Worth Lord of Reckoning (32 page)

Within a few minutes, Worth and the earl had a grid worked out and a system whereby one team of men would start on the lane to Hunter’s holding, the other would start at the manor, and they’d meet in the middle of the wood. Footmen were being instructed to notify the grooms and gardeners and other staff when Carl tapped on the library door.

“Mr. Thomas Hunter is asking for you, Mrs. Wyeth. He wouldn’t say what his business was, but his mule is in a right lather.”

“Show him in,” Worth said. “Mrs. Wyeth will receive him here with us.”

Thomas came in, his attire too informal for this call to be social.

“Mrs. Wyeth, Mr. Kettering.” He bowed to Jacaranda, he merely nodded at Worth. He shot the earl a measuring look. “I don’t believe I know you, sir.”

“Grampion,” Worth said, “may I make known to you Mr. Thomas Hunter, one of my most industrious tenants. Hunter, I give you the Earl of Grampion, who is at this moment a very concerned brother to a certain young lady, as am I.”

“She’s safe,” Hunter said. “She twisted her ankle, but I don’t think it’s broken. She’s at the gamekeeper’s cottage near my property, her foot up and her book within reach. She’s very embarrassed, but got turned around in the wood and then took a bad step. I heard her calling on my way to Least Wapping.”

Jacaranda had to sit, so great was her relief, because a young woman could come to very great harm in no time at all.

“Do we have you to thank for her comfort and care, Hunter?” Worth’s tone held a pugnacious edge.

“I have shown her every courtesy,” Hunter retorted, his chin lifting half an inch. “She is not at my home, but she is certainly an honored guest.”

“We’d best fetch her in a cart,” Jacaranda interjected, for male posturing could be interminable. “Getting from the cottage out to the track will be difficult for her.”

“I’ll fetch her,” the earl said. “My horse can take the two of us, if Mr. Hunter would be so kind as to lead the way?”

Hunter looked the earl up and down, but held his peace.

“You might as well speak plainly,” Worth said. “We are her family, and we love her, but her mind is her own, Mr. Hunter.”

“She said this one”—he nodded at his lordship—“would scold her as if she were eight years old. She’s not eight years old.”

“Yolanda is not to blame for turning her ankle,” Worth said. “I doubt his lordship will do any scolding, for he’s too glad the girl’s safe and reasonably sound.”

The earl nodded his agreement—his capitulation—once. “Just so, but she needs her family now, though you have our thanks, Hunter. She is dear to us.”

“One hoped that was the case. I’ll await you in the stables.” He bowed politely to Jacaranda, gave each man a nod, and withdrew.

“She’s safe,” Worth said, directing his comments to his brother. “She didn’t intentionally alarm anyone, and she’s safe.”

“She’s safe, but we don’t know she turned her ankle. She might have concocted this whole debacle to spend time unchaperoned with your tenant. Yolanda is clever if nothing else.”

“Do you have a reason to accuse her of such dramatics?” Worth asked, which was fortunate, because Jacaranda would not have put the question half so civilly.

“Wasn’t it you who had to retrieve her from an exclusive boarding school for trying to do injury to herself?”

Jacaranda could keep silent no longer, for brothers would chose the most vexatious times to be difficult. “Can’t you sort through that later? Right now, we need to retrieve her from that cottage, and assure her she’s loved and that her absence mattered.” Why could they not see this? “If you two want to continue this argument, I will happily fetch her with Mr. Hunter.”

She’d carry the girl from the cottage herself if need be, though Thomas would likely appropriate that honor.

The earl’s eyebrows rose, then crashed down, making him look very much like his brother. He bowed and withdrew without another word.

“You’re not going with him?” Jacaranda aimed the question at Worth, who’d settled on the sofa near the tea and scones.

“I am not,” he said, buttering a scone. “Hess and Lannie have matters to work out, and they’ll need privacy to do it. They’re both monumentally shy, and my hovering won’t help.”

