Edith Layton (19 page)

“We aren’t close, but we aren’t estranged either,” Leland explained, to show he understood her confusion “We’ve just got little in common and less interest in finding what that little might be. Still, when he eventually does decide to return to England, you’ll meet him, I promise.”

“God!”
Daffyd said, swatting his own forehead. “
Martin!
I’d forgotten all about him. Her youngest, got off your father. He was born years after me. I suppose he’s as related to me as you are, but I only met him once and haven’t thought of him since!”

“No more should you,” Leland said calmly. “He seldom thinks of us. We embarrass him, I think. But to be charitable, and disregarding our notoriety, it may just be that he’s at that stage of life when all his relatives do that. Likely he’ll outgrow that in a few more decades.”

They laughed, and the uncomfortable moment passed. Another came soon enough.

“Daisy? Rather, I suppose I should say, Lady Haye?” a soft voice asked.

Helena twisted a handkerchief in her hands. Another person she’d forgotten today, Daisy thought in chagrin. Helena had been indispensable, at Daisy’s side since she’d heard about the wedding, helping her prepare for it. But precisely because everything had been done so efficiently
and naturally, Daisy had taken her help for granted. Now she finally noticed that her companion had also dressed for the occasion, and looked very well. Helena wore a simple but well-cut violet-colored gown to the ceremony, and her hair, though neatly pulled back, as ever, had been allowed to curl around her face. Daisy realized how good-looking Helena was when she allowed herself to be. Unfortunately, she also looked very distressed.

“This is awkward,” Helena said. “I ought to have brought it up before, but things happened so quickly…but the truth is that now you’re married, my lady, my job is done. So I’ll be leaving today. I just wondered, if you’re so inclined, could you write me a letter of recommendation, please? Oh, not now, I quite understand you haven’t the time. But if I leave you my direction, could you send on to me soon?”

“So inclined?”
Daisy yelped. “Of course, I am, and will right this very minute, if you want, and if I can get some paper from the landlord. But there’s no need to hurry; you don’t have to rush off!”

“I rather think I do,” Helena said, smiling for the first time. “A bride doesn’t need any companion but her husband after her wedding.”

“My home has more bedchambers than is decent, or so everyone has always said,” Leland commented. “My lady is right; stay on with us until you find a new position.”

Helena shook her head. “Thank you, but no, my lord. I’ve engaged my old rooms in London again. But I thought I’d go north and visit my children for a spell first.” Her expression became wistful. “I always do, between positions. They look forward to it as much as I do. I need only take the stage from here tomorrow morning. There’s one due, I know; I’ve asked.”

“But you didn’t ask for your wages, and you didn’t remind me that they were due!” Daisy said. “That beats all! Please stay, I don’t want you riding off alone just yet.” She saw Helena’s unhappy expression. “Oh all right, you must as you wish, I suppose. But I wish you wouldn’t just leave like that.”

“Thank you, I knew you’d understand,” Helena said. “My job here is done. I never was companion to a married lady, you see, and a newlywed one will definitely not require my services. I go where I’m needed. So, I’ll leave you now and visit my children.
I
need to see them as often as I can. If it makes you feel better, I thank you for this unexpected opportunity. But I will write to you, and if you know anyone in need of a companion, I’d be happy to meet with them.”

Daisy felt terrible, and looked to Leland for advice.

But the earl spoke first. “We’re all sorry to see you go,” he said. “Leland will take care of your wages, and likely here and now if I know my man. But at least I can help you with your other
predicament. No need to take the public stage, I’m going tomorrow morning, too, Mrs. Masters. I’d be happy to take you north. It’s on my way to Egremont.”

Leland smiled and looked at Daffyd, who shared his silent appreciation. The earl’s estate was south of where they were, but Geoff hadn’t even asked Helena’s destination or knew how far north it was. But he was the sort of man who hated to see anyone left on his own.

“Of course I’ll settle the matter of wages,” Leland said. “But see what an expensive wife I’ve got! Married not ten minutes and already demanding my money.”

They laughed. Daisy joined in, not because of the quip, but because it seemed to her that her new husband liked to use the word “wife.” And for a wonder, for the first time, hearing herself called that didn’t cause her heart to sink.

The guests began to toast them again, and they joined in the merriment.

After an hour, a servant in green and white livery ducked into the inn’s common room, looked around, saw Leland, and went to him. Leland spoke with him for a moment, nodded, and sent him out again. Then he took his wife aside, and spoke quietly to her.

“This is amusing, but we shouldn’t outstay our welcome,” Leland told her. “So we’ll stay on here, celebrating, for a little while longer. But then we must leave. A bride and groom who linger too
long at their own celebration give rise to gossip just as surely as those who can’t wait to rush off and be alone.”

