CHAPTER TWENTY

By the time they were half way back to Reculver, Anna was amazed at how many topics of conversation two people could conjure up when there was something neither of them wanted to talk about. They plumbed the depths of what Harvill expected to achieve by cultivating Mrs Hawthorne and whether it was possible he could have had anything to do with the problem of the kiln. They examined every possibility – and some impossibilities – of what Grimshaw might or might not do and whether there had been any developments during their short absence from home. By the time they moved on to her plans for the village school, Anna could feel desperation snapping at her heels. By contrast, Daniel was beginning to see the ludicrousness of it.

The thing they were both pretending hadn’t happened, hadn’t happened – or not in any sense that mattered. At some point during the night, she’d woken up with him plastered against her backside; and, presumably for reasons of her own, she hadn’t done the obvious thing which was elbowing him in the ribs and telling him to get off her.

He chose not to explore why she hadn’t because instinct warned him that the answer might not be quite so funny. He also chose to ignore the fact that, for the few brief moments he’d allowed it to last, he’d enjoyed it and been tempted to take advantage.

So he joined in the game of ‘Let’s Pretend’ and prepared to enjoy that instead.

By the time the carriage pulled up in front of the house, Anna was exhausted while, for the last five miles, Daniel had been hard-pressed not to laugh.

Back at Reculver, however, his first quiet words were for Flynn.

‘Anything untoward?’

‘Nothing, my lord.’

‘Excellent.’

He nodded and allowed himself to be towed upstairs to see the ‘lovely surprise’ his mother had been busy preparing for Anna. Daniel didn’t find it lovely. He found it deeply suspicious.

His own room hadn’t been untouched. But Anna’s bedchamber had been stripped of virtually everything but the bed, re-painted in duck-egg blue and equipped with new curtains and bed hangings. It was all very pretty, he supposed grudgingly … but, even with the windows wide open, the heavy smell of paint was quite intolerable.

Apparently oblivious, the dowager warbled merrily on.

‘When the curtains arrived I just couldn’t resist!’ she said. ‘And if we’d had just one or, at the very most, two days, we could have had everything back in place.’

‘We?’ muttered Rebecca. ‘Don’t involve me. I had nothing to do with this. And I doubt the smell will be gone in less than a week.’

Glimpsing Daniel’s expression and aware that his mother had seen it too, Anna groaned inwardly but said, ‘This is such a kind thought, ma’am – and it looks just as we thought it would, doesn’t it? But there was no need for you to rush, you know. Until it is finished, I shall be perfectly comfortable in the bedchamber I had whilst doing the valuation.’

‘Oh. But there’s no need for that, surely?’ objected the dowager. ‘It would mean moving your clothes or – or all the fuss and tripping back and forth, just for the sake of a few days?’

‘It would be Ruth tripping back and forth, not me,’ Anna pointed out.

‘But we can have the parlour straight in no time. And we haven’t started on Daniel’s chamber yet so –’

‘Stop,’ said Daniel, flatly. ‘Just stop. I don’t blame Anna for preferring to lodge in the east wing. If my room smells half as bad as this one, I may do the same myself – because it will take days to clear the air in here. Becky … have someone make up the green room and the one of the others near to it, please.’ And to his mother, ‘No doubt you meant it kindly, Mama – and I’m sure Anna appreciates it. But perhaps it might have been better saved until we go to visit Kit and Sophie – if, on present showing, we ever do.’

When the dowager had trailed Rebecca from the room, Daniel closed the door behind them and said grimly, ‘This, in the wake of what happened at Hawthorne Lodge, suggests the existence of a plot.’

‘I agree,’ murmured Anna unhappily. ‘The household here and therefore your mother were bound to know about – about us. But my mother couldn’t have known unless …’

‘Unless my mother told her,’ finished Daniel coldly. ‘Quite.’

‘You’re annoyed.’

‘Of course I’m bloody annoyed! How many times must I say it? It isn’t up to our mothers to chart the course of our marriage. That’s our business – no one else’s – and I’m damned if I’ll put up with their attempts to meddle.’ He drew a long, calming breath and added, ‘Yes, I’m aware that consummation is a legal requirement but, thanks to the night we spent at Upton, no one can be sure it hasn’t taken place. Meanwhile – and much more importantly in my opinion – you and I have used these weeks to get to know each other. We aren’t strangers any more and have even, unless I’m mistaken, become friends.’ He paused and looked her in the eye. ‘ Am I mistaken?’

