Satyr’s Son: A Georgian Historical Romance (Roxton Family Saga Book 5)

by Brant, Lucinda

  “As a young lady, yes. But what a poor farmer would I be were I to do so? A farmer needs to understand the breeding behavior of his animals—his prize bulls, rams, and stallions—just as he—or in my case she—needs to know when to plant the fields, and with what crops.”

  “You’ve always been so practical, Teddy.”

  “And you, Lisa Crisp, have always been such a romantic.”

  Both girls smiled and then giggled, and with Lisa’s hair now plaited and tied off with a ribbon, they climbed into the big four-poster bed and snuggled in under the covers, a single silver chamberstick on the bedside table and the fire providing the only light in the otherwise still, warm room. They were happy to lie there facing each other, reveling in their reunion and this renewal of a friendship that stretched back to when they were twelve years old.

  “So you are not at all worried about the bridal night?” Lisa asked in the silence.

  “Not worried. Nervous. I can’t imagine being utterly ignorant. That would make the prospect of that first night unbearable. And I would be very worried had Jack not spent his time pondering on the Continent. Mama says it is important for husbands to know what they are about when making love—”

  “You spoke about making love—with your mother?” Lisa was astonished. She could not imagine the self-possessed Lady Mary discussing anything so intimate as lovemaking, and with her daughter.

  Teddy was unperturbed. “Who else would I ask? Mama says I can ask her anything, and so I do.”

  “Oh, I think your mama is the most marvelous person, Teddy. You are very fortunate.”

  Teddy grinned. “I am. I could not want for a more wonderful mama.” And then she became serious again, and said levelly, “Mama says it is important for husbands to know how to please, and be pleased by their wives. She says I am not to worry if on the first night everything does not go to plan, but that if Jack and I are honest and gentle with each other it will all come together eventually. She says lovemaking that first time is like the first time you bake a cake.”

  “Bake a-a cake?”

  “Yes. That even though you might have all the right ingredients and you follow the recipe for the most wondrous cake imaginable, it doesn’t necessarily mean the cake will turn out precisely as you expect. And to not be disappointed with the result. It is still a cake. And that to make a wondrous cake sometimes takes practice and then once you perfect the ingredients and the recipe, it will be a wondrous cake every time. She said the most important thing to remember is to enjoy the making of the cake together.”

  Lisa thought about this for a moment, frowning, and then confessed, “I have no idea how to make a cake, or about lovemaking for that matter, but I am confident your mother’s advice is very wise. And from the little I saw of her with your step-papa when he and your brothers were off on their expedition in the woods, they love each other very much.”

  “Very much. And they have got their cake recipe just right, haven’t they, because I now have two little brothers and a baby sister.”

  The girls giggled, plumped their down-filled pillows and settled in again. There was a long silence, and then Teddy whispered,

  “Are you still awake?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m not keeping you from sleeping, am I? I know you’ve had a very long day—”

  “I want to stay awake for as long as I can so we have as much time together as possible. Two weeks will go by too quickly otherwise.”

  “Do not worry about that for now,” Teddy assured her. “I have something to tell you, but I need to talk it over with Jack first. And now Mama has met you she thinks it could work—”

  “Plan? Work? About me?”

  “Yes. I’m certain Jack will agree. He is so kind, and loving, and such a gentle soul.”

  “Are you not amazed that everything you told me when we were at school has turned out the way you said it would? You said you would marry Jack, and here you are about to marry him! I am so happy for you, Teddy. You know that, don’t you?”

  “Yes. You more than anyone else know how much I wanted this to all come true.” Teddy chuckled into her pillow. “It’s as well I like the way he kisses, too, or I may not have been as happy.”

  Lisa sat up on an elbow. “Kisses? You’ve kissed Jack? When? Oh! Don’t answer that! Forgive me. I should not have asked—”

  “Of course we have kissed, silly. But you may be shocked when I tell you when we kissed the first time—I didn’t tell you at school because I knew you would think me shameless.”

