Page 16 of The Wordsworth Key (Regency Secrets #3)

Chapter Nine

Loughrigg Tarn

D ora rose early to make notes on what she had learned about the missing manuscript.

They were looking for a large bundle of notebooks– a fair version meant for other eyes– subject matter was the early years of the poet with thoughts about his upbringing and the importance of this landscape to his development.

Dora drew a line under the description. Could Wordsworth not knock that out in a sonnet sequence, she wondered. She would never have so much to say about herself. The cheeky devil on her shoulder whispered that they might be doing the world a favour to let it sink without trace.

She shook herself. Hers wasn’t the task of literary critic but investigator. It was of vital importance to the poet and his family– she was finding it for them, and possibly Jacob too as he was an admirer.

A shuffle on the stairs announced the arrival of Ruby. The two women had barely spoken yesterday as Ruby had been catching up on the sleep she’d lost making the journey across the Pennines. Even now she was yawning as she cradled the slight swell of her belly.

‘Is that my dressing gown?’ asked Dora. Of course it would be. Ruby was an inveterate magpie.

‘I thought you’d prefer me to borrow yours rather than your gentleman’s.’

‘He does have a name.’ Dora listed the Coleridge boys under the ‘informant’ heading rather than ‘suspect’. ‘Dr Sandys.’

‘A proper doctor or one of them pretend ones?’ asked Ruby, picking up a book from a side table and flipping through the pages. Jacob’s bookmark fell out and she stuffed it back in at random.

‘A medical doctor, yes, if that’s what you mean.’

‘Do you think he can tell me if all’s well with the baby?’ Ruby slumped down next to Dora and peered over her shoulder.

‘I imagine he can. Do you have reason to think that there’s something wrong?’ She felt a twinge of concern for her friend, whose best quality was brazening out all of life’s hardships. This, however, was not something she could bluster through.

‘Is there anything for breakfast?’ Ruby gazed at Dora’s empty platter as though willing it magically to replenish.

‘In the pantry. Ruby, what’s wrong with the baby?’

Ruby got up and wafted to the larder. ‘Nothing, I don’t think. It’s just that I took some of them female pills they advertise in the newspapers when I realised I was caught. They made me sick as a dog but my courses didn’t return.’

‘Can you feel the baby moving?’

Ruby’s face transformed with a dreamy smile. ‘It’s like butterflies in my stomach.’

‘Prepare yourself: I’ve heard towards the end they kick like mules. It sounds as if everything is going well but you can ask him.’

Dora returned to her list. The logical step for today was to visit the gentlemen who had called in on Barton’s cottage and it was imperative she catch them before they left the area.

It was a shame Jacob was away. This was exactly the kind of mission he was suited to; her accosting young men was likely to be interpreted wrongly.

Ruby soon tired of watching Dora work. She drifted to the window with a slab of bread and butter, chewing thoughtfully as the rain spotted the window.

‘It’s bloomin’ dull here, isn’t it? No shops, no company, just drizzle and sheep.’

Dora grunted rather than argue, a sign she was listening without challenging the speaker’s view.

Ruby leaned forward with excitement. ‘Good grief, imagine bringing that down here! It’ll ruin the springs.’

Dora looked up. ‘Bring what?’

‘You, my dear Dora, have a coroneted Landau heading for your door.’ Ruby giggled.

‘What!’ Dora jumped up and dashed over to look. ‘Get dressed, Ruby.’

Ruby looked down at herself. ‘Why? I thought I looked dashing in this.’

‘Because it appears Jacob is back, and you’ll want to make a good first impression. Though why isn’t he riding Nero?’ A groom was riding the stallion, not the master, trotting behind the mud-splattered carriage.

Dumping her plate, Ruby hurried upstairs. Dora retrieved the crockery and put it in the scullery. She smoothed down her dress, checked her fingers were not too badly ink-stained, then went to the door. How best to broach the subject of Ruby’s arrival?

With a final jolt and jingle of harness, the Landau drew up at the gate. The door opened and Jacob jumped out.

‘What madness is this bringing a carriage down here?’ teased Dora, filled with joy at seeing him again.

‘My brother insisted,’ he said with a warning look behind him.

Taking the hint, Dora didn’t fall into his arms as she wished but accepted a light kiss on the cheek.

Jacob whispered in her ear. ‘Brace yourself.’

Two men got out of the carriage.

‘Mr Sandys!’ exclaimed Dora, delighted to see Jacob’s brother again.

‘Miss Fitz-Pennington.’ William bowed. ‘I do apologise for our bad manners, turning up in force like this unannounced.’

‘Think of it like a spot inspection of the sergeant major,’ muttered Jacob.

