At night, he said he often took a telescope, far larger than the spyglass they’d used at Angsley House, up to the captain’s walk. With it, he would sit for hours looking at the stars. Eleanor had done the same thing many times from her family’s Sheffield cottage back garden, without the benefit of a spyglass.
Glancing up at the platform, Eleanor wished he was there, waiting for her to climb the small circular stairs from the second floor to the roof. How she would love to stand beside him and look at the view.
But he had gone to London.
Circling past his home, she walked onward to the river’s edge. There were no woods here, just grass to the riverbank. It was easier to fish than from the Angsley estate.
She smiled, recalling how Grayson thought her quite the competent fisherwoman the last time she had cast her pole with him, mostly because she could bait her hook by herself without being squeamish.
Eleanor sighed to herself. She fared so much better in the country than in London, and all along, she thought Grayson admired her because of it. Yet her inclination to the natural world apparently made her seem childish. And she couldn’t shake the ominous feeling she had driven him away with her ridiculous Wellies and her lack of polish.
If he didn’t have estate business to do in London, then it could only be the temptations of more sophisticated, worldly women which had drawn him away from her.
And on her birthday, too.
Hearing Maggie calling her name from the back terrace, Eleanor set her steps in the direction of the manor, trying to tamp down the irrational hope Grayson had returned.
Chapter Seventeen
Maggie and Johnmade it a perfect birthday. They laughed all day long over the silliest things. The earl took Eleanor riding, not allowing Maggie “in her condition” to go. Afterward, they practiced archery and then played lawn bowls. Eleanor was positive she would beat the earl, and they were momentarily tied, but then, against all odds, Maggie won.
“Imagine that,” Maggie said, not usually the sporty type.
The river was running too fast for fishing, so they spent the rest of the daylight playing one-on-one croquet.
They had dinner and birthday cake before the clouds rolled in. Strangely, even though Eleanor could smell rain in the air, none was yet falling at Turvey House.
“Like a birthday miracle,” John vowed. “I am beyond tired of this weather. Is it too much to ask for a stretch of sunshine?”
“At least we’re not in London,” Eleanor said, recalling her conversation with Grayson. “Only think how disgusting the streets are during and after a storm.”
“True. That reminds me. I have something Gray left for you,” her brother-in-law said quite casually.
Eleanor sat up straighter on the sofa. She’d already had her mother’s and sisters’ cards, as well as a cameo broach from Maggie and a new sidesaddle from her brother-in-law.
“Really?”
“Well, he didn’t tell me to give it to you, but he left it in the library and said he had planned to give it to you for your birthday,” John clarified. “Actually, he said something about giving it to you sooner if things hadn’t gone awry. Honestly, the man left so fast, he was talking nonsense.”
“Will you give it to me now, please?” Eleanor asked, excitement building. Grayson hadn’t simply gone away and forgotten her.
John disappeared and came back a minute later. “It’s not even properly wrapped for a present, and I don’t think it’s new anyway.”
He handed her a small brown-paper parcel. She could tell by the feel of it exactly what it was—a book.
Tearing off the wrapper, she shrieked in delight and held it to her chest, beaming at Maggie and John.
“Whatever is it?” Maggie asked.
“The Gold Bug!” Eleanor declared.
“A bug?” her sister demanded.
“Edgar Allan Poe’s story, a collection of them actually, which includesThe Gold Bug. Grayson and I had a bit of a lark pretending to follow the same adventure as in the story.” Eleanor stopped at the looks on their faces. In any case, she didn’t want to explain everything; she simply must begin reading immediately.
Standing up, she went to her sister on the opposite sofa and kissed her cheek. “Good night. Thank you for a wonderful birthday, the cake, the dinner, everything.”
“The expensive saddle and jewelry,” the earl added with a sideways grin.
