Gayle Buck (11 page)

“Well! You have returned safely, my lord, and none the worse for wear,” Mrs. Burlington said, giving her hand to Lord Eddington, who had risen from his chair to greet her.

“You are looking well, Aunt Amaris,” Lord Eddington said. Some of his genial air had dissipated, which earned him the swiftest of glances from his new bride.

Mrs. Burlington did not wait for his lordship’s reply, but at once turned her smile on Lady Eddington. “As for you, my dear child, anyone with eyes in her head can see that you are in fine fettle. Your countenance is positively glowing! How happy I am to see you again and to be able to renew our delightful acquaintance.”

“And I, Mrs. Burlington. I much enjoyed our little talks before my marriage to his lordship,” Lady Eddington said, smiling up in a friendly way at Mrs. Burlington.

“Oh, you must not stand upon such ceremony with me, my dear. After all, we are all family now, are we not? Pray address me as you would your own dear aunt,’’ Mrs. Burlington said.

“Thank you, I am sure,” Lady Eddington said with an engaging little laugh.

While this short interlude of exchanges had taken place, tea was set out and those who were standing settled into their places. Mrs. Burlington took the wing chair beyond Lord Eddington. It was not the seat she would have chosen for herself if she had come earlier to the drawing room, for she would have preferred to have been beside Lady Eddington. But that place had been usurped by her niece, naturally, and as she couldn’t very well demand that she be given Lord Eddington’s chair, so that she was sitting between the young couple, she was left with no choice but to smilingly seat herself at the outside corner of the small group.

“I was but a moment ago informed of your arrival, or I would have been present to greet you earlier,” Mrs. Burlington said. There was the slightest edge to her voice, and the glance that she tossed in the butler’s direction spoke volumes. She composed a smile on her face as she turned once again to her young relatives. “I hope that I have not missed anything of interest by my tardiness.”

“My brother and Lady Eddington were but enlightening me about some of their travels,” Lady Caroline said, casting a smile at the two in question. “From all I have heard, I suspect that Ned would have made an excellent diplomat.”

“Why, that is so very true!” Lady Eddington exclaimed. She bestowed her first uninhibited smile on Lady Caroline. Her eyes shone with approval. “You must be a fond sister indeed to so swiftly place your finger on the very thing that I have been attempting to put into words for weeks.”

Mrs. Burlington did not like to see the friendliness of Lady Eddington’s overture to her niece. It did not suit her plans in the least. She gave a brittle laugh. “Lord Eddington a diplomat! Why, what a perfectly novel idea. I am certain that such a notion never once crossed his lordship’s mind, however. Lord Eddington could hardly wish for such a wandering life.”

“Oh, I don’t know. The notion does have its allure. We did rather enjoy the rounds of entertaining that those diplomatic fellows were always getting up in order to impress the foreigners,” Lord Eddington said thoughtfully. He glanced at his wife with a lively, quizzical expression. “What do you say, Mary? Should you like knocking about from capital to capital in the diplomatic service?”

“If you should wish such a career, my lord, nothing could possibly make me happier,” Lady Eddington said.

Lord Eddington reached for his lady’s hand, and when she gave it into his care, he leaned over the arm of his chair to catch her fingers to his lips in brief salute. “I am the luckiest dog alive, I think,” he said contentedly.

Mrs. Burlington looked from one to the other of them in complete astonishment and gathering dismay. “Surely you cannot be serious, my lord! Why, what of Berwicke Keep and your responsibilities here in England? What of Lady Eddington’s place as mistress of this house? What of your places in society? You cannot simply throw it all over for some paltry career as a second secretary or some such thing!’’

Lord Eddington flushed furiously.

Lady Eddington took up her lord’s defense in her gentle voice, faintly chiding. “Of course my lord must do exactly as he thinks best. I have every confidence in his ultimate success, whatever course he chooses to pursue.” Mrs. Burlington was unexpectedly silenced. Lady Eddington gently withdrew her hand from her husband’s clasp and turned her attention to pouring of the tea. “Tea, Lady Caroline?”

