Forgotten Friend (Roselund Heights)

by Miranda D Nelson

  Mr. Colborne beamed. “Anything to help a lady.” He looked to Christopher. “Now, if you do not mind, I have my name down for this dance.”

  Christopher laughed and handed her over.

  Mr. Colborne led her to the set, and she was pleased to see Christopher beside him, partnered with Edith Colborne.

  The lively dance began, and Mr. Colborne guided her smoothly through the movements. As much as she enjoyed herself, she could not keep her gaze from wandering to Christopher from time to time.

  When the number ended, Mr. Colborne led her from the set. “If I were a jealous man, I’d be rather upset with you, Miss Fairchild.”

  “What do you mean?”

  There was a hint of disapproval in his voice. “It would take a blind man not to notice that your attention was elsewhere during our dance.”

  Coralyn did not know what to say. She could not deny it.

  To her relief, Mr. Colborne laughed. “Do not worry yourself. He was just as distracted by you.” He leaned toward her. “Should I have filled your card with his name alone?”

  “No,” she said, her brow furrowing.

  He raised his brows.

  Her expression softened into a helpless smile. “I do not know yet.”

  He nodded slowly. “I believe you soon will.” He winked at her before introducing her to the gentleman she was to dance with next.

  The remainder of the evening was as wonderful as a girl could hope for. Her partners were engaging and all well suited to dancing. She danced twice more with Christopher and laughed to herself at what her mother would say about standing up with a man three times in one evening. She did not care though, as those dances were the highlight of her evening.

  Coralyn was in her room after breakfast, writing a letter of Christmas tidings to her mother. She left out the business with Lord Seton, unsure of how much she wished for her mother to know. She also most certainly excluded the details of her newfound attachment to Christopher. There were some things better left unsaid.

  With the task completed, she left her room intending to go to the library.

  As it was Christmas Eve, the servants were in the process of decorating the common rooms with boughs and wreaths of evergreen, strands of ivy and holly, and Christmas roses. The scent of the greens wafted to her as soon as she entered the hall and she could not help her smile.

  The smile fled as she made her way to the level below. Lord Seton’s voice rang up through the hall.

  “My name is Lord Seton, and I am here to see Miss Fairchild.”

  Coralyn froze in her steps, her heart racing, the fear she’d felt the night before coming to the surface of her emotions.

  Will he never desist?

  Coralyn turned the way she’d come. She did not know where she might go, but she would not sit with him.

  As she turned a corner, she collided with the solid form of a man’s chest. She let out a little shout of surprise and stepped back with her fingers at her lips. “Oh, Christopher! It is you. I thought—” she looked behind her. Though she knew it could not have been Lord Seton, that had been her first fear.

  The laughter in his eyes died as he peered at her more closely. “What is the matter, Coralyn? You look very pale.”

  She shook her head. “It is nothing.” Her eyes found their way to his and an idea came to her. “Will you take me for a drive? I’m certain my aunt and uncle would not mind if we took the gig.”

  His brows lowered over his hazel eyes. “I'm sure they would not. Where are you wanting to go?”

  Coralyn glanced behind her again. There were only so many rooms to look for her in. A servant would be here to take her to Lord Seton before long at all.

  Her fingers remained close to her lips, tapping against them as she spoke. “Perhaps through town? Or the country-side. Even along the cliffs would be pleasant.” She shook her head. “I do not much care where we go. It is just such a fine day.” She forced herself to smile.

  Christopher’s eyes narrowed. “Have you been out today? It is rather cold.”

  She dropped her hands to her sides. “Christopher!” she whispered fiercely. She hated that she could hear the begging in her own voice. “Will you take me or not? I must know.”

  He stepped closer and lifted her chin, and she was forced to look into his eyes. “What is the matter, Coralyn?”

  “Lord Seton is here and I do not wish to sit with him.”

  The concern in his eyes increased. “Is that all? I know he is unpleasant, but that does not merit such a cut as running away from him.”

  She could not possibly explain it all now, not when she might have mere moments to escape. “If you will help me, I can explain more later.”

  Christopher studied her a moment longer then nodded. “Get your cloak. I’ll wait for you here.”

  Gratitude and relief swept over her. “Thank you, Christopher.” She smiled in earnest now.

  “You’re welcome. Now hurry.”

  She hurried to her room and was back in the hall within a minute. Christopher was already waiting for her. “Are you ready?”

  She nodded, but as they moved toward the grand staircase, she heard footsteps coming up.

  Before they could retreat, the butler’s head came into view. Christopher stepped in front of her and Coralyn instinctively ducked behind him, grateful he’d worn an especially long overcoat.

  “Morning, James.”

  “Lord Eversley,” the butler said. “Forgive me, my lord, but you haven’t seen Miss Fairchild of late, have you?”

  “Not since breakfast. She did tell me she planned to read in the library, however.”

  “Thank you, my lord. I’ll look there.”

  Coralyn listened as the butler’s footsteps faded down the hall. Christopher turned to her with a smile teasing his lips. “This reminds me very much of when we were children.”

  Coralyn smiled in spite of herself. “No one caught us then.”