  “Oh? Why would I think you shameless?” Lisa asked in a small voice, lying back down on the pillow.

  “Because you, my dearest Blacklands sister, were always one for doing what was right. You follow rules, and you never do anything to upset anyone.”

  “You mean I was quite the most uninteresting girl in the class.”

  “But the cleverest, and the most beautiful of all of us.”

  “Teddy, that is the second time tonight you have said so, and I do love you for saying it, and you told me that at school, too. But you are my best friend, and best friends think of each other as beautiful, as I do of you. But no one else has ever said that of me, ever.”

  “Mama said it. Tonight, in fact. I heard her describing you to Granny Kate. She used the word beautiful and said you had a face that was uncommon. The sort of face that reminded her of a painting she had once seen up at the big house, in the Gallery. A face worth painting.”

  “How lovely of her! I think I shall ask your mama to adopt me. But please, we were not talking of me, but of the first time you kissed Jack.”

  “I was fourteen—”

  “Fourteen.”

  “I knew it! You are shocked.”

  “I am not—Oh! Very well. I am. Only because I thought the first boy you ever kissed was Jamie Banks behind the Chelsea Bun House.”

  It was Teddy’s turn to sit up on an elbow. She was surprised and mystified. “Jamie? Jamie Banks? Why would you think I had kissed Jamie? You liked Jamie.”

  “We liked to discuss science together, and his wish to study medicine at university. And we talked about his apprenticeship at the Physic Garden. Topics which would have bored you silly, Teddy.”

  “He liked you very much, Lisa.”

  “I liked him. I foolishly kissed his cheek…”

  “Violet told me.”

  “She did?

  “But whoever said I kissed Jamie behind the Chelsea Bun House is a liar. I could no more kiss Jamie in the same way as I kiss Jack, as I could my own brother were he the same age. It would be positively vile. I like Jamie. But he is my cousin—”

  “I know. He is your uncle Dair’s natural son. I remember you telling me all about him before you introduced me to him that day when we were at the bun house and he was with his school friends. But Teddy, Jack is your cousin, and you are about to marry him.”

  “But it’s different with Jack. I’ve loved Jack since I was ten—if any ten-year-old can know they are in love. But I did know it by the time I was fourteen. But Jamie is like a brother. And why would I kiss Jamie when I was in love with Jack? Did you think I could do that to Jack?”

  “No. I could not imagine it… But I remember how upset you were when he told you his plans to go off wandering abroad, and how he would be away for years and years. And Jamie is handsome—”

  “He is. Very. But I still have no wish to kiss him in that way.”

  Lisa put out her hand to Teddy and they interlocked fingers. “I would never have thought it possible had I not been told by someone I believed. But thinking back on that episode, which I have done too often that surely it is not healthy, I now think it was told to me to make me feel as if my kiss was worth less. Does that make sense?”

  “It does. Girls can be the most horrid creatures imaginable when they are jealous. To think some spiteful cat told the headmistress about your kiss… I was beyond grief-stricken when you were made to leave Blacklands. You do know I tried to find you af
ter your departure?”

  “I have all your letters now, and read them many times. Thank you for persisting. Thank you for finding me.”

  “I did not find you. Cousin Duchess—my mother’s cousin—she found you for me. She is the most kind-hearted, loving fairy godmother in all the world, and when you meet her you will agree. She cannot wait to meet you.”

  “I cannot wait to thank her for finding me because I am very sure if it had not been through her efforts we may never have had this reunion. And I would not now be here with you, and about to see you finally marry your Jack.”

  “How could I marry Jack without you here by my side, dearest Lisa? You are my closest friend, and you cared for me at school, and I would never have passed one exam if not for your tutoring. If girls were permitted to use their brains in the same way boys are, then you could have achieved anything equal to what Jamie is doing. He is about to head off to university to start his study to be a physician, and I wish you could have gone and studied with him.”

