The Wedding Affair (Rebel Hearts series Book 1) (19 page)

Sally stared up into his face. “I will try, but you did not answer my question.”

“Thank you.” He stepped back out of reach and glanced around as a groom led her dappled gray mare from the rear of the stables. Jester was her favorite mount, but she could not take him with her as he belonged to her eldest brother. “Are you about to leave the estate?”

“Not exactly. I have an errand for the duke at a distant tenant’s home,” she told him. An outing she could not delay just because Felix was on his feet, even if she wished to stay with him. She had responsibilities she could not shirk. In the distance she could see two servants headed their way. “Would you like to see more of the estate with me, if my grandfather does not need to see you, that is?”

“He excused me for the day.” He studied her a moment and then nodded. “I would love nothing better than to see the estate with you as my guide.”

“I can point out my favorite places along the way.” She looked him over, and her heart raced. To look at him now she could not imagine him being so unwell just two evenings ago. If she had not felt his fever, witnessed his condition with her own eyes, she would think he was incapable of change.

There was one thing that had not altered in the intervening years. She could still notice when something weighed heavily on his mind. He was up to something. She was certain of it from the way he shifted his weight from foot to foot. “I will have an extra horse prepared.”

Twenty minutes later they were on their way, and she had figured it out. “I cannot believe my grandfather sent you to guard me.”

Felix sighed and shook the reins. “He was concerned enough to ask for help, and after my illness I owe him a debt of gratitude I can never repay.”

Sally twisted round to view Felix where he sat on the gig. He looked impossibly large on such a small conveyance but seemed happy enough urging the pony along in her wake. She had not expected him to opt for the small carriage when the stable had been so full of horses that required exercise. “Hardly a hero on a noble steed, are you?”

He looked at her, his jaw set firmly. “The gig is all I need to get there and back. The weapons are for the intimidation.”

“We had other horses.” Horses he had denied he would ride. She had been positive he would choose Zeus, a horse that would form part of her dowry when she wed Lord Ellicott. She would not mind hearing his thoughts on the great beast. Most men coveted the animal. However, Felix had hardly paid him any attention. Every other visitor had drooled over the gelding, but not Felix. He had been more interested in teasing Horace, her wildest cat, when he had crept out of a dark stall. “Are you afraid of them? Horses.”

“I am not afraid.” He scowled and slapped the reins on Long Peg’s rump until she moved at a quicker pace. “I simply do not care to sit upon a mode of transportation that possesses a mind of its own.”

“You do realize you have the most stubborn pony at Newberry Park pulling you about, do you not?”

He sighed. “You are not going to let this go, are you?”

“No.” She moved her mount closer to his carriage. She refused to shout at him on such a beautiful day. He was well and they were at peace with each other for the first time since meeting again. “I want to understand why one of the finest captains in the Royal Navy chose to follow me about in such inferior transportation.”

“Finest captain? High praise, but you had better not let Maitland hear you say that. He claimed the distinction as his birthright years ago.” He grinned and then shrugged. “I never learned how to ride, and at my age I am sure there is no reason I need to start.”

She laughed at discovering something new about him. “Oh, so there is something you do not do well. That must be rare.”

“Aside from the obvious, yes.” He glanced toward her servants, frowning at the great distance between them.

Sally was glad they had ridden ahead. It gave her more time to be herself around the captain. “What else don’t you do well?”

He tipped his head to the side, his expression serious. “Forget you.”

Sally turned her horse away and urged it on, uncomfortable with his answer. His words proclaimed he had missed her, but his actions proved otherwise. If he had truly missed her, he would have found a way to see her long before this. And he had not even come to Newberry because he wanted her back in his life. He was here because he had been ordered to come. She rode on in silence.

The rumble of the cart increased on the downward slope, and she circled back as Felix whooped out loud. A wide grin split his face as the gig bounced along in the wake of the pony’s enthusiastic canter. She had not seen him so happy since they had renewed their acquaintance. Before, during their engagement, he had always possessed high spirits.

He drew on the reins eventually, stopping near her side. “Your brother and I raced donkeys in Port Royal. He beat me by a nose.” Felix chuckled, snapping his fingers. The pony started and lunged forward, and he was thrown backward, legs thrown up in the air. He scrambled for the reins and halted the carriage, laughing all the while. He pointed ahead to a nearby house. “Is that where you are going?”

She frowned as she took in the closest building about two hundred yards away. “Yes. Mr. and Mrs. Frazer have lived there over a year, but I have not laid eyes on her in the past three weeks. I want to make sure she is all right. Her husband is a very big fellow.”

“You think he harmed her.” His eyes widened. “Is he violent?”

“I do not know, but I used to see her all the time talking with their neighbors. The last time I spoke to Mr. Frazer, I felt a chill from being around him.”

Felix checked his pockets where the pistols rested and then urged Long Peg toward the hitching post. He jumped from the gig, lashed Long Peg to the post, and then helped Sally dismount. As his hands slipped from her waist, Sally glanced up into his eyes and leaned into him. Desire flared briefly in his gaze before he stepped back to increase the distance between them.

She swallowed back a protest of disappointment. What good was desire if she was always drawn to the wrong man?

She hurried toward her maid, whose horse had carried a basket of produce from Newberry’s kitchen garden and the orchard. This offering was her way inside the cottage to see how Mrs. Frazer fared with her own eyes. She would deal with desire and Felix when they were done.

Mr. Frazer met them at the gate, his body blocking her path to the building beyond. “What do you want?”

“I have a gift for Mrs. Frazer.” She displayed the overflowing basket in a manner that she hoped would appeal to him. “Something for your supper.”

