The Earl Next Door (26 page)

‘They might have done,’ said Marianne.

‘No. If they had escaped, they would have come here.’

‘Not necessarily. If they had wanted to mount a rescue attempt to save you I think they would have gone to
London
first. It would be much easier to arrange something from there.’

Adèle looked a little more hopeful. ‘Ah!
Mais oui
. It is possible.’ She nodded to herself.  ‘
C’est possible
.’

‘Do you know anyone in
London
? Anyone they might turn to for help?’

Adèle thought. ‘My father, he has a cousin, a Lord Dublaine, in
Brook Street
. Perhaps they have gone there.’

‘Why not write?’ suggested Marianne.

Adèle, her face alight with hope again, nodded. ‘I will write at once, before tea. And perhaps soon we will have news.’

Marianne left Adèle to compose her letter. In all the danger and excitement of the preceding week there had been no time for her to attend to the estate, and she knew that there would be many things that needed her attention. She left the room, meaning to go to the stables and ride out towards the orchards, but just as she was crossing the hall she saw Luke coming down the stairs.

He looked paler than usual, and thinner, but still he looked magnificent. His long, lean body, encased in a cutaway coat, knee-breeches and boots, showed no sign of his recent injury, unless it was in the way he had one hand folded across his chest. His dark hair framed his masculine face, which was lean, angular and alert. And Marianne’s heart did somersaults in her chest.

Even so, she was concerned.

‘You shouldn’t be up,’ she said, taking a step towards him. ‘Dr Moffat says —’

‘Dr Moffat is a fine man, but he is used to dealing with invalids, not strong men who heal quickly.’ He crossed the hall towards her and stood so closely to her that he could have touched her. ‘Don’t worry, I have been injured often enough to know what my body can and cannot stand,’ he said, his eyes seeking her own. ‘In more ways than one,’ he added wolfishly.

Marianne tingled. But forcing herself to concentrate on his recent injury she gave a reluctant nod. She knew from Kit that Luke had been involved in other rescues before this one, and had to concede that he knew best as far as his own limits were concerned.

‘And now that I’m up, I must be returning to the Manor.’ He put out his good hand and brushed her cheek. ‘I was going to wait for the right time and the right place to say this, but I don’t want to wait any longer. Marianne, I have something to ask you. Something of great importance. Will you — ’

The sound of someone noisily clearing their throat interrupted him and he uttered an oath, but Trudie, who had followed him down the stairs, ignored it, just as she ignored his darkling look.

‘You were just going into the drawing-room to take your leave of Master Kit, if I remember rightly,’ she said blandly; nevertheless looking pointedly at the barest inch of space that separated Lord Ravensford from her beloved Miss Marianne. ‘He’s just gone into the drawing-room.’

He looked as though he wanted to curse even more, but mastering his temper he instead gave a wry smile and made the housekeeper a polite bow. ‘You are a good watchdog, Trudie. You are also right. I am just going in to see Kit. Miss Travis?’

He offered Marianne his arm and they went into the drawing-room. Kit and Adèle were just approaching the French windows from the garden, which had been thrown open on account of the fineness of the day.

‘Luke! Marianne! You can be the first to congratulate us!’ said Kit, as he and Adèle walked into the room arm in arm. ‘Adèle has just done me the very great honour of agreeing to become my wife.’

‘Oh, Kit, that’s wonderful,’ said Marianne, running forward to give her brother a hug, before kissing Adèle.

‘My heartiest congratulations,’ said Luke with a genuine warmth, a warmth in which there was now no trace of envy.

Adèle blushed prettily and Kit beamed at her with obvious pride.

Trudie, who had followed Luke and Marianne into the drawing-room, smiled as much as any of them, adding her own congratulations before bustling off to fetch the tea.

She soon brought it into the drawing-room. The silver teapot was gleaming on the silver tray. Porcelain cups and saucers were set beside it, and the sugar was neatly displayed in a silver dish.

Once the tea had been poured, Luke turned to Kit. ‘I hope you will bring your Adèle over to the Manor tomorrow afternoon, Kit, and take tea with me. I would like to repay at least some of the hospitality I have been shown over the last week. And Miss Travis,’ he said, turning to Marianne with a meaningful look, ‘I hope I can prevail on you to join your brother, too.’

‘Splendid!’ said Kit, beaming happily at his sister and his best friend.

And Marianne, with a warm glance at Luke, and thinking she knew in her heart what his important question was going to be, happily agreed.

Sun streamed in at the windows. Marianne was awake early the following morning, roused by the sound of the birds. She threw back the covers. Today she was going to visit Luke . . . .

She sprang out of bed and rang for Trudie.

‘You look very cheerful this morning,’ said Marianne as Trudie entered the room. ‘Still delighted at the thought of Kit and Adèle?’

