Unsuitable Bride for a Viscount

by Elizabeth Beacon

  ‘Aye, you are right,’ he said with a gusty sigh, ‘but please don’t insist on going away as well, Nan,’ he added as if it would hurt him. Trust him to know using his nickname for her from her childhood would sway her as much as she was willing to be swayed.

  ‘I will stay long enough to help you and Fliss get this fine old place in good order for the wedding, but after that I must find something else to do, Darius. You know I cannot bear to be idle and Fliss already loves this house and will soon learn to run it with the help of some good servants and all the modern refinements you two can afford now she is rich. It will be a lovely, gracious old home for you and Fliss to raise your family and the last thing you need is your sisters here to argue and interfere at every turn. You know very well we would do so as soon as the first gloss of us all being a family again had worn off because neither of us is a meek and biddable female who would tactfully fade into the background.’

  ‘You never stand still long enough to fade into anything,’ he argued.

  ‘I cannot, Darius,’ she said seriously because she knew he would not let her laugh this off and he would argue with her every step of the way if she did not make him realise she was determined to leave. ‘I need to be busy. I need it as much as Fliss needs to have her own home and I think she needs it very badly. It sounds as if she could never call anywhere home for very long as a child so she must have a place of her own to love and look after without me here to interfere.’

  ‘I think you know us both a little too well, Little Sister,’ he said with a heavy sigh, as if he did not think it a very good quality.

  ‘I know how it feels to love as strongly and truly as you two do, now you have finally admitted it and thank goodness for that.’

  ‘Aye, we have and we do,’ he said with a far-off look in his eyes as he stared down the road to Broadley where his lover was sleeping without him.

  ‘The sooner you two are wed and left to get on with being besotted with each other in peace, the better, then,’ Marianne told him with a knowing smile and he just shrugged and grinned back at her. Loving Fliss had given him his true self back after those hard years on campaign. She would have to thank her sister-in-law-to-be for that even if she didn’t already like her very much indeed for her own sake as well as his.

  * * *

  Yelverton and his sister must have been living more or less alone here for too long to worry that anyone could hear their murmured conversations. The narrow windows that actually opened must have been left wide to stop this room becoming stifling and even through the shutters Alaric could hear most of what they said in the stillness of yet another dawn. Listening shamelessly distracted him from his ills as he lay here like a log in the otherwise darkened room and he was not even ashamed of himself. He could not prop himself up to watch the sky lighten and doubted he could hold a book without flinching even if his battered brain could concentrate and he had enough light to read it. He needed to lie still to avoid jarring the bruise on the back of his head and making the confounded headache start up again.

  So what else was there for him to do but lie here and eavesdrop? he concluded tetchily. He flinched at the thought of the pain if he rolled his head the wrong way, but thank heavens the relentlessly pounding headache of last night had abated—as long as he did nothing foolish to start it off again. In the middle of the night he had been too preoccupied with worrying about his sanity and Mrs Marianne Turner to care about the boredom of recovery from a head wound. He hated the idea of being an invalid already and he was not even a day into it yet. How long did it take to be certain the danger of concussion and further damage was over, then? And when would he be able to walk or ride out in the pure light of early morning again?

  He shuddered at the very thought of doing the latter just yet. Not that he was afraid to get back on a decent horse instead of the bad-tempered nag he had ridden yesterday. His brother had taught him to get back on a horse as soon as he fell off it as a boy and he had learned not to fear them. Horses were tricky creatures, much like people really in their likes and dislikes, diverse characters and strengths and weaknesses. On the whole he preferred horses and dogs to people now he lay here and thought about it—they were generally better tempered and a lot more reliable.

  Except listening to the brother and sister talking about possible futures outside his window had made him think about people he could like. They were obviously very close and seemed to understand one another better than they probably wanted to be understood. He missed his brother so badly when he looked back at the one person who had made an effort to understand a scrubby brat seven years younger than the charmed heir to their father’s title and lands. George had always done his best for his annoying little brother and Yelverton and Marianne’s dilemma as they faced the truth that his marriage would mean she must move on touched him as he had not let himself be touched for far too long. Maybe there was something he could do to help them both. He might not be able to follow up on his instant attraction to the lovely Mrs Turner, but the spark of an idea had come into his aching head as he listened to their conversation.

  ‘Uncle Alaric?’ Juno’s voice whispered from the doorway.

  ‘Juno?’ he asked foolishly because who else could it be with Yelverton and his sister communing with the rising sun outside and no sign of any indoor servants to be seen? He rolled his head on to the bruise when he tried to look at her and bit back a pained gasp so as not to frighten her away. ‘Come in here where I can see you,’ he said more harshly than he meant to because of the pain thundering through his head like a steam hammer as he rolled away from that side and sighed with relief. ‘It hurts to twist round and peer at you when you stand over there,’ he explained and hoped she would excuse so much more than one barked order when he was in pain. He held his breath and prayed silently she would forget to be afraid of him so they could start again.