“Yes, black, please,” Lady Caroline said. She said nothing more, neither indicating her opinion of her brother’s odd flight of fancy nor taking sides in the conversation. It was to her mind a most enlightening scene. Her brother’s devotion to his new bride was obvious, as was hers to him, and she could not find it in her heart to envy their happiness. As for her aunt, Lady Caroline was beginning to suspect that Mrs. Burlington had counted too heavily on making of Lady Eddington a staunch ally and devotee.

As Lady Caroline accepted the cup and saucer from Lady Eddington’s hands, that lady’s gaze met hers. There was a speculative, measuring expression in Lady Eddington’s eyes that startled Lady Caroline with its calculation. Then Lady Eddington turned away to graciously offer tea to the others.

Lady Caroline meditatively sipped her own tea. It was scalding hot, but she hardly noticed. She had just perceived that Lady Eddington was not quite the malleable and retiring young girl that she had opined her to be upon their previous short acquaintance.

“Oh, Lord,” she murmured ruefully.

“What was that, niece?” Mrs. Burlington inquired quickly.

But Lady Caroline merely shook her head and turned aside the query by beginning to tell a mildly humorous account to Lord Eddington about a minor estate problem that had cropped up in his absence.

Chapter Twelve

If tea was not an unqualified success from Mrs. Burlington’s point of view, it was also a rather mixed experience for Lady Caroline. She quickly gathered through her observations and the ordinary conversation one might expect to occur when travelers had returned that Lady Eddington, very quietly and quite unobtrusively, controlled Lord Eddington. Her ladyship often demurred to the Earl of Berwicke, yet somehow Lord Eddington’s declarations always fell right in line with Lady Eddington’s own gently voiced opinions.

Lady Caroline thought that her brother neither realized it yet nor was made unhappy by it. Indeed, she rather thought that Lord Eddington seemed steadier than she had ever known him to be in his life. Certainly he appeared content enough.

Lady Caroline only hoped that her brother was not destined for awful disillusionment. She knew very little about her new sister-in-law, except what she had been told of the young woman’s background and what she recalled of the young woman’s retiring, almost shy manner upon the occasion of her visit in the company of her stepmother to Berwicke Keep. There was also Mrs. Burlington’s purported knowledge of Lady Eddington’s opinion in regards to herself, but Lady Caroline thought that she could fairly well withhold judgment upon that.

On balance was Lady Eddington’s open adoration of the Earl of Berwicke. Lady Caroline was inclined to believe that her ladyship’s affection for Lord Eddington was sincere. However, if it was not, Lady Caroline could only pity her brother, for she had observed enough to form the opinion that Lady Eddington could handle quite well those who presumed to counter her wishes. And that, Lady Caroline thought with an inward chuckle, might well come as a thoroughly unpleasant surprise to Mrs. Burlington.

During tea Mrs. Burlington had campaigned strenuously to stake her claim as Lady Eddington’s mentor and confidante, but the young countess had slipped time and again out of her net. There had been nothing ungracious or even vaguely unfriendly in Lady Eddington’s responses to Mrs. Burlington’s overtures that one could point to, but still the impression was unmistakable that her ladyship preferred to retain a neutral position among her new relations.

Lady Caroline had been impressed by her new sister-in-law’s adroit handling of Mrs. Burlington, but at the same time she recognized that if Lady Eddington did indeed choose to thrust her out of Berwicke Keep, and her brother’s life, her ladyship would be a most formidable opponent indeed.

But that was for the future. In the meantime, Lady Caroline had another small problem that demanded a decision of her. She had received a communication from Lord Hathaway requesting a private interview of her. After their last
tête-à-tête,
Lady Caroline was not overly eager to see Lord Hathaway again so soon. However, she well knew the gentleman’s obstinate nature and she was resigned that his lordship would present himself whether or not she acquiesced to his request.

It was with misgivings, therefore, that she returned a reply in the affirmative. Lord Hathaway could call upon her the following morning.

She had just sent off her message with a servant when there was a light knock on the half-open door of the library and Lord Eddington entered. “Am I bothering you, Caroline?”

Still seated at the writing desk. Lady Caroline smiled up at him. “Of course you are not.”

Lord Eddington closed the door. He stood a moment, seemingly irresolute, before he crossed to a wing chair positioned close to the desk.
He looked at his sister with a somewhat distracted air. “I am in need of a spot of advice, Caroline, and as you are the only one that I feel able to come to, I hope that you can help me.”