  “I am very happy for him. And thank you for thinking me clever. But after assisting in the dispensary I do not think I could be a physician. A willing sympathetic ear to the problems of others, yes, but I do not possess the fortitude for anatomizing…”

  “Jamie’s here for the wedding. He is one of Jack’s attendants. I know he is keen to see you again.”

  “Is he?” Lisa replied calmly. When Teddy lifted her brows and smiled, she did not return the smile but said seriously, “I want to see him, too. But please, Teddy, you must promise not to try and match me with your cousin. He was only ever a friend, and that is all he will ever be. And I am certain he feels the same way.”

  “As you wish. But I do so want you to fall in love and marry, Lisa Crisp. For you to be as happy as me.”

  “I want that too. But I fear it is more wishful thinking than a likely outcome.”

  “Why do you say so? When you do fall in love and marry, we can confide in each other as we did at school, but as married women, about our husbands, about our babies, and—”

  “I can wish about marrying one day, and that may come true. But I’m afraid I must leave the babies to you, dearest…”

  There was a silence between them again, and then Teddy said in a small voice, “Has there been no change in you since school?”

  “No change.”

  Another silence, and then Teddy sighed and pressed Lisa’s fingers and said with a buoyancy she did not in the least feel, “In one way that makes you even more special. Monthly courses are beastly, and I do not understand why human females must endure such a ghastly business, when female animals do not. But I will endure them because I do want babies—”

  “And I want you to have babies because then I will be an aunt—of sorts.”

  “Oh yes! And a godparent. I will have you for my baby’s godmother.”

  “That would be lovely, and an honor. Thank you.”

  “So what vile toad of a girl told you I kissed Jamie?” Teddy asked, thinking it best not to belabor the point about babies, knowing Lisa was not likely to ever have a baby of her own, though Teddy was not without hope that her friend might just still do so, after she had found a gentleman to marry her.

  Lisa rolled over onto her back and stared up at the pleated canopy. She hesitated to answer because the truth would expose the carry-tale as a liar. And that liar was one of Teddy’s friends, Violet Knatchbull. She and Margaret Medway had been the bane of Lisa’s life at school, all because they did not think her worthy of their friendship, and most definitely not worthy of being the friend of Theodora Cavendish, the niece of a duke. And with Teddy’s denial at kissing Jamie, Lisa was very sure Violet had fabricated that kiss in the hopes it would put a rent in Lisa and Teddy’s friendship.

  Almost from her first day at Blacklands, Violet had made it her mission to prize Teddy and Lisa apart. Something she did not succeed in doing until their final year, when she witnessed Lisa kiss Jamie Banks’ cheek and told the headmistress. How did she know this? Because Violet had gloated about being the one who’d had Lisa expelled.

  Lisa was sure Violet and Margaret would be at the wedding, if they were not already here to share in the fortnight of celebrations, so it would serve no purpose to expose Violet as the liar, and she did not want to cast a shadow over Teddy’s celebrations. So she stifled a yawn and closed her eyes and snuggled in, hoping Teddy would take it as a sign she was too tired to share any more confidences that night.

  She would focus on tomorrow and the start of her magical two weeks in this magical place, and soon she drifted off to sleep, dreaming not of palaces and ballrooms, but of a rosewood writing box, and the handsome gentleman with a pair of fine dark eyes who had given it to her. When he gazed upon her in a particular way, he made her happier than she ever thought possible. She hoped the Jack and Harry she had met at Lord Westby’s townhouse and who had visited Gerrard Street were the very same Jack and Harry Teddy spoke of, and who would be here at Treat; Jack, the man Teddy was to marry, and Harry, his best friend, with his velvety voice and visage of a Roman coin, whom Lisa dreamed of kissing, and with whom she was very sure she was falling in love.

  If only dreams could come true…

  FIFTEEN

  LISA WOKE LATE. She had never slept so soundly, nor woken with the sun so high in the sky. She had a recollection of Teddy rising, and of water being splashed about, and women talking in hushed tones. And then, far off, doors were opened and closed, and there was movement outside on the gravel drive. A carriage arrived, and then it left. But that seemed to have happened hours ago.

