Yorkshire (31 page)

“I suppose I saw an illusion,” I agreed, pleased James had made that decision. Lady Hareton had suffered enough for the sins she’d been driven to commit.

I leaned back, yawning, and Martha noticed. “Back to bed now, dear.” It was comforting to be tucked between the sheets like a child. I was very tired. “Sleep now.”

I woke up at two in the morning, ravenously hungry and with a dry mouth. After checking the time on the pocket watch I kept by my bed, I turned over and tried to sleep, but it was no use. I was awake now. I swung my feet out of bed and tested my foot on the floor. It was tender, but I could bear it. Finding my wrapper, I thrust my arms into it and limped to the door. If I could find something downstairs without disturbing anyone, I could probably get back to sleep.

It took me some time to get downstairs, gripping the banister, taking a step at a time. Carefully, I limped to the dining room. Cordial and bread rolls awaited me on the sideboard. I sat, finishing my meagre repast, enjoying the solitude. Even the servants were abed.

When finished, I rested, considering the day’s astonishing events. They’d take some time to sink in properly. Perhaps, I thought, with a smile, I should get up every night at two, just to think about things. It helped.

I recalled a large vase of walking sticks by the back door, resolving to fetch one before returning upstairs.

I shuffled carefully up the corridor, favouring my right foot as much as I could, because the ankle was getting progressively sore, and then I heard a sound, the unmistakable sound of footsteps. Too early for the maids to be up, and everyone else had gone to bed. I looked around wildly for somewhere to hide, but couldn’t see anywhere. They’d hear the door open, and come to investigate. More dignified for me to face them.

As they rounded the corner, they came to a halt and stared at me, as I did at them.

Steven and Julia.

“Oh God,” breathed Steven. “Don’t call out.”

I remembered him saying that once before. I had been afraid of him then, but not now. “Good evening. Why should I call out?”

They were dressed for riding, but it was far too early for even the earliest morning ride, and Steven carried two bags. He bent and quietly put them down.

“Yes, why should you care?” said Julia Cartwright bitterly. “If it weren’t for Steven I’d be utterly ruined.”

“I think that might be putting it a bit high.” I kept my voice down. “You could have given Richard the release he asked for. He wanted that before he met me.”

Julia’s lip curled in a sneer. “I could have brought him around. With the help of his father—and mine.”

Angry, but still remembering to be quiet I demanded, “And what sort of life would that have been for him? Forced into marriage with someone he couldn’t like?”

Julia gave me a look of contempt. “Like? What does that matter? I could have given him the children he needs, and left him to follow his own life. How will you feel when he takes his first mistress? He says he loves you. How long do you think that will last? He’s never gone more than a month before, and I don’t think he will this time.”

She articulated some of my doubts, but I couldn’t let her see it. I used the reasoning she would understand. “I’ll be a viscountess. And someday a countess. I’ll manage.”

Julia turned triumphantly to Steven. “There? You see? You wanted to marry someone like that?”

Steven looked at me, a frown above his velvety eyes. “You really think that way, Rose? You’ll take him anyway?”

“I’ll take him.” That much was true.

“Then Julia is truer than you, because she wants me, despite my poverty.”

“Because of it, more like.” I needed something to hold on to, but I wasn’t about to show them my weakness.

“How so?”

“She can dominate you, you’ll be her creature as Richard never would be.” I had seen enough of how Julia operated to guess this was a strong motive. “She tried to manipulate him to her ways, but he wouldn’t have it. You will.”

“Hah.” The look Steven gave Julia held the fondness he had previously reserved for me, a look I suspected he’d practiced before a mirror. Seizing her, he kissed her, their mouths opening hungrily on each other. I was meant to watch, but I chose to shuffle over to the stand and find a stick instead.

I felt much more secure now I could support myself properly. A crutch lay by the stand, but I left it. The stout hazel branch in my hand served me better.

When they emerged, a trifle breathless, Steven stared at me, his mouth curled in a sneer. “Who’s in control now? Do you think you and Strang are the only people who can find quiet corners in this godforsaken house?”

I hadn’t foreseen that, but when I thought about it, it made sense. That was why Steven was on that deserted corridor that afternoon, that was why he hadn’t pursued me as vigorously as he might. He had his hands full, in more ways than one, with Julia Cartwright.

“You’re lovers?”

“Why not? You are.”

“So we are. And—now what?”

“We’re leaving,” Steven said defiantly. “Going to Gretna.”

“Congratulations.” Steven had snagged a rich wife, after all. Julia was a considerable heiress. After the marriage, Steven could count the money as his own.

“Why not wait to do it properly?” I could have kicked myself, except I would have fallen over.

“Because,” Julia said, bitterly, “if I stay, let Strang take me home, my father will bring a breach of promise suit against him and I’ll be the laughing stock of society. And I still won’t have him, so what’s the point? The only reason would be to get even with you, but I’d hurt myself just as much. Oh don’t worry,” she continued, as despite my good intentions, I sighed in relief, “I’ll get even.”

“Why bother, if you have what you want in Steven?” I hated this pettiness, this tit-for-tat mentality.

“Because you have done me a wrong, and I’ll see you punished for it.”

Steven shrugged. He’d gained a greater prize, in losing me. Even with an enhanced dowry, my fortune was no match for Julia’s. She was the only child of a rich man. Her prospects were mouth watering to a fortune hunter like Steven.

I knew I should have stopped them, called out, but I couldn’t think of one good reason why I should do so. I was between them and the back door, so I moved aside. “Godspeed.”

They moved past me. Julia produced a key, unlocking the door. “We’re riding to York to hire a carriage there. Now, you know, will you have us stopped? Will you send people after us?”

“Not me.” I was going back to bed.

“Thanks for that, at least,” she said.

