Lord Somerton's Heir (21 page)

‘The coach’ll be here any minute,’ the boy announced breathlessly, meeting his lordship in the front hall.

Sebastian gave Peter a shilling and, adjusting his neck cloth, which seemed to have come loose, he strode out of the front door to wait for his brother and sister.

As the coach turned on to the forecourt, Matt leaned out of the window waving his hat, a grin from ear to ear.

‘Bas!’ he shouted.

A glimpse of Connie’s best bonnet also appeared at the window as she pulled her brother back inside the coach. Sebastian smiled as he heard her scolding him.

‘Matt, stop making such a fool of yourself.’

Lordly decorum quite forgotten, Sebastian bounded down the stone stairs to greet his siblings, lifting Connie from the coach before the footman had set down the steps and clasping Matt to him.

They were here at last. His family.

He turned back to the coach to lend his hand to Isabel. Her gloved fingers clasped his hand and she smiled down at him. He gave her fingers a gentle squeeze, hoping the simple gesture conveyed the range of emotions from how very pleased he was to see her to his thanks for everything she had done for his family.

‘Welcome home, Lady Somerton.’

She rewarded him with a smile and a barely perceptible acknowledging pressure on his own fingers.

‘It is good to be…home.’

‘You look very well,’ he heard himself saying, thinking as he spoke that a few weeks of homely cooking and bucolic living had given Isabel some colour in her pale cheeks and life in her eyes.

In the hallway, Connie spun on her heel, looking upwards at the mural of Diana and Actaeon sporting around the dome.

‘Oh, Bas, this is beautiful. Is it all really yours?’

‘Every stone and associated debt,’ Sebastian said with a laugh in his voice.

‘I am going to wake soon in my own bedroom in Little Benning and find this is all a dream,’ Connie said.

Sebastian put an arm around his sister’s shoulders, delighted to have her by his side at last. He wanted to show it all to her, share his good fortune with his brother and sister.

‘Wait until I show you the gallery and the stables. Did Lady Somerton tell you about her foal? Ah, Mrs Fletcher,’ he gestured for the housekeeper who hovered in the shadows of the stairs.

She came forward and bobbed a curtsey. ‘Miss Alder, Mister Alder, welcome to Brantstone. You must be tired after your journey.’ She gestured towards the stairs. ‘Your rooms are ready.’

‘Oh I’m not tired at all,’ Connie said and looked up at her brother. ‘Bas, I’ve never known anything like it! The best room at the inn last night and the inn keeper treating Matt and I like we were royalty.’

Sebastian beamed and turned to Isabel. ‘I must apologise for my siblings. I hope you are not too worn out by their company.’

Isabel met his eyes. ‘Not at all. I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the last fortnight.’

Impulsively, he took her hand, now free of the gloves, and bent and kissed her fingers.

‘Thank you for your care, Lady Somerton. I am forever in your debt.’

‘Well, well, who do we have here?’

Freddy and Fanny appeared, standing side by side at the door to the library, and the cheerful mood seemed to dissipate. Sebastian silently cursed the Lynchs. Their continued presence felt like a blight on the house and it took a monumental effort to keep the ice from his voice as he effected the introductions.

Only a fool would have missed the fawning attention Freddy paid to Constance. Connie, unused to the attentions of men of the world, coloured prettily at his overblown compliments. The gorge rose in Sebastian’s throat and he wondered how best to educate his sister in such matters.

‘I am sure,’ Fanny said, seizing Connie by the arm, ‘that we shall be the very best of friends. Now, has Cousin Sebastian told you of the ball that is to be held here?’

Sebastian’s teeth ground at the familiar use of ‘Cousin Sebastian’.

‘Oh yes, Lady Somerton told me about it.’ Connie looked at her brother. ‘Bas, I have nothing to wear!’

Sebastian looked up at the ceiling. ‘And so it begins…’ he said with no malice. He had already briefed Mrs Fletcher to organise a modiste and a tailor to attend on Connie and Matt the next day.

Connie pulled a face at him. ‘You know I wouldn’t ask for a new dress unless I really meant it.’

Fanny patted her arm. ‘If nothing can be arranged, we are much of a size and I am sure I will have something in my wardrobe that you will like. Come, let me show you to your room. It will be the yellow bedchamber, just near me. I can’t wait to show you the house.’

