“But I love her, damn it. All of her, body and soul! I don’t want some other woman as wife, John. I want Charles Merrinan. I can’t lose her, I simply cannot.” He beat his head upon the table in three hard whacks, nearly splitting open his skin he was so angry at himself.
Silence fell upon the house, stilling the room a good long moment before a voice spoke softly from the kitchen door. “Then go and fetch her, Lord Wellesley.” Eleanor’s tone surprised. She must have overheard all. “She loves you too.”
Wells lifted his head in shock.
“She’s fled to London. I’ve no idea where in London, but she left on the first coach this morning. If you leave now, you may just catch her on the road, my lord.”
“Why tell me this now, Eleanor?” he asked, still staring at her, shaking his head almost in puzzlement.
“Because you love her, Lord Wellesley, and if you’d only told her that when you proposed, she’d not have left as she did, I’m sure of it.”
Wells got up and gripped Eleanor’s hands tightly in his own. “Thank you, miss. Thank you for telling me. I know I don’t deserve her, but I swear to you I’ll find her and bring her home. And if she’ll have me, I will not ever again, so long as I live, dishonor her more.”
“You’d best not, sir.” Ellie held his gaze. “Or I’ll send John here to murder you.” She cracked a shy grin at Cuthbert before she put her hands on her hips and ordered, “Out now, both of you. And bring my sister home to me, in time for my weddingandhers.”
***
John and his lordship left Eleanor in a hurry to return to the Abbey. Along the way, Wells peppered him with tasks he wanted done while he’d be in London, and John took mental note of the growing list, knowing full well he’d never get to it all; his lordship was always overly ambitious.
“Sir, I’ll see to as much as I can, as will Ruby. She’s a good head on her shoulders and will stand in well for Charles, I’m sure.”
“Well, I should hope so, for if I return to find everything in disarray again at the Abbey I’ve a mind to install all new staff, especially after the dress-downs I received from those ingrates this morning. Jenkins was worst of all. The cheek of that woman, John, the very?—”
The steward grinned to himself, secretly pleased the widow had tongue-whipped his lordship. “Well now, Yer Grace, seein’ as how you yerself admit the treatment o’ yer housekeeper were anythin’ but?—”
“You needn’t keep reminding, John.” Wells sulked. “Why the hell does everyone feel the need to remind me when my memory is punishment enough?”
“Is it, sir?” John’s grin widened.
“Wipe that smirk off your face, Cuthbert.”
“Can’t, sir. ’Bout time y’ grew a conscience towards yer housekeeper.”
“You know damn well I have a conscience.”
“I do, sir. We’d not be best mates if y’ didn’t. Meant only it were time that conscience be applied t’ yer mistress.”
His lordship’s tone turned solemn. “I know I treated her abysmally, John. I couldn’t help it somehow. No, I’ll not make excuses. Only she got under my skin in ways no other woman has, which made me do devilish things to her, as if she were deliberately testing my limits. And all the while, all along, I kept wishing desperately to do better andbebetter by her.”
John fell silent a moment. “Love’ll do that to a man, I think. Push him to his limits. You’re not alone.”
“And do you love Eleanor the same? Have you . . . ?” He paused. “That is, I imagine unlike myself you’ve gone about courtship much more admirably.”
“I have, sir, and near killin’ me, ’tis!” John laughed. “If I could order Ellie t’ bed me I’d be sore tempted, Yer Grace.”
Wells at last smiled. “You would, eh?” He clapped John on the back. “Well, with any luck, my friend, we’ll both be wed in under a fortnight. I’ll fetch us both licenses in London.”
“Y’ would, sir?” John was surprised. “I thought simply t’ ask the vicar here to?—”
“Cuthbert.” His lordship elbowed him. “The Merrinan girls are proper ladies, you know. Their mother was daughter to the Earl of Denbigh.”
John’s face paled. “Christ.”
“So you’ll need a proper license to marry Eleanor, and I’m going to get you knighted if I can, good man, to install you here as my squire, just as my own father had Merrinan knighted.”
John’s eyes nearly popped from his head.
“Don’t look so shocked, Cuthbert, it’s done often enough and should merely require some groveling on my part, which in this instance I am prepared to do.” His lordship’s mouth pinched in distaste.
