The Road to Gretna (20 page)

Quitting the sunshine, she went to her betrothed. Jason joined Thea and for several minutes endured her painful efforts to speak kindly of his bride. The ordeal was brought to an end by Henrietta’s arrival.

“Jason!” She fluttered across the room to him, a butterfly in white with cherry ribbons. “You did not tell me you live on the moors. I cannot abide those horrid hills. They make me shudder. How glad I am that we shall live in London.”

“For part of the year, naturally; for the Season at least; but most of the time we shall spend here.” He tried to avoid her horrified eyes. “It’s past time I did my duty by my home and my family. My intention is to turn over a new leaf, to become a good landlord, and son, and brother—and husband, of course.”

“Oh, of course.” She sounded relieved. “But there is no need to stay here for that. I have already thought about it. Your mama and sisters shall come to live with us in London and I shall buy them lots of new dresses.”

“That’s kind of you, my dear, but Newkirk needs me, too.”

“Then you can come here for a few days, whenever you need to.”

“It’s my home, Henrietta. I have made up my mind to live here in future.”

“But I don’t like it here. It is horrid and shabby and...”

Just as Jason realized that everyone in the room had fallen silent, listening, they all began to talk at once, and Enoch came in to announce that dinner was served. The servant’s too-tight, elbow-patched livery seemed to Jason an added reproach.

The babble of voices was stilled again. Angus gallantly offered Lady Kilmore his arm and they all proceeded to the dining room.

Conversation over the first course was unnaturally subdued. If nothing else, Henrietta’s schoolmistresses had impressed upon her that the dinner table was no place for making a scene. Looking sulky, she pushed a piece of stringy mutton about her plate and said nothing. Meg bravely chattered on about her flowers and about a book she was reading, but only Angus made any real attempt to support her efforts. Afterwards, Penny couldn’t even remember the subject of the book.

Henrietta brightened when the second course brought a dish of fresh-picked plums. She graciously complimented Thea, saying she had never had any so good in London. Thus, when Lady Kilmore rose, the ladies repaired to the drawing-room reasonably in charity with one another.

On her prettiest behaviour at last, Henrietta begged permission to take Lily out in the walled garden, “where the dogs cannot come.” Meg and Thea agreed to go with her, Meg with a determined expression that told Penny she meant to do her best to like her future sister-in-law. Penny chose to stay with Lady Kilmore.

This would be her last evening in Jason’s company, and she did not want to waste a minute of it.

She drew Henrietta aside and whispered, “You will mind your tongue and try to be amiable, will you not?”

“Oh yes, for I mean to persuade them that they wish to remove to London,” said Henrietta blithely.

Penny watched them go with considerable misgivings.

She and Lady Kilmore discussed housekeeping. Her ladyship was her own housekeeper, and Penny had run her father’s household for over a year before he died, though she had had both housekeeper and butler. For one who sometimes seemed so vague, Lady Kilmore had a surprisingly practical streak. Penny admired her ability to keep her establishment running smoothly despite a minimal budget and the difficulties of Newkirk’s isolated position.

Their conversation was interrupted after a few minutes by Jason and Angus’s appearance. The gentlemen looked less than pleased with each other.

“Miss Bryant, I promised to show you the castle,” said Jason at once. “It will soon begin to grow dark.”

“I should love to see it, if you will excuse me, my lady?”

“Of course, my dear. There is little enough to see, but the view is spectacular on a clear day such as this.”

“Do you go with us, Knox?” Jason’s query was not inviting.

“Nay, I s’ll keep her ladyship company. Ye’d best put on a shawl, Penelope.”

“Yes, Angus. We shan’t be long.” She preceded Jason out of the room. “I don’t need a shawl, do I? It’s still quite warm.”

He grinned at her. “I daresay you are capable of deciding for yourself.”

“Then let us go, while it’s still light.”

“You don’t mind if we take the dogs?”

“I’d like that.”

He crossed the hall to a door by the stairway, opened it, and whistled. Champion bounded out to greet them with joyful exuberance, followed more sedately by his elderly companion, Honey.

