“It does. You’ll become familiar with the language in time.” Nathaniel placed his portmanteau and Laura’s carpetbag in the brougham and assisted her up the step. “Teg has been with the family all his life, and his father before him.”
When the sun broke through the bank of clouds, the temperature seemed to rise several degrees. It was warmer here than in London, and she sweltered in her brocade suit. She would change as soon as she reached home.Home. The word sent a shiver of excitement through her. She was impatient to seeWolfram.
Laura opened her parasol, as Teg, along with another servant, stacked the trunk and bandboxes into the trap.
Teg jumped up onto the seat of the brougham and took up the reins. “Walk on.” He cracked his whip, and they set off along a lane bordered by paddocks and high hedge rows.
They had only been traveling a matter of minutes when an obstacle struck the carriage door on Nathaniel’s side with a bang. Whatever the projectile was bounced away into the ragged gorse bushes before Laura could catch sight ofit.
“What was that?” she asked, as Nathaniel stood up to stare back along the road. Unaware, or seemingly unaffected, Teg slapped the reins, and they turned a corner where shrubs and trees blocked the road behindthem.
Nathaniel took his seat. “Someone might wish to voice an opinion,” he said in a humorlesstone.
“Opinion? Of what?”
Nathaniel placed his arm along the back of the seat as if to protect her. “I was jesting. It was more likely to be a stone on the road, thrown up by the wheel. Forget it, please. I want you to enjoy your first day here, instead of worrying over little things of no importance.”
She shivered. He had not been joking. Nathaniel’s words were clipped; he was angry, although not withher.
The beauty of the place made her push the incident away. They followed the river through a green valley ringed by forest. A flock of birds disappeared into the misty distance as if by magic, their calls muted. Dry stone walls crisscrossed the countryside. Black-faced sheep paused to watch the carriage pass by.
When they topped a rise, the clouds shifted. Laura caught her first sight of the sea, like golden gauze under a westerlysun.
She craned her neck. “I can see the water!”
“A pity we have fog today. But you will come to love the mists here at Wolfram as I do.”
She wasn’t entirely sure she would ever relish the suffocating fog, not if it was anything like London, but she patted his hand, which rested on hers. “I know I shall.”
Small cottages crammed into a warren of narrow cobbled lanes as they traversed the road leading down to the bay. The seaside embraced them, warm, salty and unfamiliar. Foreign smells washed over Laura. Gulls cawed overhead in the misty sky, the view over the water vanishing into thickfog.
They arrived at the water’s edge where a row of narrow-fronted houses, a shop and an ancient Tudor inn faced the harbor foreshore. Fishing boats bobbed along the seawall where a wash of surging waves sent a curtain of spray over the paved quayside.
Nathaniel motioned to the inn called The Sail and Anchor. “We’ll take some refreshment.” He jumped down and turned to assisther.
Laura suffered a wrench of disappointment. She was eager to reach the abbey. “Can’t we go home?”
“The causeway’s underwater, Your Ladyship,” Teg explained, standing at the horses’ heads. “We must wait for the tide to turn before we can take the carriage across.”
Laura raised her eyebrows and stared at Nathaniel. “There’s a causeway?”
“It’s high tide. Shouldn’t be more than an hour before we can proceed.”
Laura was silenced, incredulous that he had not seen fit to explain this to her before. The prospect of being cut off from the mainland unnerved her as she stared out over the misty stretch of water. Beyond a glowing description of the abbey’s history, Nathaniel had told her little that really mattered. Not that they were to live on an island. And nothing of his first marriage. She bit her lip, needing to bereassured.
He took her arm in a purposeful grip. “We’ll take the boat, Teg. I’ll leave you to bring the luggage. Lady Lanyon is impatient to see her new home.”
Teg touched his cap “Right you are, Your Lordship.”
Laura walked with Nathaniel along the harbor foreshore to where a fishing boat unloaded its catch onto the wharf, and squabbling gulls dived in a hungry frenzy. The men nodded as she and Nathaniel approached, studying her with ill-concealed curiosity. She’d never smelled anything like the overpowering stench of fish, but she managed not to take out her handkerchief. Instead, she smiled at the men. “It seems you’ve had a splendid catch today.”
“Better than most, madam,” one craggy-faced man replied, tossing his knife into abucket.
Nathaniel paused. “My wife, men, Baroness, Lady Lanyon.”
The fishermen removed their hats and murmured a welcome. She found their manner guarded. Nathaniel was too formal. Perhaps he didn’t associate much with the village folk. She most certainlywould.
“Here we are. The steps are slippery. I’ll carry you down,” Nathanielsaid.