As Fanny began to lead Connie up the stairs with a proprietorial air, the chill of disappointment settled on Sebastian’s shoulders. He had been looking forward to showing Connie the house, anticipating her pleasure at the sight of the yellow bedroom, which he had filled with yellow and white roses from the garden. Someone touched his arm and he looked down into Isabel’s face.

She nodded in perfect understanding.

‘Let me,’ she whispered.

Walking to the bottom of the stairs, she called up at the two girls.

‘Fanny, the tour of the house can wait. Constance needs a little rest after her recent illness and the stress of the journey. Allow Lord Somerton to show his sister to her chamber. Can you and Mrs Fletcher arrange for some tea?’

Fanny, masking the fleeting moue of disappointment that curled her lips, relinquished her hold on Connie. She smiled at Sebastian and fluttered her eyelashes. ‘Of course, Lord Somerton. We shall take tea in the blue parlour.’

Sebastian put his arm around Connie’s shoulders and led her up the stairs, pointing out various sour faced Somerton ancestors on the way.

‘Close your eyes,’ he said as he threw the door open.

‘I can smell roses,’ she said.

He had personally chosen the room for Connie, knowing she liked sunshine and light. The huge vase of the best of the summer roses stood on the chest, filling the room with their perfume.

She opened her eyes and, seeing the room, her mouth fell open. She squealed with delight, pressing her hands to her chest. At the sight of her incredulous face, the love for his sister swelled Sebastian’s heart. He wanted to fold her in his arms and keep her safe from all the evil of the world. He could not rest easily knowing a murderer lurked in the shadows of Brantstone.

‘Oh, Bas…’ she turned to him, tears glinting on her eyelashes. She ran at him, throwing her arms around him. ‘I have missed you so much.’

He held her to him. ‘And I you, Connie.’

She looked up at him. ‘We can be a proper family now.’

He nodded and dropped a brotherly kiss on her forehead. ‘We can. Now I have one small welcome present for you.’

He fished in his jacket and pulled out a long, flat box and handed it to her. She took the box, turning it over in her hands.

‘Open it,’ he urged.

She unclasped the lid, revealing a delicate string of pearls with a diamond clasp and matching pearl earrings. A simple bit of jewellery but, for a girl who had only her mother’s wedding ring, it meant the world.

She kissed him again. ‘You are the best of brothers,’ she said.

He held out his arm. ‘Come and take tea in the blue parlour and then I will show you the rest of the house.’

After supper, Sebastian and Matt retired to the study where a cheerful fire burned in the grate against the chill of the evening. Matt swirled the brandy in his glass and took a sip. He closed his eyes and let out a long breath.

‘I must say, Lord Somerton, life has dealt you a well-deserved hand. I still have to pinch myself to believe how it came about.’

Sebastian smiled. ‘It’s not as easy as you would think, Matt. First and foremost, I have responsibility for the lives and the livelihoods of the tenants — a responsibility my late cousin appeared to have done his best to shirk in his life time.’

Matt nodded. ‘It sounds like your cousin was not greatly loved.’

Sebastian looked into the depths of the newly procured, expensive but legally imported brandy. ‘I am struggling to find some redeeming feature in him,’ he said.

‘He had good taste in women,’ Matt said.

Sebastian looked up.

‘Having just had the pleasure of Lady Somerton’s company for the last fortnight, I was not wrong in my first impression. She is a treasure. You know the old pianoforte? She played it like it was the finest concert instrument. Beautiful and talented.’

‘I’m glad you like her.’ Sebastian maintained a neutral tone, but it pleased him to hear Isabel spoken of so highly by his brother.

‘She doesn’t talk about her husband much,’ Matt pried.

‘No. It was not a happy marriage,’ Sebastian replied, cutting short any further comment.

‘Those cousins of his are a strange pair,’ Matt said. ‘How on earth did you get saddled with that frightful duo?’

‘I appear to have inherited them as a problem my cousin wasn’t prepared to deal with.’

Sebastian toyed with confiding his thoughts on Anthony’s death to his brother but decided not to cloud the younger man’s judgment for the moment. Any insight Matt could offer was best untainted by Sebastian’s growing unease about Freddy Lynch.

