Lowering the invitation, she hesitated, then asked, “Have my brothers returned yet?”
“I noticed them riding around to the stable, miss. I daresay they’ll be in the kitchen by now.”
“I daresay.” Her lips softened into a smile she shared with Milsom. “They’re no doubt fortifying themselves as we speak. Ask them to attend me here, please—they can bring their biscuits and scones if they wish.”
“Indeed, miss. Immediately.” Milsom bowed and withdrew.
Madeline read the card again, then laid it aside and returned to her figures.
She was shutting the ledger when a commotion in the corridor warned that her brothers were approaching.
Harry led the way into the office, his brightly burnished brown hair windblown, his rogue’s smile lighting his face. At fifteen, he was on the cusp of adulthood, poised between the carefree delights of boyhood and the responsibilities that awaited him as Viscount Gascoigne.
Edmond followed at his heels. A bare year younger, he was Harry’s shadow in all things. A trifle quieter, more serious perhaps, but the Gascoigne temperament—indomitable will and courageous if sometimes reckless heart—showed in his stride, his confidence as, alongside Harry, he grinned at Madeline and obeyed her waved command to settle in the chairs facing her big desk.
The last into the room was Benjamin, Ben, the youngest of the family and a favorite of all. Madeline held Ben especially close to her heart—not because she loved him any better than the other two but because he’d been a babe of mere weeks when Abigail, their mother, Madeline’s stepmother, had died, taken from them all by childbed fever.
With a tight grin for Madeline—his mouth was full of buttered scone—Ben, ten years old and with much of his growing yet to come, hiked himself onto a straightbacked chair and wriggled back, feet swinging.
Smiling—trying not to appear too obviously fond and doting—Madeline waited while they finished the last of their snack; she knew better than to try to compete with food for the attention of growing boys.
Her gaze rested on them, on the three faces alight with undimmed happiness, with the simple joy of living, and as she always did, she felt an overwhelming sense of rightness. Of conviction, of vindication. Of satisfaction that she’d done what she’d needed to do and had succeeded.
This—they—were her life’s work. She’d been barely nineteen when Abigail had died, leaving Ben to her care, with Harry a lost little boy of five and Edmond a confused four-year-old. Harry and Edmond had at least had each other, and their father. For virtually all of his life, Ben had known only her as a parent.
She and her father had been close; she’d been the older son he’d never had. Knowing he was ill, with Harry, his heir, so very young, her father had trained her to be the intermediary, a de facto regent—he’d taught her all she’d needed to know to run the estate, and left her to pass that knowledge on to Harry.
Struck down only months after Abigail’s death, her father hadn’t, as many people described it, lingered; he’d fought and clung desperately to life for nearly two years—long enough for Madeline to attain the age of twenty-one, and the legal status, backed by his will and their family solicitor, to become the boys’ co guardian.
It was no coincidence that her father had died a week after her twenty-first birthday.
Their solicitor, old Mr. Worthington, indeed a worthy man, was the boys’ other guardian. He’d honored his late client’s wishes to the letter and dutifully been nothing more than a cipher, approving any request or instruction Madeline made. She had nothing but fondness for Worthington. Then again, he’d been dealing with the Gascoigne temperament for long enough to acknowledge that the only person capable of dealing with her three brothers was another Gascoigne, namely herself.
She understood her brothers and they understood her. The bond linking them ran much deeper than mere affection, carried in blood and bone. They would all be, like her and their father, tall, strong and vital. Confident, too, masters of their lives, with a streak of open honesty that, on occasion, set others back on their heels.
She’d devoted the last ten years of her life to ensuring they were as they were, that nothing would dim their potential, that they would have every opportunity to be the men they might be, the best men they could be.
What she saw before her pleased and reassured. She’d never consciously questioned the decision she’d taken long ago, foisted upon her by fate perhaps, yet she’d never doubted that being the boys’ guardian was the right path for her. And if sometimes, in the quiet of the night when she was alone in her room, she wondered what might otherwise have been, the question was irrelevant, the thought behind it fleeting.
