“Do you know when Hallie will be coming back to the house, ma’am?”
They both heard the front door open and close, and Hallie’s voice calling, “Martha! Come quickly, I’ve had a dreadful accident!”
“Oh dear.” Angela was on her feet and running. Lord Renfrew rose more slowly. His instincts were excellent. He waited, saying nothing. He heard a young girl say, “Heavenly groats, Miss Hallie—look at that tear. Petrie said the Dauntry mare was arriving this morning. Did the beast snag your skirt?”
“Her name’s Penelope and she’s fast.”
“I can fix it. Come along, Miss Hallie.”
Petrie said, “It’s a large tear, one more suited to the skills of a seamstress, not a poorly educated young lady’s maid who should, at best, be a tweeny.”
“Now, you see here, Mr. Sweaty-Breath, I can do almost anything at all, I—”
Hallie was laughing. Lord Renfrew heard that sweet laugh quite clearly. He’d always liked her laugh. Toward the end, though, she hadn’t laughed as much. He waited.
“It’s all right, Martha. Petrie will soon see how very talented you are. Let’s go upstairs. Don’t worry, Angela, the mare got the skirt, not me. I should have been paying more attention. I left Jason holding his stomach, laughing his head off, the moron.”
“A moment, Hallie. You have a visitor in the drawing room.”
Petrie inserted himself between Angela and Martha. “I was going to inform her, Mrs. Tewksbury. Indeed, I am standing right here, preparing to inform her of her visitor in the drawing room. You did not give me a chance, and Martha here—but all’s well, really.” He pumped up his lungs. “Miss Hallie, there is a visitor to see you in the drawing room.”
“A visitor?” Hallie asked. “Oh, you mean Corrie is here to visit? Yes, I remember. Give her some tea, Angela, and I will join her in but a moment. I am not ready to be seen.”
“But Hallie—”
“I’ll be right back, Angela.”
Lord Renfrew heard her quick steps up the stairs. Or maybe that was her poorly educated, too-young lady’s maid. The older lady with all the lace marching from her waist to her neck hadn’t told her his name, nor had the butler with the lovely voice. She would probably find out though before she came back downstairs. He didn’t know if that would be good or bad, though he always preferred surprise. He always had the advantage when he did the surprising. He walked to the fireplace, looked at himself in the mirror, knew that he looked elegant, beautifully garbed and as handsome as a minor god. He seated himself again, sipped his tea, and waited.
To his surprise, it wasn’t ten minutes before Hallie appeared in the drawing room doorway, a bit out of breath. She saw him and stopped dead in her tracks.
“You’re not Corrie.”
He gave her a smile that had once burned her to her toes. She looked strange. It was that full skirt, that strange-looking shirt and vest she was wearing. Why was she dressed like a Romany gypsy?
She said, “I hurried because I thought it was Corrie visiting. Both Angela and Petrie are in the kitchen trying to fix Cook’s new stove. Had I known it was you, I would have taken my time.”
“It is all right, Hallie. You look lovely.”
She hadn’t meant that at all, the conceited buffoon. “Lord Renfrew. What the devil are you doing here, sir?”
Not an auspicious beginning. On the other hand, he would have been a fool to expect otherwise. “It is wonderful to see you again, Hallie. Won’t you call me Elgin again, my dear?”
He strolled over to her, forcing her to look up because he was tall. He took her hand before she realized what he was about, and kissed the inside of her wrist, licking where he’d kissed. Hallie jerked her hand back. Before, so long before, she would have gone pale and hot with excitement. “What are you doing here, sir?”
He wanted to slap her. “I am here to see you, naturally. I have come to beg your forgiveness for my errant stupidity.”
She nodded. “Yes, you were excessively stupid. I suppose it means something that you can admit to your perfidy now and apologize for it. However, I have no intention of forgiving you for the entire length of my lifetime, so take yourself away.”
“No, not yet. Give me but another moment, Hallie. You were always a kind girl, sweet-natured—”
“Don’t forget naïve.”