Forcing back the tide of everything she felt for him and of which he, still, seemed completely unaware, Anna shook her head and managed a strangled, ‘No.’

‘Good.’ Daniel eyed her meditatively before proceeding to sweep the ground from beneath her feet. ‘Then let’s stop ducking around what happened this morning, shall we? At some point during the night, I turned over in my sleep and cuddled up to you. I didn’t wake up. But you did, didn’t you? Unaccustomed as you are to sharing a bed, of course you did. But what you didn’t do was give me a hefty shove and send me back to my own side. Why not?’

‘I – I didn’t want to wake you,’ she mumbled, wishing she could sink into the floor.

‘All right. I’ll swallow that.’ He regarded her over folded arms. ‘But how long were you lying there, still as a mouse, until I woke?’

‘I don’t know.’ She lifted her chin and scowled at him. ‘Does it matter?’

‘It might.’ Daniel grinned suddenly, the storm-clouds of mere minutes ago vanishing as swiftly as they always did. ‘It might if you were enjoying it … even just a little bit. Were you?’ And when she stood there, scarlet-cheeked and looking anywhere but at him, he added with a gentle hint of humour, ‘It’s all right to admit it, you know. If it helps, I’ll admit to enjoying it quite a lot before my brain woke up.’

She shot him a brief, startled glance. ‘You did?’

‘I did.’ Since the fact that any man with a pulse would have enjoyed it wasn’t helpful, he didn’t mention that. ‘And that’s a good sign, given where our relationship began and where our interfering mothers would like it to end. It would be an even better one if you enjoyed it, too.’ He flashed a sudden and faintly rueful smile and, turning to leave, added, ‘Think about it.’

He was almost through the door when Anna finally realised that he was offering her an opening and that, if she didn’t take it, he might not offer again. So she said stiffly, ‘All right. Yes. I liked it. It was … pleasant.’

Daniel stopped on her first word and turned slowly to face her on the last.

‘Pleasant?’

‘Yes.’

No. It was wonderful and I wanted … I wanted it never to end and a lot of other things I’ve never wanted before and that I don’t understand. But I can’t think about that because there’s no point in longing for something I can’t have , shouted a voice in her head. But hearing all that is the very last thing you want because you’d be as embarrassed for me as I would be for myself . So let’s just stick with ‘pleasant’, shall we? It's safer . For both of us .

Daniel eyed her thoughtfully. For the first time, he had a feeling that he was missing something and that it might be important. Briefly, he tried to work out what it could be. But then, when nothing sprang to mind, he shrugged it off as fume-fuelled imagination and said cheerfully, ‘Excellent. Now, let’s get out of here before we suffocate, shall we? God only knows what Mother expected to achieve by this. If it wasn’t so irritating, it might be funny.’

***

On the following morning after breakfast, Flynn brought the post to Daniel in the library as he always did but said, ‘Amongst your own letters is also one which I don’t recognise as being from one of the dowager viscountess’s usual correspondents, my lord.’

Daniel nodded, thanked him and broke the seal on his mother’s letter first. It proved to be from the modiste, announcing completion of a morning gown and a carriage dress for herself and an evening gown for Rebecca. Catching his sister crossing the hall, Daniel held it out to her, saying, ‘Give that to Mama with my apologies, will you? It was mixed up with my own letters and I opened it before I realised my mistake.’ He grinned. ‘Are you and Mama making up for lost time?’

She laughed. ‘Did you think we wouldn’t?’

‘No. And I don’t blame you … though after making Anna’s bedchamber unusable, Mama can count herself lucky I’m not exacting revenge.’

Suddenly serious, Rebecca said, ‘I told her not to do it but she wouldn’t listen. You know what she’s like when she gets one of her supposedly brilliant ideas.’

‘Yes.Unfortunately.’

‘And I suppose you – you’ve also guessed what this one was meant to achieve.’