She’d made a decision, and she’d been right. The proof sat before her, licking crumbs from their fingers.
“The Crowhurst bull.” Her words brought all three boys instantly alert; her expression impassive, she watched them quell the impulse to glance at each other. Instead, they fixed their gazes, limpidly inquirying, on her.
“I spoke with his lordship yesterday,” she continued, “and smoothed things over. However, he said to inform you that he wasn’t amused.”
She made the last words sound ominous. Harry opened his mouth, but she held up a hand, staying his comments. “Be that as it may, you’ll have an opportunity to make your apologies in person. Or at least Harry will.”
“I will?” Harry looked taken aback.
She held up Sybil’s white card. “This is an invitation to dine at Crowhurst Castle this evening. For Aunt Muriel, me”—she looked at Harry—“and you.”
Their father’s older sister, Muriel, a widow, had come to live with them on their father’s death. Built on the same generous lines as all Gascoignes, although now elderly, she was still spry. While she used her age as an excuse to avoid any social gathering she did not choose to attend, Madeline didn’t need to ask to know that Muriel would be dressing tonight; while she was fond of her nephews, she doted on girls, and looked on Sybil’s daughters as de facto nieces. As Muriel had often told Madeline, albeit with amused understanding in her eyes, as Madeline had refused to give her a wedding to think about, she had to find her pleasures where she could.
Harry frowned. “Do I have to—”
“I suspect from what Lady Sybil has written—that she’s holding an impromptu dinner to spread the word that his lordship is home from London and expecting to remain at the castle through summer—that the other local landowners will also be present.” She met Harry’s gaze. “So, yes, as Viscount Gascoigne you should attend.”
Harry wrinkled his nose, then heaved a put-upon sigh. “I suppose I’ll have to start attending such events.”
Madeline felt a whisper of relief. “You may be only fifteen, but it’s better to start to learn the ropes now, little by little, and while your elders will be ready to excuse any blunders you might make.”
Harry shot her a twisted grin. “True enough.”
“I expect Belinda will be there, too, so you’ll have someone your own age to talk to.”
She fully expected Edmond and Ben—if not Harry himself—to make some sneering comment about girls; instead the boys exchanged swift looks.
Edmond nudged Harry. “You can ask how they broke the mill.”
“And about the lights on the headland.” Ben leaned forward. “If that was them.”
“Did his lordship manage to fix the mill?” Edmond asked.
Inwardly frowning, Madeline nodded. “Apparently. I heard from John Miller that all was well.” She’d assumed that any interaction between her brothers and Gervase’s sisters would result in his sisters exerting a civilizing influence on her often barbarian-brained brothers, but of that she was no longer so sure.
Until the incident of the mill, and the implied suggestion that Belinda, Annabel and Jane had been behind the other odd occurrences, too, she’d always thought Gervase’s sisters were eminently sane and sensible young women.
She wondered again what had given ri
se to their recent strange behavior.
“Is that all you wanted us for?” Harry asked. When Madeline nodded, he rose. “Because if so, we’re off to the library.”
Knowing she was supposed to, she looked her shock; it wasn’t hard to fabricate. “The library ?”
Both Edmond and Ben had leapt to their feet; flashing farewell grins, they headed for the door. Harry played superior elder brother and let them jostle their way through, then looked back at Madeline and grinned. “You needn’t worry—we won’t do anything as childish as moving his lordship’s bull again. We’ve found far better sport.”
Before she could ask what, he was gone; she heard their voices echoing in the corridor as their footsteps faded, then the library door closed and silence descended.
What “better sport”? She could ask and demand to be told, but…if she wanted Harry to learn to exercise responsibility, that might be counterproductive.
Gervase’s observation that Harry would stop his boy’s tricks soon enough rang in her mind. All in all, raising Harry to his present age hadn’t tried her ingenuity overmuch, yet she knew—could sense—that the years to come were going to be more difficult.
