A Baron Worth Loving: A Historical Regency Romance Book

by Bridget Barton

  I know that you do not approve of eavesdropping, but I will say that it was quite simple with the arbour so near the house and a little wall to sit behind, and I heard every word. Mother was speaking very frankly with Miss Pembroke and said that she knew Miss Pembroke loved you, and that she knew that considering the circumstances Miss Pembroke was the one who would have to protect you from yourself. She said that Miss Pembroke was not a suitable wife for you – too forward and flighty – and that you would never do what was necessary to break of the engagement even though it was hurting you.

  In the end, Miss Pembroke agreed. Brother, I write this to tell you how very unhappy she was, but that she seemed to believe everything Mother said, that your estate would be better off if she was gone, that you would be better off. That is why she is going with us to Europe. She wants to give you time to heal from the breaking, although she told our mother she would not be so quick to heal.

  I will bring this letter to a close with the statement that I have seen how difficult our father’s death was on you, Gerard, and yet when you saw Miss Pembroke and began spending time in her company I saw something new, a spark of sorts that you read about in the great poets, and I was delighted to see you coming back to life.

  In her absence, I have seen you shrinking back again into the proper man that could handle an estate well but knew nothing of his own heart. I do not want you to be that sort of man. You know that we set sail in a week. Please, consider how you might change the course that has been set before you.

  It was signed with Diana’s name, and that was all. Gerard re-read it, and as he did, he felt an anger he had not expected rising within him. He was angry at his mother for interceding, but when he really considered matters, he knew he was angry at himself for having accepted Nora’s refusal without fighting for her. It was improper to press again and again for an audience with a lady that had denied you her affections, but for the first time Gerard felt the urge to set aside what was proper completely and race after what he really wanted.

  He set down the letter and picked up a piece of paper and a quill to write to Nora. He intended to set the record straight, to tell her that she didn’t need to protect him from himself, that he could be happy with her forever. But as his fingers touched the page he knew instinctively that it would not be enough. There was too much that rested between them for a few words on a page to be sufficient. He walked downstairs and met the butler in the lower hall.

  “Please have the valet prepare my things. I leave tomorrow morning for London.”

  “Sir?” The butler raised his eyebrows. “This is most irregular.”

  “It is,” Gerard said, “but the object of my affections will sail within the week, and I do not have a moment to lose.”

  Chapter 37

  Gerard arrived in London that evening just as the sun was beginning to dip down in the sky. He had ridden all day, and would have arrived sooner, but unfortunately matters at home had held him up a bit longer than intended settling estate affairs to hold until his anticipated return. Their London mansion had already been aired out again, as it had been only months before during the end of the season, and it gave Gerard a pang to remember things as they had been when he was first pursuing the now elusive Miss Pembroke.

  Then, he had been so blind and foolish – he could see that now – because he had thought himself so much above her in society. She was always so wild and forthright, and he had thought those marks on her character when in fact they had been the first invitation for him into a world where constraints were not so constant, and creativity was rewarded with beauty.

  He made certain that his horse was liveried safely in the stables, and then climbed the front steps and rang for entrance. Their London butler answered, looking more than a little perturbed. Gerard knew that the man usually ran the house during the off season with only a handful of maids at his beck and call, and the requirement to suddenly be at the ready for an overseas preparation had clearly taken a toll on him. He looked a bit worn around the eyes, and pale. Now, at the sight of Gerard, he sputtered all the more.

  “Lord Colbourne, I was not given reason to suspect that you would be in attendance as well. What a…surprise. I shall have your horse taken around at once and a room prepared for you upstairs.”

  “No need,” Gerard said quickly, bending his ear to catch any sound their might have been of Nora’s presence. “I have already quartered my mount, and I look only for a place to leave my valise whilst I go into the parlour to meet with my mother and her guests.”

  The butler frowned. “I’m afraid Lady Colbourne and the two other ladies have both been out all day, sir. They had appointments in the city in the morning, and I was not informed of their evening plans. I have been gone the whole of the afternoon trying to set things in order for their overseas voyage, however, and so they may have come and gone again in my absence. I will enquire after the lady’s maid and give you a full report.”

  “Please, do so.” Gerard waited in the hall for a moment while the butler scurried away, and then, when time seemed to drag on longer than expected, he walked down the familiar hall into the parlour where he had spent so many years with his family. The hearth was cool, likely because the weather had been hot and dry, and the company was at present gone from the house. But the windows were open and a bit of bright sunlight was making all the difference in the tenor of the room. Gerard saw the signs of his mother and sister everywhere – there were half-finished embroideries tucked into drawers, a bundle of ribbons out on display in the centre of a settee, and one of Diana’s books on a side table.