“Well, naturally I shall do whatever I can,” Lady Caroline said. “What is the problem, Ned?”

Lord Eddington shook his head. A half-smile crossed his face. “The truth of the matter is, you are.” He saw that he had stunned her, and he hurried on. “It is not just you, Caroline, but our aunt as well. I had not realized before what it meant to have everyone about. One becomes inured to it, you see. But now, being married and all ... well, it will be a bit awkward at times. I know what you are going to say. We have but just arrived today and perhaps we should wait and see how things go on. But during tea I saw instantly how it was going to be. Mary mentioned it to me later, of course, being sensitive to such things herself. She is the dearest of creatures and would not wish to offend anyone, least of all anyone whom I hold in affection, and so I had to pry it out of her, but she, too, felt the uncomfortable tension among the four of us. Oh, don’t you see, Caroline?”

“Indeed I do. When one weds, one naturally wishes privacy in order to adjust to one’s new stature,” Lady Caroline said, not allowing the hurt to cross her expression or tinge her voice.

“I knew that I could depend upon you to understand, Caroline. But what do you advise me to do?” Lord Eddington asked.

She occupied herself with straightening the desk, putting away the inkwell and pens and sheets of paper, so that she would not have to meet her brother’s anxious gaze straightaway. “I shall need some time to decide where I will go and, naturally, to set up my own household, but I think that I can manage to be in my own establishment in a month or so.”

Lord Eddington’s face reflected his initial surprise. “Well, it is awfully good of you to offer. I had not thought to ask if of you, meaning only to ask you to advise me whether Mary and I should not remove to London,” he said doubtfully.

“Of course you and Lady Eddington must not remove to London just on account of myself and Amaris. I think my suggestion a far better plan,” Lady Caroline said steadily.

“Well, naturally, if that is what you truly wish, I shall be more than glad to foot the bill for a town house in London or wherever,” Lord Eddington said, a certain relief in his voice. He straightened in the chair and his smile broadened to one of more confidence. “But I should not like you to go quite as soon as all that, Caroline. I shall need your help in prying Aunt Amaris loose, you see. I should dislike the task myself and, truth to tell, I would make a very poor hand at it. I have never been able to face down our aunt, as you well know, whereas you have never had the least difficulty.’’

Lady Caroline did not know whether to laugh or to rage at him. It was not fair that he should force her into the decision to leave her childhood home so soon, while in the same breath request that she should perform his dirty work for him before she did go. She chose to laugh, feeling that it was better for her own self-respect. “Ned, you are a nodcock. I have always thought so and now I am more strengthened in my opinion than ever. Amaris would go quickly enough were you and Lady Eddington together to present the case to her, I am certain. Why, whatever could she say against it, pray? Berwicke Keep is your home, after all.”

“But Aunt Amaris has been here very nearly as long as I can remember. She considers Berwicke more her home than anywhere else on earth. I cannot simply ask that she pack up her things, now, can I? Pray be reasonable, Caroline,” Lord Eddington said.

Lady Caroline regarded her brother for a moment. She said quietly, “Berwicke Keep is more my home than it was ever Amaris’, yet you have not had the least difficulty in indicating to me that you would prefer that I find another.”

Lord Eddington flushed. He said uncomfortably, “Well, that is different. You are my sister, after all. I can talk to you with expectation of being heard out with some measure of quiet reason. Whereas with Aunt Amaris . . . well, you know what she is like.”

“Yes, I know very well. I think I know better than you what Amaris is like. I know, also, that I am wearied to death of dealing with her on my own account and yours, and I really have no taste for becoming your second in this latest matter. Perhaps it is time that you were allowed to discover for yourself exactly how it is that you should deal with her, Ned,’’ Lady Caroline said. She rose from her seat at the desk.

“You are angry!’’ Lord Eddington exclaimed, discovering it with surprise.

Lady Caroline rounded on him. There was no mistaking the temper in her flashing eyes or the high color in her cheeks, and he shrank back in his chair. “No, am I? Well, perhaps you should give a little thought as to why, Ned. And now, if you will excuse me, I shall go up to my room. I have the headache and I think that I shall lie down for a while before dinner.” She whisked herself out of the library, leaving Lord Eddington to stare after her in the liveliest dismay.