The Wedding Affair (Rebel Hearts series Book 1) (20 page)

Felix petted Long Peg fondly and then unhitched her himself. He might not ride a horse, but he seemed familiar enough with the strappings of a gig. Sally watched him in silence for a long while as his capable hands soothed the twitching pony. “When were you in Port Royal?”

“Laurence’s first year aboard. I took him ashore out of pity. The first year on a new ship is always the hardest.”

“You like him?”

“I do, just do not let him know.” Felix detached the long reins and bridle from Long Peg and then scratched her nose. “He is cheeky enough as it is when the other officers are not around.”

“That sounds like my brother.”

“And every Ford I have ever known.” He spoke without bitterness and then glanced around, taking a keen interest in his surroundings in a way he had not before their outing. He seemed in no rush to escort her indoors, and she did not know why he dallied.

She gestured toward the house. “Are you not going inside?”

“The duke does not require me again today, and I do not want to get in your way.” He shrugged. “I will be along in a while or perhaps as late as the dinner hour if you do not mind.”

She did mind. She needed to figure out what to do about her conflicting feelings. She was about to marry a man she did not love and desired a man she did not entirely trust.

Felix turned away as the stable master returned, as if the matter of them parting ways was settled.

Sally ground her teeth. “I will wait,” she insisted. “I should hate for you to become lost on your way there.”

“You really have not changed have you?” He faced her, smiling at last. “You should not feel obliged to keep watch over me. The illness has passed and likely will not return for many months. I do not think it is a good idea for us to…”

His expression grew shuttered as he looked toward the distant manor house, and he never finished his thought.

“What is it?”

His shoulders slumped. “Ellicott has returned.”

When he turned away, she saw disappointment had twisted his smile into a grimace. As if it pained him that she would marry another.

He retreated into the stables and left her to face her future husband alone.

Sally turned to Ellicott, guilt warming her cheeks with uncomfortable sensation. She was sorry to see him returned because she now could not spend any more time with Felix. Her heart grew heavy with each step that brought him closer, but she managed a smile. “You are back early.”

“I could not stay away.” Ellicott lifted her hands to his mouth, kissed them both, and then planted a brusque kiss on her lips. He drew back, grinning. “And you have been out enjoying the morning without me. How did you entertain yourself while I was gone?”

Calling on a tenant, and one recently upset, was hardly the sort of call to be considered enjoyable. However, she had enjoyed showing off Newberry Park to Felix and her guilt increased. She withdrew her hands. “I had errands to run for the duke.”

“Well, remember when you do misbehave that I want all the delightful details.” He hooked her arm through his and tugged her toward the empty gardens. “You cannot imagine how much I am looking forward to hearing your every scandalous misdeed in the future.”

Sally laughed at his enthusiasm, but her heart was not really engaged in the conversation. She was aware that Felix stood not ten feet away and could be listening to them, watching her live her new life with the earl. “Well, let me see. On Thursday night I did something terribly shocking…” She led Ellicott firmly away from the stable. “I woke my sister up at midnight and we talked for hours.”

Ellicott groaned. “Hardly scandalous, though I do admire your bravery in disturbing her rest. That sister of yours has not your sense of humor or sense of fun. Much too severe for my taste. What else did you do?”

“Nothing of significance.” Sally did not intend to reveal the details of her tryst with Felix, his illness, or how she had feared for his life. Anything to do with the captain was simply too personal to share. She asked him instead about what he had done while he had been in London, as they walked through the drawing room doors in search of her family.

~ * ~

F
elix’s temper flared as Sally and his replacement strolled away arm in arm. In the quiet stable yard, their voices had carried quite well enough that he was sickened by their conversation after a few minutes of it. How dare she speak of what they had done together on Thursday night with her future husband? She had told him what they did together would remain a secret between them. He had taken her at her word. He would never have touched her if he had known her tongue was now hinged in the middle, that she would share the details of their tryst with Ellicott as if it meant nothing.

He turned away in disgust, catching the stable master’s guilty expression as Sally strolled away. The stable master had eavesdropped too. That annoyed him. “Dudley, is it? Why are there so few grooms to manage the stables and so few horses?”

The older man grimaced. “Most went with the admiral to London and never came back.”

“Bloody hell!” He raked his fingers through his hair and took in the rows of empty stalls. The estate was practically abandoned in that case. Trust the admiral to think of himself first and to take the best too. “And the other half?”

“Not too many able bodies left in these parts, truth be told.” The man scratched his jaw. “A few of the footmen double as out-of-doors staff unless the estate has extra guests to be waited on inside. We do the best we can with what we have and do not complain.”

Felix grunted, unsurprised by the confirmation of the picture he had already formed during the day. Loyalty to the Fords held firm, but Newberry Park had too few men indeed for the tasks to be done around the place. Sally might speak of Newberry Park with great pride, but the home was falling apart around her, and she could not see it. She could not do anything to stop it either. The duke was right to worry about letting her wander the place unescorted in such an atmosphere of neglect. “Why do you stay?”

Not that this man or his life was any of Felix’s business, but he preferred to know who he was dealing with at all times.

“I have lived and worked for the duke since I was just a boy. ’Tis a grand estate the Fords have, and he lets me run the stables as I like.”

Grand or not, Felix could not help but feel very concerned by what he had discovered here. An estate was very much like a ship. It required constant attention and maintenance. If left much longer, Newberry Park might fall into disrepair that could take years of hard work and expense to recover from.

