An Earl of her Own

by Heather Boyd

  Rebecca straightened, knowing they would come back to her eventually for affection, and studied her brother carefully.

  Samuel, her junior by two years, was still smiling. “Do I get a welcome, too, Becca?”

  When he held out his arms, Rebecca hugged her little brother quickly. “You look very well, too,” she whispered as her brother’s arms tightened about her ribs firmly. He kissed the side of her head before releasing her and stepping back.

  Samuel’s face was as tanned as the boys, and his once short-cropped hair had grown longer and more unruly than it used to be. But it was the ease in his expression, the lack of discontent about him, that pleased Rebecca most. Samuel had lost his wife when the twins had been birthed and had never seemed happy since. Today, however, his eyes sparkled with excitement—the way they had when he’d been a boy and into as much mischief as the twins got into.

  “A few months by the sea has been good for all of us,” he confessed. “We met many odd fellows scaling the rock falls for prehistoric treasures. I felt right at home there amid the scavengers.”

  “I’m glad. I—”

  “Are you not going to welcome me too, sister,” an unexpected voice asked.

  Rebecca looked past her brother’s broad shoulders and spied their sister Fanny lurking behind him. Lady Fanny Rivers was fanning herself languidly but seemed not the least bit untidy after the journey with the twins. Rebecca always ended up very rumpled.

  She frowned. “You came together?”

  “We had some catching up to do.” Fanny beckoned the twins near. “Children, come inside with me now. We must find their graces.”

  “Father is not here,” Jessica said as she joined them. “He and the duchess went out in the carriage earlier today.”

  “We do not expect them back for many hours yet,” Rebecca murmured.

  “Ah,” Fanny said, looking crestfallen. Fanny had been nearly impossible to be around upon learning their father had fallen in love again. Fanny had called Gillian Thorpe her friend first of all.

  “Perhaps some refreshments,” Rebecca suggested. “There should be tea and sandwiches and such in the morning room.”

  “That would be lovely until they come back.” Fanny smiled smugly, the boys holding her hands now. “We will all be freshened up by then, won’t we? The duchess and I have so much to catch up on. Come along, children. Let’s get out of this dreadful heat.”

  The boys dragged their slow-moving aunt up the steps faster than she wanted to go. Jessica followed, hiding a laugh behind her hand. They reached the top of the stairs finally and disappeared inside.

  Rebecca turned toward her brother and raised one brow. “What did she buy them this time?”

  “A horse each,” he answered with a jerk of his head toward the carriage. A pair of unsaddled mounts were being held by grooms near the carriage. The horses were quite tall and obviously of good breeding but they pranced with impatience. The boys were too young to appreciate such noble beasts.

  Rebecca groaned inwardly. Fanny had too much money and often used it to get what she wanted. Apparently right now, she wanted to be the favorite aunt. “I suppose that bit of bribery might make them better behaved for a few hours.”

  “We can only hope. They still love their Aunt Becca best though,” Samuel promised as he held out his arm for her to take.

  The boys did not need more possessions. They needed the unconditional love and attention of their family. Rebecca laughed softly. “I wager you say that to all of us.”

  Samuel chuckled. “No, I mean it. They’ve really missed you most of all. We called at the townhouse in London first, only to be told you’d left for the country in something of a hurry. I trust nothing was wrong, or was the townhouse too quiet without us?”

  “It always is.” Rebecca did not tell Samuel why she’d fled London when she had or why she had planned to stay in the country so long. Like everyone in her family, Samuel would offer to fix her financial woes, and that would be embarrassing.

  Samuel turned around and viewed the empty lawn behind them. “Was that Lord Rafferty I saw with you when we arrived?”

  “Yes, he and his daughter are here for the wedding.”

  He threw her a grin. “Have you forgiven him then or can I expect unpleasantness between you still?”

  “Forgiven him?”

  “For climbing into your bed that one time?”

  “For the last time, he climbed into an empty bed, before I had been offered the room, so it was hardly my bed to begin with.” Rebecca shrugged off the gossip. “The tale is far more scandalous than the actual event was, I assure you. “

  Samuel smirked. “A pity. You could use a bit of excitement in your life.”