  ‘Sorry,’ she said softly and came to the foot of the bed so he could see her as clearly as he was allowed to see anything in this shadowy old room. She looked so much paler than he remembered and thin with it. His heart twisted with self-loathing as he took in all he and his mother had done to the unfortunate girl between them with the Dowager’s repellent scheming and his neglect.

  ‘Do not apologise to me, Juno,’ he said. ‘I have done nothing to deserve it.’ He heard the anguish in his own voice and was ashamed he could not find the strength to hide it for her sake.

  ‘No, you do deserve it, Uncle Alaric, and I am so very sorry. I have been a widgeon about my come out and so many other things since. I am supposed to be grown up. I should have argued about going to London even when Grandmama insisted it was high time I made my debut and you agreed with her because other girls do it at my age and actually enjoy it. If I had told you how much I dreaded it, I know you would not have made me go. And I should have written to you the moment Grandmama tried to bullock me into marrying that horrid old man. So you see, none of this would have happened if I was braver. You would not be hurt so badly after riding all that way to find me and when you got here I just told you to go away.’

  ‘That was not your fault and you did steel yourself to go to London when you did not want to go and you refused to marry that fat rogue and I am proud of you even if you are not. It took great courage to run away when the Dowager tried to force your hand. I cannot even imagine how terrified you must have been when you had to set out on such a journey alone and you got all the way here with no money left as well, Jojo. All in all, I cannot think of any girl I ever met who has more courage than you.’

  His imagination painted a picture of a much younger Marianne flying from her safe home at whatever vicarage she came from to find, then wed, her gallant soldier. Perhaps there was one girl who had been as brave, if not braver, than Juno when she set out to find Miss Grantham and ask for sanctuary then, but as he had not met Marianne at that age he was still telling the absolute truth. He did not want a picture in his
head of how delicious and headstrong and innocently determined Miss Marianne Yelverton must have been when she set her heart on her late husband, come what may. The woman she was now plagued him badly enough without adding another layer of temptation to the mix.

  ‘A bolder person would have got her own way without needing to run,’ Juno objected, so he had to push the tempting image of a young and dreamy-eyed Marianne aside to concentrate on Juno. Had she always been so resistant to praise and how could he not know something so important about his own niece?

  ‘I doubt it and stop finding yourself less than everyone else you know. There is no bravery in doing something you do not fear and I like you far better than the usual simpering debutante with an abacus where her heart should be,’ he said and at least Juno was never going to be the sort of ruthless husband hunter he had learned to avoid since inheriting George’s title and lands at seventeen. ‘You are kind-hearted and clever and far nicer, as well as a lot more interesting, than those preening girls with so little to preen about. I should have done better by you than I have until now, but you must believe me, Juno, no sane person I have ever come across is as certain of themselves as you seem to think they are.’

  ‘Not even you?’

  ‘Especially not me and if you promise to try harder to fight your demons in the future, then I will do the same with mine,’ he offered with a wry smile.

  ‘I doubt you have ever had a shy moment in your entire life, Uncle Alaric.’

  ‘I expect I could surprise you with one or two, but we all have our own worries and shortcomings, Jojo,’ he said and he had certainly learnt a lot about his own dark places since he set out on his frantic quest to find her.

  ‘When I saw you lying there hurt I felt...’ Juno hesitated and Alaric willed her to go on. He wanted better for her, wanted her to live well in her own skin and know she always had a right to be listened to, even if he had not been very good at it in the past. ‘Furious with myself,’ she went on as if she had to physically push the words out of her mouth. ‘You came all the way from Paris to Broadley, then out here to Owlet Manor in order to find me, although you were obviously so tired after riding all that way that you could barely stand upright when you got here. And you only came to make sure I was truly unharmed by the storm and the journey and having to walk the rest of the way here from Worcester after I was robbed. Then, when you got here, I hid away from you like a timid little child and refused to even meet your eyes across a room.’

  ‘I was the adult and you really were a child when this all began. I should never have left you with your grandmother after your father died. I ought to have done what I wanted to at the time and found a kindly older lady to help you settle so you could live with me at Stratford Park instead of at the Dower House. Not that the Dowager has spent much time there in the last few years, but I should never have let her persuade me I was not fit to care for you and you needed her. Apparently the world would think it odd if you did not live with her and that should not have mattered one jot beside your happiness and well-being.’

  ‘I would rather have been with you and I was very glad Grandmama spent most of her time in London,’ Juno said with the ghost of a smile.

  ‘So was I,’ he confided with a wan smile back. ‘I should have realised she did not love you years ago, but I was blinded by the fact she adored your father and thought she must love you as well. I should have been old enough to stop worrying what people would think if you lived with me instead.’

  ‘I do not think she likes either of us very much.’ Juno’s smile was more certain now and he managed to find a better one in return.

  ‘No, but I really do love you, Juno, and you are going to grow very tired of me telling you so for the rest of your life to make up for being such a fool until now. I promise you I will not keep my feelings to myself from now on.’