Despite her best efforts to fill her father’s shoes, she wasn’t a man. A male. She might be a Gascoigne, but she was unsettlingly aware that there were certain interests men of their class developed that ladies neither indulged in nor necessarily understood.
Whether she could steer Harry through the next five years of his life was a question that sat uneasily, unresolved in the back of her mind. What she could do, what she vowed to do, was to do all she could to encourage him to take up the burdens of adulthood, and his title, and to accept the restrictions that entailed of his own free will. Perhaps to see his position as a challenge.
In that, his reaction to Sybil’s invitation was encouraging. Madeline made a mental note to thank Sybil accordingly.
Meanwhile, why the library? She inwardly snorted, and made another mental note to whisper in a few select ears that she would appreciate a warning should said ears’ owners suspect that her brothers were up to anything outrageous.
There was no point expecting them to transform into angels overnight.
The dinner that evening at Crowhurst Castle was a relaxed and relatively easygoing affair. Or rather, it should have been, and seemed destined to be so for everyone else, even Harry, yet for Madeline, from the moment she climbed the castle steps and followed Muriel into the front hall, she found herself subtly, curiously, and largely inexplicably off-balance.
The sensation—as if her world had fractionally tilted, as if its axis had suddenly canted—bloomed in the instant she reached Sybil, waiting to greet them beside the double doors leading into the drawing room.
“Muriel! Welcome.” Sybil and Muriel clasped hands, touched cheeks; although much younger, Sybil was very fond of the older lady. “Do go in.”
Turning from Muriel, Sybil’s eyes lit. “Madeline—I’m delighted you could come at such short notice.” Taking her hand, Sybil clasped it between hers. “Just our usual circle, my dear, to spread the word that Gervase is home for the summer, so to speak.” Sybil held her hand for a moment longer, her eyes searching Madeline’s, then she pressed her fingers. “Naturally, the girls and I are very glad he’s home.”
The emphasis suggested that Madeline should read something more than the obvious into the remark. Nonplussed, she smiled and retrieved her hand. “Of course. His presence must be a comfort.” She omitted any mention of Gervase needing to deal with strange difficulties like the mill, and stepped back to let Harry make his bow.
Sybil greeted him with her customary easy and gentle smile—underscoring the unusual way she’d interacted with Madeline, suggestive of something, but as to what Madeline had no clue.
Madeline knew Gervase’s father’s second wife distantly for many years, but over the past three years since Gervase had inherited the title and, Sybil and his sisters taken up residence at the castle, while Gervase himself had remained largely absent overseas, Sybil had held the fort, and thus had met Madeline regularly, at the very least every week. As the other senior lady of the small community and moreover one born to her rank, it was to Madeline Sybil had most often turned. They got on well, so Madeline wasn’t surprised to be greeted warmly. What she hadn’t expected was that peculiarly meaningful welcome.
Walking into the drawing room with Harry by her side, she told herself she’d over interpreted. Either that, or there was something going on with Gervase and his family that she didn’t know.
They’d barely crossed the threshold into the long, elegant drawing room when Belinda appeared at her elbow.
“There you are!” Belinda beamed, transparently delighted. “We’re so glad you could come.”
Madeline studied her curiously. “So your mother said.”
“Well, yes! I daresay she did.” Belinda’s exuberance dimmed not one jot. “Perhaps I can take Harry around to meet the others. Gervase is over there.”
Finding herself all but pushed in that direction, Madeline consented to step further into the room. Presumably Belinda had been instructed to ease Harry’s way; considering, justifiably she was sure, that from the superiority of her sixteen years Belinda would be able to manage him, she left her to it.
She herself needed no assistance, not in this company; with a smiling nod to Lady Porthleven, holding court on the chaise, and to Mrs. Entwhistle beside her, she strolled into the room.