He sighed deeply, walked back to the fireplace, knowing he presented an excellent impression, knowing she would be blind if she didn’t admire him, and turned slowly to lean back against the mantel, his arms crossed over his chest. “How very sorry I was for the loss of your trust in me. It was all a mistake, a dreadful mistake that happened because I was taken in by a woman who was more experienced than I, a simple man from the country. I was weak, I admit it. This is no excuse, pray don’t think it is. The fact is that I was weak and was led astray. That woman is no longer in my heart or in my mind.”
“That was certainly fortunate, since you then married that poor girl in York. Do I have that right?”
“Ah, my poor little Anne. She died nearly a year ago, you know, so unexpectedly, leaving me and her father bereft.”
“I am sorry. I had heard she died late this past fall.”
“The time has passed so slowly, my despair so deep, it could be ten years,” he said. “After her tragic death I could not look backward or forward. Only recently have I felt the moments of life flicker again within me.”
“I had forgotten how very lovely you speak. Such eloquence, such grace.”
“It is not kind to mock a man who’s known such pain. What I said is true.”
“Was she as young as I was when you married her?”
“She was eighteen, a woman who knew her own mind, a woman grown.”
Hallie shook her head. She picked up the teapot on the side table and poured herself a cup. She sipped it as she looked over at Elgin Sloane, Lord Renfrew. “I have been thinking that females shouldn’t be allowed into society or into the company of men until they are twenty-five.”
He laughed, a dark brow climbing up to what she’d always considered a highly intelligent forehead. “A marvelous jest, my dear. You know very well that no gentleman would wish to wed a female that old.”
“How old are you?”
“I am thirty-one.”
Hallie sat down and drummed her fingertips on the arm of the chair. “My uncle always said that men needed more years to leaven than women. One could think you were far too leavened now.”
“I am considered a young man.”
“And twenty-five is old for a woman?”
He had to regain control, not that he’d had any sort of firm control over her yet, truth be told.
She toasted him with her teacup. “Goodness, you were far too old for me before, but I was such an infatuated young fool I never even noticed those wrinkles around your eyes. Or perhaps they weren’t there a year and a half ago.”
His hand flew to his face, then, not looking away from her, he slowly lowered his hand back to his side. “I have always loved the way you joke. You will keep me humble, Hallie, a good thing for a man.”
“This is really too much, sir, since—”
There was a horrible crashing sound from the back of the house. Hallie was out of her chair and through the drawing room doorway in an instant.
The kitchen, Lord Renfrew thought, that dreadful noise had come from the kitchen. A man didn’t appear to best advantage in the middle of a mess in a kitchen. Best to remain here, above all the chaos, calm and clear-eyed.
“Good grief, who are you? What’s going on?”
CHAPTER 22
“I, sir, am here to visit Miss Carrick. I believe she just ran back to the kitchen, some sort of female disaster.”
Female disaster? Jason stared long and hard at the elegant vision standing at languid ease in front of him, thinking that he didn’t particularly care for the latest gentlemen’s style. The waist looked too nipped in, the tails too long, altogether unpractical, at least if o
ne were mucking out stalls.
Jason heard a shriek. When he ran into the kitchen, it was to see Cook, Petrie, Martha, Angela, and Hallie bent over coughing, covered with the settling smoke still billowing up from the new Macklin stove. Since he and Hallie had been assured that this modern wonder would be in use until the turn of the century, Jason didn’t believe this to be a propitious beginning. He saw that there was no fire, only smoke. He opened the kitchen door and the three windows and waved.
“Is everyone all right?”
Black tears streaked down Petrie’s face. He was wringing his filthy hands. “Oh, Master Jason, look at what that smoking monster has done to my linen, all spotless only three hours ago, and now look.”
Martha poked Petrie in the shoulder. “Here now, Mr. Petrie, don’t cry or I’ll tell Mr. Hollis meself—myself. Get yourself together—be a butler.”
Jason hoped Petrie wouldn’t throw Martha onto the still-smoking stove.
“Anise seed won’t help get us clean, I’m afraid,” Hallie said, wiping a hand across her face. “Don’t worry, Petrie, Martha is good with all sorts of stains. Angela, your face is a bit black.”
“So is yours, dear. Do you know this lovely gown was once green?”
