ‘Will you not reconsider, Lily?’ he now prompted huskily. ‘If only for the sake of the friendship and regard our fathers bear for each other?’

  She gave a pained wince. ‘Is it not a little unfair of you to bring that friendship into our own disagreement?’

  ‘More than a little,’ he conceded grimly. ‘Which should only serve to show you how much I wish to continue our conversation.’

  Lily knew she should refuse. To do anything else, aware of her attraction to this man in spite of the bad feeling between them, would not only be unwise on her part but possibly reckless too.

  Why, despite everything Giles had said and done to her since returning to Castonbury, did Lily so much want to accept his invitation?

  Chapter Eleven

  ‘I would consider it a great service to me if you were to agree to take a walk with me, Lily.’

  Her heart skipped a beat at the husky entreaty she now heard in Giles’s tone. An entreaty she at least tried to resist. ‘I have so many other things to do this morning….’

  ‘We need not be gone long,’ he encouraged softly.

  ‘If you really feel we must talk together, then could we not just sit in the parlour here?’ she prompted impatiently.

  ‘The fact that you opened the door to me yourself just now would seem to imply that Mrs Jeffries is also away from the vicarage?’ He raised dark brows.

  Lily nodded in confirmation. ‘She has gone to the butcher’s.’

  Giles felt his desire quicken just at the thought of being alone in the vicarage with Lily. A desire which was totally inappropriate given their previous conversations. ‘Then we cannot remain alone here.’

  Lily hesitated only a moment longer as she looked up at him searchingly before stepping back to fully open the door. ‘Perhaps you would like to wait in the parlour whilst I go upstairs and collect my gloves and bonnet.’

  Giles allowed himself a brief moment of triumph at Lily’s acquiescence even as he gave a shake of his head in refusal of the belated invitation to enter the vicarage; he was feeling too restless of spirit this morning, too aware of everything about Lily, if truth be told, to be able to suffer the confines of the vicarage alone with her, even for so short a time. ‘I will stay out here and ensure that my horse remains securely tethered in our absence.’

  ‘Very well.’ She gave a cool nod of her head, leaving the door open as she turned away.

  Giles remained standing where he was for several minutes after Lily had disappeared down the hallway to ascend the stairs, the lingering aroma of her perfume once again invading his senses, the stirring of his arousal serving as confirmation that his decision not to remain alone here in the vicarage with Lily had been the sensible one.

  Which did not prevent him from pausing in the doorway, hard and aching, hands clenched at his sides, as he fought the totally inappropriate urge he felt to follow Lily up the stairs and finish what they had started four days ago.

  Giles finally gathered enough control over his desire to be able to move down the pathway and step out into the lane and secure Genghis’s reins to the fence, talking softly as the stallion nudged him affectionately in the shoulder. ‘I agree, Genghis, this is indeed a madness, but I cannot seem to—’

  ‘Do you speak often to your horse, my— Oh, my goodness!’ Lily gave a gasp as, having locked the vicarage behind her and placed the key beneath one of the flower boxes in the window as was the family custom when everyone was out, she now reached Giles’s side and saw for the first time the long scar which ran the length of the horse’s long silky neck, from ear to wither. ‘What on earth can have happened to him?’ O
ne lace-gloved hand was raised to her throat at the thought of what could have caused such a grievous injury to such a magnificent animal, her earlier feelings of reluctance, at the thought of spending any time alone with Giles, completely forgotten as she stared compassionately at the scarred horse.

  Giles gave the beast a reassuring and affectionate stroke down the length of that long and glistening neck. ‘I will tell you as we walk, if you really care to know.’

  ‘I should, very much.’ Lily may have no inclination to learn to ride a horse but that did not prevent her from appreciating and empathising with the serious nature of an injury which could have resulted in such an horrific scar. ‘I believe I have heard you call him Genghis?’ She looked at the silky black horse admiringly.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Like the Mongol emperor?’

  Giles smiled slightly. ‘Exactly like.’

  ‘He was with you during the battles against Napoleon’s army,’ Lily guessed huskily.