The estate needed more able-bodied men and someone to keep them in line. Someone to keep order as tight as a ship’s captain required of his men. He could turn this place around in a week with the right help.

He spun away from that thought and glanced over the tired pony. “Dudley, I require a carriage.”

The man appeared surprised by his request. “Going far, Captain?”

“The village.”

“Happy to drive you, Captain.” He glanced toward the manor and shrugged. “It will not take a moment to hitch a better carriage than the gig you used to get around the estate.”

He touched his cap and hurried deeper into the stables, shouting for the stable lad to come out and help him. Felix stood aside as the old man and a boy of around nine led out two chestnut horses out and backed them up to a tidy black carriage. They worked well together, but Felix could see the boy struggle with the straps almost beyond his reach.

He glanced away and noticed Louisa and Audrey Ford in the distance, carrying a basket of fresh-picked fruit in from the orchard. The basket looked too heavy for them, and they stopped many times on the way, laughing and talking, but despite their happy mood he could see the strain of their efforts and slow progress.

By the time the conveyance was ready, Felix had seen more than he cared to about how the place was run. Shoddily for all the money the duke had amassed. He was glad to be going away for a while. He might not know much about the land, but there was too much that needed doing, enough that even he, an ignorant seaman, could tell required attention.

Rutherford’s growing wealth, thanks to his efforts in the war, was not going to keep this estate from disarray. Admiral Templeton was too wrapped up in the politics of war to care what happened here. Lord George had already admitted he was doing all he could, and it was not anywhere near enough.

When the war was over, there would be so much to do.

What Newberry needed right now was someone with the experience to convince men to do their best in difficult circumstances. Someone to take the burden from the ladies should it be needed. Whomever they hired would have to be someone Sally and her family trusted, since so many of the ladies were unmarried. If the war progressed or Sally’s brothers failed to come home soon, they would need help desperately.

He paused beside the horses and glanced at the manor house once more. Sally, Lord Ellicott, and their mothers were visible through the open set of drawing room doors. The sign of such familiarity and domesticity caused his heart to pinch in discomfort.

He needed to go.

“Right you are, Captain.” Dudley put down the steps of the carriage while the boy held the horses in check.

“Thank you.” He climbed inside and let the dark interior soothe him. “What good does it do worrying about them when I am not allowed to care,” he whispered to the empty space.

It did him no good at all.

Chapter Twenty-Two

“I
have brought you a present,” Ellicott said, digging into his pocket and removing a stunning diamond-and-ruby ring.

Sally gasped at the beauty of it as he slipped it onto her finger.

“Now we are truly engaged.” Regardless of her mother’s presence across the room, he brought her into his arms and planted a brief kiss on her lips.

“Indeed we are,” Sally agreed, but that thought brought with it an unexpected animosity toward Ellicott. She had agreed to marry him of her own free will. No one had pressured her or suggested she must. She had all but thrown herself into Ellicott’s path with her usual determination and practicality, and she had not missed him one little bit.

Unfortunately, she was not feeling committed to her goals anymore.

He leaned close to her ear. “Come, let me tempt you away somewhere more private.”

From the open doorway, she saw a carriage and team of chestnut horses being led out by Dudley and his son. Her heart stopped as Felix climbed inside the dark carriage. As it pulled away from the stables, her heart began to pump blood to her limbs at a fast rate, and she stumbled away from her betrothed and stepped out through the door.

He was leaving now? But why?

Her mouth grew dry as she caught a glimpse of Felix’s profile. He did not lift a hand to say good-bye but stared straight ahead, ignoring his surroundings.

He could not leave. Not when they still had so much to resolve. Panic filled her. “Excuse me. I must speak with my grandfather about an estate matter. It simply cannot wait.”

Ellicott sighed heavily. “Very well, but the minute his business is concluded you and I are going on a long walk and we are not telling anyone where we are going. Just the two of us. I would have you alone for once.”

“Yes, of course,” she murmured, already leaving the room. Sally hurried to her grandfather’s study and knocked loudly on the heavy door.

“Come,” her grandfather called out when she knocked a second time.

When Ellicott restrained her by grasping her arm, Sally gasped, quite surprised to find he had followed her and she had not noticed his presence. She was usually much more aware of him. “What are you doing?”

Ellicott slipped his hand around the back of her neck. “Kissing you.”

“Not here.”

“Why not? We are engaged to be married. The duke can wait a few moments. I cannot.”

A troubling need to flee assailed her. “We are in the front hall where my family and any passing servants can see us.”

She was making excuses and knew it. She did not want his kiss today.

“That is the point. I want to mark you with my lips. My beautiful bride-to-be.”

Sally stepped away. He thought her wanton and she might deserve the stain of the label, but the only man she had enjoyed kissing was the one she could not have. Felix. “We are not married, my lord, and such liberties can wait to be taken until then.”

Ellicott frowned. “Has something changed in my absence?”

“No.”

“Then you and I need to have a private chat. I will wait on the lawn. Ten minutes, then duke or not, I will come and drag you out.”

Taken aback by Ellicott’s clipped tone, she shook her head. “I will be as long as my grandfather needs me, and then I insist upon a chaperone until we are married.”

Ellicott’s jaw firmed and his eyes narrowed. “Is that the way you are going to be when we are married too? Hot and cold?”

“I am not either of those, but I will protect my reputation and set a proper example for my sisters.” Sally let herself into her grandfather’s study and shut the door in Ellicott’s angry face. Gods, what was she doing risking her future with Ellicott? She must have lost her mind when Felix kissed her.