Secrets and Sensibilities: A Regency Romance Mystery (The Lady Emily Capers Book 1) (9 page)

She did not return his smile. “As you like, my lord. He is
your servant.”

“He is my friend,” David reminded her.

The girls looked puzzled, but her ladyship continued
undaunted. “In any case, we should probably inspect the kitchens to make sure
no one else becomes ill. I shall instruct Mrs. Abbot to throw out anything that
was left over, just to be on the safe side.”

“Wise precautions,” David agreed. “I’m sure we’d all like to
know this incident won’t be repeated.”

Lady Brentfield smiled sweetly at last. “Yes, I’m certain
you’d like to think so, my lord.”

Somehow, that did not make David feel any more comfortable
that the issue was resolved.

It had indeed been a long night for Hannah. She had
requested that Asheram have a cot erected in the room so that she might sleep
near Ariadne. Her charge had drank a draught of laudanum and was sleeping
quietly. Hannah had put on her comfortable blue flannel nightgown with its high
neck and long sleeves and had dismissed the maid when Lady Brentfield opened
the door and entered.

“Good evening, Miss Alexander,” she said, closing the door
behind her. “I just wanted to make sure you had everything you needed.” She
glanced at the bed, where poor Ariadne was drooling on her pillow, then hastily
looked away.

“I’m fine, thank you, your ladyship,” Hannah replied with a
quick curtsey, touched by her hostess’s kindness. “And Miss Courdebas, as you
can see, is sleeping soundly.”

“How thoughtful of you to stay with her,” she murmured,
eyeing the cot as if she could not imagine using it. “I’m sure if my niece were
ill away from home, I’d want someone to care for her as diligently as you are.”

“You are too kind,” Hannah replied, blushing.

“Not at all,” she assured her. “However, I realize things
look different from your perspective, my dear. While I am certainly not old
enough to be your mother, I believe I have seen more of the world than you
have. So, while you are at Brentfield, I hope you know you can come to me with
your problems, just as the girls come to you.”

She would never feel so comfortable! Hannah kept her eyes
respectfully downcast. “Thank you, Lady Brentfield, but I have no problems.”

“Oh, but you do,” Lady Brentfield said, and the sneer in her
voice was unmistakable.

Hannah’s head came up, but the countess was smiling at her
kindly.

“Your situation troubles me, my dear,” she said, tone once
more conciliatory. “You know I held hopes that his lordship and my Priscilla .
. . well, that simply wasn’t to be. Fate stepped in. He is obviously smitten
with you.”

Hannah shook her head, unwilling to share David’s feelings
until he declared them himself.

Lady Brentfield held up a hand as if to forestall denial.
“Oh, but he is. I’ve had my share of admirers, Miss Alexander. I recognize the
signs. He is in love. And you, if I am not mistaken, are equally enthralled.”

She would not admit it to this woman before she admitted it
to David. Hannah dropped her gaze once more.“I realize the earl is dashing,”
Lady Brentfield commiserated. “A more charming man you could not find. But
surely you see the danger in this infatuation. You must go carefully, or you
will lose all you hold dear.”

Cold washed over her, and Hannah glanced up. “What do you
mean?”

Lady Brentfield’s eyes narrowed. “Precisely this:  you
cannot paint and be his lover. If you marry him, you will have your hands full
running this household. He certainly doesn’t know how to do it, and Haversham is
getting old. The burden will fall on you, my dear.”

Hannah could see the logic, but still her heart struggled.
As if Lady Brentfield knew it, she pressed on. “Believe me, I have seen it
happen all too often. You’ll have to manage the servants here, pay the bills,
and see to the tenants’ well-being. And the entertaining.” She paused to cluck
as Hannah felt ever more colder. “Brentfield is known for its lavish parties.
You’ll have dozens of visitors at Christmas, during the summer, and throughout
the hunting season. You’ll have to keep them housed, fed, and entertained. And
they are much more demanding than your current charges. Why even I tremble at
the prospect. I don’t see how you could ever find time to paint.”

It sounded daunting and entirely beyond her skill. Hannah
swallowed, but Lady Brentfield wasn’t finished.

“If you do find time to paint,” she said, “you will never be
accepted as a serious artist. You will simply be an oddity, your works tossed
as soon as the notoriety of a countess craftswoman fades. Do not expect to see
any of your things hung in a gallery or prized for a collection. It would be a
shocking waste of your talents, my dear. If you were not so sure of your duty
to these girls, I would advise you to leave now, before you are tempted.”

