He found Francis in the dining room, attacking a healthy luncheon.
“I’m starving,” Francis said.“And damned sore.Fourteen hours in the saddle with hardly a break, and in the middle of winter.I wish to heaven I hadn’t been in London to be dragged off on this trip.Is everything well?”
“As well as could be expected,” said Nicholas, piling his plate.“Eleanor is amazing.I have hope, anyway.”
Francis smiled to see the haunted look that had marked his friend’s face since his return—and during the nightmarish, frantic race to Somerset—had faded.
Nicholas had gone straight to his house on Lauriston Street.There he had learned that Eleanor had been ill after his disappearance and had gone to Somerset.It was fortunate, Lord Middlethorpe thought, that he had been in London, for his friend had been frantic.Francis had reassured him as best he could, but nothing would satisfy Nicholas other than to ride down to Redoaks at top speed.He hadn’t tried to press Nicholas for his story, but it was clear that he wasn’t suffering from a guilty conscience.
“You have a lovely child,” he said, spearing a piece of ham.“I think I shall have to turn my own thoughts to matrimony.Luce’s parents are beginning to lean hard on him, too.The perils of being an only son.”
“The two of you in one season?”said Nicholas with a grin.“Now that will cause a flutter among the matchmaking mamas.”Then he looked seriously at his friend.“Forgive me for asking, Francis, but do you love Eleanor?”
Color crept into Lord Middlethorpe fine features.“No, unfortunately.I say that because I think I could have fallen in love with her if the circumstances had been right.She is a very special woman.”
“Can love be commanded by logic?”
“I believe so.I met Eleanor as your wife.After you disappeared, and even when we feared you might be dead, she was visibly pregnant with your child.I never saw her as available.I think had she been a widow, after some time it might have developed that way.”
“I am glad at any rate you’re not suffering a broken heart.I began to think at one time that in asking you to look after Eleanor for me I had put too great a burden on you.”With sudden bitterness he added, “I have at least learned that trying to do the right thing isn’t enough.Look at all the trouble it’s brought.”
He went no further, and Francis did not pry.After the meal they both went off to catch some sleep.
Eleanor woke from her nap with a smile on her lips.In a moment she remembered why.It wasn’t all roses, though.For one thing he had said nothing of his feelings.Was he here out of duty?Liking?Love?He was making no demands on her, but he was also making no promises except his presence.
She expressed her doubts to Miss Hurstman when she came to take tea with her.
“I doubt you’d appreciate it much if he’d returned to immediately swear his undying passion.”
“No,” Eleanor admitted.“But he can hardly expect me to lay myself at his feet.”
“Don’t suppose he does.”
“If neither of us dares make a move we are in a fine pickle.”
“Nonsense.All a matter of timing.Don’t be in a rush.”
“But I feel so confused,” complained Eleanor.“It’s all very well for him to leave everything in my hands, but I’m not sure I want that responsibility.It would have been a great deal simpler if he had swept in here and charmed me out of my wits.”
“Ha!”exploded Miss Hurstman.“If you weren’t lying-in, I’d whip you, girl.Spineless thing to say!You forget, a husband has all the power if he chooses to use it, and you are particularly unprotected.No father, no brother worth speaking of.The only friends you’ve got were his friends first.”
“I don’t want to oppose him either,” said Eleanor, feeling totally foolish.
“I know what you want and so does he.But as you say, he’s given you the whip.Do you both good if you use it.Let him woo you.He never has, after all.”
As Eleanor was struggling with this Miss Hurstman added, “I’ve been a bystander at a great many courtships and marriages.Often thought it’s the courtship which sets the tone for the marriage.Fall into their hands too soon and they’ll always take you for granted.You had no courtship at all, and look what came of it.”
Eleanor thought of the night in the inn in Newhaven.She supposed that had been the courtship, brief though it was, and it had set a kind of pattern.Not a bad one, either.Honesty, caring, and practicality.It wouldn’t hurt, though, to add a little romance.
“You make it sound as if I should expect him to become a performing monkey for my amusement, or a puppet dancing on my strings.”
The older woman snorted.“It’ll probably be the only time in your life when you say jump and he jumps.Well, do as you wish.People always do.”
Nicholas came to her again in the evening and they chatted on light, impersonal subjects, as they so often had before.There was a nervous tension in the air, however, and they met each other’s eyes only briefly.
Idly he asked, “Do you have the pearls with you?I looked in the safe and noticed they were gone.”
Eleanor felt sick.She had never given them a thought once she had left London.“I gave them to my brother,” she confessed, and swallowed a lump in her throat.