And saw Gervase.
Standing before the marble mantelpiece, he was chatting with Mrs. Juliard. As if sensing an arrival, he glanced across the room. His eyes met hers; he stopped speaking.
And she stopped breathing.
It wasn’t his appearance that snatched her breath away—she’d seen him in settings such as this before, where his height and the width of his shoulders, tonight clad in a superbly cut walnut-brown coat, made him a cynosure for female eyes.
The subtle arrogance and less subtle command that cloaked his every movement, from the idle gesture of a hand to the way he turned his head, the strength and power implicit in the characteristic stillness of his stance—none of these things were responsible for her lungs seizing.
Nor was it his face, the features whose lines even in this company were startling in their lean, chiseled hardness, with aggressive clarity branding him a descendent of warrior-lords.
She’d encountered all these facets of him before, and they’d never affected her, impinged on her. They didn’t now, not of themselves.
It was the look in his eyes, the way he looked at her, that jerked her nerves tight, then left them taut and quivering.
Before she could draw breath, before she could even think, he turned back to Mrs. Juliard, excused himself, then strolled across the room to greet her.
Or, as her senses reported it, he prowled over to demand her hand; halting before her, his eyes on hers, he held out his hand, calmly waiting until, frantically shaking her wits into order, she remembered to surrender hers.
His fingers closed strongly around hers, and more of her nerves quaked. For the first time in her life she understood what being tongue-tied felt like. She managed a nod. “Gervase.”
His lips lightly curved. He inclined his head. “Madeline.”
She made the mistake of looking into his eyes, searching for some clue as to why he was watching her like a hawk watched prey, like a cat watched a bird—and found herself trapped, unexpectedly caught in the mesmerizing, agatey, green-flecked amber depths.
Gentle heat spread beneath her skin. All sorts of crazed notions flitted through her mind. It took an effort of will to banish them, to sternly reassert control over her wayward wits—and drag them back to reality. “I—” She broke off and glanced around, noting the others present. She cleared her throat. “It seems you’ve gathered the local elite.”
“Indeed. After our encounter with Squire Ridley this morning, I thought it might be wise to make it more widely and definitely k
nown that I intend remaining at the castle for the summer.”
Releasing her hand, Gervase turned slightly, so that the group of gentlemen by the windows was in their line of sight. “I haven’t yet had a chance to ask if anyone else has been approached about their mining leases.”
She leapt on the topic, as he’d known she would. “This seems the perfect time to ask.”
Smiling lightly, he strolled by her side as they joined the other gentlemen. In planning the evening, he’d searched his memory, and recalled this as her habit; before dinner she chatted with the gentlemen, who, as now, welcomed her into their midst without a blink, shifting to make space for her, as well as for Gervase.
After the usual brisk greetings, she asked, “Have any of you been approached about your mining leases?”
He stood beside her, his interest implied, but let her do the interrogatory honors; as it transpired, Lord Moreston and Lord Porthleven had both heard of the young man making inquiries, but hadn’t yet been approached.
The talk quickly turned to fields and crops, with Mr. Caterham asking Madeline for her predictions on tonnage per acre likely to be achieved this year. While she answered, Gervase watched and learned—not about crops but about her.
She’d detected, all but instantly, his focus on her, but…for some reason he didn’t yet understand, she hadn’t reacted as ladies normally did. He wasn’t all that delighted that she’d sensed his interest so immediately, especially as it was likely to prove no more than that—she intrigued him enough for him to want to learn more of her, but once he had…Yet her response to his interest had only intrigued him all the more.
She’d seen it, identified it correctly, then dismissed it. As if she’d decided it couldn’t possibly be so, that the very idea was simply nonsense.
Confusing though she was, he’d seen enough of her stunned surprise to know that, despite it not being precisely his intention, he had reached her—had penetrated her shield enough for her to notice, at least, that he as a male had some interest in her. But then she’d breathed in, and apparently shaken aside the notion.