“I am resolved,” Caroline answered. “Your plan is a good one, Louisa. Please write again to Charles and let him know I will be coming.”
“Excellent! I must remain here until the auction at month’s end, then Hurst and I shall take you down. Charles has agreed to come up as far as Leicester to meet us and collect you.”
S
Theo was pleased to see how happy Oliver and Miss Greenbough looked at his dinner to celebrate their engagement.At least someone has found their true love and not managed to make a mess of it!
He avoided the beach ever since the fair, and had not made any other attempts to call at Fairclough. He saw Mr. Hurst only briefly at his mother’s funeral.
“Let us toast to the happy couple,” Mr. Hodge suggested towards the end of the meal. It may have taken his son’s engagement to get him inside the big house for a meal, but Theo was glad of it nonetheless.
The others raised their glasses and pronounced their blessings on Oliver and his bride.
When they finished, Mr. Hodge turned to Mr. and Mrs. Bird beside him. “So, t’won’t be long now until Ollie takes his orders, and I ‘spect the wedding will take place soon after. When do ye suppose ye might move down to Morley?”
Theo gasped.Oh, no!
“Begging your pardon, but why would we move there?” Mr. Bird asked.
“Well, to vacate the parsonage, o’ course! Ye didn’t think the newlyweds would be wishin’ to live here with His Lordship did ye?”
“Oh dear,” Mrs. Bird tittered. “Did your son not tell you? We spoke with him one day–well, we thought he was Lord Connally; such a strange business that was– but we distinctly told him that the late baron gave Mr. Bird the living outright. No resignation bond was signed before his death. I’m terribly sorry to be the one to give you such news. I am afraid young Mr. Hodge must seek his living elsewhere.”
Mr. Bird nodded. “Of course, as I promised, I would be happy to hire him as my curate in the meantime, until he finds himself a permanent place. Perhaps His Lordship could assist by giving him a cottage until then?” He directed this last remark towards Theo.
Put on the spot, Theo answered, “Yes, of course, I believe there is a vacant cottage in the row on the west side of the estate, up the hill from Ravensclough.”
Poor Mr. Hodge was so flummoxed, he could hardly speak. “I–I don’t understand. I was so certain of His Lordship’s wishes regarding the living, it’s, it’s…” he broke off, at a loss for more words.
Beaujean stepped in. “Perhaps, if the ladies are ready to retire to the drawing room, the men might like some brandy. Connally, isn’t there a good bottle somewhere that you’ve been saving for such an occasion?”
S
Theo cursed. He had not forgotten about the search for the resignation bond, but neither had he expected it to be brought up over dinner. Thus far, all his efforts had turned up empty. He felt certain Mr. and Mrs. Bird must be lying about having signed it, but without the document itself to prove it, he had no power to evict them from their home.
“Come with me,” he said to Beau and Oliver the next day. “We are going to search my father’s chambers. It is the last place I have not looked for the resignation bond.”
He had already conducted a thorough search of his father’s study, the library, and any other place in the house where important documents might be kept. In all the time since his return, Theo had not set foot in his father’s chambers.
His father had not been a kind man. People said that his wife’s death altered him. He was harsh towards Theo, determined to shape him into the future lord of the realm and master of Raven’s Cliff. His rules were strict, and disobedience meant punishment with the end of a switch. He expected Theo to study well at his lessons, and to receive high marks. Failure to do so inevitably led to a lengthy lecture, often punctuated with shouting. Theo was never permitted to play with the village children, but for some reason, his father allowed him to play with Oliver. Such was his one comfort, his one escape. His father never showed any signs of affection. Not one hug or word of praise. Once he went away to school, Theo hated coming home, and counted the days until he could return to Eton. By the time he went on to university, he stopped coming home altogether and spent his holidays with friends.
Theo unlocked the door to his father’s chambers with trepidation. No one had entered those rooms since Theo ordered them shut up, not even the servants. And this was far too important a task to ask the servants to undertake now.
The door creaked as it swung open. The room looked exactly as Theo remembered it from his youth, down to the curtains and the rug.
“Start with the drawers,” he told Oliver and Beau. Oliver began with the large wardrobe in the corner, while Beau went to the chest of drawers opposite the bed. Theo looked in and around his father’s writing desk, where he liked to write his morning correspondence, but found nothing in its drawers.
Theo checked near the bed next. Tucked beneath the mattress was a packet of letters. “I have found something!”
The others came over to see. The letters were all written in a simple, inelegant, but clearly feminine hand. As Theo read the first one, he gasped. He handed it to Oliver.
“I think you had better read these, not I.”
Oliver read the letter, blinking. “They are from my mother, to the late Lord Connally.” All the letters proved to be the same.
“Good golly!” Beaujean exclaimed. “Then that means that His Lordship and Mrs. Hodge–”
“It would appear so,” Oliver said.