No doubt that was wise advice. The problem was, she was
already tempted, already falling. She could not leave now until she knew what
might be.

“Lady Brentfield,” she managed, “I appreciate your advice,
but I must do as I see fit.”

Hannah thought the countess might argue further and steeled
herself, but Lady Brentfield merely nodded and turned away. “Of course you
must, my dear. I leave the decision to your sense of loyalty to your craft. I
know you’ll make the right choice. A talent such as yours would be a sin to
waste.”

She had left the room, but her words seemed to linger
behind. They served to confirm what Hannah had been fearing all along. She must
choose.

If it had only been a choice between her painting and the
love of a wonderful man, she would have had no difficulty making her decision.
Much as she loved her painting, she had no doubts that she would love David
more. But what she feared was the choice was between her happiness and David’s.

He needed an aristocratic wife. That was clear to her, even
if he had yet to fully realize it. He would find it hard to make his mark in
English Society if all his peers perceived him as the rustic American Lady
Brentfield did. Having a wife who was a penniless nobody would not help. If she
married him, he might be shunned completely. She did not think that would help
their marriage.

She could also not imagine living the life Lady Brentfield
described. Managing servants? Entertaining all summer? Hunting? She had neither
the interest nor the experience to do any of those things. She knew Lady
Prestwick had been a countess and avoided such roles. Of course, Lady Prestwick
was also viewed as a decided oddity. Would David be happy if Hannah wanted a
more quiet life?

Then of course there was the line of succession. She had
never really understood children. There were times when she could not remember
being one. She supposed she must have been a quiet, dreamy-eyed child, not
nearly as dark in outlook as Lady Emily. Teaching at the Barnsley School had
only confirmed her fears about her antipathy for young people. She had thought
herself quite content in not having any of her own.

But surely David must have children. He had come all the way
from America, at great sacrifice to his own hopes and dreams, to salvage this
estate. He was the last of the Tenants. He had to have sons if the line was to
continue. She was not sure she could give him those sons.

There was only one answer that she could see, and it broke
her heart to realize it. If David asked her to marry him, she would have to
refuse him, for his own good.

She hardly slept that night, what with checking on Ariadne
and thinking about what would happen if David proposed. She had just finished
helping Ariadne to some broth (to which the girl strenuously protested), when
the maid Clare came to tell her that Lady Brentfield wanted her. Leaving Clare
to care for Ariadne, Hannah went to the lady’s sitting room down the corridor.

“My poor dear,” Lady Brentfield said as soon as Hannah
entered the delicately decorated room. “It looks as if you haven’t slept in
days.”

Was she as haggard as all that? Hannah resisted the urge to
look at herself in the gilt-framed mirror over the white marble hearth. “I’m
fine, your ladyship. How might I assist you?”

Lady Brentfield rose from her velvet-draped dressing table.
“I’m certain the other girls will be restive today. I’ve arranged for a sitting
room overlooking the east garden to be used for painting. There is paper and
watercolors left over from a previous house party. I’m sure you can find good
use for them.”

Painting right now sounded like just the thing to calm her
nerves. She seized on the idea and set about helping the others to the work.
Unfortunately, none of the girls, including Lady Emily, looked the least bit
pleased. And Lady Brentfield seemed determined to keep them so occupied, for
she kept flitting from the easels set up by the wide windows to the door. What
was she waiting for? Did she expect David to come find them? Hannah had checked
with Clare earlier and been told that the earl was working on estate business
in the library. It seemed even David could only duck his duty for so long.

“There, now, see what you’ve done!”

Hannah turned from her own work to find Priscilla spreading
her muslin skirts, where a tell-tale pink stain was spreading. Equally pink
were Daphne’s cheeks.

“I’m terribly sorry, Priscilla,” she said, reaching out a
hand striped in pink and blue as if to wipe away her work.

Priscilla took a step back. “Do not touch me! Honestly, you
are a disaster!”

Hannah set down her brush. “I think perhaps we’re finished
here for the moment. I know Ariadne would love some company. Why don’t we go
visit her?”

