The Rakehell Regency Romance Collection Volume 2(135)

"Now that I would like to hear about," Thomas said, his eyes glowing with interest, "for it was there I was injured."



"Perhaps later," Will said gently. "As Mr. Fitzsimmons has said, we should at least try to get through one dinner without mentioning the war. Except for one thing, if I may, Your Grace?"



Thomas looked at him curiously. "Yes, of course."



"A tradition, you know." He stood, raised his glass and proposed a toast. "To all the friends we have lost, and new ones we will find."



"Here, here," Parks and Thomas both said at once.



Fitzsimmons scowled, but drank a sip from his glass.



Vevina toasted as well, and raised her glass high to salute her husband on the opposite side of the room.



"That was the toast Will made at our wedding, and one that I have drunk every day since," Vevina explained. "We've suffered a great deal during the war, it's true. But it also brought us all together, and has given us so much to be grateful for."



Will sighed and turned his attention back to his meal. "So tell us, Lady Elizabeth," he said after a time, "how do you find Ardmore?"



"I have not had much chance to explore it as of yet, but I'm looking forward to settling down here."



"Really? Here? I thought you lived in England," Fitzsimmons said.



She nodded. "I used to. But now I am to be the new owner of Ellesmere Manor. My brother is very kindly allowing me to strike out on my own, to learn to run an estate myself."



He laughed shortly. "What a queer notion!"



Thomas glared at him. "Am I to take it then, sir, that you feel women are unequal to the task?"



"No, not at all. Only that it is odd you should give up the delights of what is by all accounts such an impressive family home only a few days' ride from all the entertainments of London and less than a day away from Bath, to come to this rustic backwater."



Elizabeth shrugged. "I find it lovely here. There is much to do. And I love the sea."



"But it is not London, you must admit," Fitzsimmons said, inwardly congratulating himself on having recovered very well.



Will said, "I think it's admirable that Lady Elizabeth would like to do something more with her life than seek endless rounds of enjoyment."



"Yes, it never did me a bit of harm going off to the war," Vevina opined.



"Ah, but you didn't have much of a choice, did you?" Fitzsimmons put in, and then realised he had made yet another faux pas.



Brother and sister looked at him narrowly, their family resemblance more noticeable than ever.



"One always has a choice," Will said quietly.



"Yes of course, I simply meant that—"



"We all wanted to do our part," Thomas said with a suave smile. "All of us with the nerve for it, that is."



Again Elizabeth could detect some strange rippling undercurrents in the conversation.



"Yes, even your cousin Samuel went in the end. Funny, that. He never could abide hunting and shooting," Will commented with seeming nonchalance.



Marcus Fitzsimmons's eyes narrowed to slits. "I, on the other hand, am proficient at both."



"Then it is a wonder you did not join," Thomas observed.



Parks had tried to restrain his laughter, but another chuckle burst from him.



"Just what is so amusing?" Fitzsimmons demanded.



"The word proficient. Since Vevina and Will trained up thousands of soldiers including me, I should think only that word could apply to them. Not even I can match their skills, though God knows I've tried."



The two young men, so similar they could have been twins, yet so different it was as though they were worlds apart, exchanged glances, and Will looked away.



Elizabeth tried to fathom what was going on all around her. She thought she heard plain English. Why then did they all seem to be speaking some secret language of which she was completely ignorant?





Chapter Seven



"So how do you like the neighbors hereabouts?" Will asked, trying to include her in the conversation once more.



"I look forward to getting to know them better."



She looked down the table at the others with a smile, and observed that some of her new guests looked up and then dropped their gazes as if unwilling to meet her eye.



Hers? Or someone else's at the top of the table? Surely they had not taken exception to her brother? Parks? Vevina and her brother?



Parks turned the conversation again, this time to music and poetry. They got on much better with this topic, though Fitzsimmons was very vociferous in his opinions, however uninformed they were.