‘Yes.’ And I’ll be having some strong words with her on the subject , he thought. But said merely, ‘I presume you ordered more than just one evening gown?’

‘Three,’ admitted Rebecca a little guiltily. ‘I hope we weren’t too extravagant.’

‘If you were, Mama is the one who will suffer the consequences,’ he retorted, turning back towards the library and sending her on her way with a wave.

He found Anna going through her own correspondence and, choosing not to interrupt, stood looking through the window until she put the letter she was reading aside and said, ‘Did you want to speak with me?’

‘Not particularly. Or, then again, yes. Perhaps I did.’ Swinging away from the window and dropping into his usual chair, he said, ‘Here’s a suggestion. Let’s leave the lawyers to do what we pay them for and tell Mama to finish what she started in our rooms … and give ourselves a holiday from all of it.’

‘But we’ve only just got back from Worcester,’ she objected, half laughing.

‘That was no holiday. Like so many other things, it was necessary. So get your hat while I dash off a note asking Kit if this would be a convenient time to visit. And then, while the sun is still shining, we’ll pay a couple more bride visits. The Ashworths at Merton Hall first … and then Sir Horace and Lady Holden at Staverton.’ He grinned at her. ‘Unless, of course, you have more important things to do?’

More important than spending a couple of hours with you? Hardly, was Anna’s immediate thought. But she said merely, ‘Not at all. Let’s play truant.’

***

The Ashworths and the Holdens were delighted to make the new viscountess’s acquaintance and equally pleased to learn that the Dowager Lady Reculver was emerging from the semi-isolation of mourning and happy to start receiving visitors once more. Both Mrs Ashworth and Lady Holden vowed to call without delay whereupon Daniel said the same thing to each of them.

‘That would be most kind, ma’am – particularly just now as her ladyship and I have to spend a few days away. We would be happier knowing that Mama is beginning to resume old friendships, for my sister’s sake as well as her own. They have been alone too much these last months.’

Mrs Ashworth immediately promised to introduce her grand-daughter who would be visiting over the coming weeks. ‘And I shall be holding some simple gatherings while the weather holds. Picnics and the like, perhaps.’

Lady Holden volunteered the company of her nieces, the older of the two being exactly Miss Shelbourne’s age. ‘And I had been thinking of an informal afternoon dance. No one could possibly consider that improper, could they?’

‘Improper?’ boomed Sir Horace. ‘Fiddlesticks! After months of black and no company? The gal’s overdue a bit of fun.’

Later, driving home, Daniel said smugly, ‘A good afternoon’s work, wouldn’t you say?’

‘And the real reason you chose those particular ladies, I presume?’

‘It might have played a part. But I’m happy for you to have the credit.’

‘Meaning what?’ asked Anna, his innocent tone making her instantly suspicious.

‘I’ll let you tell Mama and Rebecca to expect callers and invitations … just before casually mentioning that we may be away.’ And laughed at her expression.

***

Christian’s reply arrived swiftly and in as few words as possible.

Just come , you idiot. What has ‘convenience’ to do with anything? Come. We’ll expect you soon.

‘I won’t ask if he means it,’ murmured Anna, ‘because I’m sure he does. But her ladyship would probably prefer something a little less … casual.’

‘No. Sophie won’t mind a bit.’ He paused, then added, ‘Hazelmere is too far to drive in a day so we’ll rack up at the Bull in Burford. Can you be ready to leave tomorrow?’

‘ Tomorrow? ’ And when he merely nodded, ‘I … yes. Probably.’

‘Probably won’t do. Can you or can’t you?’

Anna huffed an exasperated breath. ‘All right. Yes. Tomorrow. Fine.’

‘Thank you.’ Daniel dropped a careless kiss on her hand and headed towards the door before turning back to say abruptly, ‘Do you think we dare risk taking a whole week without telling the lawyers where they can find us?’

‘I imagine that may be safe enough,’ replied Anna gravely, knowing – as he did – that, in an emergency, Flynn would send word. ‘Is that what I’m to tell your mother?’

‘Yes. And no.’ He grinned suddenly. ‘Tell her we’ll expect work to be finished in our suite by the time we return. And tell her to pay some calls of her own – the Sheltons and Lady Barstow, for example, while we’re away. You and I have made a start on re-establishing the family in local society but the rest is up to her.’ And he was gone.