  “My life is exciting enough as it is.”

  Samuel’s eyes sparkled with mirth. “Oh, are you saying you have another admirer besides Rafferty?”

  “You’ve been out in the sun too long, brother.”

  Samuel laughed then. “Well, if nothing else, the rumor that Lord Rafferty was rebuffed has likely given every other scoundrel reason to reconsider approaching you. The rumor gets more exaggerated every time someone talks about that night.”

  Yes, she had something of a prudish reputation thanks to that rumor involving Rafferty. She didn’t mind if it kept scoundrels at bay, however, any man with honorable intentions had no cause for concern—not that she had noticed any lurking about.

  They went up the stairs arm in arm and into the entrance hall, where Samuel greeted the butler as if a long-missed friend. Rebecca stood back, charmed by the exchange because she’d feared never to see her brother this way again. He was never proper, seldom considered his reputation or position in society and, like the sons he was almost raising singlehandedly, had boundless energy. He seemed to have finally found a measure of peace from his many travels.

  As they moved deeper into the manor, they heard shouting ahead—familiar voices that would not be shushed. Instinctively, Rebecca quickened her steps. The twins had gone to the morning room with Fanny. They should have been amply distracted by the choices on the sideboard. However, the twins were not eating anything—they were fencing with chicken legs around Fanny as she did nothing to stop them.

  Samuel rushed forward, complaining just as loudly, trying to put a stop to their antics, but the boys just dodged his outstretched arms, continuing the game.

  Shouting at the twins never really worked and they’d obviously been shut up in a carriage for too long. Rebecca stood calmly, arms folded across her chest and waited to be noticed.

  When they, at last, glanced her way, she whispered the twins’ names in her steadiest voice.

  Both boys froze, and they scrambled to her in a hurry.

  She clucked her tongue. “What are your grandfather’s chairs made for?”

  “Sitting on,” they replied with a grin.

  She raised one brow, and they suddenly sank onto the edge of the same chair. “Much better. Now, where will the chairs you can stand on be placed?”

  “Out on the lawn, so we don’t hurt ourselves when we inevitably fall off,” they replied as one voice.

  “Exactly. Let us not start this visit with either one or both of you confined to bed with a broken bone.”

  Both boys exchanged a long, silent look of horror.

  “Now, let me remind you that the furniture in the manor is to be looked after properly. What is outside, in your area of the garden, is for play,” she continued, noting that Fanny had settled in a chair—one closest to the door. “I want you to eat your fill of this fine luncheon while I make the arrangements for your amusements to be set up outside.” She gave them a stern look. “No chicken leg sword fights in this room while I’m gone. Do you understand?”

  They nodded very quickly, eyes darting to the nearby window. “Yes, Aunt Becca.”

  “Boys,” their father said sternly, and their heads snapped around.

  “We’re really very sorry, aunts. Father.”

  “That’s
better,” Samuel insisted. “Now eat so you have the energy to play later.”

  The boys fell upon the food as if they were starving at last. Keeping them in line was a full-time occupation. With the wedding and the expected guests, their father would not be able to spend every waking moment with them. Neither would she. They were such restless souls, much more so than any boys she’d ever heard of.

  She stepped outside when she noticed her maid waiting. Nancy had been around the boys before and seemed unfazed by their antics. “Nancy, can you make sure the housekeeper is aware the twins are in residence and require their amusements to be set up as soon as it can be done.”

  “We can help too?” the younger of the twins offered, suddenly appearing at Rebecca’s elbow.

  “Indeed you can and will, Tommy. But not yet.”

  Rebecca drew the boy back into the room with her and urged him to sit and eat again beside his brother. Then she turned toward Fanny, who had collapsed into a side chair. “You must be fatigued from your journey.”

  “Indeed.” Fanny was watching the boys with a wary expression. “I think I shall take advantage of the quiet to change before we meet the duke and duchess.”

  “Of course,” Rebecca agreed wholeheartedly. “I’ll have a maid sent to you as soon as possible.”