  Then, all at once, he caught sight of the sign of Nora that he had been looking for since he first walked into the mansion. It was a little canvas set up by the window overlooking the back courtyard. He walked to it slowly, noting how tiny the canvas was compared to the ones with which she usually worked, and before he examined the contents, he looked out over the view she had been attempting to capture.

  It was not so expansive as the gardens of Holcombe, but rather secretive and romantic, surrounded by a low stone wall and featuring a single large tree at the centre of his family’s garden. It would provide a woman like Nora plenty of scope for the imagination, but when Gerard bent down to examine the work at hand, he saw with a start that she had not painted the garden at all.

  Instead, she had set about a topic that he had rarely seen her complete before – a bit of impressionistic portraiture. The brushstrokes were loose and noncommittal, the colours pale and similar, and yet Gerard could make out quite clearly the shape of his own face rising form the canvas.

  He wondered if his mother and Diana would have been able to deduce it. From a distance, the face looked almost like a lush courtyard or garden, just a panoply of colours neatly bending into each other one upon the other. But when he drew to the correct distance and looked at the work as a whole, he could clearly see himself rising out of the paint. It made him shiver with a sort of pained delight, to see that he had not been as easily forgotten as Nora’s letter might have implied. Whatever she intended to do, wherever she intended to go, the painting told a story that she could not hide: there was still some affection – dare he hope love? – there in her heart for the Lord of Holcombe.

  “Lord Colbourne?”

  He turned and saw the butler standing in the doorway. “Yes? Do you have news of their whereabouts?”

  “Yes, sir. The maid said that they came in a few hours ago in quite a state, ordering all the trappings of an evening out to their rooms. The maids were quite engaged with Lady Colbourne and Lady Diana preparing them for a sort of event at the theatre. I have the name of the place on a slip of paper here.”

  Gerard frowned. “I thought Miss Pembroke was in attendance as well. Are you telling me that she did not wish to go to the theatre?”

  “She went with them, sir.” The butler paused for a moment and then, as though suddenly understanding the root of his question, explained, “She did not require the same atte
ntion beforehand, Lord Colbourne, requesting only a requisite maid and then tending to the details on her own.”

  “Of course.” Gerard took the slip of paper and read the title on it quickly. It was a familiar theatre, one he had taken Nora to when they observed the opera together. And according to the paper they were performing another opera that very evening. “I shall need a valet upstairs at once,” he said, looking up from the paper. “For I would like to attend the theatre as well tonight and require some assistance unpacking in time to make the show.”

  “Are you going alone, sir?” the butler asked.

  Gerard raised his eyebrows. “Why do you ask?”

  “It is only that a young gentleman came calling earlier today to see Miss Pembroke, and when he heard that she was not at home he left his name and card. I believe it was one of the Pembroke brothers, if I am not mistaken. I was not aware of the theatre visit at the time, or I would have informed him.”

  “I shall carry the message,” Gerard said quickly. He knew at once that it would be David, and not William or James, that called. The older two were not young enough to be called thusly by a seasoned butler, and more than that he knew that William’s London business would be quite concluded now, whilst David had his studies to attend to over the next few weeks.

  He went upstairs and dressed quickly with the help of the valet in a fine coat and trousers befitting an elegant evening out, finishing it off with a high hat and gloves and a cane. Then he walked, rather than rode, across town in the direction of the flat where he knew the Pembroke gentlemen stayed during their respective times at university. The flat was high and brick, with an elegant iron casing about the stairs, and as Gerard climbed up, he saw that the sun was all but gone now and the lamps already providing more light than the dusk all about.

  He knocked, and on the third knock David himself opened the door, looking a bit dishevelled. He raised his eyebrows in surprise.

  “Lord Colbourne! I thought you would still be out at Holcombe, such was the business there. What brings you to London?”

  Gerard wanted very much to answer with the truth, ‘your sister’. But he didn’t. Instead he chose the route of propriety for a few minutes longer and placed his hands across the head of the walking cane to bolster his entreaty.

  “I heard that your sister and mine are accompanied by my mother to the theatre this very evening for a showing of the latest German opera, and I would very much like it if you would agree to accompany me there. I know that I am fully capable of embarking on such an adventure alone, but I think that some companionship would be truly bolstering.”

  David paused for a moment, smiling in a manner that was almost impish.

  “You want to go and win her back, don’t you?”

