Reid watched as she continued stroking the horse, curious as to why this intelligent and capable young woman landed at Cliff House. There was a much larger story here, he was sure of it. He would have to dig into more than just documents it seemed.
CHAPTER5
Reid looked up from the morning paper as his mother entered the breakfast room. Troubled by the increased agitation since the Peterloo Massacre, he was even more disturbed by the Tory’s proposal to limit the right to assemble and speak freely in protest. If they restricted such freedoms out of fear, would what remained even be worth saving? These were fundamental rights of Englishmen that could not be disregarded no matter how anxious they were about an uprising.
“Good morning, mother,” Reid said, trying to redirect his thoughts and shake off his melancholy.
Seeing him for the first time since his accident yesterday, his mother looked upset as she walked over and grasped his chin. Examining the cut and growing bruise near his temple, she clicked her tongue and shook her head. “What am I going to do with you? I’m glad you are well after your tumble yesterday, and I’m sorry you had to spend your evening in such unsuitable company.”
“Whatever do you mean?” Reid asked. “I had a wonderful evening. It was great to see Jed and Nora again, you know how I always liked them. And Lady Elise took great care of me, my arm barely hurts this morning due to her attentions, and she was a gracious hostess.”
“I’m sure it was nice to see Jed and Nora, but Lady Elise is not the type of woman you should be associating with,” she said. “Not to mention she’s living in a house that should be mine,” she added a moment later, muttering into her teacup.
“Whyever not?” Reid asked, intentionally ignoring her final remark until he knew more. “She is a lady, what do you believe is wrong with her? And how did she come to be living in the dower house?” Reid had many questions about the young woman, but he was surprised by his mother’s strong reaction to her. Lady Elise had seemed perfectly polite underneath her anxiety. She had abruptly mentioned that she had been ruined at one point, so he supposed that must be what his mother was alluding to. He did not care about such things, but that didn’t mean he was not still intrigued.
“Yes, she’s a lady by right, if not by reputation,” his mother said with a slight sniff. “She is the eldest daughter of Lord Pelham, thus the honorific, but she left society a few years ago after she was ruined at the Markham Ball.”
Pelham, that was interesting. Reid brought to mind the image of Lord Pelham in the halls of Parliament, a middle-aged man with whitening hair and kind eyes. They only interacted on a few occasions, as the man was a Tory serving in the House of Lords.
“What happened?” Reid asked, unable to help himself.
“She was found alone with a footman who was not properly clothed. There had been some type of commotion, and Lady Elise insists she was simply trying to help the footman after he cut his arm. But regardless of the circumstances, she was a young and unmarried woman. It was completely inappropriate for her to be alone with a man—and a servant at that,” his mother said, lifting an eyebrow.
A cut arm. So, that must be why Lady Elise had mentioned yesterday that it was a similar situation. He vividly remembered how it felt to have her tenderly caring for him. And he could understand the conflicting opinions regarding the compromising discovery, recalling that her posture while holding him in only his shirtsleeves may have been misunderstood if seen by others. But to be cast out of polite society for it? Ostracism felt extreme.
“She tried to stay in society for a time after that, as many were willing to forgive under the ambiguous nature of the situation. It did feel a bit excess to consider her fully ruined if nothing truly had happened between the two. But it was Lady Wrexham who had found them, and you know how she likes to cause a fuss.”
“How did she end up here? And why would father let part of the estate go?”
“I really don’t know about that. Your father never discussed business matters with me, but I do remember he was more agitated than normal around the time he made the rental agreement. I warned him against it, told him it was an unusual agreement, but he pursued it anyway.” She shook her head. “It’s just not seemly,” she continued. “A young, single woman should not be living on her own, and it does not look good for the Weston name to be supporting a ruined woman.”
Reid was irritated by his mother’s traditional notions of morality. From what he understood, nothing truly improper had occurred, yet Lady Elise was still paying the price for it. It seemed rational to him that if she was no longer accepted in polite society, she would remove herself to a location where she could live as freely as possible. He was not about to punish her further by taking away the home she had created for herself when forced to start over.
“I’d like to host a small gathering soon,” his mother said, interrupting his train of thought and successfully changing the topic. “Now that you hold the title, it’s past time for you to find a wife.” She returned to eating her eggs calmly after making her statement, and Reid could only stare as he tried to make sense of her proclamation.
