скачать книгу бесплатно
For a moment he looked at Cecelia and wondered when it was his mother had changed from a gentle parent into this one? The death of his father, he supposed. It could not have been easy for a woman who would listen so carefully to gossip.
‘Perhaps returning to Balmain would be a good thing for you? Lucy’s sickness has not been easy for any of us.’
‘You cannot think I might leave her? My God, she is still at death’s door.’
‘I think we both know that is not true. She is eating again and her countenance is rosier. Certainly, we have passed the point of no return and Miss Smith has done wonders for her.’
‘Wonders?’ The word was whispered. ‘It is witchcraft she has employed and who knows how long such things truly last?’
‘Being grateful might bolster hope, Mama. Miss Smith is a woman who is an accomplished healer and there is no more to it than that.’
‘She knows things.’
‘Pardon?’ Lytton looked up.
‘Lucy says that she can read her mind and find out exactly what she is thinking. She says it is unsettling.’
‘Yet she still wishes to meet her. She told me so this morning, so it cannot be too uncomfortable.’
‘Your father would not have allowed it. Such a one in the house. He would have told her to leave the moment she tried to inveigle herself in to our family affairs and sent her packing back to Whitechapel where she belongs.’
‘He is dead, Mama. And has been for a good year and a half.’
‘Someone shot him. Someone broke into Balmain and shot him. I know it.’
For a second horror slid down the back of his neck. His mother was going mad and he had not noticed. How long had she been like this? He had been so busy trying to save the estate he had given his mother’s mental state little thought but Lucy must have known as well as David and Prudence. No wonder his oldest sister had disappeared off abroad and his brother was playing up at school.
A tumbling house of cards, he ruminated, and walked across to Cecelia, taking her hand as he led her to a seat by the window.
‘I want you to go back to the country. I will bring Lucy up in a week or two and spend some weeks there as well. You need to rest, for this has all been more than trying for you.’
Unexpectedly his mother nodded. ‘Perhaps you are right. I could garden and tend to my flowers and walk a little. The glade is always beautiful at this time of the year. When Lucy returns we can follow quiet pursuits.’
Patting her hand, he was glad as she calmed. ‘The carriage will be readied in the early afternoon and the family physician will accompany you just to be certain. Everything will be arranged so that you will not have to worry again and your great friend Isabel will be thrilled to have you back.’
After his mother had gone Lytton did another hour’s work to see to all the details of her journey before picking up the book and wandering into Lucy’s room. He found her up in an armchair that was slanted towards the sun. She wore a thick nightdress tied at the waist and her feet were bare.
‘It is fine to see you up again.’
Her smile brightened when she noticed him and brightened further when she glanced at the book he was carrying. ‘Mama took it away.’
He handed it back to her. ‘The stuff of treason, she thinks.’
‘What do you think?’
‘I have not read it, but there are movements afoot to cast more light on the inequalities of women. A lot of it makes sense.’
She undid the blue ribbons and found a dog ear on the top of one page.
‘Listen to this.’
With exaggerated care she read a few pages to him, her voice trembling with the tale of the woman she spoke of. When she had finished she placed the opened book on her breast and looked over at him.
‘It is saying that women need to have their own opinions and they are just as valuable as any a man might have. The story is a sad one and one of deceit and lies as the heroine and her friend try to come to terms with their life in a madhouse. Miss Smith says she wants to hear my opinion on the trials of women when I see her next.’
‘Well, it seems that you certainly hold one. Do you like Miss Smith?’
‘I think at first she frightened me. But she is strong. She does not take nonsense easily.’
‘Nonsense like witchcraft?’
‘You have been speaking with Mama? I made the mistake of telling her that perhaps Miss Smith was a witch when I first saw her and she took up this thought and would not stop speaking of it. I didn’t realise how much anger she suddenly seems to be full of, though Prudence had warned me of it before she left.’ She hesitated for a moment and then continued. ‘I was wondering if I could ask Miss Smith to stay for morning tea when she comes. I know how busy she is, but the cook could make her famous scones and we have the raspberry jam from last year’s crop at Balmain.’
‘Of course. I won’t need the carriage so she can be taken home in it afterwards.’
‘Will you be here to join us?’
Lytton shrugged his shoulders. ‘I have a meeting in the city which is important.’
‘But if you can be here, would you?’
‘I will try.’
* * *
In the afternoon Lytton visited the Thornton family banker and was reassured by the state of the finances. He knew the numbers himself, of course, but since attaining the Earldom he had been very careful to check every detail of his investments. He did not trust anyone.
He had a family to look after, thousands of acres of land to tend, servants and workers to provide for. The days of being careless were over, he had accepted that on the death of his father.
The keeping of a mistress was a lot less persuasive than it had once been as well. Susan Castleton had sent him copious notes trying to win back his favours, but he had replied to none of them.
He had heard from Edward how his name had been slandered by her in society, but that was the least of his worries. After the weeks of his sister being so sick, to have a glimmer of light in the future was gratifying and he did owe it to the unusual Miss Annabelle Smith.
Her vibrant blue eyes watched him in memory and for just a second he wondered what it would be like to have her beneath him tumbling into his bed.
The shock of that brought him to a standstill. There was no way in the world that he could enjoy her like that. The next woman he bedded would have to be his wife and she would need credentials and breeding that were incomparable to become a countess.
Still, the vision of Annabelle Smith naked with her dark curtain of hair falling around them was hard to shake off. Was she a virgin? Had she any experience with the pleasures of the flesh? God, even that thought had him hardening, here in the street with the daylight of London all about him and myriad shoppers walking past.