Hallie grinned, shook her head. “Jason, I believe we were cheated by that lovely man who talked us into buying this modern marvel.”
Angela said, “Perhaps it’s simply breaking itself in, getting itself used to our house.”
Jason said, “I’ll have One-Armed Davie look at it once it’s cooled down. The wood is embers now; it won’t take long.”
Angela said, “It amazes me what that man can do with only five fingers and his teeth. Cook, are you all right? You’re not hurt, are you?”
Mrs. Millsom had forgotten her stinging hand. She stared, eyes fixed, at Jason, who was standing right in her kitchen, not three feet away. “Mr. Sherbrooke saved us,” she whispered.
“Oh dear,” Angela said.
“Well, actually not, Mrs. Millsom,” Hallie began, but Mrs. Millsom appeared not to have heard. She continued to stare at Jason, who continued to look splendidly male, hair windblown, white shirt open, leaving his brown neck bare, his britches lovely and tight, his boots dusty, and Hallie could only roll her eyes. “Actually, all he did was open the door.”
“And the windows,” Mrs. Millsom said, still in a whisper.
Jason stretched out his lovely brown hand and came to within a foot in front of her. “Cook? Mrs. Millsom? Are you all right? Ah, you’ve burned your hand.”
Cook stared at him, shook her head as she held out her hand, which he gently held between his own. “It’s not bad. Angela, hand me some butter, we’ll cool it down. Petrie, fetch some bandages.” To his astonishment, Cook looked down at her hand held by both of his, and fell into him, almost knocking him down. He caught her even as Hallie grabbed his arm, pulling him upright.
Angela called out, “Ah, Jason, be careful of the—”
Jason went down on the large spoon covered with some sort of batter, pulling Hallie with him, Cook on top of him.
“Oh dear,” Angela said.
Jason felt flattened. As gently as he could, he rolled Cook onto her back even as Hallie came up onto her knees over him. Jason said, “Why did she swoon? Is she in pain?”
Hallie could only laugh at his utter bewilderment. “Jason, you are such a moron. You touched her, that was all it took.”
He patted Cook’s face even as he shook his head, and everyone began to laugh. Cook’s eyes fluttered. She stared up into the delicious young master’s concerned face. Concern for her. The breath whooshed out of her. “Oh, Mr. Sherbrooke, oh, sir, I only wanted to make you a lovely ginger cake.”
“Ginger cake.” Angela fell against the kitchen table she was laughing so hard. As for Petrie, he found himself slapping Martha on her thin shoulder, telling her that her face was black as one particular All Hallow’s Eve he remembered as a boy.
“I say,” came an astonished voice from the doorway, “there is no more tea in the pot.”
Hallie looked at the elegant man she’d once believed she’d loved, once believed was as near a perfect man as her father. She said to the kitchen at large, “Heavenly groats, was I mad and blind, or simply stupid?”
“Oh dear,” said Petrie, trying to wipe his face and clean off his linen all at the same time, “I should be hung perhaps, but not drawn and quartered. My lord, I pray you will forgive my unforgivable negligence in my duties. I will fetch you tea immediately, sir, well perhaps not exactly immediately, if you will see and comprehend this niggling obstacle that confronts me.”
“Of course my good man.” Lord Renfrew gracefully inclined his head. “Good God, Hallie? Is that you on your knees? The only thing left white about you is your teeth. What are you doing in here? Surely—”
“Sir,” Hallie said, not moving, “please take yourself off, or if you must, at least take yourself back to the drawing room.”
Angela said, “She’s right, my lord. I would never forgive myself were you to get a single black speck on your beautiful pearl-gray tailcoat.”
“It’s true that a gentleman should not take careless chances with his appearance,” said Lord Renfrew and backed quickly out of the kitchen.
“I wish I could stick his head in the oven,” Hallie said, rubbing her arms, streaking the soot.
Jason wrapped Mrs. Millsom’s hand in a soft washing cloth, assisted her to her feet and eased her ample self into a chair. “Martha will take care of you, Cook. Rest for a moment.”
Mrs. Millsom looked ready to swoon again. Martha quickly stepped close, propping her up.
Jason began backing out of the kitchen. “I will see to the dandy in the drawing room.”
