Annie Burrows Read online

  She had to take a deep breath and screw her eyes shut for a moment to hold back the tears. It was when she’d seen how he thawed whenever Cissy demonstrated her affection openly that she’d begun to see him in a new light, too. Under all that bluster, he was, really, quite a sentimental sort of man.

  ‘So,’ said Robert, ‘by the time I’d cooled off and come home for my first visit, there you all were hugging and kissing the old martinet, and him revelling in all the affection you showered on him...’

  ‘Oh, your face when you walked in that day,’ said Lydia, with a watery smile.

  ‘Did my jaw actually drop as far as I thought? I thought you had wrought nothing short of a miracle,’ he said, regarding her with fondness.

  Lydia sobered at once. ‘It was nothing to do with me.’

  Robert shrugged. ‘It was a miracle, though. The girls looked pleased to see me. My father was pleased to see me. There were no recriminations for having stayed away so long. No lecture about my lifestyle. For the first time, instead of all snapping and snarling at each other, it felt as though we could become a real family.’

  His voice had turned very soft and reflective, but all of a sudden his face flushed and he started fiddling with a letter knife.

  ‘Well,’ she said briskly, recognising the symptoms of embarrassment in a male tricked into speaking about his emotions. ‘We really do have more pressing business to consider than what happened years ago and that is the question of Rose’s suitors.’

  ‘Yes, indeed.’ Never had a man looked so relieved to have the subject changed.

  ‘I came in here primarily to tell you that I think we should continue with the house party.’

  ‘What? Are you quite sure?’

  ‘Oh, yes. I looked over the guest list carefully after Rose sent the invitations out. And I believe each person on it has the potential to cope with Cissy.’

  In fact, she thought Rose had shown remarkable perspicacity for a girl of her age. For one thing, she had invited two of the gentlemen to bring their sisters, which was bound to have the effect of broadening her social circle, as well as leavening the mix. It would have been rather awkward if the house party had consisted solely of single gentlemen.

  ‘As she usually is, yes, but—’

  ‘She will be fine now. The reason she became so upset was because somebody—’ she gave him a loaded look ‘—told her, just as we were leaving, that Rose was going to London to look for a husband. Which reminded her that, once upon a time, I had gone to London to look for a husband.’

  ‘But she can’t have thought...’

  ‘Cissy never did understand why she had been sent to that asylum. I never spoke of it once we’d rescued her, since it upset her so much. Except to assure her it was over, that she was safe here. Only...’ she pursed her lips ‘...the longer we stayed away, the more the memories of what it had been like last time I was absent for any length of time must have preyed on her mind. I do not think she really believed any of us would ever send her back to a place like that. But...’

  ‘Oh, God,’ Robert groaned. ‘To think I was trying to offer her reassurance. I could see she was unhappy at the thought of you going away, so I reminded her of how good it had been for you to find a husband in my father. And I said it would be good for Rose to find someone, too. I was trying to pave the way for some new person to come into her life.’

  ‘Yes, I do realise that,’ she said. ‘But please, in future, do not attempt to think you know what is best for Cissy. Or try to keep anything about her condition from me. I am best qualified to judge what she needs. She is my sister, Robert. Not yours, no matter if your father did adopt her.’

  He gave her a jerky nod, grudgingly acknowledging her point.

  ‘And another thing.’ She was sick of him undermining her, just because he was now head of the family. ‘It is about the addition to the guest list, which you did not run by me. I refer, of course, to Lord Rothersthorpe.’

  She had not been able to believe her eyes when she’d looked up from the ground, where she sprawled with Cissy cradled in her arms, and he’d been there, gazing down at them in appalled fascination. She’d felt as though the bottom had just dropped out of her world. He was the last person she had expected to see. What on earth had prompted him to ride up to Westdene, today of all days?

  ‘D-did you invite him here? I suppose,’ she ventured hopefully, ‘you thought it would be pleasant for you to have someone nearer your own age to bear you company while the place is taken over by all the youngsters that Rose has asked down here.’

