But she must not waver now. She had set out on this path, and she was determined to see it through to the end, whatever that might be. She forced her mind to focus instead on Sydney Davenport, the most romantic of her suitors. He was the handsomest man she had ever seen, as well, and the Davenports were a respectable family, not titled, not as wealthy as some, but long-established in Northumberland. And he was not married, or at least no marriage had been announced in the newspapers.
She had not seen him for several years now. He had appeared briefly in town the year after she had married Ian, but then his father had been taken ill and he had rushed home again. Now his mother was ill, too, and he had stayed with them at Harringdon Hall ever since. Four years since she had seen him, and five since he had sat adoringly at her feet, reciting his florid poetry to her. She could not tell whether it was good or bad poetry, but she loved that he wrote it for her… was inspired by her.
Inevitably she compared him with Ian, practical, sensible Ian. She could not fault him as a husband, not in any specific way, but he had not a romantic bone in his body. He had tried to keep a straight face whenever Sydney read one of his poems in a dramatic manner worthy of Drury Lane, but she could see his lips twitching. Ian had never so much as read a poem to her, let alone written one. He had never chosen meaningful passages about love from literature to read aloud. He had never told her that she was so lovely that even the sun was dimmed in respect, as Sydney once had. The highest compliment Ian had ever paid her was to say that she looked very well. At the final ball ofthe season, the one when she would finally make her choice, he greeted her with,‘You look extremely well tonight, Lady Isabel.’That almost eliminated him from the field on the spot, but common sense prevailed. Or rather his title and six thousand a year prevailed. It was possible to live without compliments, she told herself, but not without money, and the title was a big inducement, too.
She was so absorbed in her own reflections that she almost failed to notice that Sophie and Olly were nearly as silent as she. Only when the dinner things had been cleared away did she realise that not a word had been exchanged for the whole meal.
“We are all very dull tonight,” she said, ambling about their small private parlour with a wine glass in her hand. “I suppose we are all tired of travelling with the same small group of companions. Tomorrow, if all goes to plan, we shall be at Harringdon Hall and in better frame, I trust. The Davenports are very good company, would you not agree, Sophie?”
“Oh, yes, but do you think they will have room for us?”
Izzy shrugged. She was accustomed to room being found for her, wherever she went. “It is a big house, and we can double up.”
Olly looked up from his glass of port. “I think, if you do not mind, I will not come to Harringdon with you.”
“Not come? But they are old friends, are they not? Your estates are barely ten miles apart. The Davenports brought Sophie out, so—”
“Nevertheless, I should prefer not to go there. And I should be obliged to you if my name need not be mentioned.”
Izzy pulled out a chair and sat down. “Olly, going there or not going there is entirely your own affair, but lying for you is—”
“It is not a lie!” he said, with sudden fierceness. “I do not ask you to lie, only to refrain from mentioning my name.”
“And how are we to do that? The Davenports are bound to enquire about you, so what is Sophie supposed to say? And then you leave two ladies exposed to censure for seemingly travelling without a male escort. It cannot be done.”
“I had not thought of that,” he said sheepishly.
“Perhaps if I knew why you have this sudden aversion to the Davenports, I might more readily understand your reasoning,” Izzy said.
Olly smiled suddenly, his thin face lighting up. “Oh, I have no aversion to them, but they might very well feel some towards me. Have you any idea why I was sent to India?”
“None at all. People go to India all the time for a multitude of reasons, both good and bad. I assumed you were attempting to make your fortune.”
“Then I will tell you how it came about,” Olly said. “Sophie and I used to go to Harringdon all the time. Our mother and Mrs Davenport were great friends, and so every summer we went to stay there, Sophie doing boring things with the girls, while I was part of the boys’ group. Sydney was older than me, but there were several cousins nearer my age, doing all the things that boys do — climbing trees, chasing the chickens, falling in the lake, fighting each other. One day I got into a fight with one of the cousins… Jonathan, but we called him Jonny. We were only twelve, and at that age… well, you are not aware of your own strength… I suppose that must account for it, because one minute I had my arm around his neck and the next minute he went limp.”
“Dear God!” Izzy cried. “Dead?”
“No! Thank God, no, but for a moment I feared it. I called frantically for help. Sydney came running over and shook Jonny back to life, and although he was winded for a couple of days, he was fine. But… but the Davenports decided I was too violent tobe allowed to run free, so they asked my father to send me out to my uncle in India.”
“I see,” Izzy said, her panic subsiding to a more general puzzlement. “But surely… it was eight years ago. They cannot bear a grudge all this time, surely?”
“This is exactly what I have told him,” Sophie said eagerly. “Mrs Davenport made it very clear to me thatshedid not blame Olly for what happened, and it was never mentioned again. Certainly no one mentioned it when I was in town with them. Whenever she writes, Mrs Davenport asks very kindly after Olly, and hopes the heat in India is not too much for him. And you are so much better now, Olly. Is it not time to… well, to come into the open? Show yourself up here?”
Now Izzy was mystified again. “Is there any reason he should not show himself? Olly, you are not on the run from justice, or anything of that nature, are you?”
He laughed and shook his head. “When I first returned from India, I was very ill… a fever, of the sort that is common out there. I had never been much afflicted when I was there, but so many months on the ship wore me down, and so I succumbed to another bout, and the worst I had ever had. I had made a friend on the ship, and he very kindly got me home, somehow… I cannot tell you how. He helped Sophie nurse me back to health. But because of the fever, they agreed to keep me hidden, in case the Hearles misconstrued it as some kind of insanity and had me locked up in an asylum.”
“They could hardly do that,” Izzy said. “They have no power over you… do they?”
“Olly is still under age,” Sophie said, “and when my father died, his will specified that Martin and our uncle in India were to be joint guardians, and two uncles on Mama’s side joint trustees. But all of those are now dead, and… and Martin’s father hasassumed those rôles. Believe me, he would not hesitate to get Olly out of the way, if he could.”
“Out of the way of what?” Izzy said. “Oh… Bayton House, I suppose. It must be very profitable, with tenants in the house as well as the farm land.”
They both shook their heads. “No tenants, at least none that pay rent,” Sophie said. “My father-in-law lives there now, with Martin’s eldest brother and his family. All the profits from the farms go to them. My dowry and the widow’s portion it should have provided is gone. All that is left is Olly’s inheritance from our mother — five thousand pounds.”
“They have not been able to get their hands on the principal,” Olly said, “although they take the interest. But once I come of age, I shall have access to that, and I can begin the legal process of reclaiming Bayton House. All I have to do is to keep out of their way until then. I should like to have a discreet look at Bayton House while we are here, and that I can do while you are with the Davenports. If you drop me at the nearest cross road, I can walk the two miles to the village and stay at the inn for a day or two… listen to the gossip in the tap room. Then I shall be better placed when I go to the lawyers in a few months’ time.”
“And if the Hearles are clever, the lawyers will grow fat on your five thousand pounds while you wait and wait,” Izzy said.