“Elgin a dandy?” Hallie said, a newly blackened brow arched. “Surely not.”
Jason grew very still. “Did you say Elgin? Wasn’t he the fellow who brought back the marbles from Greece?”
“Well, yes, but Elgin is Lord Renfrew’s first name.”
To her surprise, Jason’s face turned grim as any reaper’s. “He’s the one, isn’t he, Hallie?”
“Well, yes.”
“What the hell does he want? Why the devil is he here?”
“Stop tearing into me. I don’t know why he’s here.”
“You didn’t invite him?”
Hallie threw the spoon he’d tripped on.
He caught it not six inches from his forehead. “You nearly nailed me with that spoon,” he said, and was gone from the kitchen.
“Don’t kill him, Jason,” she called after him. “You wouldn’t like Australia.”
Angela grabbed her arm before she could take one step.
“Who is Lord Renfrew? Why is Jason angry?”
“He was the bounder I was going to marry when I was eighteen.”
“But dear, I don’t understand why the man is here—”
Hallie was gone. She paused at the open doorway to the drawing room, and watched in bewilderment as Jason, who no longer looked like he wanted to hurl Lord Renfrew through one of the sparkling front windows into the newly planted primroses, was jovial and welcoming, shaking Elgin’s lovely strong-looking hand, the hand that had once skimmed over her breasts, something for which he’d apologized profusely. She hadn’t understood at the time, but now she did. She crossed her arms over her chest, leaned against the open door, and tapped her foot. What was Jason up to?
“How very nice to finally meet you—did Hallie say your name was Eggbert?”
“Elgin.”
“A distinguished name.”
“Yes, yes, it most certainly is.” Lord Renfrew wondered at Mr. Sherbrooke’s bonhomie. But then again, why not? Jason Sherbrooke was a second son, twin or not, and probably didn’t have much money, given how paltry this property was compared to his father’s vast estate. The man doubtless saw Lord Renfrew as the embodiment of what he wasn’t. Yes, that was it, and he wanted to lick his boots. Lord Renfrew would allow it.
; On the other hand, Mr. Sherbrooke was sharing the property with Hallie, and she was rich—his solicitor had confirmed that. Hmm, he didn’t like the sound of that. Sharing. Lord Renfrew cleared his throat. “It is an unusual situation you and Miss Carrick are in, Mr. Sherbrooke.”
Jason gave him a white-toothed smile, a sort of man-to-man smile, if Lord Renfrew wasn’t mistaken, and no man was ever mistaken about that. “Not really,” Jason said. “Miss Carrick is, ah, a very accommodating girl, you know.”
Hallie’s jaw fell two inches while Lord Renfrew’s jaw tightened.
Jason, cheery as an octogenarian with a new bride of eighteen, said, “Won’t you sit down, my lord? Our servants aren’t at all well-trained yet—really, such a small problem in the kitchen—but I imagine some more tea will be along shortly.”
Small problem? They were all black as newly polished boots and Cook had swooned on him, knocked him over. That was small? Petrie not well-trained? He had been trained by Hollis himself. What was going on here?
Lord Renfrew seated himself, made certain his coattails were smoothed neatly beneath him. “What do you mean, ‘accommodating’?”
“Why Miss Carrick is always anxious to please, to do whatever one wishes her to do.”
What did he mean, anxious to please? She could be bad-tempered in the morning. Maybe she was anxious to please when she wanted something badly, Hallie thought as she looked up to see Petrie carrying the lovely silver tray Jason’s mother had given them, his face still black as night. Oh dear. She ran to look in the mirror over the small table and nearly shrieked. She’d known what had to be in the mirror, but the fact of her black face—she raised her skirts to run to her bedchamber when she stopped cold. She smiled at Petrie. “We,” she said, patting his arm, “will make an entrance. Ah, do I look as toothsome as you do, Petrie?”
“Surely you must consult the dictionary, Miss Hallie. We both look like critters escaped from the mud flats. There was no time for me to set myself to rights since one can’t leave a gentleman waiting for his tea. Oh dear, oh dear, your face, Miss Hallie, my face—This is disastrous. Whatever will the gentleman think?”