And if it were true that Lady Pamela was developing something of an attachment to her—though she was not at all convinced that it was so—then it was equally true that she was developing an attachment to the child. Petulant and stubborn as she could be, Lady Pamela had very real feelings and needs. And she needed Fleur, however little she might admit it. It was good to be needed.
It seemed that she had to prepare for a picnic that afternoon.
THERE IT IS,” THE DARK-HAIRED, HANDSOME GENTLEMAN said to his companion, leaning close to the carriage window as it crossed the bridge and left the lime grove behind and the house came into sight. “Impressive, wouldn’t you say?”
The fair-haired gentleman traveling with him followed his gaze. “Very,” he said. “I can see why it is so frequently admired. And it was all yours for a few months, Kent.”
“An amusing experience,” Lord Thomas Kent said, “suddenly to be everyone’s property just because I was the owner of it all. Almost as if the property owned me instead of the other way around. I thought never to see it again.”
“You can be sure,” Lord Brocklehurst said, “that when your brother told you never to return he spoke in the heat of the moment. He will receive you with open arms.”
Lord Thomas looked amused. “I wonder,” he said. “But I am not sorry you persuaded me into coming, Bradshaw. It will be priceless to see their faces—Ridgeway’s, all the servants’. And it will be interesting to see my sister-in-law once more. They were not married when I left, you know.”
“Magnificent!” Lord Brocklehurst said as the carriage drew to a halt and he gazed up at massive Corinthian columns and the great pediment, which hid the dome from that vantage point. “Quite magnificent. It was good of you to persuade me to accompany you here.”
Lord Thomas laughed. “Since it was you who talked me into returning,” he said, “it seemed only right that you be witness to the touching reunion .”
The look on the butler’s face as he came out onto the horseshoe steps to greet the unexpected visitors must have been everything Lord Thomas could have wished for. His wooden butler’s expression deserted him for the whole of three seconds as he watched his grace’s younger brother descend from the carriage and look up at him with a grin.
“Jarvis!” he said. “So you did get the promotion after all. Are you going to stand there and gawk, or are you going to send someone down to carry our trunks into the house? Is my brother close at hand?”
Jarvis had himself under control. He bowed stiffly from the waist. “His grace is at the ruins with her grace and their guests, my lord,” he said. “I shall have the carriage and your bags seen to if you would care to come inside.”
“I certainly have no intention of standing outside here until permitted to enter by his august grace,” Lord Thomas said with a laugh, turning back to Lord Brocklehurst and ushering him up the steps. “Drinks in the saloon, if you please, Jarvis. What the devil are they doing at the ruins?”
“They are picnicking, as I understand, my lord,” Jarvis said, directing the guests with a bow into the saloon.
“How long have they been gone?” Lord Thomas asked, looking about him. “Nothing has changed, I see.”
“About one hour, my lord,” the butler said.
“An hour?” Lord Thomas frowned. “I’ll have time to do the honors and show off all the state rooms to you, then, Bradshaw—after we have refreshed ourselves with a drink and a change of clothes, that is. Have my old room made up for me, Jarvis, and have the housekeeper prepare another room for Lord Brocklehurst. Is it still Mrs. Laycock?”
Jarvis bowed.
“Take yourself off, then,” Lord Thomas said. “The drinks first, though.
“So,” he said, “we are to kick our heels here for a few hours and feel the suspense mount. I wonder if Ridgeway would be choking on his chicken bone and his wine if he knew I was standing in the middle of his saloon at this very moment.” He laughed.
“I am glad to be here, anyway,” Lord Brocklehurst said. “I have wanted to visit Willoughby Hall for some time now.”
THE DUKE OF RIDGEWAY watched his daughter leave the group with her governess and make for the stables and her puppy. And he wished that he could go with them, take the dog out into the paddock, and romp with it and with them for half an hour.
But he had Lady Underwood on his arm, and the Grantshams were engaging them in conversation.
The picnic, he thought, had gone well enough. Sybil had been alarmed at his announcement that Pamela was to be taken, and had looked defiant when he had reminded her of a broken promise to allow the child to come down to see the ladies on the day of their arrival.