  ‘Some of them, yes,’ Giles confirmed grimly. ‘He belonged to a fellow officer who named him that, no doubt because Genghis proved himself to be fearless in the face of the enemy.’ He fell into step beside her as they walked across the lane and into the churchyard.

  ‘And that fellow officer…?’

  His jaw tightened. ‘Cut down and killed.’

  ‘I am sorry. Did you know that this is the grave of Mrs Lovell’s son?’ She paused beside the mound upon which the two arrangements of flowers, her own and Mrs Lovell’s, had been placed two days ago.

  Giles frowned as he read the inscription on the weathered gravestone: Matthew Lovell, Beloved Son and Husband, 1768-1795. ‘Can it be that he was the Romany killed here on the estate twenty-one years ago?’

  ‘So I am told, yes,’ Lily confirmed softly.

  ‘I was only seven at the time, but still I remember it well.’ He nodded. ‘The Romany were beside themselves with grief, and my father utterly distraught that one of his employees was thought to be responsible for the death.’

  She raised surprised brows. ‘The estate gamekeeper was only “thought to be responsible”?’

  Giles shrugged broad shoulders. ‘I believe the man denied that he had been anywhere near the woods that day. Nor could it be proven otherwise. His claim of innocence made no difference to my father having to dismiss him, of course,’ he added grimly. ‘He could not allow a possible murderer to continue to live and work on the Castonbury estate.’

  Lily nodded heavily. ‘I had no idea, until a few days ago, that Mrs Lovell had ever had a son.’

  Giles’s mouth tightened as he recalled that Mrs Lovell also had a nephew. A very handsome and flirtatious nephew whom Giles had chanced to find chatting and laughing with one of the housemaids near the stables at Castonbury Park earlier this morning! The same handsome young nephew he had seen Lily meet and enter the woods with the previous day….

  ‘Shall we go on?’ he prompted abruptly.

  ‘Of course.’ Lily nodded graciously as she continued walking through the graveyard towards the meadow on the other side. ‘You were about to tell me about Genghis’s injury,’ she reminded him huskily.

  Giles grimaced. ‘Well, to answer your earlier question—yes, I can often be found speaking to my horse!’

  She eyed him mischievously as she tried to shake off her earlier sadness for Mrs Lovell’s loss. ‘Could that possibly be because he is incapable of answering you back?’

  Giles grinned appreciatively. ‘I had not thought of it in quite that way before now, but perhaps you are right!’ He laughed and inclined his head. ‘Although I have no doubt that Genghis would find a way to let me know of his displeasure if needs be.’

  ‘He is such a beautiful and fearsome creature!’

  Giles sobered as he held open the gate so that they might walk out into the meadow. ‘You would not have thought so if you had seen him shortly after he was cut down.’

  ‘Tell me,’ she invited softly as they walked down the grassy slope towards the river.

  Giles’s expression became grim as he thought back to that day two years ago. ‘I was with my regiment, and we were preparing to go into battle against Napoleon’s troops once more. Not one of the bigger battles, but what we would normally have called a skirmish.’ He gave a pained grimace. ‘We were wrong. It more resembled a slaughterhouse— I am sorry, Lily.’ He turned to her apologetically as she gave a soft gasp. ‘Perhaps it would be best if I did not tell you any of this.’

  ‘But of course you must tell me.’ She frowned crossly. ‘I assure you, I am not some simpering miss who runs away from hearing the truth!’

  ‘I never thought that you were.’ In fact, the opposite; Lily had demonstrated several times—including agreeing to walk with him today—that she preferred to face unpleasant situations rather than run away from them.

  She nodded briskly. ‘That I am shocked is due only to my own ignorance of such things. You, on the other hand, and so many others like you, actually lived and fought your way through times so terrible that those of us at home cannot even begin to imagine the horror of it all. I wish for you to tell me, Giles,’ she encouraged huskily. ‘If it will not distress you….’