Trudie shook her head. ‘No, it isn’t that, Miss Marianne, though that’s wonderful enough. But something else has happened.’

She would say no more, remarking only that Marianne would find out for herself when she went downstairs.

Curious, Marianne dressed quickly and went down to breakfast, wondering what could have set Trudie smiling so.

As she opened the door to the dining-room she knew at once. There, sitting at the breakfast table as though he had never taken to his room, was her Papa!

‘Ah! Marianne,’ he said, pausing in the act of slitting open a letter with a silver paper knife, ‘there you are. Did you sleep well?’

Marianne cast an amazed glance at Kit, who gave her a quirky smile as he tucked into a plate of ham and eggs, and then Adèle, who beamed at her happily from behind her chocolate cup. Then she turned her attention back to her father, who seemed to have recovered all his lost vitality overnight.

‘What will you have?’ asked her Papa conversationally. ‘The eggs are very good.’

‘Yes. Eggs,’ she said in a daze.

‘Good. And after you have breakfasted, be so good as to join me in my study. I want to know about everything that has been happening on the estate.’

Marianne gave him another amazed look and then, beaming from ear to ear, applied herself to her breakfast.

Some twenty minutes later she went into his study.

‘Come in, my dear,’ he said.

Marianne went into the room and closed the door behind her.

‘Sit down.’

Going over to a Sheraton chair, Marianne perched on the edge of her seat. She still could not quite believe that her beloved Papa was restored to her.

‘Now, then, Marianne, I want to talk to you about the estate. This is splendid news, is it not? Kit is going to marry Adèle. So I want to put everything in order. If we are to have tiny feet pattering up and down the corridors, I want to make sure they won’t be rained on through a leaking roof. But I didn’t want to set the repairs in motion before I had explained to you what I intend to do. I know you love the estate, and I must say how well you have looked after it during my . . . illness, perhaps we should call it . . .  but now it is time for us to move on. And so I am intending to sell a hundred acres of land.’

‘No, Papa!’ Marianne sprang to her feet.

‘I know your feelings about the estate, my dear, and I respect you for them. But whilst the past is important, the future is even more so.’

‘But if we sell off the land —’

He gave her a smile; the kind of smile he used to give her when he had taught her mathematics as a child, when he had just explained some particularly difficult problem and was waiting for her to understand. ‘That s what land is for, you know, my dear. We buy it in good times so that we may sell it in bad.’

Marianne was surprised; and then frowned; and then said, ‘I’d never thought of it like that.’

‘I know. Which is why I wanted to explain it to you before I took any action. I wanted you to understand.’

‘I think I do.’

‘It has happened before, you know,’ her father reassured her. ‘My father sold off a lot of land fifty years ago to help the Stuart cause. But then, when he failed to help put a Stuart king on the throne, he gradually recouped his losses and bought the land back again. And that is what we must do now: sell some land and then hope that, in the future, we may be able to buy it back again. Not to finance some lost cause this time, but to set the estate in order, and to give Kit and Adèle a splendid wedding, a wedding worthy of the Travis heir.’

‘Yes,’ Marianne breathed. ‘That would be lovely. And so good for Adèle.’

Her father nodded. ‘It will help her take her mind off other things. She is still worried about her parents, particularly as she has not yet had a reply from Lord Dublaine, but choosing her bride clothes will give her something happy to think about. And you, Marianne, will need to choose your own gown. You are to be Adèle’s attendant, I understand.’

Marianne nodded, delighted to be attending her friend as she married her brother.

‘You will need something elegant to wear. And you must order a few new dresses whilst you’re about it, my dear. I have neglected you for long enough.’

Her father opened his arms to her and she gave him a hug.

‘Oh, Papa, it’s so good to have you back with us.’

He held her close. ‘My dear, it is good to be well again.’

She stepped back, hardly able to contain her happiness. Her papa was restored to her, Kit was to marry Adèle, and Luke – Oh, Luke! She could hardly wait for the afternoon to arrive!

‘I have sent a message to Madame LaTour, asking her to call on us this morning.’ He paused. ‘She is still the best
modiste
in these parts?’

‘Yes, Papa.’

‘Good. Then you and Adèle will select your style of gowns. Oh, and make sure you select yourselves something for the engagement ball as well. It is to be a proper ball, mind, not the sort of country affair we are used to. There will be no informality, everything will be done in the first style. The ladies will have cards and the dances will be elegant. We are going to celebrate Kit’s betrothal and wedding with splendour. It isn’t every day I have my son restored to me, and then discover he is to marry my god-daughter, after all! But you will not be forgotten, my dear. Once Kit and Adèle are safely married I mean to take you to
London
. We will catch the end of the Season and indulge ourselves with visits to the museums and the theatres. What do you say?’