Joan Wolf (20 page)

“I am sure they are. Please don’t dismiss anyone over this,” I said. I glanced out the window, trying to assess the height of the sun. “Do you have the time, Uncle Adam?”

He took out his watch. “Getting on for five o’clock, my dear.”

I sighed. “Almost time to dress for dinner.”

He quirked a humorous eyebrow. “Been hiding out from Regina? “

I had to grin. “How did you guess?”

“Natural genius,” he replied, smiling back at me.

We walked together to the office door. “Just let it be known around the estate that we almost had a drowning due to a damaged boat, Uncle Adam. If any of the tenant children were in fact responsible, they will be frightened enough not to attempt anything so foolish again.”

The office was in the middle of the stable, and as we walked toward the yard, the horses in the boxes nickered at us expectantly.

“Almost the equine dinner hour, I see,” Adam commented.

The horse in the last box kicked his door imperatively as we walked by. “Stop that, Marshall!” I commanded sternly.

We stepped out of the stable and into the late afternoon sunshine. Adam said apologetically, “I’m afraid it will be impossible for me to find out just who was in that particular boat yesterday, Annabelle.”

“Of course it will be impossible. Don’t even think of attempting such an inquiry.”

We began to walk along the path that would take us back to the house. Adam said, “Well, we must just thank God that you are safe, my dear. Stephen told me the whole story of what happened. You were very brave.”

“I was petrified,” I said frankly. “No more boats for me, Uncle Adam. I will stick to my horses.”

“Speaking of your horses,” Adam returned, “Jasper tells me he likes that liver chestnut you showed him.”

“Snap?”

“That’s the one. How much do you want for him, Annabelle?”

We had crossed the small bridge and were entering under the shade of the beech trees. “You don’t have to buy him from me, Uncle Adam,” I said earnestly. “Please believe me when I say that I will be very happy to keep him over the season for Jasper to ride.”

Adam’s well-shaped gray blond head shook in a firm negative. “I wouldn’t think of asking you to do such a thing, Annabelle. I will take you up on your offer to stable him, but my son must ride his own horses.”

It was clearly a matter of pride with Adam that Jasper not ride a borrowed horse.

I thought that I understood my uncle’s feelings on this matter. He was a good-humored, easygoing man, but he liked his position as a local power. In our little part of the world, he was king. It was Adam whom the tenants saw when they needed a repair, or a new well, or an extension on their lease. It was Adam to whom the villagers took off their hats, whom the rector consulted about local problems, whom Sir Matthew invited to an evening of cards and brandy. Both Gerald and his father had passed at least three-quarters of the year away from Sussex. All the local power belonged to Adam.

It was evident to me that he thought it would damage his reputation if it became known that his son could not afford his own horses.

I said, “I was going to ask four hundred guineas for Snap.”

Adam’s gray eyes regarded me shrewdly. “You get more for your horses than that, my dear.”

We had reached the gardens. “I do for some of them,” I said, “but Snap is not the kind of horse who is easy to place. He has gone very well for Jasper, and I am happy to be able to find the right rider for him. I think four hundred guineas is a fair price, Uncle Adam.”

“Then four hundred guineas it will be,” Adam replied. “I will give you a draft on my bank.”

I smiled and nodded.

“Jasper may not have a title, Annabelle,” Adam said gravely, “but he will have quite a respectable place in the world when he leaves the army. Fanny came into a nice little inheritance a while back, and Jasper will have a house in Northamptonshire”—he laid heavy emphasis on the word “Northamptonshire”—”as well as an income to keep it up.”

“That is wonderful,” I said, trying not to look as mystified as I felt. Why on earth was Adam telling me all of this?

I noticed that one of the gardeners was diligently trimming some of the ornamental shrubbery, and I called, “Rather late today, aren’t you, John?”

He turned at the sound of my voice. “Afternoon, my lady, Mr. Grandville,” he greeted us. “It’s cooler now than it was earlier, my lady,” he answered my question.

“Well, don’t miss your dinner.”

“Never, my lady,” he said with a grin.