Dora bit her lip to hide her smile, then she thought of Ruby and all humour vanished. ‘It’s no trouble at all. How are Charlotte and the children?’

‘Very well, thank you for asking,’ said William.

‘This gentleman, as you might’ve guessed by now, is our eldest brother, Arthur, Viscount Sandys,’ said Jacob.

She swept a curtsey. Was that a squeak she heard from an open casement in Jacob’s and her bedroom? What was Ruby doing in their room? Her heart thumped with a sense of impending doom. This was going to be awful.

Arthur inclined his head slightly. ‘Miss Fitz-Pennington.’

An awkward pause followed. It wasn’t her cottage so the etiquette for the situation was unclear.

‘Shall we go in?’ suggested William, coming to the rescue.

‘Very well. The carriage can be turned down the track,’ Jacob instructed the driver. ‘There’s a trough behind the barn.’

With a salute, the team of driver and grooms moved off to deal with the Landau.

‘I’m surprised the carriage survived the potholes,’ said Dora, desperately casting about for ways to keep the viscount apart from Ruby. If this were an inspection, a pregnant unmarried mother was going to be as welcome as unpolished boots.

‘I did suggest we all rode.’ Jacob sent a sour look in the direction of his eldest brother.

‘I thought it good to be prepared in case Miss Fitz-Pennington wished to go anywhere,’ said Arthur, walking into the house at the head of their little party.

‘Like where?’

‘Home?’ Arthur flashed Dora a smile that was all blades. Right, so this was a fight, was it? Good to know. She mentally pushed up her sleeves.

‘Her home is with me.’ And there went her knight, parrying on her behalf, not that she needed defending.

‘Actually, I have become a great walker of late,’ she said, ignoring the implication that she should scuttle back to London. ‘I do find the Lakes so beneficial to one’s health. Don’t you agree, Mr Sandys?’

William started at finding himself dragged into the conversation. ‘Oh, quite so. Wonderful place for a summer holiday.’

Arthur came to a halt in the centre of the dining room and studied it with a proprietorial air. His eyes swept the papers on the table and noted the crumbs that Dora hadn’t yet had time to clear.

‘We have a new case, Jacob,’ Dora said in a low voice. ‘I will tell you the details later. We also have a?—’

Before she could say the word ‘visitor’, Ruby made her entrance from the stairs, wearing one of Dora’s most fetching morning gowns.

It was too long for her, so she’d pinned it up, and wore a shawl to disguise the fact she had not been able to fasten the back.

That must have been what she was doing at the window.

Dora kept her shawl thrown over a chair by the casement.

‘Dora, I didn’t know you were expecting guests?’ Ruby said with a demure curtsey to the company.

With an inner sigh, Dora faced the inevitable requirement to introduce her friend. ‘Gentlemen, this is Miss Ruby Plum, who is visiting for a few days. Ruby, allow me to introduce, Dr Jacob Sandys, our host, and his brothers, Mr William Sandys and Viscount Sandys.’

‘My lord, gentlemen,’ Ruby said breathily. ‘I’m overcome by the honour.’ She blushed prettily and fluttered her eyelashes at the viscount.

Jacob shot a look at Dora.

‘Her visit was unexpected– that seems to have been the theme of the last few days,’ said Dora with a wry smile.

Was this as much of a disaster as Jacob’s expression suggested? If he had hoped she would make a good impression on his brother, it was not ideal that one of her theatrical pals had moved in without his invitation– and one who was clearly in an interesting condition.

‘Please accept my heartfelt condolences on the passing of the late viscount,’ said Ruby, sailing on with her usual confidence.

Dora kicked herself. That should’ve been her first line. Her only excuse was her discombobulation at her two worlds colliding.

‘I offer mine as well. Has his lordship been laid to rest, or do you have to go back for the funeral, Jacob?’

Jacob squeezed her hand, a sign he was going to make the best of this situation. ‘He has– with great dignity yesterday. Arthur, William, stop standing round like lampposts. I’ll put the kettle on and make tea.’

‘You don’t have a servant?’ Was that a sneer in Arthur’s voice?

Ruby tittered. ‘I know! Isn’t it shocking? I said the very same thing to Dora when I arrived.’

Arthur took the carver chair and gestured to Ruby to sit beside him. ‘Miss Plum, do tell me about yourself. How do you know Miss Fitz-Pennington?’

‘Really, Arthur, do you have to interrogate my guests?’ muttered Jacob. He slapped a board with bread on it in front of him. ‘Carve us all a slice please. I’m making toast.’ He added a bread knife.

Arthur picked it up and looked at it gingerly. He probably hadn’t ever had to slice a loaf before.

‘Allow me,’ said Ruby. She took it from his fingers and expertly set about the slicing. ‘I’ve known Dora for years now. How long is it, dearest?’