Cold air gusted through the open door. “This isn’t the end.” She gave me the key. Without a backward glance, they left.

I locked the door after them. I got upstairs without waking anyone and fell at once into a dreamless sleep.

Chapter Twenty-Three

I felt much better the next day. When Lizzie put her head around the door at nine o’ clock, I was comfortably propped on pillows, in bed with some hot chocolate.

She came in and sat on the bed. “Good morning.”

“Good morning.” As children, we’d shared a bed. Every day we’d say “Good morning” to each other. It was good to be reminded of it.

“How are you feeling?”

“Much better, thank you.”

Lizzie took my hand. “Two months ago, if you’d told me I’d be sitting in a great house, with my sister who had—well, all the things you have done in so short a time.”

I yawned. “I feel like it happened to someone else. Two proposals of marriage—one conditional—”

She interrupted me. “Two?”

“Richard and Gervase.”

“Both? Both of them asked you?”

“Gervase only asked me so I could be with Richard, in case Miss Cartwright kept him to the contract.” I didn’t feel I could tell her Gervase’s real feelings. I hadn’t the right. “He says he owes his brother a great deal.” The excuse sounded lame to me, but I didn’t want to let anyone else in.

“Then it’s no use my making a push.” She smiled, not really concerned. “In any case, Martha has said we can go to London next year. Oh, Rose. It’s just what I always dreamed of.” She caught her hands together in delight.

“Yes, I know.” I sipped my chocolate. “Did Martha say I might get up?”

“If you wish, she says,” my sister replied. “She won’t let anyone see you until you are ready to see them.”

“You mean Richard, don’t you?”

“Yes.” She looked at me for a few moments consideringly. “I would never have thought of you doing those things.”

“What things?” I said sharply.

“Accepting him without referring him to James, and when he’s still contracted to somebody else…” Then she burst out with, “I know I’m not supposed to excite you, but, really my dear, I have to tell you.”

This sudden burst of excitement from her woke me out of my lethargy and I sat up straight. I knew what she was about to tell me. “What now?”

“Martha said I could tell you if you seemed ready, and I think you look well enough.”

I finished my drink and put my cup down.

She took both my hands in hers. “They put Steven in his room last night, to make sure he came nowhere near you. James said he would send him away without a character this very morning. He wouldn’t have him under his roof any longer, and you should have seen how wild Drury was.”

“Furious, I imagine.”

Lizzie continued with her story. “Lord Strang put his man Carier outside to guard him. You know Carier came and dressed your foot?”

“Yes.”

“Well, while he did that, Mr. Drury got a note to Miss Cartwright, and it seems they have run off together.”

“What?” Completely restored, I threw the covers aside and made to get out of bed, but my swollen ankle reminded me forcibly of its presence and I was compelled to put my hand back on the bed for support. The adventure last night must have made it worse.

Lizzie grinned, delighted at the response she had received. “I thought you would be interested. They must have left quite early, because when James sent a rider to the village, it seems they were seen before dawn, riding towards York. James has sent people to every inn there, but they seem to have got well away. They might have caught the mail, or bespoken a carriage, but if they did, they didn’t use their real names. We don’t even know if they’ve gone north or south.”

I knew.

I tried to take my weight on my foot, but it felt very tender this morning. “Lizzie, don’t stop, but will you help me to dress? Just a loose gown or something, but I must get up.”

Lizzie collected petticoats, stays, gown, stockings and shoes and talked. “They both left notes.” I threw off my night rail and put on a fresh shift. “Lord Strang has them,” Lizzie told me, lacing my stays for me at the back. “James and his lordship spent half the evening closeted together last night, but they seem to be in accord this morning. I’ve seen them say good morning to each other, but they’re both a bit stiff, even after the excitement of finding Drury missing. I think this is new to both of them.”

“I hope so,” I said, with a smile.

Barely half an hour later Lizzie had me ensconced in the sunny room near the small parlour. A manservant had carried me downstairs, but I had taken my sturdy hazel stick. I sat on a sofa that was new to the room, my ankle up on a stool, staring into the fire when the door opened on the one face I wanted to see most.

Richard came straight over to me, took my hand, and looked for a long time into my face. Reassured by what he saw there, he sat by my side without taking his gaze away from mine. “Miss Golightly, would you do me the honour of becoming my wife?”

“Yes.”

An end and a beginning. I was glad he had been so direct, made it easy for me, so different to Steven’s histrionics of the day before. He gave me a gentle kiss, cherishing me. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” That made him smile, and his smile made me smile.

“I shall give you a ruby for a ring. It would suit you.”

“Get me a ring from a fair if you like, I don’t care.”

“You want a gypsy? I should disappoint you then.”

We didn’t speak for a while. When we did, I was leaning against his shoulder, his arm comfortably about me. He took me in another kiss and I had no doubt that if he could ensure we wouldn’t be interrupted, he’d be making love to me soon.

“I asked Carier to give you a sleeping draught. These experiences can return to haunt one, and you needed the rest.”

I was taken aback to be so peremptorily treated, and said so.

“I’m sorry, my love, but you were very distressed. Believe me, it was the best way.”

Since I did feel much better this morning, and I was now so happy, I couldn’t do anything but forgive him instantly, but I warned him not to try that again. We kissed.

“Well then,” he said eventually. “When Carier came to care for you I was going to see Drury, but Gervase stopped me. I had every intention of killing him, but Gervase made me see it wouldn’t do. It would be doing us both a disservice. Didn’t I tell you other people’s problems were easier? If it had been anyone else, I would have been far calmer, but that he should do that to you—” He broke off. I saw the diamond pin fastening his neckcloth glitter as he took a few deep breaths. “But he won’t touch you any more.” He looked at me gravely. “Did Drury hurt you very much, my love?”