  Christopher grinned, and Coralyn realized just how close he stood. “Then let us make sure no one catches us now.”

  Her heart skipped in her chest.

  He stepped aside and held his arm out in the direction of the grand staircase. But Coralyn shook her head. “The drawing room is just off the entry hall. What if Lord Seton comes out?”

  Christopher’s eyes darted around for a moment, then focused on a door down the hall. The grin returned and he took her hand. “Come with me.”

  She followed him to the door, and he opened it carefully, peering down the staircase behind it. “He won’t think to look on the servant’s stairs.”

  Coralyn stifled a laugh. “No, indeed!”

  They slipped through the door and he closed it behind them, just as the butler came around the corner, still searching.

  They hurried down the staircase and Coralyn continued to grin. Christopher stopped suddenly and Coralyn collided with him again. She heard a small feminine cry of surprise. She peered around Christopher to see a maid carrying a pitcher of water, most likely to one of the bed chambers.

  “Excuse us,” Christopher said as they hurried down past her, still clinging to each other’s hands.

  The maid looked after them with blatant curiosity.

  A few steps past her, Christopher paused and turned back. “Would you please inform Mr. or Mrs. Brickley that we have taken the gig and will return in a few hours?”

  The maid tried but failed to hide her surprise. “Of course, my lord.”

  “Thank you.” He smiled at Coralyn then continued to hurry down the stairs.

  The stairs emptied into the kitchen, and Coralyn pressed her hand to her lips to hold at bay her laughter at the shocked faces of the servants.

  Christopher’s frame shook for a moment but he said “Good morning” nonetheless and pulled her through the crowded room to the door that led outside. Once in the cold air, they both released the pent-up laughter. Coralyn wiped tears from her eyes. “Well, we certainly gave the servants something to talk about.”
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  Christopher laughed again. “I hope you do not mind a little gossip amongst the staff.”

  She shook her head. “Fortunately, Mother does not listen to gossip from the waitstaff, so I believe there is no harm.”

  He reached for her hand again. “On to the stables?”

  She took his, relishing the comfort in his firm but gentle grip.

  Christopher drove the gig directly from the stable block, choosing a course that did not pass by the drawing room windows. As they pulled onto a road leading into the hilly countryside, Christopher looked at her from the corner of his eye.

  “So, will you tell me why we had to sneak out of the house so you could insult a man who, though decidedly disagreeable, is likely one of the most eligible men in London?”

  Coralyn bit her lip. “Would you like the short explanation or the long one?”

  Christopher looked around the hills. “Seeing as we’ve no where to be in any hurry.”

  Coralyn chuckled. “Very well. The evening before I came to Roselund Heights, Lord Seton made me an offer.” She paused. “Well, he said he’d like to court me, propose, and be married before the end of the year.” She felt Christopher stiffen beside her. “I told him I could not accept his offer and he became very angry. Enough so that my parents supported my decision to refuse him, which surprised me.”

  “He said yesterday he planned to court you here.”

  “That may well be his plan, but I will not agree to it. He could never make me happy, and he would be miserable with me for a wife.”

  Christopher looked at her with narrowed eyes, though he did not look truly upset. “Why would you say that? I think any man would be lucky to have you.”

  Coralyn blushed. “That is kind.” She shook her head. “But as I said yesterday, Lord Seton does not know the same side of me that you do.” She looked out over the green hills. “No one in London does. Not any more.”

  “Why not?”

  “When we left Lynwood that last Christmas, my mother told me we’d never come back. She said I was in need of proper training and my behavior at Lynwood did not match her standards.”

  “She makes it sound as if you’d done something terrible during your visits.”

  Coralyn chuckled but without feeling any humor. “In my mother’s eyes, it was. Galloping across the countryside, climbing through the forest, hunting shells on the beach, sneaking out of the house through the servant’s stairway.” She cast him a grin before her expression sobered. “Spending all my time with a boy so much older than myself, when I should have been sitting to my embroidery with girls my own age.”

  Christopher looked at her with a sadness in his eyes. “Your mother did not approve of me as your friend?”

  “If I had had other female friends whom I liked as much as I liked you, she might not have minded. But as she said, ‘A young woman should not be so attached to a male friend, as other men might be chased away by him.’”

  Christopher tilted his head and nodded slowly. “She was right on that count.”

  “What?”

  “If we had remained friends, I would have done all within my power to send off any man I felt undeserving.”

  A warmth burned inside Coralyn. “You would?”

  He looked at her with a smile. “I am doing it now, am I not?”

  She smiled in return. “You are.”

  He dipped his head and gestured with one hand. “You were telling my why no one in London truly knows you.”

  “Yes, well. Over the next several years, Mother forced her rules upon me. For a time, I could get by with only obeying when I knew I was on display, but when I came out in society, I was on display all the time. I couldn’t maintain that sort of decorum and honestly, I didn't want to. Mother was furious.”

  She looked around again, enjoying the slight scent of salt in the air. “Aunt Agnes invited me to Roselund every summer and Christmas, as she always had, and that first year, my parents held the visit over my head. They knew how badly I wanted to come and told me I could go if I lived up to their expectations.”

