Someone Perfect (Westcott Book 10)

by Mary Balogh

  Word had spread fast in the last few minutes. There was a crowd on the terrace, Justin could see. A few of the guests had come closer. There was a little huddle of servants under the portico.

  “And this, Ricky,” Justin said, “is my sister, Maria. She is home now and quite safe, as you can see.”

  And Maria, who had come to stand beside Lady Estelle, smiled with warm sweetness. “Thank you for coming all this way to help search for me, Ricky,” she said. “Maybe Justin would have found me sooner if you had been with him. But he did find me and bring me home.”

  “Ah,” Ricky said with a big smile. “You must be very happy.”

  “I am,” she said, and transferred her gaze to Justin for a few moments. “It always feels good to be home.”

  She was, Justin realized, speaking to him.

  “And on the subject of home, Ricky,” Justin said, “Wes and Hildy are worried.”

  “No!” Ricky said, and shook his head vigorously. “They’ll know I come to help you, Juss. I’m good at finding things. Remember when I found Mrs. Klebb’s cat when it didn’t come home for two days that time? And remember how I found the button that come off Wes’s shirt when Hildy was ironing it and it rolled and no one else could find it?”

  “I remember. But come,” Justin said, setting an arm about his shoulders. “It is time for a bath and a change of clothes, Ricky. I know you hate baths and like to wear your own clothes, but there will be no arguments today, please. You stink. Afterward you will smell like a rose.”

  “Like a rose.” Ricky laughed. “Do I want to smell like a rose, Juss?”

  “You do if the alternative is this,” Justin said firmly. And he led Ricky off toward the house while his sister and all his guests inexplicably applauded. The servants too.

  “Have hot bathwater and shaving gear sent to my dressing room,” Justin told Phelps as they climbed the steps to the portico. “And a pot of chocolate with extra milk and sugar and a few sweet biscuits immediately. A full meal can follow half an hour after the bathwater.”

  He had no idea where he would put Ricky until Wes found his way here too— and even perhaps after that. But for now it was going to be his own room, even if his valet quit without notice.

  His valet did not quit. He brought shaving water and a new razor within minutes of Justin’s arrival in the dressing room with Ricky. A footman came behind him with the chocolate and biscuits. The valet’s nose twitched only slightly at the smell before he went into action, stripping Ricky from the waist up and wrapping a towel about his shoulders while he seated him and lathered his face and shaved him. Ricky sat very still and stopped grinning when he was told to.

  He ate his biscuits and drank his chocolate while the valet dug out some of the plain clothes Justin always took with him when he went to spend a few weeks with his friends at the stone quarry. Fortunately, he and Ricky were of similar enough size that the clothes would more or less fit him.

  By then the bathwater had arrived and Justin’s valet stripped Ricky of the rest of his clothes and the sorry boots, directed one of the footmen who had brought the water to take everything away, and soon had Ricky immersed in the water and being thoroughly scrubbed. He shut his eyes tightly while his hair was being washed.

  Justin sniffed the air when Ricky was finally standing on a towel beside the bathtub, being vigorously dried off. “Soap,” he said. “Not roses, but plain soap. A much better smell for a man. Hildy would be proud of you, Ricky. Clean from the top of your head to the tips of your toes.” His valet had set a new toothbrush and tooth powder on the washstand, but the meal would come first.

  And thinking of Hilda, he must write to her without delay, send one of his grooms across country again to deliver the letter in person and set her mind at ease— about Ricky, anyway. Wes would be less of a worry to her. He could look after himself. Though as for that, it had turned out that Ricky could look after himself too.

  A hot meal was awaiting Ricky in Justin’s bedchamber, where it had been set out on a table. He devoured every morsel.

  “That soup was good, Juss,” he said when he was finished. “Almost as good as what Hildy makes.” And he yawned hugely and noisily.