‘On the other side of the coin, tomorrow you are going to meet your grandmother and a large assortment of aunts and uncles and cousins. I have organised a picnic in the grounds for the family. If the weather is foul, it will be a picnic in the ballroom.’

Matt shook his head. ‘Fancy that, a whole family we never knew about. Connie is so excited.’

Sebastian nodded. ‘All those years of thinking it was just us in the world, Matt.’

‘So why did Lord Somerton cut his son off like that? Was it just because he loved the vicar’s daughter?’

Sebastian sighed. ‘From what I can gather, it was pride on both sides. Lord Somerton had betrothed his son to the daughter of an earl and our mother was betrothed to someone else. When they eloped, both fathers would have felt a terrible sense of betrayal and shame. But enough of the past. All the players in that sad drama are dead and I think speculating on what might have been is a waste of time.’

‘Quite right.’ Matt rose to his feet. ‘It’s been a long day. I am looking forward to losing myself in that bed. I swear it would have filled my room at home.’

Sebastian smiled and bade his brother goodnight. He sat for a while longer, finishing his glass of brandy and gazing into the fire. With Matt and Connie now with him, he felt more at ease and able to plan a future for his siblings. .

The next day dawned bright and clear but, before the guests were due to arrive, Sebastian took Matt and Connie down to the village to call on their aunt and grandmother. Cissy had burst into tears on seeing Connie.

‘Oh you are the spit of your mother,’ she sobbed. ‘I would have sworn it were Marjory herself walking up the garden path.’

Connie, in turn, had burst into tears on meeting her grandmother. While the women wailed, Sebastian and Matt stood by the door, waiting for the flood to subside. Sebastian stole a glance at his brother and noticed the younger man’s eyes seemed moist.

Matt caught his glance, sniffed, and looked up at his brother with a rueful smile.

‘You better become accustomed to the attention. Mother had five sisters. I believe we have upward of fifty relatives attending our luncheon party today,’ Sebastian said.

‘Good lord!’

Sebastian cleared his throat. ‘Ladies? If you are ready to leave, my barouche is outside.’

Cissy dabbed at her eyes and blew her nose loudly on a sturdy handkerchief. ‘Oh my. This is all too much, my lord. Who’d have thought it? Such a lovely girl.’ She squeezed Connie’s hand again and turned to her mother, saying loudly, ‘Well come along, mother. His lordship has his carriage for us.’

Matt helped both ladies, dressed in their Sunday finery, into the carriage for the drive back to the hall. Cissy, seeing some of her neighbours in the street, waved and bowed her head. Sebastian smiled. He had it in mind to offer to move his grandmother and aunt up to the hall where they could have rooms of their own in the East wing but that was a surprise he would keep for another day.

The guests began arriving by mid-morning. Aunts, uncles and cousins of all ages poured into the grounds of the hall. With some reluctance, Sebastian had enlisted Fanny’s aid and had to admit that when it came to organising social events, she had a rare talent. A long table had been set up underneath the largest oak tree in the garden and Fanny had the footmen setting up games of quoits and shuttlecock and battledore as well as a game with hoops. Jugglers and acrobats had appeared, along with a small orchestra.

Fanny, showing unusual tact, wandered among the entertainment ensuring all was in order, but in all other respects, keeping a respectful distance. Of Freddy there was, mercifully, no sign. Isabel, at Sebastian’s insistence that she would not be intruding, joined the party.

A comfortable chair with cushions had been arranged for his grandmother and she sat like a queen in the shade of a tree, following the lively games and the interaction of her extended family with what eyesight she had left. She smiled beatifically at the happy noise around her.

Sebastian stood beside his grandmother’s chair watching Matt engaged in a rowdy game of Blind Man’s Buff with some of the younger cousins. Connie sat on a stool at her grandmother’s feet, holding the old woman’s hand and listening with earnest attention to her grandmother’s stories about her lost daughter and the mother Connie had never known.

Isabel, eschewing her usual dowdy black and dressed in a gown of dove grey trimmed with lilac ribbons, holding an elegant lace parasol, wandered across to stand beside Sebastian. She had done something different with her hair. Little curls framed her face. He liked the effect.

‘Walk with me?’ she offered.

He crooked his elbow and she slipped a hand around his arm. They circled the party, stopping to speak to guests. He led her up to the terrace, where they sat side by side on the wall, watching the festivities.

It was a long while before Sebastian spoke.