We were almost at the back door when Adam said, “Did you have another horse in mind for Jasper? “

“I really do not have any other horses left from last year’s batch,” I said regretfully. “But Jasper is welcome to ride one of my new purchases, Uncle Adam. They need schooling, but usually you can get some fun out of them. Jack rides my new horses all the time.”

“Jack can count himself fortunate to have anything to ride at all,” Adam said.

I was a little taken aback by the hard note in Adam’s usually pleasant voice and did not know how to reply.

“What is Jack going to do about hunting this season?” Adam asked. “Have you spoken to Stephen about paying for his subscription? “

“No.” We had reached the back door of the house, and I waited for Adam to open it for me. “I decided to pay for Jack’s subscription myself,” I said.

Adam’s hand fell away from the door. I glanced up at him and was dismayed by the angry look I saw in his eyes.

“You should not have done that, Annabelle,” he said. “It isn’t proper.”

I stared at him in bewilderment. “I beg your pardon?”

“Jack should not have accepted such a sum of money from you,” Adam said.

I felt my spine stiffen. “My goodness, Uncle Adam, you are beginning to sound like Mama.” I was careful to keep my tone humorous, but I was annoyed at his presuming to lecture me.

He didn’t take the hint. “Have you paid for the subscription yet? “

I said firmly, “I have paid for it. I consider it a business expense, Uncle Adam. I need Jack’s help with my new hunters. He has a very nice way with green horses.”

Adam’s mouth set in a straight line and he did not look as genial as he usually did. “Annabelle, I hope you don’t take offense at what I am going to say, but I must say it because I am fond of you and I don’t want to see you hurt.”

I stared at him in utter bafflement.

“You have always been a beautiful woman, my dear, and now you are a wealthy one as well. Don’t let your soft heart overrule your extremely intelligent brain.”

A little light was beginning to dawn in my extremely intelligent brain. “Are you by any chance implying that Jack is a fortune hunter, Uncle Adam?”

Adam’s graying brows were drawn together in a worried frown. “He needs money desperately, Annabelle. He has virtually no private income, and he had to sell the farms that were attached to Rudely in order to save the house. Jack cannot survive unless he marries a wealthy woman.”

“Jack told me all those things himself,” I said, and this time I did not try to conceal my annoyance.

The fine, straight brows, which Jasper had inherited, lifted. He said softly, “I had not thought Jack to be so clever.”

“He also told me that it was you who advised him to marry for money!” I shot back.

“It was very sensible advice,” Adam replied calmly. “But I most certainly did not mean that Jack should target you, Annabelle.”

I did not at all like the disturbing picture that Adam was painting of Jack. I said rather haughtily, “This is not a discussion I care to continue, Uncle Adam.”

And I put my own hand on the door, pushed it open, and walked briskly into the back hall.

* * * *

Dinner was dreadful. Mama was irritating and the duke was offensive. Both of them blamed Stephen for taking Giles and me out in an unsafe boat.

“You’re right, it was my error. I should have checked the boat,” Stephen agreed. Long experience of my mother had taught him that agreeing with her was the only way to survive.

“I hope you dismissed the men who were in charge of removing the boats from the lake after the festival,” the duke said to Adam. “It was sheer negligence that such an unsafe boat was allowed to remain in the water.”

“All of the boats were used for the entire day yesterday, Duke,” Adam replied. “Stephen said there was no water in the bottom of the boat when he and Annabelle got into it. There was no reason for anyone to suppose the boat was unsafe.”

The duke’s slanted black eyebrows drew together in a way that made him look positively satanic. He said, “Nevertheless, someone must be held accountable, Grandville.”

How charming, I thought. My mother’s husband would dismiss people just because “someone must be held accountable”!

Adam said, “Annabelle thinks that perhaps some of the children loosened the planks yesterday for a lark.”

I winced and thought, Now we’re in for it.

“A lark!” my mother said in outrage. “The Earl and the Countess of Weston were almost killed—for a lark!”

I could not help but notice that Giles and I did not figure as “my daughter and my grandson.” No, we were “the earl and the countess.”

Stephen said gravely, “The earl’s uncle and guardian was in the boat as well, Regina.”

Across the length of the table, our eyes met.

Don’t let her upset you.
The familiar blue eyes flashed the familiar old message. I felt the tightness in my neck begin to relax.