  It would be just like Robert to invite a guest of his own, without bothering to check how his decision might impact on anyone else.

  ‘He is not here at my invitation at all,’ said Robert. ‘It was all Rose’s idea.’

  So that was that. There was no point in hoping Robert was using the occasion to mend fences with a man who had once been his friend. The lure of Lord Rothersthorpe’s handsome face, and his title, had overcome Rose’s scruples about certain aspects of his character. She was giving him another chance to prove himself.

  And he had taken it.

  ‘She did discuss it with me,’ said Robert, ‘since she needed my permission to send Peters out at dead of night.’ He gave her one of his piercing looks. ‘And when she explained her reasons, I decided there would be no harm in letting her have her way. Amidst the crowd already approaching, what difference does one more make? Can you really object to a last-minute addition on the strength of place settings, or vacant bedrooms, or any such rot?’

  ‘No.’ But then that was not the reason she objected to having him here. She had been so relieved that he had not made it on to the original guest list. Now it appeared she was going to have to deal with the painful emotions caused by having him numbered amongst Rose’s suitors after all.

  ‘Then let us not quarrel over such a one as Rothersthorpe. For heaven’s sake, Lyddy, let us concentrate on what really matters here.’

  ‘By all means,’ she said dejectedly. And what mattered was most definitely not her. This week was about Rose’s future. Cissy’s welfare naturally came a very close second. And she...well, as usual she was of no importance in the scheme of things at all.

  She got to her feet, smoothed her skirts and went to the door. She was used to putting the needs of others before her own. It was just that the strength of her feelings for Lord Rothersthorpe would keep rearing up and demanding she listen to them.

  ‘I shall go and see if Cissy is ready. I made her understand that Rose and her friends are coming by water, and that if she wanted to see her today, she would have to wash her face and tidy herself up. I left Betsy helping her choose one of the new gowns we bought her in town.’ Seeing the trunk full of presents, which Lydia had brought with her in the carriage, had done much to improve Cissy’s frame of mind. Michael’s reaction had helped, too. On seeing all the mysteriously wrapped parcels, he had dived in, gleefully searching for labels that bore his name, and Cissy had caught his highly infectious enthusiasm.

  ‘I think it would help her if we all walked down to the Persian Pools to join the others, together, if you do not mind waiting? I know you wanted to be there to greet everyone the moment they stepped ashore, but...’

  ‘There are two naval officers on board to deal with all that,’ he said, making a gesture of impatience. ‘Mrs Broome has the picnic well in hand and Rose is there to act as hostess. It is more important to support Cissy. Besides,’ he added with a hard smile, ‘I wish to observe their reactions to her. Then we shall see what they are all made of.’

  Lydia wondered if the grim look on his face had anything to do with Lord Rothersthorpe’s reaction.

  ‘And Lord Rothersthorpe?’ She paused in the doorway, her hand clenching convulsively on the doorknob. ‘What did he make of the scene he witnessed?’ If he was really as repulsed by Cissy’s behaviour as he’d looked, and Robert had sent him away, then good riddance to him! He was not worthy of Rose.

 
‘And what,’ she added with a frown, ‘was he doing coming here on his horse anyway, instead of upriver with the others?’ Did he have such bad memories of the last time he’d come here that he could not bear to replicate even one aspect of it? She could well imagine him having nightmares over the time he’d very nearly stumbled into parson’s mousetrap. So he must be very, very keen on Rose, to force himself to visit Westdene at all.

  Robert shrugged. ‘A couple of the other male guests have arranged to have their horses or curricles transported here. They won’t want to be confined to the house and grounds all the time. There are some very good rides in the vicinity. But in answer to your first question,’ he said, ‘Lord Rothersthorpe asked one or two searching questions, but he did not seem unduly perturbed by my answers. And when I made it quite plain that if her behaviour offended him, he was at liberty to leave, he chose to stay.’

  That was not as comforting as Robert had probably intended it to be. It just meant she had to relinquish the last shred of hope that she might be spared the sight of Lord Rothersthorpe dazzling her beautiful stepdaughter.