***

Two days later, roughly four miles from Hazelmere and aware that, for the last hour of the journey, Anna had grown progressively quieter, Daniel said, ‘What is it?

‘What is what?’

‘The thing on your mind that you can’t quite bring yourself to say.’

She glanced at him and away again.. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

‘So there isn’t anything?’

‘No.’

He shrugged. ‘My mistake, then.’

For perhaps five minutes, Anna watched him gazing through the window as if he’d believed her when every instinct told her that he hadn’t. Finally, sighing, she said, ‘All right. Clearly, Lord Hazelmere is your closest friend. Equally clearly, as far as the world at large is concerned, there is some mystery surrounding his lengthy disappearance.’

‘True, so far. Go on.’

‘But it’s no mystery to you or Lord Benedict, Lord Wendover or Lady Hazelmere.’

‘Or one or two others, if we’re being precise,’ agreed Daniel. ‘But it’s water under the bridge now and therefore rarely, if ever, spoken of … if you were thinking there will be times during this visit when you might be …’

‘In the way?’ she supplied bluntly. ‘Yes. I had wondered that.’

‘Then don’t. It won’t happen.’

‘Not in any obvious way, I’m sure.’

‘Meaning what?’

‘That you are all too well-mannered to let it show.’

Daniel felt a sudden flash of annoyance. He said, ‘I would certainly hope so. I would also hope we are better-natured … and that you aren’t going to spend the week storing up imagined slights.’

Her colour rose a little. ‘Of course not! That wasn’t what I meant at all.’

‘Good. This isn’t London, Anna. Kit and Sophie are genuinely kind people, both of whom have had their own taste of hell. They won’t judge you. So I’d appreciate it if you gave them the same courtesy.’

‘Naturally. That didn’t need saying.’

‘I’m relieved to hear it.’

The remaining miles passed in silence but for the rumble of the carriage wheels. From time to time, Anna snatched furtive glances at Daniel waiting for his expression to relax. For the first time ever, it didn’t. Her heart sank still further. Then the carriage was bowling along Hazelmere’s drive and it was too late to mend matters.

The great front door swung open. A tall, fair-haired gentleman appeared and was joined a second later by a stunning brunette Anna realised she had seen before. Both of them beamed down at the carriage. Meanwhile, barely waiting for it to come to a halt, Daniel had the door open and was through it. Anna half-expected him to leave her sitting there … but no. He kicked down the steps and offered his hand. He even, she was relieved to notice, offered her a share of the smile that really belonged to Lord and Lady Hazelmere.

She whispered, ‘I’m sorry.’

His reply was a tiny nod. Then he was drawing her up the steps towards the earl and countess, saying, ‘You said to come soon, Kit. I took that literally.’

‘So I see.’ Laughing, Christian hauled him into a brief hug. Then, offering Anna a warm smile and his hand, said, ‘Welcome to Hazelmere, Lady Reculver. It’s a pleasure to meet you at last.’

Anna curtsied. ‘Thank you, my lord.’ And, aware that two steps away, Daniel was kissing the countess’s cheek, added stiffly, ‘We had hoped to visit some weeks ago but – but various other matters got in the way.’

‘Well, you’re here now and Kit and I are delighted.’ Beaming, Sophia stepped forward to take both of Anna’s hands in a warm clasp. ‘You won’t recall, I daresay, but I think we may have met in London some years ago.’

‘I believe we did, my lady.’

‘Goodness! No formalities!’ laughed Sophia. ‘Daniel is family and so will you be in time, I hope. So call me Sophie, please. And perhaps I may call you Anna?’

‘Of course.’

‘Upon which note,’ suggested Christian, ‘might we all go inside so the servants can bring in the luggage and move the carriage? Then, tea for the ladies but perhaps something stronger for you and me, Daniel?’

‘Definitely something stronger,’ Daniel agreed. ‘I’d like to raise a glass to finally getting here … and to meeting Viscount Farndon.’ He laughed suddenly. ‘It seems no time at all since that was you , Kit.’

