He managed to step back, open the door, and bow, all in one effortless movement. If he hadn’t annoyed her, she would’ve commended him on the poetry of his movements. As it was, she was determined to ignore him.
“I shall summon him forthwith,” he said, and disappeared into the interior of the house, making no provisions for where they were to wait, or taking her gloves and bonnet, or even her card. He just disappeared.
Thomas, for all his inexperience in his position, would not have erred so abysmally.
A few minutes later, long enough for Sarah to become even more irritated, Alano appeared out of the shadows.
“I’m sorry, Lady Sarah, that the buffoon left you standing there,” he said, motioning to a door set in a far wall.
She was always a little disconcerted to hear his Spanish accent, but she smiled and turned to her driver. “If you wish to return to the coach, Edmunds, I shall be fine,” she said.
“If you’re certain, Lady Sarah.”
She nodded and watched him leave the house, opening and closing the door behind him.
“Where did your majordomo disappear to?” she asked.
“I’ve set him to polishing the silver. It’s the only way to rid myself of him for a while. But he’s not mine. He’s Douglas’s.” He grinned. “Although I do admit to having hired Paulson, a fact Douglas will not allow me to forget. Staff the place, he said, and for my sins, I thought Paulson was versed in manners.”
Alano looked around the room. Crates and barrels littered the space.
He led her to a sofa, and she sat.
“If the damn fool knew anything, he’d have offered you refreshments,” Alano said. “But then, it doesn’t appear we’re up to any kind of standard.”
She turned to face him, schooling her features so as not to betray her surprise.
“This house belongs to Douglas?”
“Your husband is a very wealthy man, Lady Sarah. More wealthy, I’d say than your father could ever hope to be.”
She knew that, from his purchase of a rail car. But there was one question for which she needed an answer.
“Why did he enter into an agreement with him, Alano?”
“Are you talking the agreement to make diamonds for him? A man would be a fool ever to use all his own money to finance a venture, Lady Sarah. As to the wedding, you will have to ask him that yourself.” He smiled kindly at her.
“But you didn’t come here to talk about your wedding. Did you?” He peered into her face. “Because I couldn’t speak ill of Douglas, Lady Sarah. He’s almost like a son to me.”
She folded her hands in her lap, took a few deep breaths to compose herself, and looked up at Alano, who was still standing beside her.
“I’ve come to ask if you know where he is. Is he here, since this is his house?”
“He’s not here, Lady Sarah,” Alano said, frowning. “I haven’t seen him since he and I shared a carriage from Chavensworth a few days ago.”
She took another deep breath, but perhaps one of the whalebone stays had come loose in her corset, because a sharp pain seemed to go through her stomach at Alano’s comment. She was gripping her hands so tightly they resembled fists, and she forced them open.
“Did he mention to you any errands he might have? Or where he might have gone?”
Alano sat beside her.
“There was one thing,” he said slowly, his gaze not on her but the floor. “He was set on seeing his solicitor. He wouldn’t tell me why.” He faced her finally. “That’s all I know, Lady Sarah.”
“Why have you come back to London, Alano?”
“Douglas and I have never lived in each other’s pockets, Lady Sarah. London’s close enough to Chavensworth that I won’t lose touch with him. Besides, London tolerates me more than Chavensworth.”
“A house does not have the capacity for tolerance, Alano,” she said gently. “Only the people within it.”