  There was a room adjoining Justin’s own, separated from it by his dressing room and another, empty one. It would be his countess’s bedchamber after he married, Justin had always thought, though this was not the suite of rooms his father and mother— and then his stepmother— had occupied. Those were in the west wing, while this was in the corner of the east wing. He took Ricky through to the other room, which his valet had prepared by drawing the curtains across the window and turning back the bedcovers. Justin helped him off with his coat and cravat and then with his boots— a bit of a tight fit— after Ricky had sat on the side of the bed, yawning again.

  “We ought to have put you straight into a nightshirt, I suppose,” Justin said. “But no matter. You can sleep here for the rest of the day and all night too if you wish, Ricky. You must not be frightened if you wake up and I am not here. I am going to leave a candle burning once it gets dark. And that door into the dressing room is going to be left open, as well as the one on the other side that leads into my room. You can call for me during the night if you need me. If I am not there, then you must pull on this bell rope and someone will find me and I will come up to you. Just wait here for me.”

  “Call for you if I am frightened,” Ricky said. “Pull on that rope if you do not answer. I’ll remember. Pull on that rope. I’m awful tired, Juss.” He yawned again to prove it.

  “I know,” Justin said. “Lie down now and I will tuck you in. And, Ricky? Thank you for coming. I know you would have helped me look for my sister. You probably would have found her too, long before I did.”

  “I’m good at it,” Ricky said as he lay down and Justin tucked the covers around him.

  Justin stood by the bed looking down at his friend. He had been privileged in his life. He had been given the chance, as so few were, to live with people of all sorts and stations in life, to find friendship in unexpected places. Even family. And love.

  But he really must go and write to Hilda.

  The library was empty, he thought at first when he got there. Perhaps everyone was getting dressed for dinner. Perhaps they were at dinner. Perhaps they had already eaten. He really had no idea what time it was. But the room was not empty. Lady Estelle Lamarr was standing at one of the windows looking out, and she turned her head to see who was coming into the room. She turned fully when she saw it was him. She was dressed for the evening and looking stunningly beautiful in emerald green. She made him conscious of the fact that he had not changed, or even combed his hair, since he had returned from the lake.

  “I thought perhaps you would come here,” she said. “I waited awhile to see if you would.”

  “I need to get a letter on the way to Hilda,” he said.

  “Yes, I know,” she said. “I took the liberty of writing one myself. It is on the desk. I thought it might save you some time if it meets with your approval, though you will no doubt wish to add a more personal message to assure her that I am who I say I am. I do not know her address or her last name, I am afraid. I had to call her Hilda. I hope she will not be offended by the familiarity.”

  He raised his eyebrows and crossed to the desk to pick up the letter lying there. She had neat, stylish handwriting. She had written Hilda that Ricky had arrived safely at Everleigh Park an hour or so before and was at this very minute abovestairs with the Earl of Brandon— Justin— having a bath and shave and a meal. He had found his way, she had explained, by remembering jokes Justin had once told him as memory prompts for the names Everleigh and Hertfordshire. He had asked directions of the drivers of stagecoaches and got a few rides with farmers and one young gentleman. He had insisted upon performing odd jobs in payment for food. He had come here under the mistaken impression that the Earl of Brandon’s sister was missing. He had intended to help search for her. Everyone at Everleigh had been ha
ppy to welcome him, especially the earl himself, who would keep him safe until Mr. Wesley Mort arrived.

  She had signed the letter and added the explanation that she was a friend of Lord Brandon.

  “Thank you,” Justin said, looking up from the page.

  “He is resting?” she asked.

  “I believe he was asleep almost before his head hit the pillow,” he said. “Which was a blessing. Ricky’s yawns when he is very tired are enough to drive anyone within range of the sound of them to the brink of insanity.”

  She smiled. “Oh, Justin,” she said then, her face lighting up. “He did not come here for selfish reasons, because you did not go there to see him. He must have misunderstood something you wrote in a letter and thought Maria was missing. He came to help you look for her.”

  “I know,” he said. “One has to be very precise about what one says to Ricky.”

  “He is lovely,” she said.

  “He even smells sweet now,” he told her. “I will just add a postscript to this and a signature and get it addressed and sent off. The poor woman is probably close to losing her mind. She always says that the men in her life will be the death of her sanity.”