Presently, in the drawing-room and busy with the tea tray, Sophia said, ‘Julia and Jane are here, Daniel … that is, they’re out somewhere with Hamish, right now. Gerald, too, although he insists he’s returning to London tomorrow. If he holds by that, Julia and Jane will leave with him – and, in Julia’s case, not purely to take advantage of Gerald’s escort on the journey.’ She handed a cup to Anna. ‘Has Daniel told you about my youngest sister?’

‘No. I don’t think so.’

‘Julia is deaf and mute – hence the need for Jane, her hearing companion.’

‘Oh.’ Anna swallowed. ‘I’m so sorry. Has – has she always been deaf?’

‘From birth, yes. But, as you’ll see, she manages very well. She can lip-read and she ‘speaks’ using sign language. Jane translates for her.’

‘Or you do,’ interposed Christian. ‘And sometimes now, even Gerald. He’s become surprisingly adept at signing.’ He gave a tiny laugh. ‘Amazing what love can do.’

Daniel grinned. ‘Has he plucked up the courage to admit that yet?’

‘Yes. He’s asked Sophie’s permission and mine … and he and Julia regard themselves as being unofficially betrothed. As yet, the secret hasn’t reached Julia’s mother – though how it hasn’t is a mystery since she and Gerald glow like beacons in each other’s company.’

‘Where Julia is concerned, Mama is wilfully blind,’ said Sophia. ‘But at present, that attitude has its uses. And I add my mite by encouraging her to put all her efforts into securing a match for Gwendoline – that’s my other, less pleasant sister, Anna. But enough about my family. Tell me about Rebecca. Will she make her come-out in the spring?’

‘Yes. I believe you offered to sponsor her?’

‘I did – as did my friend, Drusilla Colwich. And of course we’ll both help in any way we can. But that was before Daniel married. Rebecca has you now and – ’

‘No.Not really.’

Sophia blinked. ‘Why not?’

‘I am not the best choice. Rebecca will do much better with you and Lady Colwich.’

‘Oh. Do you and she not … well, just not get on very well?’

Having listened to this latter part of their conversation, Daniel decided to step in. He said, ‘They get along perfectly well, Sophie. The problem is Anna’s previous experience of London society. Her own Season didn’t go well and –’

‘It was a lot worse than that,’ cut in Anna, ‘as I’m sure Lady – as doubtless Sophia will remember.’

‘And she’s concerned about what effect that might have on Rebecca’s,’ finished Daniel calmly.’

‘It won’t have any at all,’ said Sophia flatly. And seeing Anna’s doubtful expression, ‘Truly, it won’t. You are Viscountess Reculver. That alone is sufficient to guarantee you respect. But in addition, amongst your husband’s very good friends are the Earl of Hazelmere and both brothers of the Duke of Belhaven – even Belhaven himself, if Benedict and Oscar can lure him out of the house a time or two. No one with an ounce of sense is going to risk offending either Daniel or you by turning a cold shoulder on either you or Rebecca.’

‘She’s right, Anna,’ agreed Christian. ‘Shallow as it is, society will greet Lady Reculver very differently than it did Miss Hawthorne.’

Anna opened her mouth to speak but, before she could do so, sounds of commotion downstairs were immediately followed by a voice saying, ‘ No , Hamish! Mr Sandhurst – stop him! ’ And then the ominous scrabble of paws on the stairs.

‘Somebody move the cakes!’ cried Christian, setting aside his glass to grab the teapot en route for the not-quite-closed door. Then, on a groan as it flew open, ‘Too late!’

Hamish burst in, wet, muddy and happy to see so many people. Then, before anyone could stop him, he made a dash for the nearest lap … which happened to be Anna’s.

First to arrive on the scene, Gerald Sandhurst unwittingly echoed Christian.

‘Oh dear,’ he sighed. ‘Too late. Again.’

And then, like everyone else, stared when Anna took a firm hold on the dirty, wriggling creature which seemed intent on licking her face … and laughed. Two steps behind Gerald in the doorway, Julia also started laughing, so it was left to Jane to enter the room apologising.

‘I’m so sorry, my lady,’ she said, trying unsuccessfully to prise Hamish away from his new best friend. ‘There was a duck and Hamish chased it into the mud before we could stop him. Your lovely gown! I’m so sorry. I hope it isn’t ruined.’