“She is retired from herding sheep,” Jason said, leading the way out through the front door. “Champion never managed to sit still long enough to learn. Never was a dog so misnamed.”

Penny laughed. “Ah, but he must be excused because of his charm.” Aware of the drawing-room windows behind her, she did not take his arm as they crossed the garden. “Your sisters are charming, too, and I do like your mother.”

"It’s plain to see that they like you.”

“They are too kind to judge Henrietta by an unfortunate first impression, and I’m certain she will love them when she comes to know them. Appearance means a great deal to her and she was taken by surprise.”

He nodded, but with a sceptical look.

The castle knoll was steep and she accepted his assistance to climb the zigzag path to the summit. Champion raced up and disappeared. Arriving breathless at the top, Penny gazed south-west across mile after mile of rolling green hills, descending into the valley. On the far side of the River Eden, rising slopes, marked with darker green patches of woodland, merged in the grey distance with the great humped ridges of the ancient mountains of the Lake District. Above, pink wisps of cloud floated, serene in the deep blue of an endless expanse of sky.

Slowly Penny turned. To the north, close at hand, scattered stones and a single wall were all that remained of the castle. To the east rose the nearby fells with their rocky outcrops and swathes of purple heather. At their sheltering foot the house looked cosy and welcoming, lights showing now in several windows. And to complete the domestic scene, a gaggle of white geese honked and splashed in the little stream at the base of the knoll.

Sighing, Penny glanced at Jason to find him watching her. “It’s beautiful. How could anyone want to live in London? I’m so sorry Henrietta doesn’t care for your home.”

“My father was of the same opinion.” The bitterness in his voice made her shiver. “Are you cold? Come over by the wall, out of the breeze.”

She sat on a stone, still warm from the sun, and leaned back against the solid bulk of the thick wall. For a moment he stood looking down at her, then he dropped to the grass to sprawl propped on one elbow. Plucking a daisy, he ruthlessly denuded it of pink-tipped petals. Honey came to lay her head on his crossed ankles. Penny remembered her first sight of him in daylight, elegant, sardonic, every inch the dashing beau.

“Your father?” she asked tentatively.

“My father hated and despised Newkirk.” Another daisy was despoiled. “He was a younger son, who never expected to inherit. The amusements of London were all he cared for. At most he showed his face here once a year, and those few days he spent railing against the isolation, the bleakness, the deficiencies of house and household.”

“Your mother lived with him in Town?”

“Not after I was born. He had no interest in any of us, until I left school. Then he did his best to make me into a copy of himself. He taught me to scorn my home, but though I faithfully aped him, I never quite forgot my childhood, those happy school holidays with my mother and my sisters. When he died, I discovered that he had wrung every farthing from the estate, let it go to rack and ruin and sold off every inch of unentailed land.”

“Your mama and sisters were scrimping and saving and you never wondered how your fashionable life in London was paid for?” She couldn’t keep a certain scorn from her voice.

He sat up and clasped his hands around his knees, disturbing Honey, who looked at him in reproach and wandered over to slump against Penny’s legs. She stroked the old dog’s head, her gaze on Jason’s rueful face.

“I’ve never pretended to be a saint, Penny. I hardly ever saw them. I enjoyed the life of gaiety and dissipation and never questioned it. Even when he died, and I found myself with pockets to let, my only thought was to hide my straits and find a rich wife who would let me go on as before.”

“And your family?”

“Give me credit, at least, for intending to pull them out of the slough as well as myself. I want to introduce Thea and Meg to Society, to find them respectable husbands, and to make my mother comfortable.”

“So you found Henrietta.”

“She is my last chance.” Jason ran his fingers through his dark hair, already ruffled by the evening breeze. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this,” he went on wryly. “It is scarce calculated to raise me in your estimation. At first I looked for a bride no further than the ranks of the Ton. To marry a Cit was beneath my dignity.”

“I can understand that, though you cannot expect me to condone it!” Penny was glad to win a smile from him, however mocking. “Many of my schoolfellows were blue-blooded, and even at their friendliest there was always a distance. What made you change your mind? You couldn’t find an eligible heiress?”