“Eating a scone will?” Though Jacaranda was hungry, and another cup of tea wouldn’t go amiss either.

“Come sit with me.” He beckoned with the hand holding the scone. “And, yes, because I’ve been in the saddle for much of the day, I intend to eat every last scone on this plate. The jam is about gone, though.”

Jacaranda sat, needing to be near him, which made no sense when the crisis was past. “I was so relieved to see you. Your brother was doubtless scandalized.”

“My brother has other things on his mind just now.” Worth held up the scone for her to take a bite. “A little scandalizing will be good for the fellow. He’s grown Puritan in his northern wilderness.”

“Puritan?”

“Lonely, but he doesn’t seem to know it, or what to do about it.” Worth took a bite for himself, then offered the scone to her again. “We need some tea to wash this down.”

She let him ply her with tea and scones and let herself sit right next to him, absorbing his warmth and calm.

“You didn’t panic,” she said. “I was ready to scream, and you didn’t panic.”

“She isn’t your little sister,” Worth said. “Inside I was screaming, but you kept looking at me as if I’d know what to do, and Hess couldn’t very well step in, because it isn’t his property, and he was too busy blaming himself.”

“You didn’t blame yourself.” She let her head rest against his shoulder, and he obligingly looped an arm around her.

“I most assuredly did. You simply didn’t hear me. I will always bear responsibility for Moira’s death, and I was fully prepared to be at fault if Yolanda had been set upon by bears, or pirates, or pixies.”

Jacaranda lifted her head to glare at him. “You did not cause Moira’s death. If anything, your generosity gave her a few years of happiness.”

He was silent, not a brooding silent. Then, “Marry me.”

“
What?
”

“I said…” He drew his finger along her arm. “Please marry me. Please.”

Jacaranda watched his finger trail down her forearm, having difficulty connecting the sight with sensation, just as Worth would not be able to connect Lady Jacaranda Wyeth Dorning with his practical, plain housekeeper.

“I beg your pardon?”

“I said, please marry me. This raspberry jam is worth putting my foot in parson’s mousetrap. Did you make it? I think you did. No wonder Avery was abandoning all manners for a mere taste. You could sell this, you know, retire from this life of gay abandon and buy that cottage.”

She blushed hotly, probably turning nearly the color of the jam itself. “You will not bring up cottages, if you please.”

“You have such a way with the imperatives, my dear.” He munched away on his scone, the wretched man. “What did you mean when you said you’d once been a foolish girl?”

“Weren’t you once a foolish boy?”

“Hell, yes. For years and years.” He chewed more slowly, and Jacaranda hoped his teasing about marriage was done—for he had been teasing, this time.

Or he’d turned his proposal into a joke rather than endure her rejection.

The sooner she returned to Dorset, the better.

“In some ways, I’m only now getting over the tendency toward foolishness,” he said, “but that doesn’t answer my question, dear heart. Tell me of your foolishness.”

“My past is not a fit topic.” Jacaranda rose, and she could see she’d surprised him. Her past and her future were both not fit topics. “I must ensure that Cook has dinner underway, given the upheaval of the day.”

“Jacaranda?” He was on his feet, too, and clearly done with his teasing.

“Sir?”

He paced across the room to join her near the door, his gait unhurried, as if he knew she wasn’t about to leave until she’d heard him out.

“Thank you,” he said, speaking distinctly. “I neglect to give you these words often enough, not because I don’t feel grateful—I do—but because they make you uncomfortable, just as talking about your cottage does. Thank you for turning the house and staff upside down to look for my sister. Thank you for making this house a home my family can feel welcome in. Thank you for raspberry jam.”

She wanted to cry. He wasn’t even touching her, he wasn’t teasing, and she wanted to cry.

“You’re welcome.” She put her fingers on the door latch and walked out from under the hand he’d settled on her shoulder—one of the more difficult departures she’d asked of herself.

“I’ll see you at dinner.” His words floated after her, pitched so she’d hear them, but she made good her escape and reached her room before the tears fell in quantity.