  Mustering a wan smile, Lydia left Robert’s study and went back upstairs to the nursery, where she’d left the children unwrapping their presents.

  She paused for a moment just outside the door to blow her nose and straighten her shoulders. There were happy sounds emanating from the room and she had no intention of lowering anyone’s spirits by revealing the state of her own.

  Pinning a bright smile to her face, she flung open the door and strode in. The sight which met her eyes wiped the smile from her face at a stroke.

  Shredded wrapping paper littered the floor like so much bark mulch. It originated from Cissy and her dog, Slipper, who were sitting on the floor playing tug-of-war with any large pieces they could find. There were not many left. Dog slobber, she observed with horror, had a rapid and highly deleterious effect upon brown paper.

  She turned an indignant face to Marigold, who lifted her chin mutinously.

  ‘It is the first time she’s been happy for weeks,’ she said by way of excuse.

  Michael came running over to her, his little face creased with anxiety.

  ‘I kept telling Cissy you were coming back any day now, but it didn’t make any difference,’ he said. ‘I know you wouldn’t leave us, Mama. Not for ever and ever!’

  ‘Of course I wouldn’t,’ she said, pulling him into a hug. Oh, it felt so good to hold his warm little body in her arms again. How she had missed him.

  ‘You aren’t cross with me?’

  ‘Of course not!’ She looked down into his upturned face and smoothed back the fringe that would keep flopping into his eyes. ‘You did your very, very best to try to make Cissy understand. But, sometimes, nobody can get through to her.’

  ‘You can,’ he said.

  ‘Not always.’ She sighed. ‘It is just that she is happier when I am near. And so she is less inclined to be...naughty.’

  Slipper had just destroyed the last substantial piece of wrapping paper and flopped down on the floor with his nose in Cissy’s lap. She ruffled his soft velvety ears with one hand and put the thumb of her other hand in her mouth, only the occasional shudder hinting at the emotional storm she’d just weathered.

  ‘Are we all ready?’ Lydia asked Michael and Marigold. ‘Because Robert is waiting to take us all down to the Persian Pools to meet Rose’s new friends.’

  Marigold leapt to her feet, her face alight with excitement. ‘Oh, she has written all about the two naval officers who are vying for her favours. I am so looking forward to seeing them. Are they really as handsome as she says?’

  ‘They are both very handsome,’ Lydia confirmed. Well, she supposed young girls would find them so. It was just that she found it so hard to tell them apart. It had even occurred to her, when she’d seen their names side by side on the guest list, that Rose might be having the same trouble. Why else would she have listed them in the same way she’d done with the sets of brothers and sisters, unless she thought of them as a matched pair?

  Marigold ran to the mirror to check her appearance, patting her bright auburn curls swiftly into place. With her huge green eyes, and her tendency to freckle, it was sometimes hard to believe she and Rose were sisters—until she recalled they’d had different mothers.

  Michael ran to Cissy and put his thin little arms round her shoulders. ‘Picnic, Cissy,’ he said, slowly and clearly. ‘You will like it. And if you don’t we’ll steal some cake and come back here.’

  It looked very much as though, in her absence, Michael had become her closest friend. She supposed this was inevitable. Marigold, who had been her playmate for the last few years, was growing up. But Cissy would never start primping in front of a mirror, or wondering whether men found her pretty. Though her body was of a similar age to Rose’s, her mind had not progressed at all since she had been about Michael’s age. For the next few years, he would be closest to her in temperament.

  As though to prove her point, he went across to the toy chest and got out a ball for Slipper to play with while they were out. The moment the dog saw what Michael was about, he got up, barked once and nosed at his mistress to get up, too.

  Cissy clambered to her feet. Her face was clean, though her eyes were still red-rimmed. She had allowed somebody to tidy her hair and put her in one of her new dresses—though it was now crumpled, and liberally sprinkled with bits of soggy brown paper and dog hairs. In short, she looked as respectable as she was ever likely to look.