  It was not that final plea which encouraged him to comply with Lily’s request—although goodness knew Giles had given her little or no reason this past year to feel in the least considerate towards his own feelings—but the fact that for the first time she had called him Giles without his bidding…

  He straightened. ‘Then I must start at the beginning of the day, and not the end. I had received word that morning that my brother Jamie had been lost to us, drowned at Salamanca.’ His jaw tightened as he heard Lily’s sharply indrawn breath. ‘It was too immense, too sudden, for me to comprehend. I simply could not believe that Jamie was truly gone.’

  Lily frowned. ‘I well remember how devastated your father and other members of your family were when they received the news at Castonbury Park. But at least they had one another. I can only imagine how awful it must have been for you to be so far away from your family when news of Lord Jamie’s death was brought to you.’ Her eyes had darkened in sympathy.

  Giles nodded grimly. ‘It certainly put me in the mood to fight that day.’ He scowled. ‘Unfortunately we were outnumbered and outgunned, and after several bloody hours of fighting on horseback and foot we looked defeat in the face. Somehow a last rallying of the troops secured the victory. But so many of my comrades were already dead or dying, and I myself was left for dead after receiving a blow to the head which had rendered me unconscious. When I awoke some hours later it was to find all unnaturally still about me, with no noise to be heard except for the low moans of dying men and the pained whinnying of the horses as they, too, lay injured and dying.’

  He had described the scene so well and so vividly that Lily was almost able to hear the guns firing, the shouts of the fighting men and the terrified snorting of the horses, to smell the lingering odour of gunpowder and the blood of so many dying men and horses.

  Giles gave a grimly humourless smile as he continued. ‘I lay there on the ground, numb from the waist down, all of me covered over in blood, and for several moments believed that I had only woken in order that I might die too.’

  Lily instinctively reached out a hand and placed it upon his muscled forearm. ‘Please…you have said enough. I insist you not talk of it any more when it is so obviously painful for you to do so!’

  He gave a perplexed frown as he looked down at her. ‘Should you not be rejoicing at my suffering rather than sympathising, when time and time again I have demonstrated such a lack of understanding in regard to your own feelings?’

  ‘I could never be glad at another’s suffering,’ she assured him huskily.

  Giles gave a pained smile. ‘Even my own?’

  ‘Even yours,’ Lily conceded softly.

  He gave a puzzled shake of his head. ‘You are very generous of heart.’

  Lily returned his gaze quizzically. ‘And t
hat surprises you?’

  In truth, everything Giles had learnt about this particular young woman, since returning to Derbyshire, had succeeded in surprising him—her genuine concern for his father’s deteriorating health, even if that concern had on one memorable occasion reflected so badly upon him; the care he had heard many in the village say that Lily gave so unselfishly to her father’s parishioners; the affection Lily so obviously felt for the roguish Mrs Lovell, and the compassion she felt for the loss of that lady’s son, a man who must have died before Lily was even born.

  It was the same compassion she now felt for Genghis’s injury, even though she had admitted to being somewhat afraid of horses.

  And the concern she now showed for Giles, in regard to Jamie’s death, and the bloody battle he had fought only hours after that terrible news had been brought to him, showed a capacity for empathy Giles believed few to be capable of, and certainly none that had been so deliberately mocked and insulted by the very object of her compassion.

  ‘You truly are Mr Seagrove’s daughter,’ he acknowledged huskily.

  ‘I only wish that were true—’ She broke off abruptly to look up uncertainly at Giles as he lifted one of his hands to cover her gloved one as it rested on his forearm.

  He shrugged. ‘It is true, in as much as we are all surely a result of our upbringing rather than those who are physically our parents.’

  Her throat moved convulsively as she swallowed before speaking. ‘If you continue being kind to me, Giles, then I fear there is the distinct possibility that I may actually come to like you—an occurrence which I am sure would not be pleasing to either one of us!’

  Giles looked down at her wordlessly for several stunned moments, before bursting into throaty laughter. Something he had not felt in the least inclined to do since his return to Castonbury ten days ago.

  It caused Giles to acknowledge that Lily’s ability to ignite his sense of humour, when onerous financial and family problems gave him very little reason to find anything in the least amusing, was yet another thing which surprised him about this young woman.