Page 22 of Her Summer Duke

~~~~~

Margaret shook her head.

“I don’t know who Captain Halstone may be. Why is this Captain writing to me?”

Then, a terrible thought washed through her. Perhaps something had happened to her dear sweet Ensign Chester. This Captain Halstone was undoubtedly writing to her to explain the circumstances of Ensign Chester’s demise. Her face went ashen at the thought.

She imagined Ensign Chester’s body lying in repose. The thought made her shudder.

“Are you quite alright, Lady Margaret?”

Lord Percy reached for her, but his hand stayed poised in the air when she met him with a steely gaze.

“I… I believe I am alright.” She reached out her hand to take the letter from the butler. “If you will excuse me, Lord Percy?”

“Yes, of course, my Lady.”

Lord Percy took one step back and then watched with deep curiosity as Margaret went to the window seat. She could feel his eyes upon her, and knew, absolutely, that he must be struggling to work out what to do. It was apparent that he wished to stay, yet politeness would suggest that he go.

Ignoring him, and his predicament, she slowly sat down, broke the seal, and began to unfold the pages. Lord Percy kept his eyes focused on her. She hoped that it was not apparent to him that she was upset. But she suspected that he knew. How lowering that she could not conceal her emotion. No doubt he was puzzled. He would be wondering how she could be upset, if she did not know the sender of the letter.

The weight of his eyes on her was too much. Margaret looked up, and met Lord Percy’s eyes.

“Perhaps you should leave me alone now, Lord Percy.”

“But, are you quite sure?”

“I wish to read my letter alone.”

“Shall I wait in the…”

Margaret shook her head, “No, I wish for you to leave.”

“May I call on you tomorrow?”

His voice shook a little – was that fear? If so, what did he fear?

“I will send you a note to let you know. Something, er, uh, I believe something may have come up that I will have to attend to, but I promise, I will send a note.”

He appeared consoled by her promise, and took his leave.

“Until later then, my Lady.”

But she did not even watch him exit the parlour. Her focus was only on the paper in her hands. In a fever of anxiety, she read the first words of the letter:

My dearest Lady Margaret,

I do not even dare to believe that you will forgive me, but this is ‘Ensign Chester’ writing this letter to you. I hope that this note finds you well and happy. I am writing not to give expression to the words within my heart, although my heart is full of a deep passionate love for you. I am writing to beg your forgiveness, my dearest Lady.

Firstly, because I did not write to you earlier. I wanted to. I needed to. But instead, like a coward, I returned to my ship with my breaking heart, sure that you could never, truly, care for a man like me.

She paused and ran her fingers over his carefully penned words, as if in doing so she could feel the beating of his heart. She whispered, “Oh my sweet Ensign Chester.”

She continued reading:

I must bare my soul to you, my love, for I am not he who you might believe I am, your ordinary Ensign. For an Ensign, I know, could never afford to support a lady like yourself in an appropriate manner. I am, instead, one very real, Captain Lord Adam Halstone, though Captain Halstone is no less in love with you than Ensign Chester, in fact, he loves you more, if that is even possible. Please find it in your exquisite heart to forgive me my black deceit.

I am in Brighton, near where my ship is docked currently, and will be there for the next two weeks at least. I beg you, if there is any way in which you might come to Brighton, to consider meeting me. I will wait near the end of the pier, each day when the clocks chime twelve, in the hope that you may come.