His eyes were grave and sincere as they studied her. “And you and I must begin this right. I want our marriage to be as little cause for gossip as my life was cause for it before we met.”

“Then you shouldn’t have married a convict,” she said bleakly.

He turned so that his body shielded her from the eyes of the guests.

“Had I married a nondescript little nun of a girl in her first Season, with a bishop for a brother, they’d gossip more,” he said in a low voice. “I don’t mind that. It’s you I’m thinking of. But as for your history? I’d wager that if we sat down, bared our souls, and compared our relative notoriety, I’d win, hands down. But there are much better things for us to bare and compare.”

He smiled, and then shook his head at her involuntary start. “No, don’t worry. It wasn’t a threat or a promise, just a jest. I hesitated to take you back to my house until all the guests had been tossed out and we could be alone. I’ve just been assured that we will be—apart from my long-suffering staff, that is. Speaking of the staff, I’ve also been assured that they are ecstatic at the turn of events and eager to meet their new mistress. Who would have guessed that a wedding and the possibility of a quiet life in future would excite so many people so much?”

His voice gentled, and he smiled. “Including myself. Come with me, if you please, my lady. My pleasure palace awaits us, and so does our duty. We have to make it a home again.”

“T
his is it?” Daisy asked, astonished. “
This
is your little country home?”

“In comparison to my principal seat, where my mother lives, yes it is,” Leland said. “It’s small enough to be manageable, and it’s entirely mine, alone. Not any longer, of course; now it’s ours.”

Daisy looked out the carriage window at his home as it came into view. She’d suspected something out of the ordinary after they’d turned from the main road and passed a gatehouse where a gatekeeper, goggling at their carriage, trying to see inside, let them in. Then they’d gone along a lane that curved and snaked so as to keep showing spectacular views of the grounds of some fabulous estate. But Leland only said they were
nearing his humble home, so she assumed the estate was a near neighbor. She and her father had lived in a small manor house adjacent to a magnificent house and lands. It was this noble neighbor’s lands that her father had poached until he’d overdone it, been charged, convicted, and sent far away.

Now they passed huge walls of rhododendron that Leland said he regretted were out of bloom, and she’d gotten glimpses of fountains and statues on distant green lawns, and glints of blue in the distance that was surely a lake. Daisy saw deer that stopped to stare at them and sheep that ignored them altogether as they grazed on long green meadows. She spied a waterfall that spilled into a stream that twisted beside the road until it ran beneath a bridge they crossed, and then rushed away. The coach went over an Oriental bridge, up a hill, and under an arch. And then she saw his home.

It was a sprawling red house with wings on either side, and it embraced a shining white oval of a front drive.

Servants in green and white livery stood on the white stairs to the house, and the big front door was opened wide. Leland got out of the carriage and turned to offer his hand to Daisy.

“Welcome,” he said. “I hope you’ll like it here.”

She paused in the doorway of the carriage. “It’s as big as London,” she whispered in awe.

“Not quite. We lack a tower and a palace, although they say the ruler of this place is just as dissolute as our prince. But I hear this fellow’s turned over a new leaf, taken a new bride, and promises to become as staid as anyone could wish. Come, meet my staff. They’re yearning to be presented.”

“I’ve never lived in a place such as this,” she said as she came down the carriage stairs.

“You’ve lived with worse and survived, haven’t you? I think you could get used to this, if you try. You will try, won’t you?” he asked, his eyes suddenly solemn.

She laughed. “Oh, my lord, it will be a hardship, but I promise, I will try!”

She was as good as her word. The household staff stood in a reception line, and she accepted their well wishes, never letting them know how stunned she was by how many of them there were. She met the butler and the housekeeper, the cook and her assistants, footmen and maids, coachmen, stablemen, gardeners, and assorted outdoor workers. Daisy lost count of them and realized she wasn’t that far off thinking her new home was as big as London. It was, in fact, a small city of workers, and though they all looked happy, well fed, and content, they beamed at Daisy as though she’d come to deliver them.

“They’re delighted that I’ve taken a wife, and one with manners and dignity,” Leland explained
in an aside as they finished greeting the last of the servants.

When they were done greeting her, the assembled staff burst into applause. That almost made Daisy burst into tears.

“My lady is overwhelmed, as am I,” Leland told his staff. “I know all will go well from now on. Thank you for your patience in the past, and for your well wishes today. I’ve asked Cook to prepare a special menu for you all today so that you can celebrate, too. Again, thank you.”