‘Don’t worry about it.’ Keeping a firm hold on the little dog, Anna stood up. ‘However, since I already need of a change of clothes and you don’t, perhaps it might be best if I carried Hamish to wherever you’re going to bathe him?’

‘Let her,’ said Daniel unsteadily when Jane tried to demur. ‘Anna isn’t afraid of a little mud. Or even quite a lot of it.’

‘The same being true of you,’ said Anna, taking a step in his direction. ‘So perhaps you’d like to bathe Hamish?’

Laughing, he backed away, warding her off with both hands. ‘No, thank you. I really wouldn’t.’

‘I thought not.’ And almost but not quite under her breath, ‘Coward.’

Glancing with some amusement from one to the other of them, Sophia said, ‘Jane,

take Lady Reculver to the kitchens, have someone send hot water upstairs and show her to her rooms when she is ready. Kit, you may as well take Daniel to meet his godson while Julia and Gerald explain why, despite what happened last time, Hamish wasn’t on his leash when he entered the house.’

***

On their way up to the nursery, Christian said, ‘She took that rather well, I thought.’

‘Anna? Yes. Particularly considering she was a bundle of nerves by the time we arrived here.’

‘Was she?’ asked Christian, surprised. ‘Why?’

‘Partly that disastrous London Season I mentioned. But mostly, I suspect, because she wants you and Sophie to like her but is afraid she’ll say the wrong thing and you won’t.’

‘Is she likely to say something that bad?’

‘No. She’s often blunt but never rude.’ Daniel glanced at him and added, ‘She’s more comfortable with her workforce than her social equals. And the pot bank – Hawthorne’s – is a remarkably complex affair. She showed me around it and I swear there’s not one of the various processes that she couldn’t do herself if she had to.’

‘So … it’s more than just a lucrative business to her?’

‘Much more. It’s in her blood.’ He came to a halt and lowering his voice, said, ‘Kit, I still have no idea what she’s worth – not because she won’t tell me but because I haven’t asked – but it’s more than I ever suspected.’

Deciding that this wasn’t a conversation to have on the stairs, Christian turned aside from the nursery flight and ushered Daniel into a small, seldom-used parlour, saying, ‘Do you really want to tell me all this?’

‘Yes. She’s had her lawyer hand over thousands . All my debts are paid, the overdraft at the bank wiped out and yet more money for refurbishments to the house, improvements on the estate and personal accounts for Mama and Rebecca. There’s no end to it. Half the time I don’t know what she’s done until I hear of it from either the bank or my lawyer. It … it’s unnerving. And made all the more so because she’s getting nothing in return.’

‘Has she asked for anything?’

‘Only marriage. She has that, of course. But she’s paying a hell of a lot for it.’

‘Perhaps she considers it worth it,’ remarked Christian. ‘However … from what I’ve seen so far, the two of you seem to get on well enough.’

‘We do.’

‘Good. So am I permitted to ask how, in general terms, marriage is working out?’

‘It isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it might be. On a day-to-day basis, both of us are busy with different things. But when there are problems – and we each have some – we’ve somehow formed a habit of discussing them and looking for solutions together.’

‘Well, that’s a promising start. And in other respects?’

‘Such as what?’

Christian’s brows rose. ‘Do I really need to spell it out?’

‘Oh. That.’ A hint of colour touched Daniel’s cheekbones. ‘We haven’t … and don’t. Although it’s less unthinkable than it was a couple of months ago.’ The realisation that it actually wasn’t unthinkable at all gave him a jolt. How long had that been true? And why hadn’t he noticed until now? Putting the knowledge aside for consideration later, he said, ‘I don’t think Anna minds. And we’ll get around to it eventually. We’ll have to. My heir is Cousin Leonard and he’s a serving officer of the East India Company in Calcutta.’ He smiled suddenly, ‘And speaking of heirs … ?’

Christian laughed. ‘Finally. I thought you’d forgotten.’ And seeing Daniel opening his mouth to apologise, ‘Don’t. You needed to talk – and still do, probably. Perhaps Anna does, too, so we’ll make plenty of opportunities for both of you. But now come and meet my son.’

~**~**~