His sister was startled by his vehemence. “It was sudden, but she had planned on leaving in the spring anyhow.” At Alex’s black expression, she said defensively, “Why are you so upset? I could hardly keep her here against her will.”
Alex would have stood up and paced if he hadn’t felt so shaky. “I am upset, as you so kindly understate it, because I want to marry her. Where did she go?”
His question was ignored as Annabelle reeled under the bomb he had just detonated. Her eyes were wide in horrified shock when she gasped, “Marryher? You would marry aservant?” She was staring at him as if he had just grown a second head or declared that he wished to assassinate the king.
In the face of his sister’s reaction, Alex did get up and pace, levering himself up on the chair back. “Yes, dammit, I want to marry her!”
He was irrationally furious, and it was a struggle not to take it out on his sister as she regarded him with wide-eyed disbelief. He caught hold of his temper and said as calmly as he could manage, “She is intelligent, beautiful, kind, and more of a lady than half the doxies in the ton. And I’m in love with her.”
“But a servant . . .” Annabelle shook her head in bafflement.
“Damnation, Belle, you at least should understand, even if no one else does! You know her quality. Look at how much she has done for you! How much of your style and confidence do you owe to her? You’d be married to that loose-fish Loaming if it hadn’t been for her!”
Her eyes filling with tears, Annabelle cried, “Alex, please! I amtryingto understand. It took you months to fall in love with her. Can you not give me a few minutes to accept it?”
Alex dropped back into the chair and buried his face in his hands. After a long silence he said, “I’m sorry, Belle. I shouldn’t have ripped up at you.” He raised his head with the trace of a smile. “I think I fell in love within five minutes of meeting Christa, but it has taken me the longer part of the year to realize it.” His voice was almost inaudible as he added, “Now that I have realized, I can’t imagine life without her.”
Annabelle absorbed what her brother said, the tone as much as the words. He was right. Christa had qualities rare in any class, and she had been a wise and generous friend to all the Kingsleys. If Alex truly loved her, his sister would give him whatever support she could. But there would be complications, unpleasant ones. Starting with the worst, she asked, “What about Miss Debenham?”
“I will break the engagement, thereby earning a reputation as a jilt and faithless despoiler of innocence. Then, if Christa will marry me, I will gain additional fame as a lunatic and a traitor to my class.” He rubbed his temples wearily. “It’s unforgivably selfish of me to force you and Jon to pay the price for my scandalous behavior. The only compensations are that you will both much prefer Christa to Sybil Debenham as a sister-in-law. The scandal will die down eventually.”
“Do you think Christa might not accept?” Annabelle said in surprise. Would a servant really refuse a lord who was rich, handsome, and in love with her?
“You’ll notice that she is nowhere in sight,” her brother said dryly. “The day after I proposed, she ran away. I suspect I don’t suit her notions of propriety. Your abigail has pride that would put a Spanish hidalgo to shame.”
Alex pushed himself up from his chair. “I’m leaving for London in the morning. The sooner I go after her, the better the chance of locating her. If I can find her, I think I can persuade her to accept me.”
Annabelle wondered if he were strong enough to go haring across the countryside in the dead of winter, but wisely kept silent. She doubted that any comment of hers would make a difference.
Alex sent his excuses to the Debenhams, claiming to be too fatigued to join them for dinner. Since he wasn’t up to the royal scene Sybil would undoubtedly subject him to, he would break the engagement when they were all back in London. He did take a quick look at his correspondence to see if there was anything too vital to ignore. There he found the note, a bold C scratched in the wax, and perhaps a hint of rosemary about it.
My lord Alex:
Your offer to me was the product of a generous impulse, and I shall always honor you for it. But you need not sacrifice your good name and your career out of a misguided belief that you have injured me. Au contraire, I shall remember you with kindness all my life, as I hope you shall remember me.
Christa
Alex leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes wretchedly. There was nothing the least lover-like in the message, and she would never marry him if she felt no more than kindness. But there had seemed to be an abundance of loving when they were together. Perhaps he could persuade Christa that he cared enough for both of them.
Ignoring Fiske’s voluble expressions of disapproval, he left for London at dawn the next day.
Chapter 17
It was a damply chill night in Berkshire, with a whisker of moon giving occasional illumination to the road. A traveler unfamiliar with the terrain would have had difficulty following the road to Radcliffe Hall, but the rider cantering up to the wide marble stairs had no such problem. Tethering his horse to a convenient stone lion, he skipped up the steps and wielded the heavy brass knocker.
Company was unexpected on such a night, and the bewigged footman answering the door was distinctly unwelcoming as the tall visitor brushed by into the warmth of the hall. With angry hauteur the servant said, “The Earl of Radcliffe is not receiving callers.”
The visitor glanced at him with laughter in his eyes. “No? You haven’t been here very long, have you?”
The footman said stiffly, “I have been in the earl’s employ over a year.” His eyes raking the worn riding dress of the visitor, he added with all the arrogance of a peer’s servant, “I doubt his lordship will have any time for the likes of you.”
The man seemed vastly amused. “See that my horse is taken care of. I’ll find Lewis myself. I expect at this hour he’s in his study.” Pulling off cloak and hat, he tossed them at the footman, whose automatic grab left him off balance.
The fuming footman was left holding the damp garments and glaring after the man’s retreating blond head and broad shoulders. He considered forcibly stopping the insolent devil, but the man did seem to know his way around the house, and he had an air that made one think twice before accosting him. Since he had already disappeared into the study, the footman decided to call a groom for the horse. His lordship would no doubt let it be known if he wanted the intruder removed.
Lewis Radleigh was working in his study, grateful for the minutiae of estate business that kept thought at bay. Eventually he would stop. Perhaps a brandy would help him sleep. At the sound of footsteps, he looked up with a frown. The servants should know better than to disturb him.
The sight of the tall figure approaching caused such a shock that for a moment the earl thought he was dreaming. His quill falling unheeded, he rose to his feet and circled the desk, unable to believe his eyes. There had been so many ghosts....