  Samuel covered his mouth and chortled as soon as Fanny was gone.

  Rebecca tried not to laugh, too. “How did she survive the journey with them?”

  “I never left her alone with them and I had the horses flank the carriage. The boys spent most of the journey with their heads either out the open door or with their faces pressed hard to the glass.”

  “Oh dear.” Rebecca frowned, remembering Fanny’s earlier comment about why she’d traveled with Samuel. “And what did she buy you this time?”

  “Nothing I would accept.”

  Although curious, Rebecca did not press him.

  When the boys seemed to have finished grazing on the food, Rebecca happily handed them over to a pair of strong-willed gardeners who could stand the shouting. “Enjoy yourselves, my dears. I’ll be out to join you soon.”

  She stood at the window and waved them off.

  Samuel joined her, munching still on a sandwich. “You don’t have to mother them anymore, you know. They tell me they are quite grown up now.”

  “Grown up at six? Never. I always enjoy looking after them,” she told him a touch wistfully.

  A throat cleared behind them. “Lord Samuel. Mrs. Warner. Are we disturbing you?”

  Rebecca turned around. Lord Rafferty again! His daughter was with him, so she had to smile. “Not at all. Do come in. Would you care for tea? A sandwich?”

  “Nothing for me, thank you,” Lord Rafferty said, but Lady Ava asked for tea. When Samuel and Rafferty strolled from the room, Rebecca helped Lady Ava chose a small piece of cake from the sideboard, too.

  Rebecca poured tea for them both and sat down while the girl ate her fill.

  Lady Ava glanced her way shyly. “Can I stay with you for the afternoon?”

  “I’m afraid you would find my afternoon very dull.”

  When Lady Ava’s face fell, she smiled kindly. “I am expecting a visitor very soon, actually. Someone about your age, too. Are you acquainted with Miss Olivia Hawthorne?”

  Ava shook her head.

  “Her father is a gentleman and they live not far away. Her mother is a good friend of the duchess’. She is one of six sisters, and I’ve invited her especially to meet you.”

  Rafferty returned to the room, smiling. “It was kind of you to arrange that. Thank you.”

  Rebecca considered the girl a moment longer. Lady Ava had changed into a lovely dress after their walk. However, it was not a dress meant to play in. “Why don’t you run along up to your room and change into that blue spotted muslin you brought with you? Nancy will be happy to help you change if you ring the bell for her. I’ll send for you as soon as the Hawthornes arrive.”

  Full of excitement now, Lady Ava hugged her impulsively then skipped out the door without saying a word of goodbye to her father.

  Rebecca met his gaze, a little embarrassed that she had managed the girl without his permission. “I apologize. I should have asked if you minded the connection first, my lord.”

  “You really do think of everything.” He took Ava’s place at the table. “I should apologize to you, too. My comment about your late husband was thoughtless and I am sorry if you were hurt by it.”

  “Accepted,” she whispered, wishing he would leave it at that and go.

  Rafferty stayed. “I’ve been wracking my brain all morning trying to think of ways to amuse Ava in the coming days. I do not mind the connection, but I only know the elder Hawthorne to look at. Natalia, isn’t it?”

  “Yes. Miss Natalia is the eldest of the six girls. Miss Olivia Hawthorne is about Lady Ava’s age, she’s the third child and has bookish tendencies.” Rebecca smiled quickly. “She will not be a bad influence on your daughter.”

  “Good.”

  Rafferty captured her gaze and held it so long, she grew warm all over. Rebecca felt her body responding to that look despite her best intentions. She resisted the urge to shift position in her chair. She would not give him the satisfaction of knowing his flirtation affected her. It would only encourage him to grow bolder. “Where did Samuel go?”

  “He didn’t say where, only that he’d return by the dinner hour.”

  Rebecca frowned at the news. She had been hoping to spend more time with her brother. She hadn’t seen him in so long. “Very well.”

  Rafferty’s lips twitched. “What are you doing for the rest of the day, madam?”

  “A great many things.”