  When she padded through to the small dressing room, she found her clothes set out on the chaise: One of the floral gowns expertly altered by Becky, stays, petticoats, matching mittens, and her half-boots, which had been polished and set ready with a pair of fresh stockings. Also laid out were items new to her: A flimsy white apron of finest linen, a wide-brimmed straw hat, and a folding fan. She had never owned a fan before, though she had been instructed on how to use this most essential of feminine accoutrements while at school. Other girls had reveled in practicing how to flutter a fan like a lady. Lisa had thought it a great waste of her time. Now she was glad she had at least paid attention.

  “You’re up, Miss!” Becky announced, coming through via the servant door carrying a brass can of hot water. She stepped aside to allow a girl in a mob cap, about the same age, and who carried a similar brass can, to come in after her. “This is Meg, and she’s ever so ’elpful. There’s a tub behind that screen at your back, Miss, and once we ’ave you bathed and dressed, I’ll fetch your breakfast, which you’re to ’ave in your room, on account of the late ’our. Miss Cavendish said you’re not to worry ’bout sleepin’ late. She wanted you to. She’s gone across to the big ’ouse with her mama and granny to welcome some new arrivals. Now, let’s get you ready. You’ve a big day ahead o’you.”

  “ARE YOU CERTAIN Lady Mary said the pavilion?” Lisa asked Becky, as they strolled up a leafy laneway that connected the Gatehouse Lodge with the Kinross estate of Crecy Hall.

  “I am, Miss,” Becky stated without hesitation. “All I was told was to follow this path to its termination and we’d know the way from there. Ain’t this the prettiest walk?” she added with a sigh, looking up and about at the tall avenue of beech trees. “I’ve never seen anythin’ like it. Then again, I’ve never seen anythin’ like anythin’ ’ere before, anywhere.”

  “It is very pretty, and quite magical,” Lisa agreed with a smile, ignoring her nervousness at her first public engagement to enjoy the moment. For it was a perfect summer’s day, with a powder-blue sky where drifted wisps of white cloud. And a slight breeze off the lake stirred the bright green leaves on slender black branches of the beech that provided a dappled shade from the hot sun.

  She supposed she would not have been so nervous had she not discovered from Becky that when she and Meg had set to unpacking her trunk late the night before, the Lady Mary’s personal maid had inter
rupted them, going through the entire contents before marching off to inform her mistress of items found to be wanting. Hence the straw hat, which was now tied over Lisa’s freshly-washed and braided hair, the flimsy apron covering the front of her floral gown, and the fan that dangled from its cord about her wrist. There were other items to come, and, according to Becky, the Lady Mary’s personal maid was most critical of the gown Lisa had hoped to wear to the wedding and the ball. It would never do, and something would have to be done.

  Lisa just hoped that she, unlike her wardrobe, did not prove a sad disappointment to Teddy’s relatives and friends. But Becky’s infectious wonderment soon had her putting these misgivings to the back of her mind, as they came to the end of the avenue and stepped into a wide open space and the wondrous sight of an Elizabethan manor house, its banks of mullioned windows sparkling in the sun. The manor with its turned chimney pots and fanciful gargoyles at each corner was a much larger version of the Gatehouse Lodge, or more correctly, the lodge was a tinier version of this substantial mansion. Set atop a terraced fragrant garden that overlooked the lake, the approach from the tree-lined avenue from where Lisa and Becky emerged provided a view of endless green lawn rolling down to the water’s edge, where rowing boats bobbed at a jetty.

  Lisa and Becky stared at one another, as if needing confirmation from each other they were indeed seeing the same idyllic scene. And as they walked out from under the dappled shade and into the sunshine, their wonder increased as a pretty pavilion came into view. Set atop a small hill, and overlooking the lake, it had a high domed roof supported by marble columns, and a set of wide steps open to the elements which gave access to its large interior.