A footman opened the door for them to enter the morning room, a less formal room, which might put her at her ease. “Bella is with her governess. I’ve sent someone to fetch her.”
She sat on the sofa, and Nicholas took the armchair opposite. “A footman will introduce your maid to the staff.”
If he’d expected a will-o’-the-wisp clasping a volume of poetry to her chest, he couldn’t have been more wrong. Beneath her dark lashes, she was making a critical study of him. He resisted tugging at his cravat like some callow youth. She would have the younger male members of thetonon their knees and a good deal of the older fellows, too. With dread, Nicholas thought of the rakes and fortune hunters who would undoubtedly circle like hungry wolves. Especially as her dowry was handsome.
He eased his shoulders. Perhaps there was no need for him to worry. He would be able to find a suitable match among the gentlemen seeking a wife this Season. One or two he could bring immediately to mind. Decent fellows. She might be engaged before the Season’s end. With Caroline in his sister’s care in London, Bella in the schoolroom, and Jeremy back at Eton after the holidays, his treasured independence would be preserved, leaving him to work on his book. He smiled at her, somewhat reassured.
“I should like to discuss Bella and Jeremy with you when you have a moment, my lord,” Caroline said, her voice sweet but firm. “Jeremy has not done well in his studies this past year, which is entirely excusable after we lost our dear papa, but I should not want it to continue. He is to go to Oxford in a few years. His dream is to become an archeologist. Bella will soon require a dance instructor, and she must continue with the harp.”
“Not the harp,” he said more sharply than he intended.
She stiffened.
“We have an excellent piano in the music room.”
“But, my lord, Bella has always…”
He shook his head decisively. “Young ladies performing the instrument at musicales with a lack of finesse are grindingly dull.Pluck pluck, pluck.Why not something more pleasing, like the piano or the violin?”
“Bella has shown some promise, my lord.”
“You can’t continue to call me, my lord, Carrie.” He deliberately used Caroline’s nickname, hoping to banish the starch from her spine. “Nicholas is my given name, which is quite appropriate.”
She flushed slightly, and he caught sight of deep hurt in her eyes. “Yes...I understand. Papa left a letter…Nicholas.”
It made him feel like a cad. Of course, she still mourned her father. Max had been a loveable fellow and a wonderful father. Nicholas, being twelve years older than she, must make her view him as Bella did, like an uncle. He couldn’t help disliking the notion, adopting an avuncular manner didn’t sit well with him, but perhaps it was wise if the governess’s warning proved correct, and their youthful exuberance required a firm hand. He would not allow her two siblings to run rings around him and disturb the peace he’d worked hard to achieve since the war, and neither would he allow Carrie to make unreasonable demands.
“While I agree with most of what you ask of me, I cannot countenance the harp,” he said in a milder tone. “I shall employ a tutor to teach Bella another instrument.”
Carrie’s eyebrows lowered, and her lips firmed, but she made no further objection. He suffered the uneasy feeling she was biding her time. “I should like Bella to live with me once I have my own establishment.”
He wasn’t about to agree to anything yet. “We’d best leave that decision until you are married.”
At that moment, the door burst open. “Carrie! I’ve been so lonely without you.” With a sob, Bella ran across the carpet to throw her arms around her sister.
“It hasn’t been very long, goose,” Carrie said, hugging her.
A little shamefaced, Bella, tears in her green eyes, glanced at Nicholas. “But Ihavebeen most comfortable here. Nicholas doesn’t play snap, but he’s promised to learn. And there’s a wonderful garden, the lake has a small island and a rowboat, and Jeremy will adore Nicholas’s magnificent thoroughbreds. He has promised to ride with us, haven’t you, Nicholas? The library is splendid, there is a world map with all the countries on it, and his adorable dog, Chester, you must come and see.”
Carrie laughed. “Please draw breath, dearest! There is plenty of time. I will be here for a few weeks yet. And Bella, you must remember you are to spend most of your days in the schoolroom and not wandering the house or the library at will.”
“Nicholas invited me to use the library.” Bella cast a look of appeal in his direction. “As long as I ask first.”
“How kind,” Carrie said, a little crisply, he thought. She seemed determined to dislike him.
A maid brought lemonade and biscuits while the girls chatted. As they required little from him, Nicholas sat back with a glass of wine to observe them. Although they both had Max’s red hair, Carrie’s was darker, and Bella’s eyes were green. They were different in other ways, too. It wasn’t merely their features and Bella being smaller; it was also their characters. Bella was an irrepressible imp who would take hold of life with both hands, while Carrie seemed far too serious for a young woman about to embark on her first Season. It would have been hard for her being the oldest, trying to ease the grief of the two younger ones. It seemed she’d become a little mother to them, which was admirable. But she should be light-hearted and happy at twenty.
Perhaps he was selfish to leave Carrie’s debut entirely in Gwen’s hands. He asked a lot of his sister. There would be times when Gwen would wish to seek his advice.
***
While Bella chatted to Nicholas, Carrie observed him. Lean and dark, he was as she remembered him, a little older and more mature. Behind his polite demeanor, there was a haunted look in his fine gray eyes. He had suffered heartbreak with the loss of his father and brother, she remembered with compassion. When she’d first met him, his good looks had captivated her. So handsome in his captain’s uniform. But then the reason for his visit became clear, and she unfairly blamed him, fearing her happy days at Leeming Hall were about to end. At fourteen, she’d been beneath his notice. Now that she was almost twenty-one, surely he would respect her opinion and discuss Bella and Jeremy with her as an adult. He must agree it would be best for Bella to live with her once Carrie was married.
“You should have seen him, Carrie.” Bella giggled as she described the antics of Nicholas’s whippet chasing a ball into the pond. “When Chester jumped into the waterlilies, he thought it was solid ground. He got such a shock when he sank into the water!”
“Cold this time of year,” Nicholas said, amused. His voice, deep and warm, sent tingles through her. He was entirely too attractive. With a sip of tart lemonade, she reminded herself how important it was to remain alert and coolly observant until she was sure of his character. The one thing that made her easy in her mind was how much her father liked and trusted him. But men weren’t always good judges of character, for Papa had been taken in by the Irish peddler who sold him a clock that never worked.
Nicholas had been most unreasonable about the harp!