  Michael took her hand and tugged her towards the door. Marigold twitched the folds of her shawl one last time before setting out, by which time Lydia could hear Cissy and Michael thundering along the corridor. She and Marigold followed at a much more decorous pace. When they reached the back hallway, the rest of the schoolroom party had checked and were staring up at Lord Rothersthorpe who, beside Robert, was leaning against the door jamb, his arms folded across his chest.

  Cissy broke away from the power of his scrutiny first.

  ‘I’m sorry, Robber,’ she said plaintively, ‘for being so naugh-y. I shoul-n’t ‘ave hi’ you. Or knot off your ha’.’

  ‘That’s all right, little love,’ he said, opening his arms wide. Cissy ran into them and gave him one of her hardest hugs.

  ‘Now,’ he said, putting her from him, and making sure she was looking at his face. ‘Make your curtsy to Lord Rothersthorpe.’

  Cissy did as she was bid. Lord Rothersthorpe, in turn, bowed to her with great formality, which had the effect of making her crow with laughter. She had never, Lydia realised, been formally introduced to anyone before. No wonder she was a little startled.

  Cissy clapped her hands and curtsied again.

  ‘For the lord’s sake, don’t bow to her again, Rothersthorpe,’ said Robert out of the corner of his mouth. ‘Or we shall be here all day. Michael,’ he said, much louder, ‘make your bow to his lordship.’

  Michael bowed very correctly, and Lord Rothersthorpe returned the compliment, causing Cissy to laugh again.

  Lord Rothersthorpe did not even attempt a polite smile, Lydia seethed. He clearly found the whole situation most uncomfortable. Though he did at least have the grace not to make his disapproval of Cissy obvious. Instead, he was gazing with narrowed eyes at her six-year-old son, Michael.

  ‘Come now, Cissy,’ said Robert, taking her very firmly by the arm. ‘It is time we went down to the Pools.’

  ‘There will be cay’.’ She beamed. ‘Miker said so.’

  ‘Indeed there will...’

  Robert led her inexorably away, and although Marigold fidgeted about in front of Lord Rothersthorpe he did not take the hint and offer her his arm.

  ‘Come on,’ said Michael, when nobody else seemed inclined to make a move. ‘Or there won’t be any cake left!’

  When he charged out of the door, Slipper frisking at his heels, Marigold heaved a sigh, rolled her eyes and set off after him.

  Which left her alone in the doorway with Lord Rot
hersthorpe.

  ‘Alone at last,’ he said, once the others had moved out of earshot. ‘I was beginning to wonder how I was ever going to get a chance to speak to you in private.’

  ‘With...with me?’

  He crooked his arm and she laid her hand upon his sleeve.

  ‘Of course with you,’ he said with a touch of impatience. ‘How else are we to arrange things?’

  ‘What things?’

  ‘Mrs Morgan,’ he said, ‘will you cease this stupid pretence that you do not know what I am talking about? It is all very well acting the innocent when your family is within earshot, but they are not.’

  Indeed they weren’t. What with Robert’s long strides and the way Slipper was dashing about madly, they had all drawn quite some distance away. Even Marigold—in spite of her initial attempts to behave like a young lady. Michael kept throwing the ball for Slipper to fetch back and she hadn’t been able to resist getting drawn into the game.

  ‘So,’ said Lord Rothersthorpe, setting a leisurely pace which ensured they would never catch up with the rest of the party, ‘let us make the most of this chance to make arrangements.’

  Arrangements? Whatever could he mean?

  ‘Normally,’ he went on, when she’d remained in baffled silence for several paces, ‘in this kind of affair, the gentleman in question would make his way to the lady’s bedchamber at the appropriate time. But since I am not at all familiar with the layout of this house and there seem to be an amazing assortment of corridors leading to various wings, you will have to come to me. Or,’ he said sarcastically, ‘was it your intention to furnish me with a map?’

  ‘A map? Whatever for?’

  ‘Perhaps you are right. I confess, I had qualms about visiting you in the same bed you once shared with your husband. What, then, was your plan?’