“You know, I daresay, that the Polite World is a hotbed of gossip. It was impossible to keep my situation secret. I joined the ranks of the fortune-hunters against whom careful mamas warn their daughters, though I was still acceptable to Society in every other respect. I was ready to despair until I met Alison.”

She fought to keep the jealousy from her voice. “Alison?” Honey licked her hand.

“An enchanting girl, brought up by her eccentric and lamentably bourgeois aunts. She inherited a fortune and had her Season, and I tried to abduct her.”

“Jason!”

“I warned you that I’m no saint.” His tone was harsh. It was growing too dark to make out his expression.

“The abduction didn’t succeed,” she ventured.

Unexpectedly he laughed, his teeth white in the twilight. “No, it turned into a circus. When I kidnapped her she had her dog, with her, a huge Newfoundland. The beast took exception to me, and though I might have disabled it without great difficulty, I discovered that I was not so much a villain as I had supposed. I let her go.”

“You loved her?”

“Loved? No. I was fond of her and I would have done my best to be a good husband to her. She was a bewitching chit, and kind-hearted beyond belief. When she left, she gave me all the money she had in her pocket—eighteen pence—lest I should be in difficulties.”

“A shilling and two threepenny bits,” said Penny blankly.

“Yes. How did you know?”

“I thought it was a dream.” Hot all over with embarrassment, she was glad of the dusk to hide her scarlet cheeks.

“That night at Ferrybridge? No dream.” Now his voice was full of laughter. He stretched out one hand towards her. “To remind me of the absurdity of Life I wear them on a chain...
under
my shirt.”

To her relief, Champion gambolled up to them. By the time Jason finished tussling with him, she had regained her composure.

He leaned back against the wall. “Since I’d borrowed a carriage to take Alison to Gretna, I drove on when she departed. I came here. It was then I realized how much Newkirk means to me, that I want to make my home here. I want to buy back the farms my father sold, bring in new breeding stock, even reopen the mines. There’s silver in the hills, and iron and other metals. Alison had dispelled my objections to a parvenu bride, and so I found Henrietta. Mr. White is prepared to invest in both the sheep farming and the mining. Newkirk will thrive once more.’’

Penny winced at the reminder that tomorrow they would both be wed. “If only Henrietta appreciated Newkirk. I have never seen a place I liked better. I wish I didn’t have to leave in the morning.”

“Must you go, Penny? Stay a little longer.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“I am not safe until I’m married.” Penny shuddered as the desperation she had held at bay attacked with renewed vigour.

Champion laid his head in her lap. With a shaking hand, Penny fondled his ears. Jason reached up and took her other hand between his, calming and warming her.

“Tell me about your uncle.”

“He’s my mother’s brother. My mother died when I was born and I hardly ever saw Uncle Vaughn. Papa didn’t like him. He said he was a huckster who would never get rich because he was too apt to lose his temper and frighten people off.”

“Yet your father left you in his charge.” He sounded angry.

“No! Papa would never have done that. The friend he named as my guardian died in the same accident as Papa, two years ago, and Uncle Vaughn was my only living relative. He and my aunt moved into the house before the funeral.”

“When you were too shattered to resist. My poor girl!”

His sympathetic understanding steadied her. “He had dismissed half the servants before I realized what was going on, and hired his own in their place. My aunt had no maid so I shared Nancy, my abigail, with her. When Nancy found herself spending more and more time nursing her she complained that she had no time to look after me. My uncle dismissed her for impertinence.”

“Because she was attached to you.”

“She was my nurse before I went to school. I wrote her an excellent reference but I never heard what became of her. Uncle Vaughn claimed it was his duty to read all my letters before he gave them to me. And he considered it my duty to nurse my aunt, since she doesn’t like strangers. I tried to hire a nurse, and a new abigail, but he found one pretext or another to reject every applicant. That was when I knew it was useless to try to stand against him.”

Reliving the terror of that realization, she started shaking again. In the dark Jason moved to share her stone seat and put his arm comfortingly about her shoulders. Distraught as she was, his closeness made her pulse flutter. She tried to wish he were her brother.

“Your uncle won’t let you marry Angus?” he asked gently.