  ‘Things could get very complicated if you wear your heart on your sleeve all the time, Uncle Alaric.’

  ‘Aye, you are quite right, niece. Then I had best limit myself to being open with you and anyone else I somehow manage to love or like. The rest of the world can be excused knowing exactly what I think of it.’

  ‘Considering how little patience you have with some parts of it that would be as well.’

  ‘True—and I think you know me a little bit too well.’

  ‘I watch people a lot, even when I feel too shy to join in.’

  ‘Then we must find more of them you feel happy to engage with or you will soon become a cynic.’

  ‘No, I love Miss Grantham and already like Mrs Turner and Mr Yelverton very much. I even quite like you at times, Uncle Alaric, although obviously you do not count since you are family and obliged to like me anyway,’ she teased him, this girl he had been so desperate to find on his way here it seemed to have torn open his closed heart and remade him.

  His mother’s cold indifference at best and hatred at worst, then George’s tragically premature death in the hunting field had made him a puzzled and lonely youth. He shut that boy away and concentrated on being Lord Stratford, but it was about time he came out from behind his title and learnt to be himself—if only he knew who that was. He would have to learn to ignore his inner sceptic if he wanted to make Juno’s life better and stop guarding himself against strong emotions for the rest of his life. And he was tired of being the lord who walked alone. His fine plan to wed Miss Grantham and keep his viscountess at a distance would have been a disaster, so it was as well she came here and found true love instead.

  ‘Obviously I am very relieved about that,’ he said and might have said more, but sensed Mrs Turner was nearby even before she came into the room so quietly he wondered how he had been so certain. This odd awareness of her kept his senses constantly on the alert. His heart began to race when she was within a hundred yards and he had strained his ears for every murmured word she had said to Yelverton under his window this morning, as if he could store them up like treasure against the time he must leave here and go on his lonely way.

  Maybe that scheme he had been mulling over would mean not having to leave her behind when he went. It might be a bittersweet torture to be close to a woman so beguilingly unaware of her own attractions and not be able to do anything about it, but something told him he would regret it if he put his own comfort first and ignored her sad dilemma. He still hoped she would not gauge his heartbeat now because she would have the sawbones out here as fast as his horse would go.

  ‘Ah, there you are, Juno,’ she said and perhaps it was as well. He was more than delighted to be on good terms with his niece again, but he still felt as if a half-dozen horses had galloped over him yesterday. Strong emotions were exhausting, he decided. No wonder he had avoided them since his brother died.

  ‘I meant to sit quietly by Uncle Alaric’s bed until he woke up, but he was awake when I got here,’ Juno said sheepishly as she faced Marianne’s sceptical gaze.

  ‘She has done me good, Mrs Turner,’ Alaric defended her and it was true, or it would be tomorrow morning when he woke up feeling better and fairly certain his niece was not going to flee as soon as he was well enough to get up.

  ‘I am sure your company has done your uncle more good than any tonic I have to hand, Juno, but my brother is about to come up here to help your uncle wash and shave. I doubt His Lordship will want either of us nearby while he curses his injuries and very likely my brother up hill and down dale.’

  ‘Almost certainly him as well,’ Alaric muttered grumpily, but his dislike of the man was only show by now. He had already forgiven the man for stealing his would-be fiancée. One day he might thank him for loving a young woman he admired for her learning and grace and courage, but did not love. If not for Yelverton, he would have to consider himself bound by his carefully considered offer for the admirable Miss Grantham. Something told him neither of them would have been very happy shackled together for life and they had both had a lucky esc
ape.

  Chapter Eight

  After all that cursing and discomfort, her patient was so pale and exhausted Marianne insisted on leaving him to sleep despite his insistence he was not tired and had already slept for hours. He did so for several more, so at least that was half a day over without him trying to get out of bed. She had sensed his restless energy on the other side of the door before she even set eyes on him yesterday, so she knew it would only get more difficult to keep him quiet when he felt better. Watching him sleep in the shadowed room now, she was surprised to discover that she hated seeing him brought low like this. It was like a bird of prey being chained to a post or hooded when to her mind they should always fly free.

  Fanciful nonsense, she told herself as she turned to go so he could sleep boredom away a little longer.

  Hopefully his body had more sense than the rest of him and it would force him to rest and heal before he made any more ridiculous demands of it. Yet he had proved that he did not listen when he had pushed himself to exhaustion on his way here. It was such a fine and powerful male body as well and it seemed a crying shame to abuse it with his usual lordly bullheadedness.

  ‘Mrs Turner?’ he murmured even as she turned to leave.

  ‘I am sorry I woke you.’

  ‘Everybody seems to be sorry for me today, one way or the other,’ he said and was that really a self-deprecating smile or just a trick of the shadows in a darkened room? If it was, then how dare he have a sense of humour to make him seem more human than he was yesterday? ‘Even your brother apologised for hurting me just now, so he thinks I am as fragile as glass and was trying to be kinder than I probably deserve.’