He was not opposed to the idea of marriage on principle, in fact, he rather liked the idea of having a woman around—a partner who would be there to support him and make his life more stable. After watching two of his best friends fall in love with their wives, he was even foolish enough to hope he might have such joy in his own life someday. Reid’s resistance to the institution was not because he was resisting marriage for its own sake, but rather to spite his father. He did not want to grant his father the satisfaction of an heir to carry on the family name, and he never anticipated needing to find a countess so soon. Adjusting his mindset towards viewing the women around him as potential matches rather than friends was a larger shift than he was ready for after pushing those inclinations away for so long.
“I’m not quite sure that would be the best idea at the moment, mother. We have just entered our period of mourning. Would a gathering not be looked down upon?” Reid was searching for a reason to delay her while still wrapping his mind around the status of the estate and seized upon the etiquette of mourning. While he could personally care less about paying proper honor to his father, he did not believe his mother would want to be cast in an ill light socially.
“Nonsense,” his mother responded. “It will only be a small group with people who are close to the family. It will be done in good taste and be seen as a gathering to remember and honor your father. No one will need to know the true reason.” She stated this in such a matter of fact tone that Reid knew he had lost the argument. “You are no longer Captain Claybourn, but the Earl of Weston. Thirty-nine is much too old to remain unmarried when you have a duty to the earldom. I already have a few women in mind who would make excellent countesses,” she finished. Reid was not at all looking froward to his mother playing matchmaker. Guts churning, he pushed away his remaining coffee.
* * *
Later that morning, Reid was in the study trying to make sense of the papers he’d found in his father’s desk. Giving up on finding his father’s desk key, Reid picked the lock to the bottom drawer and unearthed a stack of documents. Shifting through the contents, he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the wordsdower housenear the top of a document. Scanning the documents, he found plans for selling the house and surrounding property, as Lady Elise had mentioned the previous evening, in addition to other buildings and parcels of land. From the limited knowledge he had, it appeared that most of the land his father proposed to sell came from a portion of pastureland that had been added to the estate about fifty years ago by his grandfather. As the land had been purchased using his grandmother’s dowry, it was held separate from the entail and could legally be sold and partitioned. However, some of the other parcels, including the dower house, should have been excluded based on the estate’s inheritance regulations and what was to be maintained and passed down through the Weston earldom.
What on earth had his father been up to? The former earl should have understood his plans were not possible. Reid would need to contact a lawyer who understood entail laws to examine the paperwork for the Weston estate. He knew his friend Fitz, the Earl of Geffen, had worked with a man named Hugh Stanton on estate matters before. He resolved to reach out to him.
Reid felt resentment towards his father for keeping him out of the business of the estate welling up in his chest. As the heir, he had always been interested in learning about the land and how to best cultivate it. Even as a young boy, he recognized that the land would continue providing for the estate and its tenants if treated properly. Knowing the livelihoods of so many would be his responsibility one day, he had been eager to share his ideas with his father. But his father did not want him involved and paid no attention to any of his ideas. For a long time, Reid had tried to gain his father’s approval in other ways, but nothing was ever good enough for him. He was an exacting man and criticized Reid for his “newfangled ideas” and he became the target of his father’s derision.
Shuffling through the papers, Reid finally found the contract he was seeking. Reading the agreement between his father and Lady Elise, he was stunned by the unjustifiable terms. His father had indeed demanded a long-term agreement that required her to undertake and finance all improvements needed on the property—with a lengthy list detailing the needed repairs attached. From what he had observed while there yesterday, most if not all of them had been completed by Jed at Lady Elise’s expense. Though she had mentioned the terms to him yesterday, and that it had been a five-year agreement, she failed to disclose the astronomical rent rate. It was hugely unfair, especially given all she would have needed to spend to not only make the house livable, but the property suitable to sustain those living there. Clearly his father was looking to secure capital.
Reid had wanted to survey the estate ever since returning, but instead he spent the last two weeks since returning to Cliff House organizing his father’s funeral and finalizing the inheritance and transfer of title. While all appeared well on the outside, he feared he had been handed an estate that was crumbling before his eyes. Frustrated that this would force his attention away from matters of state just as tensions and tempers were hot around the country, Reid determined to start where he could. Gathering the documents related to the dower house, he left to pay Lady Elise a visit.
CHAPTER6
Elise was out in her medicinal garden cutting chamomile under the midday sun when Lord Weston rode up to the dower house. She caught herself admiring his posture on horseback before quickly looking away—but it was hard not to notice a man with such a superb seat and the effect it had in highlighting his muscular thighs.
“Good day, Lady Elise,” he said in greeting. Dismounting, he walked toward her and tipped his hat in a gentlemanly manner. “I was hoping we might be able to discuss your rental agreement. I was able to find the relevant papers in my father’s study this morning.”