He could teach her everything he knew, every nuance of desire.
‘Thorn.’ The voice came through a haze and he turned to find Summerley Shayborne crossing the street to reach him.
‘You look preoccupied.’
He smiled. ‘I’ve just come from the bank.’
‘Good news?’ Shay knew of the trouble he’d been in last year with the estate when things had been turned upside down.
‘Everything is fine and long may it stay that way.’
‘You’re the new and shining light of the financial world, I hear. An earl who seems to be able to pinpoint a lucrative investment without comparison? Most peers are holding on to the family plot by their fingernails, but it seems your latest project has just come through with flying colours.’
‘The canning factory outside London? People need to eat and preserved fruit and vegetables are within the budget of most. Every large town in England by the end of the year will sport such a factory. Come in with me as a partner. I’ll get Lian and Edward on board as well.’
‘You’re serious?’
‘I am.’
‘When can we draw up the contracts?’ Shay looked excited.
‘Next week. But keep it quiet for I don’t want someone else beating me to the post.’
‘Have a drink with us now, then. Celeste is at the town house and we would love your company.’
‘Very well.’ He hailed his carriage and they both piled in.
Lytton had always admired Shay’s wife. She was tough in a way that intrigued him and beautiful enough to take his breath away every time he saw her.
She also was nothing like the bride that the ton had thought the lauded Summerley Shayborne, Viscount Luxford, would choose for himself.
* * *
‘You said you would come to Luxford in the early summer, Thorn, but you didn’t.’ Celeste looked puzzled.
‘I’ve been at Balmain for quite a few weeks because my sister has been sick. We have only just returned to town.’
‘I’ve heard that just lately she is making some sort of a recovery?’
‘I hope so. I have engaged a healer to try to coax her out of bed where she has been languishing. Miss Annabelle Smith from Whitechapel is her name and she seems to be making quite a difference.’
‘The herbalist? She is the woman my lady’s maid was speaking of so highly the other day, Summer. I should very much like to meet her. Is she at your town house this week seeing your sister?’
‘Tomorrow she is, but only very early. At nine. She keeps unusual hours.’
‘Could we call in? It might be my only chance to talk with the woman and she sounds more than fascinating.’
‘Well, I don’t see why not.’
Lytton had organised a meeting for the morning, but he supposed he could cancel it. His thoughts from earlier on had not left him and he felt...anxious. He could not quite imagine Annabelle Smith chatting about things with his sister and Celeste over jam scones and a cup of tea. He wondered, too, if Celeste had read any of the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft?
* * *
It was her birthday.
Well, her birthday as Tante Alicia had deemed it given she was four when she had turned up in the French village without any past whatsoever.
The third of July. A hot morning in the village of Moret-sur-Loing when a nun had delivered a sick child to the house of the local healer and pleaded for the girl to be taken in.
This much she did know for Alicia had retold this story over and over and never a mention of the people who had abandoned her.
Annabelle had celebrated today with a new pair of stockings and a fresh orange. She had also fashioned her hair a little differently this morning, doing away with the heavy scarf and pinning it about her face. The curls escaped, of course, but rather than detracting from the whole picture she thought that they added to it. For some reason today she felt lighter and happier than she had in months and the sun above was a part of that, too.
She hoped Lady Lucy had read the book she had given her. She hoped she had kept eating, too. If she had, then the change in her from last week to this one should be more than noticeable.
A carriage standing before the Thornton town house had Belle frowning. She did not recognise it and hoped that there were not visitors who would take away time she would have with the Earl’s sister. The horses were most handsome and the liveried driver on the box seat tipped his hat at her.
‘Morning, miss. It’s a fine day outside, to be sure.’
She smiled back at him and made her way up the steps, the door opened by a servant she had not met before.
‘The master is expecting you, miss. He is in the blue salon. I will take you through.’
Dispensing with her coat and hat, she followed him and heard the conversation between a group of people getting louder by the moment.
She stopped and the servant looked around.
‘I think there has been a mistake. I am here to see Miss Staines only. I have been attending to her medical needs.’
‘You are Miss Smith, are you not?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well then, you are to come right this way.’
Belle straightened down her skirts as she went, a sort of dawning horror rising in her stomach. She did not wish to meet other guests of this house. She would not be accepted by anyone in society and surely the Earl of Thornton would know this.
The door opened. The Earl stood by the mantel with two strangers, a beautiful woman and a tall and handsome man. When the Earl saw her he excused himself and came to her side.
‘I thought before you went upstairs to see my sister you may like to meet Lord and Lady Luxton.’
Belle took in a breath. This was a situation she had not come across before and she was silent as she watched for cues.
‘Miss Smith.’ The woman spoke first. ‘I am Celeste Shayborne and I have heard much about your ministry in Whitechapel. My husband is most interested in hearing about it, too.’
As if to underline this as a truth the man beside her nodded.
‘It seems your fame proceeds you, Miss Smith.’ Lord Luxford spoke now for the first time, though Belle wondered at his tone. He did not sound quite as pleased as his wife. The social conventions worried her.
Should she curtsy before this lord as she spoke or was that unnecessary?
‘Mine is a small clinic but in an area where there are many supplicants. I am quite perplexed that you have even heard of it.’
* * *
She used her voice like a weapon, Lytton thought, the low and husky tone surprising, but not as surprising as the King’s English that she now spoke. Her voice had never held tones of the East End, though, and had always sounded quite refined.
If he had closed his eyes just then, it could have been any one of the titled and well-brought-up ladies of the ton talking. He saw the interest in Celeste’s eyes and the curiosity in Shay’s.