  He smiled widely, undeterred by her lack of clarity. “Mind if I keep you company?”

  “I do mind. You’ll only distract me.”

  “That was the whole point,” he said, and then chuckled softly. “But to make amends for upsetting you earlier, I’ll leave you alone until dinner so you have no further reason to be cross with me today.”

  “Thank you,” she said, relieved he would go away so easily and that he’d apologized.

  Chapter 7

  Lord Samuel’s twin sons ran past Adam the next day. A minute later, they both ran the other way. And so it went for the next half hour until Adam wished he’d not given up the drink. He had a hard time keeping up with the boys’ comings and goings.

  It didn’t help that they seemed identical in every way—looks, clothing, even their hair was cut the same. Adam gave thanks that he only had one offspring to keep an eye on, and that she was occupied elsewhere right now.

  The guests were milling about on the lawn, enjoying the pleasant afternoon and beverages laid out on a nearby table. Among the guests was Lady Morgan, a viscount’s wife he’d known for many years. She caught his eye. Adam acknowledged her, and they drew together to speak. “Lady Morgan.”

  “Lord Rafferty. What a pleasant surprise to find you here.”

  He kissed her outstretched hand. Lady Morgan was a few years younger than himself. She was well connected and very easy on the eye. He considered her husband an excellent friend. “I could not miss such an occasion. Whitfield finally buckling under and giving up his bachelorhood. Who’d ever imagine such a thing?”

  “No lady that ever tried to catch his eye,” she answered with a soft laugh. “He’s frustrated a great many of my friends over the years. As have you, my lord.”

  “Me? I was married.”

  “But no longer.” Lord Samuel’s twins barreled toward them, and Adam moved to protect Lady Morgan. The boys parted and ran around them, on their way to the far side of the garden. He stepped away from Lady Morgan as soon as the danger had passed. “It’s a little hectic this year.”

  “So I see.” The woman shuddered. “Now what was I saying? Oh, yes. It’s past time you married again. You do need an heir, remember.”

  He shrugged. Adam would like a son but hopefully a quieter one than
the pair circling the lawn right now.

  “Come now. It’s not like you to be shy when it comes to women.”

  “I’m taking a holiday.” He glanced about the gathering and noticed an obvious absence. “Where has your husband hidden himself? I don’t think I’ve seen him since first breakfast.”

  Lady Morgan shrugged. “I suspect he’s gone to the stables yet again to admire that pair of young geldings Lord Samuel brought with him yesterday. I think he means to make an offer, though I daresay he’s gone on a fool’s errand.”

  “We’ll never know until he tries,” he suggested. But Adam would wager that Lord Samuel would not sell horseflesh that had been a gift to his sons from their aunt. “How are your children?”

  Adam’s gaze fell on Lord Samuel’s twins as they helped themselves to punch.

  “Blessedly at home under the dowager’s watchful eye. Oh, look at the mess they are making,” Lady Morgan complained.

  “Yes,” he said. “My daughter is here this year.”

  “Yes, I saw her earlier in the hall with Mrs. Warner.” Lady Morgan leaned closer. “You are to be commended, my lord. Your daughter is a delight. She reminds me so much of your late wife. So excitable.”

  Adam tried not to wince. “She’s young yet.”

  “True.” Lady Morgan pursed her lips. “Have you given any thought to employing a companion or governess to guide her education in the coming years?”

  “She has enough servants at home.”

  “Country maids do not know how to prepare a girl for securing a husband.”

  Adam looked at Lady Morgan in alarm. “She’s barely ten years old.”

  “There is never enough time in a girl’s life to learn all she needs before becoming a woman. The responsibilities of running a household and supporting one’s spouse in their pursuits can be overwhelming for women of any age.”

  “I suppose.”

  Just then, Rebecca appeared on the lawn some distance away. She was alone. Adam hadn’t seen much more than the back of her head for the entire day. She had been bent over her writing table earlier that morning, and Adam had paused at the doorway, hesitant to interrupt her work. He was pleased to hear that she’d spent a little time with his daughter. He had hoped for that.