The butler called for the Havering carriage, and he assisted Amelia inside. As soon as the door was shut, he took her hand.
“What other family do you have?”
“I have two brothers and another sister who is still in the schoolroom.”
“Are your brothers likely to want to see you?”
She sighed. “I don’t know. I thought I was close to both of them, but neither of them made any effort to contact me after my marriage.”
“If your father was holding the purse strings, they might not have had a choice.”
“That’s true. My father liked to control everything.” She raised her fine eyes to meet his. “Did the duke tell you who my father is?”
“Not exactly. He assumed I would know.”
“Then I will tell you.” She took an unsteady breath. “He is the Marquess of Leyton.”
“So you are a titled lady in your own right.”
She made a face. “It is not a title I chose to use after my marriage.”
“I can understand why.” Marcus frowned. “Your oldest brother must be Viscount Covington, then. I believe we were at Eton together. Good bowler.”
“I understand he is still unmarried. My father must be worrying about the continuity of the title. ”
Marcus tightened his grip on her hand. “Amelia, forgive me. But we should call on them rather than waiting around wondering if they are going to descend upon us. It gives us the upper hand. We can leave our cards and not even venture into the house.”
“Why are you so insistent about this?”
“Because this is a small, tight-knit society, and if we stay here, sooner or later we will meet your parents at some gathering or other. Wouldn’t you rather have that first meeting in private? Even if we decide to pay them a morning call, we only have to stay the accepted fifteen minutes before we can get up and leave.”
She was studying his face as though she’d never seen him before. “I still don’t think—”
He spoke over her. “This is about time, Amelia—about never knowing when your world will change again and whether you have missed an opportunity. I spent hours chained up thinking about all the things I wished I had said and done when I had my freedom. I didn’t appreciate the moments I was given. I don’t want you to feel the same.”
She nodded and let her hand remain clasped within his. “I will think about it. I really will. Having lost them once, I am caught between anger at the way they treated me and Matthew and sadness about losing all those I once held dear to me. I yearn to see them, and yet I am afraid.” She tried to smile. “You must think me very contrary.”
“You are being honest, and that is far more important. But think about it, yes?” Marcus raised an eyebrow. “My offer to approach them by myself still stands.”
The carriage slowed and turned into the square where Stortford House was located. There was a high-perch phaeton in the road outside their home and a groom was walking the horse. For a second, Marcus wondered if it was Jack, but then decided against it. From all accounts, Jack didn’t have a feather to fly with, much less to afford expensive carriages and thoroughbred horses.
He escorted Amelia to the front door where they were met by one of the footmen. “My lord, my lady, there is a visitor in the morning room. He refused to go away, sir, and it’s the butler’s afternoon off, and I couldn’t keep him out.”
“It’s quite all right.” Marcus kept moving up the stairs, his hand resting on the pommel of his sword. “Amelia—”
She followed him up. “I’m coming with you.”
The tall, elegantly attired man confronting Marcus in their drawing room was achingly familiar to Amelia. She went to brush past her husband, but he caught her elbow and drew her gently against his side.
“May I help you, sir?”
“It depends. Am I addressing the Earl of Havering?
“I am the earl. May I know whom I am speaking to?”
“Viscount Covington.” He swept a bow. “Amelia’s older brother.”
Marcus glanced inquiringly at her and she nodded.
“Yes, it is my brother, Edward.”
“One of the brothers who was happy to see you driven out from your home because your parents didn’t approve of your marriage?” Marcus asked.
Edward’s grey eyes met hers.
“I was not happy about that series of events at all, sir.”
“Yet you allowed your sister to leave with nothing and have had nothing more to do with her since?” The look Marcus gave Edward was scathing. “Are you like your younger sister and suddenly willing to welcome my wife back into the fold because she finally had the sense to marry a titled man?”
“Marcus.” Amelia touched his sleeve. “Would you allow me the opportunity to speak to Edward privately for a moment?”
He held her gaze and then nodded brusquely. “If you wish. I will be in my study if you need me.”