Frazer’s gaze slipped to Felix and grew tense. “Who is this?”

“Mr. Frazer, this is Captain Felix Hastings of the
Selfridge
.” Sally introduced the two men. “He is lately come to Newberry Park as the duke’s special guest.”

A little embellishment never hurt in a potentially difficult situation. Father was not well liked around the estate thanks to his continued absence, but the duke was adored. She had long ago learned to phrase her requests as if they came from her grandfather even when they did not.

“Mr. Frazer, a pleasure.” Felix stretched out his hand immediately, and the tenant appeared surprised he would do so.

They shook briefly. “Captain.”

Felix took the basket from Sally. “Here, let me carry that for you, my lady.”

The ease in Felix’s tone seemed to soothe Frazer enough that he opened the gate and invited them inside the small yard. Sally thanked him and made a beeline for the closed front door.

Felix stalked beside her, glancing left and right as if looking for an enemy to fight. “Gently, Sal.”

They waited a moment before Frazer, cap in hand, scrubbed his feet and opened the front door. Her servants remained outside and out of the way.

Frazer’s home consisted of four large square rooms and a central corridor that ran from front door to back like many of the tenant cottages on the estate. A bedroom and kitchen at the back; a sitting room and second bedroom in the front. It was neat and practical and on the whole well cared for.

Mrs. Frazer was not in the sitting room or front bedroom, which were both as neat and tidy as a lady could hope to find. However, Frazer stood in the hall, indecision clear on his face and in his stance. He did not like her very much she was sure, and if not for Felix’s intimidating presence, Sally would not have the courage to speak up. “Well, where is Mrs. Frazer?”

“Gone,” he grumbled, his face flushing the hot red of anger.

“Gone? What do you mean, gone?”

He stumbled deeper into the sitting room and took a letter off the mantel. He held it, stared at it, and then shoved it in her direction. “I can guess what it says.”

Felix took the letter before she could open it, his eyes locked on Frazer. “Sally, my dear, would you mind stepping outdoors? Actually, I insist you do. I will take care of this.”

If Mrs. Frazer was not within the house, Sally had no reason or wish to linger. She had discovered what she needed to know most of all, so she did not mind complying with Felix’s request to leave.

In fact she was relieved. There were days when dealing with rough-and-tumble men like Frazer was difficult, and there was often no one but herself to cope.

Sally made it as far as the gate before a window shattered behind her back. She spun around as shards of glass rained down on the grass below the little cottage, the victim of a thrown chair. “Felix!” she screamed.

Her maid and footman restrained her when she would have returned to the house. “Stay back, my lady.”

An unholy din, splintering wood and breaking china, lasted but a few moments. Then all was silent within. Sally trembled. She had not heard a shot ring out from the pistols Felix carried on his person, but she was still worried. He had carried a knife. Frazer was the larger man and Felix could be hurt even if he was armed. He could need her help. “Let me go.”

Felix emerged from the house the moment the words left her mouth. He appeared unscathed, his expression sober and unruffled by the commotion that had just taken place. He joined her at the gate, casting one last look behind him.

“She fell in love with someone else,” he said simply. “We have done enough here. He will not starve. Back to the horses, everyone.”

When the servants were gone, Sally gripped Felix’s arm. “Are you all right?”

“I was never in any danger, but he has wrecked the place.” Felix slid his palm down her spine and held it against her lower back. The touch was comforting after the fright she had just endured, and heat rushed down her limbs and warmed her through and through. He pushed her toward her horse very gently, voice pitched low for her ears only. “He is heartbroken, and it would be best if he was left to grieve in peace. He could not read the letter himself but did not want to ask for your help. He is very embarrassed.”

“I understand.” Sally faced the house, loathe to go. “But I cannot leave him like this.”

“A man like Frazer will not ever ask for your help, and in his current state of mind, a woman would only be a reminder of his disappointment.” He sighed, wrapped her arm around his, and drew her away. “I have known men like him before. They would bleed out from a wound rather than admit an enemy bested them.”

She stared at him. “Surely not.”

“The trick is to ignore the outburst and give them no choice in the decision to fix things.” Felix forced her to her horse, helped her mount, but then paused beside her leg. He straightened her gown over the stirrup, frowning at the cloth. He pitched his voice lower still. “I told him someone would visit in a few days to begin repair of the window, but I strongly suggest you do not come without me or someone more important than a pair of slightly built servants. He is very bitter. She had told him she loved him, and her change of heart has robbed him of all civility.”

“Oh dear.” When Felix had abandoned her, she had wanted to scream and rage even though it was she who had stopped their wedding after learning he was marrying her to advance his career. She envied Frazer his loss of control even if she was terrified of it. “I understand how that feels.”

“Hmm, I thought you might say that.” He glanced up. “And I deserve your anger and more, I suppose.”

Sally pressed her lips together to keep herself from apologizing. She could not say she forgave him, and it was harder still to forget.

Chapter Twenty-One

T
hey rode solemnly back to the stables in single file. And although Sally attempted to engage Felix in conversation, he appeared lost in thought and rarely smiled. Her enthusiasm for the journey had dimmed a great deal without his earlier merriment to encourage hers.

He did help her dismount when they reached the stables, but his reserved manner filled her with longing to see his earlier grin return.

She smiled warmly at him. “Next time you, sir, will ride a horse. I think Nero will do for you. He is a sweet and gentle older fellow.”

“There is no need to fuss about my lack of horsemanship.” He turned away to speak with the stable master who had finally come out to render aid. “Where were you?” he demanded.

“Helping Lady Louisa in the orchard, sir.” Dudley took Sally’s gray away while the footman led his and the maids’ horse toward their stalls.