The Seduction of Lady X (22 page)

Harrison had always been there to save her.

Olivia turned away from the windows with a cluck of her tongue, annoyed with herself. She marched across the room and picked up her brush and began to rake it through her hair, wincing when it caught a tangle.

It wasn’t as if Harrison had died, for heaven’s sake. He was marrying her sister and he would still be very much in her life. There was no point in moping about it. Olivia had suffered through too many years to be dragged to the bottom of her despair now.

She was suffering from useless desire, from pointless mourning. She would put on her best face and she would soldier on, just as she’d always done.

How best to defeat her doldrums? A small smiled curved her lips. She would invite Miss Bernadette Shields of Harkingspur Grange and Lady Martha to Everdon Court. No one could make her laugh like Bernie. And she always included Lady Martha in her teas, for the poor dear was so shy, she’d have no society at all were it not for Olivia’s invitations from time to time.

But the true reason Olivia wanted to invite the ladies to Everdon Court was because Edward could not abide them. He could not abide the company of anyone whom he hadn’t himself selected for Olivia, but neither could he deny her friendship with these two particular ladies, as their fathers were influential in the shire. If Edward wanted to give the appearance of being a benevolent little king in this corner of England, he would have to allow Olivia their company.

And they, unwittingly, would help her endure the loss of Harrison. She would have Brock send a messenger to them directly after breakfast.

Mrs. Lampley sent Rue from the dowager house to the main house for fresh linens. “You cannot use so much lye, Rue,” she chastised the girl with a shake of her head. “It eats the linens whole if you put in too much.”

“Aye, mu’um,” Rue said.

Rue was rarely out of the dowager house, as she was too fearful of being accused of doing something wrong. She ambled up the path, taking her time, happy to be in the sunlight. When she reached the kitchens of Everdon Court, no one was about. There was a plate of muffins on a wooden table, amid some pottery bowls and a sack of flour. She helped herself to a muffin.

“Rue!”

The girl was so startled she dropped the muffin. Miss Foster swept in, her apron full of eggs. “What in blazes do you think to be doing? Do you see anything on that table that invites you to help yourself?”

Rue looked at the table.

“No, you do not,” Miss Foster answered for her. “Pick it up.”

Rue bent down and scooped up the muffin. She didn’t know what to do with it and stuffed it in the pocket of her apron.

“Do not think to come into
my
kitchen and do as you please! That may be the way of Miss Lampley’s kitchen, but it will not be tolerated here!” Still holding the corners of her apron, Miss Foster leaned across the table, pinning Rue with a look. “Those muffins happen to be for Lady Carey. She is partial to them.” She leaned back and began to put her eggs in a bowl. “I expect her appetite will be increasing very soon, if you take my meaning.”

“Hungry, is she?” Rue asked through a mouth full of muffin.

“Oh, she’s hungry, all right,” Miss Foster said, and chuckled. “Hungry enough for two.”

“I am hungry like that when I forget to break my fast. By the afternoon, I think I might faint away.”

Miss Foster sighed impatiently. “Not because she forgot to eat, you little simpleton. She is eating for
two.
”

Rue blinked. That was precisely what she meant. Sometimes she felt as if she ate enough to feed two people.

Miss Foster clucked her tongue. “A
baby,
” she whispered, and smiled broadly. “Have a care that you don’t repeat that to anyone, do you hear? The marquis is away and it wouldn’t do to have that sort of talk going round.”

Rue frowned a little. She had heard Miss Lampley say that the marchioness was barren. Perhaps she’d meant something else entirely.

“Do you intend to stand about all day? What do you want?”

“Linens,” Rue said.

“Linens! Do I look as if I have a key to the linen closet? Go and find Mrs. Perry and stay out of my kitchen.”

It was a half hour before Rue returned to the dowager house, having taken her sweet time wending along the servant’s path back to the dowager house. When she stepped into the foyer, she almost collided with Mrs. Lampley. “Oh! Beg your pardon,” she said, dipping a curtsy.

“What are you curtsying to me for?” Mrs. Lampley said, and took the linens from Rue’s hands. “Chamber pots need emptying. What is that?”

“What?” Rue asked.

Mrs. Lampley nodded her gray head at Rue’s lap. Rue looked down; the rest of her muffin had been smashed and had stained her apron pocket. “I’m sorry!” she cried as Mrs. Lampley frowned at the stain. “How was I to know her ladyship needed a muffin to feed two people!”

“What? What are you prattling about?”

“Miss Foster said the muffins were for her ladyship, for she was eating for two, and I wasn’t to have one.”

Mrs. Lampley blinked. And then a smile slowly lit her face. “Well, well, well.”

A
lexa was too nauseated to eat when she awoke and decided instead that she needed some fresh air. She walked down to the dowager house to collect a few things, since she had no intention of staying there while Edward was away.

The day was beginning to turn gray and smelled of more rain, which didn’t please her. The journey to Scotland would be difficult enough without bumping about in a coach on rutted roads. She put her hand to her abdomen, thinking of the child she carried.

Perhaps she might persuade Harrison to wait a few more days.

At the dowager house, she stood on the front steps and knocked the mud from her boots. As she did, a messenger rode into the small circular drive. Alexa paused and looked curiously at him. “G’day, miss. I’ve a letter for Mr. Tolly,” he said.

“Wait here,” she said, and walked inside.