The girls set aside their work eagerly and headed for the
doorway. Hannah thought surely Lady Brentfield would demur, but the countess
followed them upstairs. Did she think Hannah and David had planned an
assignation and she must intervene? Or was she truly trying to play the good
hostess?

That thought did not survive the next quarter hour. As the
girls chatted about school, their plans for the Season, the prospect of being
courted, Lady Brentfield grew ever more restive. Her comments became cutting,
her glances scathing. If she was so very put out by the girls, why not leave
them to their visit with Ariadne? It wasn’t as if she had the duty to play
chaperone here.

As the conversation began to falter, the girls fidgeting,
Hannah wracked her brain for some other divertissement. Anything active and out
of doors left out Ariadne, while anything indoors seemed to be boring her
friends. Finally, Hannah suggested reading aloud.

“Oh, Miss Alexander, I’m tired of the Good Book,” Ariadne
immediately complained, round face scrunching. “Can’t we read something more
challenging, more intriguing?”

“Lord Byron,” Priscilla said, smile appearing and gaze
turning misty. “He’s so romantic.”

“No, Mrs. Radcliffe,” Daphne insisted. “Her novels are so
exciting!”

“I’d rather read Hannah Moore’s work,” Lady Emily
maintained. “I like a heroine who suffers.”

Hannah smiled, relieved to have found something of interest.
“I expect you have quite a number of choices at Brentfield. Based on the other
treasures we’ve seen, Lord Brentfield must have a wonderful library.”

“It’s tremendous,” Priscilla bragged. “The shelves are eight
feet tall and positively crammed with every book you could imagine.” She
glanced around at them all, then hastily added, “Not that I have time to read
while I’m here, you understand. I’ll never be taken for a bluestocking.”

Ariadne, who had some claim to that distinction, paled.

Lady Brentfield positively glowed. “His lordship is in the
library right now,” she put in sweetly. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind selecting a
book for you. You might try that case near his desk. I believe that’s where he
keeps his personal favorites.”

The girls were on their feet immediately. Hannah rose more
slowly. She wasn’t sure she was ready to see David again, not after her
decision last night. Still, she could not protest as she followed the girls out
the door and down the corridor and the stairs for the library on the ground
floor.

Her resolve, though painful, had been easy to keep as long
as she did not lay eyes on him. However, she found her heart beating faster as
she approached the library with the girls.

“Perhaps we shouldn’t interrupt him,” she suggested, feeling
craven, as Priscilla reached for the door handle.

“The countess suggested it,” Priscilla replied, never
faltering for a moment. Hannah felt a twinge of annoyance that Lady
Brentfield’s suggestions should take precedence over David’s activities, but
she kept her mouth shut as the girl opened the door and they all peered inside.

Like everything else in Brentfield, the library was immense.
It was long and narrow, with an oak-framed fireplace opposite the door. Except
for the fireplace and north-facing wall, which held two slender windows, every
space was filled from floor to ceiling with glass-fronted oak bookcases.
Additional rotating book tables dotted the room. To the right of the door,
surrounded on three sides by bookcases, a walnut desk crouched on clawed feet,
its top littered with papers and additional books, most of which lay open.
Behind the desk, unbending from his perusal of those books, sat David.

He looked up and grinned at them, obviously glad for the
interruption. As usual, his smile of welcome warmed as it reached Hannah, and
she found herself blushing again.

“We have come for a book to read to Ariadne,” Priscilla
announced. “You’re to pick one out for us.”

Hannah frowned at the girl’s presumption. “What Miss Tate
means is that we were hoping you might make a recommendation.”

Daphne gazed about her in wonder. “Please do. I wouldn’t
know where to start.”

“Do you have any sermons?” Lady Emily wanted to know.

David stood and offered them a bow. “It would be my pleasure
to pick a book for you. Some of my personal favorites are in this case, in
front of the desk where I can reach them when the estate business gets too
boring,” he paused to wink at them, “which it often does. There’s even a
Washington Irving I brought with me from America,
The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow
. But it’s not for the faint of heart.”

“Sounds delightful,” Lady Emily declared. “Fetch it for us,
Daphne. You’re the athletic one.”

Daphne made a face, but David pointed to a shelf, and she
moved to comply. Hannah looked away from the girl to find herself facing David,
who had left the desk to join her.

“How goes it?” he asked her quietly. “I heard you were
painting. Is class over so soon? I wanted to come watch.”