Page 17 of The Homecoming (The De Montforte Brothers #6)

Chapter Thirteen

“ W hat? They’re leaving?” The duchess of Blackheath drew herself up and beheld the maid standing before her. “Oh, no, that will not do.”

“It’s true, your Grace. I was in tidying up Lady Charles’s bed and she told me herself.

Said she despairs of her husband ever warming up to the captain and she feels sad about ruining things.

She wants to go home to Lynmouth Park so the family can enjoy Lady Nerissa’s visit without complications caused by her and Lord Charles’s presence. ”

“That’s ridiculous,” Eva snapped. “She just had a baby. He doesn’t even have a name yet! She needs to rest.”

“I told her that, your Grace. But she’s determined.”

“This nonsense needs to stop, right now.”

Eva strode out of the room, down the hall, and outside.

The sun was shining, and a warm breeze moved through the copper beeches, dappling the grass.

The air was sweet with the smell of roses, and it pained her to think that the day could look so perfect on the outside, when in reality, there was a growing crisis on their hands.

She found Lucien in the stables.

He looked up when he saw her, his smile warming. “My dear Eva,” he said. “Did you know that of all the horses in this stable, it was Armageddon that fool brother-in-law of ours chose to bring Dr. Highworth back to us?”

“And he lived to tell about it?”

“It defies the imagination, really. Especially as he’s a mariner, not a natural horseman. I must confess I thought highly of his courage before, but this raises things to a whole new level.”

“Lucien, I have something to tell you.”

“What, that Charles and Amy are planning to leave us? As well as the captain and my dear little sister?”

“No!”

“Yes, I’m afraid.”

“How do you know all this?”

He grinned. “How do I know anything?”

“We have to stop this.”

“Have no fear, my dear. I will think of something.”

“Well, you’d better think of it quickly, as we’re running out of time.”

They emerged out into the sunlight, and from inside the house came the sounds of shrieking.

“Git back here, ye mangy rascal! Give me that!”

They paused, watching the puppy come streaking toward them with what looked like a joint of lamb in its mouth.

In full flight behind him was the cook, waving her arms, her face flushed and red.

The race was no contest. The puppy broke into a run, easily darted out of the woman’s reach, and shot past them, where it found refuge behind the gatehouse with its prize.

“Your Graces!” the woman said, aghast at running into her employers. She dropped into a curtsey.

“It is quite all right, Mrs. Dodman,” Lucien murmured. “I daresay the little fellow worked hard for his prize.”

“That was going to be tonight’s meal, your Grace,” she lamented. “I am so sorry, how he got down into the kitchens is beyond my guess, and he climbed right up on the stool and leaped onto the table and took it right from beneath my nose!”

“Yes, he does need ... training,” Lucien concurred. “In all honestly, Mrs. Dodman, I do not fancy lamb tonight, anyhow. Do you, Eva?”

“No, I have a craving for poultry, actually.”

“So be it, then,” Lucien said smoothly. “Chicken will do. Crisis averted.”

The woman curtsied, and picking up her skirts, hustled back to the house. A moment later, Charlotte, Gabriel, and Mary appeared, obviously searching for something. The tabby kitten was in Mary’s arms.

“Hello, children. Where is Nurse?” Eva inquired.

They exchanged glances. “She is with the little ones,” Charlotte explained, her eyes uncertain. “We don’t need her constant supervision, so we decided to—”

“Do something else,” Gabriel interjected.

Lucien looked at them thoughtfully and tapped a finger, once, against his lips. “And what might it be that you’re looking for?”

Mary’s eyes got huge, and Charlotte and Gabriel exchanged looks of false surprise. “Looking for? Why, we’re just out ... out having a stroll!” Gabriel said quickly.

“Now, now,” Lucien said, kneeling to their level. “You children do know that I am aware of pretty much everything that goes on around this old castle, do you not?”

Now Charlotte’s and Gabriel’s eyes got as wide as Mary’s. Gabriel’s throat moved.

Their uncle reached out a hand and smoothed Mary’s hair. He adopted a conspiratorial smile. “I’ve a feeling you three have been plaguing Mrs. Dodman by sneaking that puppy down into her kitchens. Is that not so?”

Gabriel’s mouth dropped open and he looked quickly at his sister. The admission of guilt was written all over him.

“Don’t blame Mary or Charlotte,” he said bravely. “It was my idea.”

“Your father was quite the prankster when he was a boy,” Lucien said. “I see that you take after him in more ways than one.”

The boy hung his head, but not before Lucien saw the telltale sparkle of mischief in his eyes. “Yes, Uncle Lucien.”

“You’ve also upset poor Mrs. Dodman,” Lucien continued. “I think you owe her an apology.”

The boy nodded, stared down at his feet, and shot his sister a look of barely controlled laughter.

“Furthermore,” Lucien said, “a young puppy shouldn’t be eating a roast of meat, especially something full of fat. It will upset his stomach. You wouldn’t want that for little Turnip now, would you?”

Mary looked up then, her eyes wide. She clutched the kitten to herself. “We didn’t think of that...”

“You didn’t think of it because you were following along with Gabriel’s mischief,” Lucien said.

