Page 35 of Scandalous Nights With the Earl

‘We will put them in water until you are ready to depart. But now you must come in and meet our children.’

An hour later they were all sitting outside in the familiar long cane loungers, much more tatty than Phillip remembered from his youth but very comfortable. A maid had brought out cool drinks and a plate of assorted small cakes and sandwiches. The talk now was of their childhood adventures and all the variousscrapes they seemed to have got into. Ben had a much better recall of the time than he did.

‘You always seemed to arrive looking thin and with some injury but by the end of the summer you had filled out and were full of health.’

‘Well, that’s because your mother fed us more food than I had ever seen in my life and it was always delicious.’

‘She used to make us matching outfits, too, because you never brought enough clothes, and we’d roam the land as the matching Merry Men of Robin Hood or the knights of old. There were so many characters I can hardly remember them all.’

‘I think I still have many of those old outfits in a trunk at Elmsworth.’

Phillip wondered privately if the senior Mrs Harcourt had ever gleaned the sort of mother his own was and had tried to make it up for him. He imagined she had, on reflection, for he was always sent back with much more than he had ever brought with him and she had made sure he had a standing invitation for the next holiday period.

‘How long were you at school together?’ Wilhelmina asked this softly.

Benjamin began to speak again. ‘From ten until we left Eton at eighteen. After that we lost touch somehow, but you had married Gretel Carmichael and you were busy with your wife and the estate and all that entailed. I did try to come across to Elmsworth Manor to see you but it was difficult to find a time that worked, and then at twenty-two I travelled with my family to the Continent before coming back and meeting Sarah.’

‘Can you believe we first saw each other at Lackingtons both reaching for a book of the maps of England?’ There was humour in Sarah’s words. ‘Like the gentleman he was, he allowed me the copy and we sat and talked for hours. How is it that you two met?’

‘Mrs St Claire and her party dropped into Elmsworth on their way to London.’ Phillip Moreland gave a vague answer but Wilhelmina expanded on it.

‘I was most ill from a meal I had consumed on the way and one of my travelling companions insisted we stop in at Elmsworth Manor to get help.’

‘We met only briefly that first time but afterwards I saw her in London.’ Phillip’s description was so very different from the reality that Willa horrifyingly felt the blood run to her face in a burning flush. She looked away but she was sure Sarah and Phillip Moreland must have noticed. A large dog running around the corner saved her, however, as it jumped up on Benjamin with dirty paws.

‘Down, Conan,’ Sarah commanded but the dog took no notice at all, stepping over her husband to get to her.

By now they were all laughing at the muddy footprints everywhere and Willa decided she liked the Harcourts immensely. When the dog was under control Phillip asked Benjamin if this dog was a relative of the ones that used to be at Summerley Court.

‘He certainly is. The great grandson of Fion, if you remember him. We have always had Irish Wolfhounds.’

So that is what this animal was, Willa thought. She’d never seen such a big dog close up but this one looked like an adolescent who only wanted to play. Tentatively, she held out her hand and a tongue came out to lick her fingers, much to her delight.

‘How old is Conan?’

‘Only ten months, which is why he is so unruly. But with training he will turn out to be a fine dog, Ben is sure of it.’

‘On days like this I am less so,’ her husband answered with humour. ‘Shall we walk to the lake? It is a short stroll and then we could go in and have lunch.’

The sky was full of scudding clouds over blue and the breeze was gentle as they ambled down a green pathway cut through the long grass. The lake came into view quickly.

‘Did you swim here when you were on holiday?’ Willa asked the Earl, and he shook his head.

‘Phillip never liked the water much even on the hottest day.’ Benjamin answered for him. ‘I don’t think you ever swam once here, did you?’

‘No.’

She saw the tension in Phillip Moreland even as the others did not and for a moment she wondered at what sort of childhood he had had, the picture being built by Benjamin one of a boy who had been thin, ill-clothed and often injured.

That thought had her listening more carefully to the words beneath the words as Benjamin rattled on about their summer meanderings. The closeness they’d shared was obvious, but why had they not kept up their friendship after leaving school? Why had it been so difficult to come to Elmsworth Manor?

Perhaps Phillip Moreland held as many secrets as she did?

‘Did you invite Benjamin back to Hampshire?’ she asked the Earl as they ambled back up the path. This time they were walking together, the others slightly behind them.

‘I didn’t. My mother was often sick, so it was easier for my father to tend to her without having to worry about anyone extra.’

‘Where did Oliver go?’