  “How severe were their expectations?”

  “It was more that she sought to control everything in my life. From what I wore to what pastimes I was permitted to enjoy, to who I spoke to and what I spoke about.” She shook her head. “She would control who I married, as well, but I have not let her take that from me, at least.”

  “I am glad for that,” Christopher said without taking his eyes from the road.

  Coralyn stifled a small smile along with the thrill that accompanied it. “So all of London only knows the person my mother wishes me to be. They do not know much at all about who I truly am. Although I will say during my stay here I have learned that there is wisdom in caution.”

  “Such as not pushing a horse to its full speed until you’ve had ample time to relearn to ride?”

  Coralyn laughed. “Yes, exactly.”

  After a few quiet moments, Christopher turned to look at her again. “Thank you for telling me that. It helps me understand you better.”

  She smiled sadly. “I wish I’d been able to maintain your friendship through these past years.”

  He smiled wistfully. “That would have been nice, wouldn’t it?”

  “So, Lord Eversley, I have told you how I became the person I am. Now it is your turn.”

  “My turn?”

  “Yes, I want to hear your story.”

  Christopher shifted in his seat. “I do not know that there is much to tell. I grew up, my father died, and I became earl.” He shook his head. “I do not think there is more to say than that.”

  Coralyn looked at him with patient scrutiny. “You do not think your father’s death impacted you at all?”

  “Well, of course it did. My whole life changed. I became responsible for my mother and my sister, had to learn to manage our estate, and had duties as earl to perform, as well.”

  “I’m sure that was difficult, to learn so many new tasks at such a young age. You were only sixteen, weren’t you?”

  “Yes, but it was more than that.” His thoughtful gaze stayed focused on the road ahead. “Everyone knew my father as a man of great standing. He was a man other men respected for his good opinion. I felt that everyone not only expected me to assume his duties, but to assume his personality, as well. I felt pressure to become him, not just his heir. He handled his responsibilities with such decorum and soberness.” He shook his head slightly. “I knew when to be serious and when a lighter humor was permitted, but as I adjusted to my place, I felt I had to be as sober as he’d been.”

  Understanding washed over Coralyn. She saw Christopher with new eyes. No wonder he’d been so stern those first few days; he too was attempting to be someone he was not.

  “You may not know this, but I had not been to Lynwood in several years, either.”

  “You hadn’t? Why not?”

  “At first, there was too much to do when I came home from school to allow the visit. As I adjusted to my duties, the trips would have been possible, but I felt I needed to be more responsible. Or something,” he said, shaking his head again. “Come to think on it, I do not know why I did not come. This year my mother finally reminded me that my father had been a social man as well as dutiful. She insisted I make the journey.”

  “I am very glad she did.” She tilted her head as she looked at him. “Are you?”

  A slow smile crept onto his mouth. “I am. Though I will confess it has not turned out nearly as I had planned.”

  Coralyn settled into her seat. “How did you expect the visit to go?”

  “To begin, I did not know you would be at Lynwood as well. That threw my plans off course immediately.”

  She put on a frown. “Were you not happy to see me?”

  “No, I was. Very much so. But I had planned a quiet visit with as little socializing as possible. Then there you were, drawing me out of the stable gravity I had created for myself.”

  Coralyn looked at him with wi
de eyes. “You did not speak to me more than necessary for at least three days.”

  “I know, and I am ashamed and sorry for that.” He shook his head. “Believe it or not, you still had my attention. Each night I tried to focus on something else, anything else. But I could not concentrate with you around. It is why I left during the days, to rest my mind from the struggle of trying to avoid you.”

  Coralyn told herself not to be hurt, but it was difficult not to be. “Why did you want to avoid me so?”

  Christopher shifted and cast her a glance. “It is as I said before. I did not like the person you seemed to have become. All you spoke about was London, you were glamorous, and it was all I heard that you had been so popular and the center of everyone’s attention.”

  “And why should that bother you so? You are a well-dressed man who is popular and high in society.”

  “It is not those things in themselves that bother me; it is the obsession with them that I cannot stand.”

  Coralyn struggled to withhold her laugh.

  He thought me obsessed?

  “You reminded me of my sister when she returned from her first season, completely taken with London and high society. She was home less than a fortnight before she determined country life did not suit her and she went back to town. It broke my heart that you had become like that.”

  Coralyn turned away in the hopes that she might hide the laughter that now threatened to overflow.

  But Christopher noticed. “Are you laughing?”

  She shook her head, but the laughter escaped and she could not stop for a few moments. Once in more control, she looked up at Christopher. His jaw was set and he looked hurt. She placed her hand on his arm. “I am sorry. Please do not think I was laughing at your distress. That is not it at all.”

  “I would very much like to hear your explanation.” His voice sounded angry, too.

  Coralyn laughed again and smiled at him. “Christopher, I hate London.”

  He turned to her so suddenly that he jerked the reins as well, causing the horses to burst into speed. Coralyn gasped and clung to the railing. Christopher pulled the horses back into control easily then brought them to a complete halt. He turned to her.