After another bust of applause for his speech, the staff silently and swiftly dispersed. Soon Leland and Daisy were alone in the front hall.

“Your maid’s already ensconced upstairs,” Leland said. “I’m sure you’d like to change so I can show you ‘round.”

“Oh, yes, I would,” she said.

“Good,” he said as they began walking up the long, ornate staircase. “That gown
is
magnificent, but I worry that the trailing tulle will get caught in the rosebushes or dragged through the stable yard, or excite the chickens so much they’ll stop laying. Yes, I do have chickens. I hope you’re not appalled. I
know
gentlemen should have peacocks, but they’re such idiots. Mind you, a peacock’s intellect is a notch below that of a chicken’s, who are no geniuses themselves, but at least I don’t feel guilty about eating a chicken. They are rather dim, you know. Yet still it seems a pity to
demolish a wonder like a peacock merely for one’s dinner, as the Elizabethans did. Which is why, I suppose, being beautiful is always an advantage. Did you find it so?”

She laughed. “I’m not beautiful enough to answer that.”

“Of course you are,” he said mildly. “I might not keep peacocks, but I’m impressed by their beauty. I didn’t marry for beauty, but I’m delighted to have a lovely wife.”

“You flatter me after we’re married?” she asked with a grin. “Now that’s something wonderful.”

“I don’t flatter,” he said in bored tones. “It’s demeaning, at least for the flatterer.
I
merely comment.”

“Then, thank you,” she said, so pleased and surprised, she didn’t know what else to say.

The room he showed her to was immense, and so opulently furnished that she caught her breath. But unlike most great houses she’d seen in illustrated magazines, for all its size and splendor the bedchamber was filled with light and seemed modern and airy. The great canopy bed, big enough for a family to sleep in, was hung with peach panels and covered with a sumptuous apricot-colored silk spread. The furniture was graceful and light, fashioned in the Chinese style the prince had made famous with his pleasure house at Brighton. Even the mantelpiece over the fireplace was made of rose-colored marble. The walls were covered with yellow and white stretched
silk, and the paintings on those walls were of the sea and sky. The windows overlooked gardens, and it seemed they’d come inside as well, because everywhere there were vases and baskets of bright flowers.

Daisy peeked into an adjoining room to see a dressing room, and when she opened another door, found a second one. There were bathing facilities behind another door: a huge bath, fit for a Roman spa, and an indoor toilet. She swiftly changed out of the gown she’d been married in, and washed, admiring the beautiful marble water basin. She dallied only because she’d never seen a toilet that flushed before, but soon shook herself from the novelty of flushing, and dressed. She put on a simple yellow walking dress, comfortable slippers, and a straw bonnet. With a last backward glance at herself in a looking glass, she left her room. She couldn’t wait to see what else lay ahead for her.

Leland was waiting at the foot of the stair. He, too, had changed, and was dressed like a country gentleman, or rather, she thought, like a London gentleman who had dressed as a country gentleman. Because though he wore a scarf tied carelessly around his neck, no squire had ever worn such a well-tailored green jacket, such immaculate linen, such tightly fitting wrinkle-free gray breeches, or such shining brown half boots.

She smiled. He’d be a paragon of fashion if he had to dress for mucking out a barnyard.

“Yes,” he said, as though reading her mind. “Clothes
do
make the man, don’t you think? Especially when the man isn’t fortunate enough to command a lady’s attention otherwise.” He smiled. “I know, that’s the past, there’s only one lady’s attention I want now. Even so, I suspect it would be hard to get out of the habit of dressing to suit the occasion. I’m afraid you’ll have to put up with a fop. Unless, of course, it disturbs you?”

“No,” she said, smiling. “I don’t think that caring for your appearance means you’re a fop.” Especially, she thought, when one had endured a husband who bathed only when he felt too hot, and whose idea of fashion was to put on a clean shirt.

“Good,” Leland said, offering her his arm, “Now let’s go. I have so much to show you. My housekeeper won’t bother you for instructions because it’s our honeymoon and you haven’t any duties until it’s over. Let us hope it never is,” he added. “The rest of the staff will also stay discreetly out of our way. So we must entertain ourselves. Shall we begin?”

They strolled down paths to see rose gardens and wisteria arbors, herb gardens and knot gardens and rhododendron walks. His gardeners paused to salute him and show her their prize blooms. Her new husband showed her statues and fountains, and then a huge gazebo that overlooked an artificial pond that suited the real carp in it to perfection.