“If that is so,” said the duke, “then the children must be found and punished.”

“There were children in and out of that boat all day yesterday, Duke,” Jasper said with ill-concealed annoyance. “I know because I was the one who was on duty at the lake. If Annabelle is correct, and the boat was sabotaged yesterday, it would be completely impossible to narrow down the list of potential culprits.”

“I cannot believe that any of the children here yesterday would be guilty of such a dreadful thing,” Nell said in distress.

“You know children, Nell,” I said. “They have no idea of the consequences of the things that they do. I just thought that perhaps some of the boys might have thought it would be jolly to see someone take a dunking. I’m sure they thought it
would happen yesterday, when there were plenty of other boats in the water and people on the shore to make a rescue.”

“Disgraceful,” the duke said. “Those children must be found and made an example of.”

Jack’s blue eyes were glittering wickedly. “If I had thought of such a prank when I was a boy, I would have done it,” he said.

“I would have helped you,” Jasper said.

They looked at each other and grinned.

I said to Nell, “Don’t you remember our raft? If that had gone down, we all would have drowned.”

Nell turned to me, and for a moment the little sister I had loved was looking at me out of her eyes, “I had forgotten all about that raft, Annabelle,” she said. She laughed. “Remember how sick you were when we finally managed to get it to shore?”

“I shall never forget,” I said fervently.

My mother said, “What raft are you talking about, Annabelle? “

Aunt Fanny had been quiet for most of the dinner (my mother was the only person who could silence Aunt Fanny), but she spoke up now and echoed Mama’s demand, “Yes, Nell,
what
raft?”

“That must have been the summer of the clubs,” Stephen said.

Nell nodded. “It was.”

“Those wretched clubs,” Aunt Fanny groaned. “You were into trouble all summer long because of those clubs.”

All the members of my generation shot surreptitious looks at each other.

“You don’t want to know about the raft, Mother,” Nell said.

“
I
most certainly do not want to know about this raft,” the duke said. “It sounds a dead bore.”

We all knew who the dead bore was, and it wasn’t the raft.

Nell was not quite successful in stifling a giggle, and I had to stare at my plate to keep my countenance.

My heart felt lighter than it had in months.

My mother said, “I believe it is time for the ladies to excuse themselves, Annabelle.”

“Yes, Mama.” I stood up.

Stephen surprised us all by asking, “Would you gentlemen care to join the ladies? “

This was a serious breach of etiquette; the gentlemen always sat for at least half an hour over their port. Stephen, of course, was trying to get out of a cozy session with the duke.

Jasper said heartily, “A grand idea, Stephen. In the Peninsula I got out of the habit of drinking port after dinner, and now I find it doesn’t agree with me.”

Jack said, “And I promised young Giles I would play him a game of cards before he went to sleep.”

I gave him a delighted smile. “How kind of you, Jack.”

Adam scowled, and his earlier words about fortune hunters popped into my brain.

Jack had never before shown any interest in Giles, I thought. Could he possibly be trying to impress me?”

I shook my head, as if to clear it of such a nasty suspicion.

The duke was looking outraged. “
I
should be glad of some port,” he said.

“So should I,” Adam said mildly.

Stephen said, “Then of course we will join you.”

“You youngsters can go ahead if you like,” Adam said. “Saye and I will do very well on our own.”

He made it sound as if Stephen and Jasper and Jack were ten years old.

The three youngsters exchanged looks.

I struggled to keep from smiling.

“We shall be happy to bear you company, Papa,” Jasper said heroically.

“You don’t have to drink port if you don’t want to, Jasper,” Jack said kindly.

Jasper scowled. I knew that if I remained one more minute in the dining room, I should disgrace myself by laughing.

“Ladies,” I said, and swept the women before me to the door.

Chapter Fourteen

“Take the dogs and meet me at the fishing pavilion,” Stephen murmured in my ear as I made my good nights after evening tea had been served.

I left the drawing room without looking at him, and when I reached my dressing room I dismissed Marianne. I was wearing a white evening dress of sprigged muslin trimmed with broad lace over a satin slip, and I simply flung an old riding jacket over my shoulders for warmth and quietly went out the back door with the dogs.