  “I will leave you to it, then,” she said.

  But she did not immediately move, and he did not immediately sit down at the desk. He crossed the room toward her until he was almost toe to toe with her.

  “Thank you,” he said again.

  And he took her mouth with his own and lingered there for a while. She did not resist. She did not even remain passive. Her lips parted beneath his, and her mouth pressed back against his. They did not touch anywhere else.

  He gazed at her for a few moments after he had lifted his head. She smiled slightly and moved away to let herself quietly out of the room.

  She had stepped close enough to Ricky to take his hand in hers. She had not flinched from either the sight or the smell of him. Yet she was Lady Estelle Lamarr, a marquess’s daughter.

  Who he rather suspected was the light of his life.

  Everyone was busy again the following day, writing letters, paying calls, doing everything in their power to spread the word that the young man who had been missing was lost no longer but was safely ensconced at Everleigh Park. Everyone was thanked for their efforts in keeping an eye out. Irwin Chandler was a little disappointed that the poster he had planned would not after all be printed, but he was very glad there was no longer any need of it.

  “One is always afraid, though one does not speak a word of one’s fears aloud,” he confided to Justin, “that someone who is lost will never be seen alive again.”

  “Yes,” Justin said. “It is what I feared most.”

  No one appeared to find the renewed activity a chore. They threw themselves into it with enthusiasm. None of them seemed to feel that Ricky was simply not worth all the fuss. Indeed, some of them had been a bit disappointed yesterday to learn that he was asleep and very likely to remain asleep until this morning. A few had been disappointed when he was not at the breakfast table. He was awake, however. He had risen early, Justin explained, as he always did at home. Justin had taken him and Doris’s children out to the stables to see the horses and take Captain for a walk. The children had held Ricky’s hands and chattered with him while they led him over the Palladian bridge to walk along the path on the other side of the river. They had not made their usual demand to be taken for a ride. Ricky had chattered right back. Justin might as well not have been there at all, he had thought in some amusement.

  Later in the day when Justin had taken Ricky outside again for a breath of air, Nigel Dickson and Wallace Chandler took him through the maze. Everyone within earshot smiled at the sound of his excited laughter. Ernest and Sidney Sharpe, Frederick Ormsbury, and Martin Haig, Doris’s husband, made private bets upon how long he would remain in there and whether or not the three of them would reach the center. Neither Nigel nor Wallace had had any luck with doing that yet. Ricky had confidently predicted he would find it.

  “I am good at finding things that are lost, missus,” he had told Mrs. Dickson after she had suggested to her son that perhaps it was unwise to confuse Ricky by taking him in there.

  The three of them emerged eight minutes after going in— the most optimistic bet had predicted twelve minutes, with no success at reaching the center. Ricky was still laughing.

  “There’s a big stone there in the middle with writing on it,” he said. “It says, ‘You found it,’ and another long word.”

  “‘Congratulations!’” Nigel said. “In large letters. With an exclamation point.”

  “Nige and Wally read it to me,” Ricky said.

  “You found your way to the center?” Sid Sharpe asked with a grin.

  “Nige and Wally kept wanting to go the wrong way,” Ricky said. “It was funny. Sorry we were so long. I kept having to call them back and wait for them so they wouldn’t get lost. It was funny.”

  And of course throughout the day everyone kept an eye on the road over the bridge and up the hill, watching for the arrival of Wesley Mort. There was no real anxiety over him, however. He would come eventually, but his search for his brother along the way would slow him down.

  Justin did not take Ricky to the dining room at mealtimes or to the drawing room. He sat with him while he ate his meals in the room next to Justin’s, which was his temporary home. And he showed him parts of the house and park that were unlikely to be crowded. He took him to the stables again and out behind them to the smithy, where the blacksmith welcomed him and explained a few things to him while Ricky listened and watched with rapt attention. Justin took him up through the wilderness walk and stood for a long time by the tower and again by the dragon, while Ricky amused himself and Captain yipped and barked. Viscount Watley went with them. He explained to Ricky that he was the brother of the lady who had met him yesterday after he had stepped over the bridge.