  Gerard let a small smile slip by. “I want to do everything I can to show her there is something worth staying for here in England, yes, and to make certain that if she must leave she will do so without any misunderstanding as the culprit.”

  David nodded. “Then I will ready myself.”

  He was hardly gone for the span of a few minutes when he reappeared with a fine dress coat and cravat. Gerard was certain he had thrown on evening clothes over the sort of base layer one might take riding or hunting or for a day in the park, but he neither knew nor cared. They were already late as it was, and as they walked across the park there was no time to speak about his plan with David. He could only think it over again and again in his head and pray that Nora would have grace for his stumbling.

  Outside the theatre, a few people were still trickling into the performance, although there were already faint and beautiful strains of music drifting out through the open doors. They had reached the great golden columns at the front when Gerard heard a voice he had not at all expected close at hand.

  “Lord Colbourne, I believe it is, and Mr David.”

  He turned slowly to behold Lady Barrington and her beautiful daughter close at hand. It was Lady Barrington who had spoken, her voice laced with delight at the surprise meeting that she likely considered to be wholly fortuitous. But Gerard noticed at once that her daughter was not so eager. Katherine was looking as beautiful as ever in a scarlet gown with her hair all beribboned and elegant. But she stood quite still, like a statue, and Gerard couldn’t decipher the true feelings behind the mask.

  “It is a pleasure to see you,” Gerard said quickly. He looked back into the theatre. “But I’m afraid we’re here in search of a different party altogether. My mother and sister and Miss Pembroke, that is. They were not aware of my coming, and therefore left no word that I might find them easily.”

  “Lord Colbourne,” Lady Barrington pressed on with a gentle smile. “You seem a bit frantic. I’m not used to this side of you. Don’t worry any further about the matter. I’m sure that you could use our own box to look about for your mother, and when you locate her there will be no object to you defecting to her box, I’m sure. Isn’t that right, dear Katherine?”

  But Katherine’s face had softened somewhat during this exchange, and now she held out her alabaster arm to Gerard with a smile of welcome. “Of course, Mother. Why don’t you walk ahead with Mr David Pembroke, and I will stay behind with our Lord Colbourne? I wish to speak with him on a private matter.”

  Lady Barrington was happy enough, at this inducement, to take David’s arm and hurry on ahead of them into the theatre. They walked a bit apart up the great golden staircase and on down the hall on the upper level, and as they walked, Katherine enquired of Gerard in a low voice what he was doing there.

  “I can see something is strange in you, Lord Colbourne,” she said quietly. “You seem distracted, and not altogether at ease. I was not satisfied with our last meeting, or the way I left things. Perhaps if you confide in me now, I might give you some manner of peace.”

  “It is not your presence that puts me in such a state, my lady,” Gerard said with a gentle bow. “I have my own qualms about our last meeting, but you are not what sets me ill at ease. It is the conversation I know I must have with Miss Pembroke that weighs heavily upon me.”

  “Ah, Miss Pembroke.” Katherine smiled a little sadly. “If she were not so lovely of a woman, I might be able to find it in myself to truly envy her. But as it is, I can only say you have chosen the truest of flowers to love.”

  Gerard raised his eyebrows gently.

  Katherine laughed then, a soft sound that she stifled in the hall so as not to be too disturbing to the other guests. “My dear Lord Colbourne, I may have imagined a different future for us, but now that I know what cannot be, I assure you I pine no longer for your affections.”

  “Neither does she,” Gerard said quietly, turning to walk on with Katherine at his side. “She wrote me to assure me that our future together was doomed, that she has found a list of reasons why we cannot be together, and that she is running away to Europe for an entire year to rid herself of me. I learned afterwards that much of this was due to my mother’s influence, and while I may still be unable to win Miss Pembroke’s hand, I at least want to part with only the truth between us.”

  “That is noble indeed,” Katherine said quietly.

  “Perhaps,” Gerard mused. “Or perhaps I am blind. But I cannot deny that what I really want is a future with her, regardless of whether or not it is considered by the rest of England to be the most responsible decision. For I assure you that she is more capable than many know.”

  Katherine nodded soberly. “I have known Nora for many years,” she said at last. “I do not know how easy it will be to convince her of something different than the truth to which she has already anchored her ship. But I will hope the best for you my friend, as I’m sure you would for me.”

  They had reached the box by now, and the music was flooding all around them in full grandeur. Gerard came and sat down beside Katherine, Lady Barrington and David on the other side. And looked out over the scene below. The stage was set with what appeared to be a seaside arrangement – ships bobbing about behind board wav
es in the background, lush greenery on stage and a few discarded pieces of netting.