Rue and Mrs. Lampley emerged from the drawing room when Alexa called. Mrs. Lampley bobbed her head and quickly went the other way, her arm full of linens. Rue, bless her, looked as she had every time Alexa had seen her—as if she didn’t know what she was to do with herself. She stared wide-eyed at Alexa. “Oh!” she said. “It’s you, miss.”

If Alexa was to be mistress of this house, she intended to make a few changes, beginning with a butler or a footman—someone who knew how to properly handle people coming and going, and wasn’t forever surprised by it. “There is a messenger outside with a letter for Mr. Tolly,” Alexa said. “Will you fetch him?”

“A messenger!” Rue cried, apparently delighted by the news. “I’m to give the messengers coin when they come,” she added, and hurried to a small alcove just off the entry. Not noticing the small footstool at her feet, she stretched up to the tips of her toes, her hand scarcely reaching a bowl on the top shelf. She managed to get two fingers in the bowl and then held the coin up triumphantly to Alexa on her way to the door.

“I have your coin, sir!” Rue called out proudly to the messenger, and went out.

Alexa rolled her eyes. She untied her bonnet and set it aside, and was removing her cloak when Rue bounded back, holding the letter aloft.

“Where is Mr. Tolly this morning?” Alexa asked.

“I think he’s gone off already,” Rue said, frowning a little as she thought it over. “But I’m not to say he’s gone for a pint.”

“A pint! Rue, for heaven’s sake!” Harry said, appearing on the stairs above them in his shirtsleeves and waistcoat. He started down. “I’ve not gone off, and neither have I gone for a pint.” He smiled at Alexa as he reached the ground floor. “Good morning.”

“Good morning, sir,” Alexa said, and forced herself to smile sunnily.

Harry looked at Rue again, eyeing the letter. “What have you got there?”

“A letter! A messenger brung it,” Rue said. “I give him the coin, just as you said.”

“Just as I said, eh? Then we must mark this day on the calendar, Rue. That is splendid news,” Harry said, and held his hand out for the letter.

A beaming Rue placed it in his hand.

“Would you like some tea?” Harry asked Alexa. “Seems rather damp out.”

“Terribly damp,” she said. “Yes, thank you.”

“Am I to fetch the tea, then?” Rue asked.

“You are to fetch the tea,” Harrison said, and gave Alexa a small shake of his head as Rue scampered off. “Come into the study.”

Alexa followed him into the study and accepted his offer to sit in one of the chairs at the hearth. “Excuse me a moment, if you will,” he said politely, and broke the seal on the letter.

Alexa watched him read it, a slight frown of concentration on his brow. His hair looked as if he’d combed it back with his fingers, and his trousers—buckskins—fit him very well, indeed. He was quite handsome, really; well built and strong, and not too thin.

Moreover, he had been polite and kind to her in spite of all the difficulties. Perhaps, Alexa mused, she had made the best decision after all. Perhaps she might really come to love him.

She glanced around at the room as he read. It was sparsely furnished, like the rest of the house, and there were so many books! They were stacked on his desk and on the table between the two chairs. There was a wall of bookcases, too, stuffed full of them. She couldn’t imagine the desire to own as many books as this, or the expense of obtaining them. It seemed that one or two would be enough. An atlas. A Bible, of course. Perhaps an historical or scientific book. What more was necessary?

Harry sighed heavily and Alexa turned her head as he tossed the letter onto his desk. “Is something wrong?”

“No.” He stared at the large window a moment, his jaw clenching and unclenching. Then he seemed to remember that she was there and smiled once again. “I hope you rested well,” he said as he took the chair beside her.

“I did, thank you.”

He absently drummed his fingers on one knee, clearly distracted. “I think it shall rain.”

Lord! Is this what they would speak of in each other’s company? The weather? How rested they were? “Is everything all right?” Alexa asked.

“What?” he asked. “Yes, everything is fine.” His fingers stopped drumming. “And with you, as well?”

“Fine,” she said, feeling exasperated now.

“And how does the day find Lady Carey?” he asked.

“I did not go down for breakfast. I was feeling a bit ill.”

Harry’s gaze flicked to her abdomen a moment. “Recovered now?”

“Quite.”

“Very good,” he said, and glanced at the fireplace once again.

“I think you are right. I think rain is coming,” Alexa said, watching him closely. “And I was thinking that perhaps we might wait until the rain has passed before we undertake a long trip.”

Harry nodded, but then glanced at Alexa. “Pardon?”

“It is a long way to Gretna Green,” she said.

“Having second thoughts?” he asked quietly.

“Not at all,” she quickly assured him. “But I find that I do not travel as well as I have in the past.” She put her hand to her abdomen.

He nodded and stood up. “I should think the ability to travel will only become more difficult for you. But I will consider it. You must not fret, Alexa. All will be well.”

She couldn’t imagine why he thought so. The situation was a terrible mess. She watched him walk to the desk, pick up the letter again, glance at it, then toss it down again.

“Will all be well with your Lady X?” Alexa asked.

That brought his head around. “I beg your pardon?”

“Lady X,” Alexa said again. “You seem rather distracted, and I thought perhaps that
you
are having second thoughts.”

His face darkened, and Alexa flushed. She had overstepped her bounds. Again. And unintentionally. “Perhaps it would ease you to know that I have no expectations,” she said, in a feeble attempt to smooth over her gaffe.

That seemed to amuse him somewhat, judging by his softly wry smile.

A loud crash of glass and metal startled them both. “Oh
lud
!” they heard Rue exclaim.