Well, that was obvious. Her question had been meant as a conversation starter.Whyhad he not brought Maria? He either had not recognized it as a cue or did not like roundaboutation. Very well. She would be direct.
“What is it you wished to say to my brother and me?” she asked him. Were his eyes really black? Or would she see varying shades of brown if she were closer to him? She had no wish whatsoever to be closer to him, however. She could live very happily without knowing the true color of his eyes.
“My sister is twenty years old,” he said. “It was unexceptionable for her to live at Prospect Hall with her mother, even while her mother was gravely ill. I acquiesced to her wish to remain there to do her mourning after her mother died. They were extremely close, I believe, and Maria had given up several years of her own life to her care. She also had a companion with her, Miss Vane, a lady with whom she was long familiar, originally as her governess. I believed my sister would be so devastated by her loss that she would be content to live a retired existence with few social distractions or none. I judged that her situation would be respectable enough, at least temporarily.”
Her mother. Her mother.NeverLady Brandonormy stepmother.
“You judged correctly,” Estelle said. “Maria was physically exhausted and emotionally drained through much of the past year. She received callers but never returned the calls, as far as I am aware. She certainly never came here, though we invited her.”
But why had he not come sooner to check on her for himself? Why had he not come when Lady Brandon was desperately ill and dying?Why had he not gone to her funeral?She was buried in the churchyard here, not back at Everleigh Park beside her late husband.
“She does get some outdoor exercise,” he said. “She spends time in the garden. I understand the roses owe a great deal to her hard work.”
“Yes,” she said. Tending the lavish beauty of the roses had given some consolation to a girl whose own life had been unendingly bleak, at least in the two years Estelle had known her.
“Lady Estelle,” he said. “She cannot remain here, especially when her companion is herself unmarried and under the age of thirty, a woman who was hired as my sister’s governess. There is no female relative of suitable age and circumstances on my father’s side of the family and only one, probably too elderly, on Maria’s upon whom I could call to live with her here. But even if there were someone, this is no place for the young daughter of an earl. She ought to have an opportunity to mingle with thetonand enjoy the company of her peers. She must return to Everleigh, which is her rightful home. She must take her place in society as soon as it can be arranged.”
Why was he tellingherthis? Why had he wanted Bertrand to hear what he had to say? Did he merely wish to justify his high-handed desire to take Maria away? It was his decision to make, not theirs. Did he perhaps hope she and her brother would join their voices with his in persuading Maria that it was in her best interest to return home with him? Perhaps it was. But there was the fact that Maria appeared to dislike him, and that was probably understating her feelings. How wouldshefeel if Bertrand had forced herto live with him here but she hated him? No, that was no good. She could not imagine ever hating her twin. And heaven help him if he ever tried to force her to do anything she did not want to do.
“Perhaps it is to Maria herself you ought to be making these arguments, Lord Brandon,” she said.
“Do you believe I have not done so?” he asked harshly. “She will not even discuss the matter. Beyond the one wordno, she remains mute. And though she knows she cannot fight me if I insist—and Idoinsist—she treats me with a silent sort of contempt that is intolerable. To me. And to her, I daresay.”
Contempt?
“You wish me to persuade her, then, that it will be best for her to go with you?” she asked him, anger gathering like a ball in her stomach. “How can I know that, Lord Brandon? Perhaps happiness found in solitude is preferable to misery found in company, especially when one does notlikethe company.”
Now he had goaded her into being downright rude.
He gazed at her in silence. He was very good at that. Silence did not seem to cause him discomfort. She ought to wait him out but she could not.
“And you wishBertrandto add his persuasions to mine?” she asked. “He will not do it. He would consider it the height of impertinence to interfere between a brother and sister.”
The drawing room door opened even as she spoke and Bertrand came in, all haste and smiles—and a glance toward the corner to assure himself that some female servant was there and his twin had not committed the unpardonable indiscretion of entertaining a gentleman alone.
“Brandon. Good to see you,” he said, striding across theroom to shake the earl by the hand while Estelle nodded a dismissal to Olga. “I am sorry I was from home when you came. And I apologize to you too, Stell. I promised to be back in time for tea, but the vicar and I got carried away with our discussion and lost track of time. A poor excuse, I know, but the truth, I am afraid.”
The earl had stood to shake hands with him. They were of almost the same height, Estelle noticed in some surprise—it had seemed to her on their first encounter with him that the earl towered over her brother. They were very different in build, however, her twin lithe and graceful, the earl broader of girth and solid with muscle. He was not the sort of man one would wish to come across at night in a dark lane.
“Lord Brandon wishes us to persuade Maria to return to Everleigh Park with him, Bert,” Estelle said as her brother took a seat directly across from their visitor.
“It would seem to be the best thing for her to do,” Bertrand said as the earl opened his mouth to speak. “I have felt some concern over the fact that she no longer has an older relative living with her. Not that Lady Brandon was able to offer any real chaperonage for a few years before her demise, poor lady. She was very ill. Nevertheless, her very presence in the house made everything perfectly respectable. I take it Lady Maria does not wish to leave? I daresay she has grown comfortable here, and Prospect Hall is a pretty place. In what way do you believe we can convince her to change her mind, Brandon?”
Estelle clamped her teeth together. Trust her brother to take his part. Men and their protective instincts!
“That is not quite what I came to ask of you,” the earl said. “Lady Estelle has perhaps misunderstood what Ihavesaid.”
“Indeed?” She raised her eyebrows.
“My sister must and will return to Everleigh Park with me,” Lord Brandon said. “There is no question of her remaining here. She has been told, in fact, that we will be leaving within a week. Unfortunately, however, Miss Vane will be unable to accompany us. Family concerns make it difficult for her to move farther away from her own home than she already is. So I am going to have not only an unwilling sister at Everleigh with me, but also a very lonely one. I have taken some steps to make my house a more welcoming place for her while she settles there after six years away and accepts it as her home again. But I do not know how those plans will work out. Being there will not be easy for her. She has never lived there without her mother. Or for very long without her father. She has not lived there with me since she was eight years old. I would be a great deal happier if I could arrange matters so that she could have someone familiar there in whom to confide and upon whom to lean, even if only for a short while. It is my hope that you—both of you—will be guests at Everleigh for a couple of weeks or so.”
Oh, heaven forbid!Estelle drew breath to speak.
“And how does Lady Maria feel about this?” Bertrand asked before she could.
“I have not asked her,” the earl admitted. “I decided to speak with you first. It is a great deal to ask.”
Indeed it was. Maria had beeneight? He had been gone from home for six years, then, before his father died and he inherited the title.