  “Brothers are good,” Ricky said, beaming at him. “I got a brother. Wes. He looks after me. And Hildy does too. Hildy is a good cook.”

  And inside the house Justin decided to take Ricky up to the balcony beneath the dome in the grand reception room. They met Maria and Lady Estelle in the entrance hall on the way there. The two had just come in from outside.

  “That’s Maria,” Ricky said, pointing. “Your sister, Juss. And that’s your friend with her, the lady who was kind to me when I come yesterday. We went up to that dragon with her brother. Brothers are good. I got a brother. Wes.”

  “I believe he is on his way here,” Maria said, smiling. “We will be happy to meet him.”

  “He is nice,” Ricky said. “And this lady’s brother is nice too.”

  “We are going up to the gallery under the dome,” Justin said. “Ricky liked the tower on the wilderness walk. I believe he will like this as well.”

  “Oh,” Maria said. “May we come too? I have not been up there since I was a child. Y-you took me. You held my hand and I was not at all afraid. Children are so ready to trust in the invulnerability of the adults they l— Of adults.”

  “I will hold your hand again, if you wish,” Justin said. “Lady Estelle, will you come too?”

  “Yes,” she said. “I have been hoping to do it before we leave here.”

  And so the four of them climbed the stairs that wound their way through a narrow corridor outside the domed room before emerging onto the balcony. It was wide and solid and supported by the sturdy marble pillars that surrounded the floor below. The marble balustrade about the outer edge was solid and slightly more than waist-high, even against Justin’s height. The small marble pillars that held it up were spaced closely enough that not even the thinnest child would be able to squeeze between them. The whole thing had been built with safety in mind, though it was beautiful too. Above them the dome soared. Below them the mosaic floor was laid out in all its splendor.

  Maria was holding very tightly to his hand, Justin noticed. Lady Estelle was standing to one side of them, Ricky at the ot
her.

  “This is fun, Juss,” he said. “But if this is Everleigh— for everly and everly— where is your house?”

  “This is it, Ricky,” Justin said. “This is my house.”

  Ricky turned to stare at him. “No-o,” he said. “How do you keep it clean?”

  “I have a lot of people to clean it for me,” Justin said.

  “That’s silly,” Ricky said.

  “Those people earn their living working here instead of hewing stone in the quarry,” Justin explained. “Lady Estelle, are you all right?”

  She had moved forward to grasp the top of the balustrade with both hands, though she stood back from it the length of her arms. Her knuckles were white. Her head was tipped back and she was gazing at the dome.

  “My stomach feels as if it may be standing on its head,” she admitted. “And I believe I must have misplaced my knees while I was outside with Maria. But yes, thank you. I am perfectly fine. Provided I do not look down. The balcony seems far higher from up here than it looks from down there.”

  “This rail is made of stone,” Ricky said, moving toward her. “Stone is ever so strong. We could all of us push at this all day long and it wouldn’t budge. Even if Wes was pushing too. That floor down there looks pretty. Hold my hand and have a look at it. I’ll keep you safe. Won’t I, Juss? I kept Juss safe when he come to our house after Wes had hit his face raw and bust his nose. Wes didn’t ought to’ve done that.”

  “I will take your hand if I may, Ricky,” Lady Estelle said, suiting action to words. “Thank you. I remember from yesterday how strong it feels. And I will look down.”

  “If you tried to fall you couldn’t,” Ricky said. “I wouldn’t let you, and this stone rail wouldn’t let you.”

  “You are quite right,” she said. “The floor does look pretty from up here. And the dome takes my breath away.”

  “You got to breathe,” Ricky said. “Or you will faint. I’ll carry you down the stairs if you do— don’t worry— but there’s no need. You got to breathe.”

  “There.” She inhaled audibly and exhaled. “This is a lovely room. The very heart of the house. At the center of it and very beautiful. Oh, look, Ricky. The sun must be coming out. Look at how the whole room is lighting up.”