Chapter Fourteen

“It has something to do with why you’re housekeepering here in Surrey,” Worth mused as he climbed into Jacaranda’s bed.

Her worst nightmare and her fondest dream had come to call once again. Jacaranda buried her nose in her pillow. “You infernal man, what do you think you’re doing here?”

“I’ve come to talk about cottages and jam pots,” he said, going through the ritual of bouncing around to get the pillows and covers just so. “You would not discuss them with me earlier, and my curiosity is piqued. I would also like to know if you missed me sufficiently that you’re willing to dispense certain favors in my direction.”

“
My
curiosity is burning to experience a good night’s sleep.” Jacaranda gave him her back, putting a convincing show of sincerity in her words, almost enough to compensate for lying in bed for more than an hour, wondering if he’d join her.

He spooned himself around her. “Yolanda seemed fine at dinner.”

“I think she was surprised his lordship would fetch her, and whatever he said, it seemed to clear the air between them.” Worth was in Jacaranda’s bed, where at least part of her wanted him, and she’d missed these late-night conversations and the simple cuddling and petting he lavished on her.

Missed them a lot, and would miss them more soon.

“Why the sigh, Jacaranda Wyeth?”

“Your hand. I am a fool for the way you rub my back.”

“It relaxes me, too,” he said, pausing to kiss her shoulder, “to rub your back. May I ask you about something?”

“No, Worth. For once, you may not pose whatever question comes into the vast, busy manufactory that is your mind.”

“Do you need money?”

“What sort of question is that?”

“An honest one.” He sounded embarrassed. “My housekeeper in Town sends a portion of her wages home, and it occurred to me your family might be in some need.”

She hadn’t foreseen this, couldn’t quite fathom where it was coming from or where he was headed with it, though she should have known he’d put together the pieces easily enough.

“We’re not in particular need, though I haven’t been home to visit for nearly two years. I have a large family, but the land is good, and we work hard.” Then too, they no longer had to endure the expense of London Seasons for a young lady who did not take. “Why do you ask?”

“My manufactory specializes in producing idle curiosity. Would you trust me with your money, Jacaranda?”

Another kiss, though she had the sense her answer mattered far more than his casual tone suggested.

“If you needed it, yes, I would trust you with my money.”

She’d have been better advised to give him her money than her heart—more fool her.

“I might need it,” he said, and the relief in his tone was unmistakable. “Give me another week or so to sort matters through. I’d give you a note of hand, or a promissory note, if you preferred.”

“I don’t need any notes.” She rolled over to try to see him, but the moon was either behind its clouds or not up yet. “I’ll withhold your raspberry jam if you game it away.”

“My word is good with you?”

“You’re in my bed, after dark, without benefit of clothing, so yes, I’d say a modicum of trust lies between us.” Not as much trust as he deserved, though.

“Hess is nearly rolled up.”

A sterling example of the trust going both ways and part of the reason why Jacaranda would quit Trysting at summer’s end. Better to end their dalliance than let Worth Kettering know he’d climbed into bed with a dissembling woman.

Because whatever lay between him and his brother, Jacaranda was certain a dissembling woman had been part of it.

“Was he mortified to seek your help?” She put an arm under his neck and stroked her hand through his hair—which soothed her.

“I was mortified. Jacaranda, I wanted to put my hand over his mouth and push his words back into silence. He’s been struggling away up there in Cumberland, selling off his beloved hunters, the art he enjoys so much, and God knows what else, and it’s pathetic. Papa left him a cocked-up mess and not one clue how to go about fixing it. He refuses to raise the rents, and I have to applaud him for that, given the price of corn lately.”

Jacaranda kept her hand moving slowly through his hair. “You suspected he’d traveled alone out of economy, and you were right. He probably doesn’t entertain for the same reason.”

“I wish I’d been wrong.” Worth closed his eyes, his lashes glancing delicately against her palm. “We’ll get him sorted out, eventually.”