“These fellows are all tamed, and looking for crumbs,” Leland said, seeing her delight when the fish came to the edge of the pond and bubbled up their greetings to her fingertips when she touched the water. “They’re ornaments, really. But we’ve streams that feed a larger lake on the grounds, if you care to see real fish or go fishing. It’s too far to walk today, but if you like, we can ride there tomorrow.”

“I used to go fishing,” she said, her expression turning somber. “Remember, that’s partly the reason I was transported. I helped my father as he helped himself to our neighbor’s fish.”

“I’m sorry to bring up bad memories,” he said sincerely.

“I don’t mind,” she said, looking up at him. “I’d like to see the lake. I actually enjoyed fishing.”

Her straw bonnet was a flimsy affair; the wide holes in the weave let in the sunlight. The sunlight brought out the gold in her ruddy hair, and had already begun to inspire a light dusting of freckles on the bridge of her nose. Her eyes glowed with pleasure. The sunlight also clearly delineated her form, because her gown was so thin. For once, that wasn’t what held his attention. He studied her face instead. She was very beautiful, and very happy, which made her even lovelier.

“We’ll go there tomorrow,” he said. “I don’t want to exhaust you today.”

Her joyous expression vanished. She looked down at the fish again, her eyelashes shadowing her eyes. He frowned, wondered what had dismayed her.

“Oh,”
he said. “I see. The comment about not wanting to exhaust you today? Don’t worry, it had no double meaning. It
is
our wedding night. But if you don’t want to begin our marriage tonight in earnest, or in the marriage bed,” he added, smiling, “we can wait. We have after all, forever. Or at least as long as it takes for you to invite me to join you in pleasure.”

She looked up at him in surprise. Her first husband had taken her away with him the moment the prison ship’s captain had finished reciting the wedding service. Tanner had laughed, grabbed her hand, dragged her to his cabin, tossed her on his bunk, flipped up her skirt, thrown himself on her, and done it. The act had taken much less time than the wedding ceremony and had terrified her even more. Leland expected her to invite him to do that? She sighed. She supposed she’d have to. But at least he was giving her time.

“Thank you,” she said. “I would like to get to know you better.”

“Now
that,
” he said, offering her his arm again, “is brave of you. Come, I’ll show you the prize of my home.”

He walked her down a path and up another, and then paused. She looked across a stream and
another long lawn, and clapped her hands in glee. “A maze!” she cried. “How wonderful! I’ve read about them and never seen one.”

“So you shall,” he said comfortably. “I love it if only because it proves that my ancestors were just such frippery fellows as myself. My father was such a grim, dour, humorless man that I often wondered if my dear mama had got me off someone else, as she did Daffyd. But, alas, no. I resemble my late papa, in features, at least. He didn’t care for the maze at all. Spending a fortune to erect and then maintain it down through the centuries? He considered it wasteful and un-productive. It didn’t produce vegetables, fruit, or wood, and you couldn’t hunt or graze animals on it. He didn’t understand the reason for a maze because the word ‘play’ was alien to him. But luckily he was too conservative to destroy it. I’m very pleased that he didn’t; it’s the only living link I have to anyone in my family who remotely resembles me.”

“Your mother didn’t appreciate it?” Daisy asked.

“My mother didn’t appreciate anything but attention, and though I suppose she could get that if she pretended to get lost in the maze with a handsome stranger, she had no use for it otherwise. My brother Martin is bored by it, maybe because he knows he’s not heir to it and he’s only interested in what is his. Daffyd’s amused by it. Would you like to go in and see why?”

“Yes!” she said eagerly.

The maze was dark green, some twelve feet high, and made of ancient, thickly woven, manicured shrubs. Once they entered the doorway cut into the hedge, the air became closer and the heavy green smell of freshly cut vegetation was strong. The pebbled paths were so narrow, they had to walk close together, and it amused Leland to let Daisy decide the turnings they should take. After a while, she stopped, put her hands on her hips, and looked up at him.

“You are much too amused,” she said crossly. “And I’m much too smart to keep walking in circles. I’ll never find my way out without help.”

“The point is,” he said gently, “to find your way
in,
” he said, as they began to walk again, taking what seemed like casual left and right turns at random openings in the hedges. “My ancestors would have parties and award prizes to whomever found the heart of the maze first. No one knows the secret path to it but the heir—and my brothers and your friend Geoff, of course. And no doubt, my mama. And the head gardener, and I suppose his helpers, and my butler and housekeeper as well.

“A secret just isn’t what it used to be,” he said, shaking his head in mock sorrow. “I can feel the weight of my ancestor’s disapproval for sharing it so freely. But what if I came in one day and expired on the spot? It would take centuries for me to be found if someone didn’t know the way in. Ah, here we are. What do you think?”