One of the things she liked most about her new husband was his belief in her strength. She smiled into his eyes and murmured. “Thank you, my champion knight.”
He took her hand and kissed her fingers before leaving the room.
Amelia studied Edward who had remained by the fire, one hand clenched into a fist. He hadn’t changed much in ten years. His weight had increased and there was less sweetness in his expression, but otherwise he still looked remarkably enough like her for them to be mistaken as twins.
“Would you prefer to sit down?” Amelia gestured at the couch.
“No, I thank you.”
“Then how may I help you?”
He stared at her for a long moment, his keen gaze taking her in from head to toe. “It is good to see you, Amelia.”
“Likewise.”
He cleared his throat. “Your new husband seems to hold our family at fault for everything that has befallen you.”
“He is my husband. His loyalty is to me. I would expect nothing less.”
“Even if you didn’t tell him the truth?”
She stilled. “I beg your pardon?”
He took a hasty step toward her. “Telling him that we cast you off.”
“You
did
. Well, our parents did.”
“But Tom and I didn’t. At least we tried not to. Just because you chose not to respond to our overtures doesn’t mean—”
“Wait.” Amelia held up her hand. “In what way did you try to communicate with me?”
He looked at her as if she was completely daft. “We wrote to you several times. We sent you money. You never answered us.”
She sank down into the nearest chair. “I had no idea about this.”
He took the chair opposite her. “That we tried to contact you?” He frowned. “Yet the money was never returned.”
She raised her head. “I don’t understand. Where did you send the letters?”
“To your husband’s regiment, of course.”
“But we, I mean, I never received a single one.” Amelia shook her head. “That seems inconceivable.”
Edward cleared his throat. “Has it occurred to you that Matthew might have decided not to pass the letters on?”
“As it has only just been revealed to me that I received any letters from my family at all, then no.” She frowned. “Why would he do that to me?”
Edward rose to his feet and looked down at her. “I have no idea, but please believe me when I say that Tom and I never forgot you. We assumed you wanted nothing more to do with us and eventually gave up writing.”
Amelia got up as well and reached for his hand, which he allowed her to take.
“I am glad to hear that you and Tom didn’t give up on me entirely. I expected our parents to be furious, but you?” She bit down on her lip. “You were the best of older brothers.”
“Mayhap I can find a way to be that brother for you again,” Edward offered. “If your new husband allows the connection.”
“When I have explained things to Marcus, he will be more than willing to extend the hand of friendship toward you.” Amelia clasped his hand between both of her and brought it to her cheek. “I’ve missed you so much.”
“Now don’t start crying, sis.” He kissed her forehead and set her away from him. “With your permission, I’ll write to Tom and tell him that you are back in Town. I’m sure he’ll want to come and see you for himself.”
“Where is he?”
Edward’s smile grew fond. “He is a vicar and the proud father of four children in our local church at Covington village.”
“Just as he always wanted.” Amelia sighed. “I’m so glad Father didn’t make him go off to war.”
“He tried, but Tom was remarkably stubborn and declared he’d rather give up his allowance and fend for himself than take up arms.” Edward grimaced. “After your desertion, I think Father decided to take heed of the warning and let him have his way.”
“Luckily for Tom,” Amelia said. “Father always appreciated it when you boys stood up to him, but when I did it I was considered an ungrateful hoyden.”
“I’m sorry, Amelia.”
She summoned a smile. “That is all in the past, now. I truly hope we can be friends again.” She hesitated. “Will Father object?”
Edward shrugged. “I hardly see him anymore, and, to be perfectly frank, I don’t care if he does. We’ve lost too many years to worry about that.”
“You are not married yourself, then?”
“No. Finding a young lady brave enough to take on both our parents and me has proved an impossible task. I suspect I’ll either marry in my dotage or pass the whole mess down to Tom and his children.”
There was a determined note in Edward’s voice that reminded Amelia of herself.
He bowed. “I should take my leave. My horses can’t stand for too long in this cold weather.”
“But you will come back?” Amelia asked.