Gabriel raised his head and met his uncle’s black eyes, trying to determine if he was in trouble or not, and if so, just how much. “Are you going to tell Papa?”

“I don’t know yet.” Lucien made a pretense of looking at Eva for consultation. “Should I tell him about this ... incident, my dear?”

She folded her arms and pretended to be deep in thought. “I think we should retire to the library and discuss it.”

“A fine idea,” Lucien said. He stood up, ruffling the boy’s hair and knowing that while an apology to the beleaguered cook might be forthcoming, contrition wasn’t going to follow it. “Now run along back to Nurse,” he said. “She must be worried.”

The children bolted.

Ruaidri escorted his wife up the stairs so she could start getting her things together.

She had learned to make do without a maid during their time together, and packing her own belongings was something she took for granted now.

It was a far cry from the way she’d lived when she had last resided in this castle.

He then went looking for the duke.

“Ah, Ruaidri,” Lucien said, looking up from his desk after Ruaidri had knocked on the library door. “I have been expecting you. Come in.”

“Expecting me?”

The duke just smiled and moved toward a small cabinet.

Ruaidri shut the door behind him. He took a chair and sat, and a moment later, Lucien had found a bottle of brandy and was pouring them both a drink.

“I came to deliver some bad news,” Ruaidri said. “It pains me to say this, given that we just got here, but—”

“I will spare you the sorrow of delivering it. I already know.”

Ruaidri just looked at him.

“While it behooves and amuses me to let everyone think I’m quite omniscient, the truth in this instance is no mystery.

” Lucien took a seat and sipped his drink.

“The news was brought to me by my valet, who heard it from one of the maids. Most unfortunate, especially as Charles and Amy are also planning to depart. Not quite the reunion I had hoped for, or envisioned, I must confess.”

Ruaidri let out his breath. “Nerissa ... she’s the one who wants to go. I’ve a tough skin, I can put up with it, but she cares about me, and it pains her.”

“It pains all of us. Including, I daresay, Charles.”

Ruaidri took a sip of brandy and raised his brows. “Charles?”

“My brother is a good man but a conflicted one, and he holds standards of perfection that are unimaginable to most people. Having come this far in his display of animosity toward you, there is no way out for him at this point without squandering his pride. He also feels that as a brother, he’s failed Nerissa since he was not the one to go looking for her during that .

.. unfortunate business a year and a half ago.

He blames himself, I think, and it only adds to his torment. ”

“There are four of ye. Four brothers, for one sister. Andrew offered himself up in trade for her and you came after them both. Ye’re the head of the family, not Charles. What does he expect?”

“As I say, his personal standards are impossibly high.”

Ruaidri took another sip of the brandy. “I don’t know what I can do to improve things between us. Saints alive, I’ve tried.”

“I know you have.”

Ruaidri swirled the brandy in his glass.

“I know you invited him to purge his anger by opening yourself up to his fists,” Lucien continued.

“I know that you’ve held your tongue in the face of numerous insults.

And—” Lucien smiled —“I also know that you risked your very life by taking Armageddon to get Dr. Highworth because he was the fastest horse in the stable.”

“’Twas nothing,” Ruaidri said, shrugging, though he felt his knees go soft at the memory of that hellish ride into town aboard the equine Satan.

“You saved the day and might possibly have saved Charles’s wife had things gone badly, and you did so at great risk to yourself.

You have done more than anyone could ask for or expect in an attempt to win my brother’s friendship, or if not, at least his acceptance.

I had hoped your ride aboard my little .

.. pet ... would soften him, but I fear it’s had the opposite effect.

He now feels beholden to you as well as stuck in his inability to forgive either you, or himself. ”

“I don’t think he’s ever goin’ to forgive.”

“And if you both leave here without resolving this nonsense, his relationship with his sister will be permanently ruined. There will be lasting resentments all around. Oh, no, Ruaidri. That will not do.”

“What would you have me do?”

Lucien let out a heavy sigh. “I had thought that seeing how happy his sister is with you would have been enough. I had thought that saving his wife might’ve been enough.”

“His wife did just fine without the doctor,” Ruaidri said, without lament.

The duke got up, and carrying his glass, moved to the window.

He stood there for a long moment, quietly perusing the downs that fell away to the village of Ravenscombe in the valley below.

Ruaidri could not know that many a hapless person had borne the consequences of Blackheath’s thoughts as he’d stood there many a time before in that very same spot, gazing out over those very same hills.

And scheming.

As indeed, Lucien was. He sipped his brandy and stood there for a long time, the glass dangling from his fingers.

On the lawn below, he saw the children playing on the grass under the copper beeches, their nurse sitting on a blanket and reading them a story, the kitten asleep in Mary’s arms. And there, off near the gatehouse was the puppy, both paws over the bone that was all that remained of the lamb leg that was to have been tonight’s meal.

Lucien gazed for a long, long time at the terrier as he gnawed away at his prize, and Ruaidri did not see the little smile that came over that dark and aristocratic face.

I had thought that saving your wife might’ve done it, Charles, Lucien thought.

But there were some things a man valued even more than his wife.

He turned around and smiled at his brother-in-law. “A picnic,” he said thoughtfully. “Late this afternoon, in place of tea. With all of us together for what might be the last time.”