He smiled at her for the first time. “I would like that.”
Impulsively, she threw herself into his arms and he held her tight, his cheek against her hair.
“Thank you for coming, Edward.”
“You are most welcome, my dear sister.” He released her and picked up his hat. “I will write to Tom and visit you again.”
“Thank you.” She walked toward the door and opened it. “I will come down with you. Marcus will be worried.”
She watched him leave and then turned to the closed door of Marcus’s study, knocked gently on it and went in. He was sitting by the fire, a glass of brandy in his hand and the morning newspaper open on his knee.
He smoothed a hand over the printed sheet. “I don’t know why I still pretend I am capable of reading the small print. But old habits apparently die hard.”
She sank down onto the rug at his booted feet. “Edward said he and Tom wrote to me for months after I’d left home and never received a reply.”
“Perhaps the letters were lost or stolen.”
“All of them?”
“That does sound rather unlikely.” He folded the paper and tucked it down the side of his chair. “I assume they sent the letters to Matthew’s regiment?”
“So Edward said.”
“And do you doubt him?”
She met his shrewd gaze. “No. He also says they sent money.”
“Ah, then that
might
have been stolen.”
She took a tremulous breath. “Do you think it is possible that Matthew kept the letters from me for some reason?”
“You are the only person who can answer that.”
“If Edward is telling the truth, and we assume that not all the letters would be lost, then there is no other explanation is there? But why would he do that?”
“Is it possible that he was afraid in those early days of your marriage that you would leave him and sought to prevent that happening?” Marcus asked.
Amelia thought back to the first appalling year traveling behind the army in France. “I found it hard to adapt to army life. We did quarrel rather a lot when Matthew realized I had no idea how to take care of myself, let alone him.”
“Then perhaps he did it out of the best of intentions. Fear of losing you.”
“
Me
?”
“Yes.”
“But it wasn’t
right
!”
Marcus put his hand on her shoulder. “No, it wasn’t.” His fingers slid over her collarbone and his thumb made comforting circles on her skin.
She leaned into his touch. “I think I will write to Aunt Betty. I’ve been meaning to tell her about my sudden change of plans and our marriage. She will be beside herself with excitement.”
“I have a better idea. How about we journey down to see her?”
“But what about Jack?” Amelia raised her gaze to meet Marcus’s.
“Jack will wait another day. This is far more important.”
She didn’t think he realized what he’d said, but she wasn’t going to argue with him. If he was willing to take a trip back to the village rather than pursue his vendetta, she would willingly accept his help.
“Aunt Betty might not know anything,” she suggested.
“That is true, but if she doesn’t, maybe Matthew’s brother might. He is living at Dove Cottage as well now, isn’t he?”
“Yes.” Amelia rubbed her cheek against Marcus’s knee. “I feel as if everything that I thought was true in my life has been tumbled on its head.”
He smoothed her hair. “I feel like that all the time.”
“If Matthew kept me from my family…”
“You don’t know that yet.”
Amelia took a deep breath. “You are right. I am behaving like an over-anxious idiot.”
With a chuckle, Marcus bent down, picked her up and deposited her on his lap. He kissed her cheek and then her mouth, keeping his arm wrapped firmly around her shoulders.
“It will be all right.”
She buried her face against his throat and simply breathed him in. Perhaps Marcus wasn’t the only person finding his world a different and frightening place. At least he would be there with her and he, at least, would understand.
Marcus screwed up the letter and threw it onto the fire.
“Damn military,” he muttered, and strode out of his study and back up the stairs to Amelia’s bedchamber. His wife was sitting up in bed eating toast and drinking hot chocolate, her spectacles on the end of her nose as she perused the morning newspaper.
“What’s wrong?”
“I just received a letter from the commanding officer of my regiment. He wants to see me this morning.”
“I assume this is a summons that cannot be ignored?”
Marcus grimaced. “I could cry off, but the regiment is due to leave for New South Wales soon to escort some convict ships. If I don’t speak to him now, I might not get the opportunity again for quite some time.”