The Regency Season Collection: Part Two. Кэрол Мортимер
cap in place then threw the constricting thing into a dark corner and rubbed her temples against the headache it had caused. She looked ruefully at a red-gold curl escaping from her tight chignon and wondered if its colour explained the differences between her and her angelically blonde twin sister. Even her mother must have decided Daphne needed a sweet-natured godmother and Chloe could make do with a chilly and puritanical distant cousin, who disowned her as godless and ungovernable long before she walked away from Carraway Court with Verity in her arms.
Chloe reminded herself of Virginia’s opening words and decided she had been given the best godparent ever born and felt as if her mentor’s hand stroked her fiery curls for a moment to confirm her true place in Virginia’s heart.
So there it is, child. I confess my part in you being misplaced for so many years, not so much from your family, who don’t deserve you, but from wider society. I am a wretched old sinner and the more I knew you, the less I wanted to live without you and Verity. Now I sense my race is almost run, and about time too, so don’t you dare mourn and mope over me, my girl. I have set my conscience to consider my sins a little more seriously than I quite like of late and will do my best to atone for the worst of them. It has to start with you and darling Luke, because I have finally realised why he avoids Farenze Lodge as if it were a noxious pest house. That selfish little cat he wed convinced him he was a heartless monster because he wouldn’t fawn on her, but I was wilfully blind to his feelings for you for too long.
How very much I wish I had used the brains God gave me sooner, dear Chloe. Of course Luke is attracted to my beautiful young companion housekeeper and won’t let himself stay more than a couple of days in this house I love because you live here as well and he’s an honourable fool. Don’t shake your head again and wonder if I’ve gone senile. Look deep into your heart and his before you risk breaking them both. I suspect Luke also thought both your daughters would suffer if he made an unequal marriage. The poor darling clearly has no idea you’re his equal and possibly superior in rank. Legend has it the Thessalys were princes in Byzantium before they landed in England and settled for being warlords instead.
Chloe did shake her head this time, not because Virginia raised the mirage of love binding her and Lord Farenze together, but because she knew the Thessalys were descended from a Barbary pirate who captured, then fell in love with, the widow of a crusader, on her way back home to claim her husband’s lands before the king could seize them. Apparently the lady captivated her captor, married him, then brought him home and set that legend about to baffle those who might take Crowdale from them. Chloe was torn between pride in her adventurous ancestor and doubt the Winterleys would consider it a wonderful connection if they knew. Descent from a pair of bold adventurers and a long line of gamblers, opportunists and downright thieves wasn’t much to boast about.
Anyway, that is all by the by—I have been a wilful fool about you and Luke for far too long. Lately I have taken the chance to observe the two of you on his fleeting visits to Farenze Lodge and believe you are as besotted with him as he is with you, even if you don’t yet know it. It would be a far darker sin to turn away love than to leap straight into the joy of it. Age comes on far too soon, so grasp your youth and beauty and reach for the happiness you deserve. I beg you not to fail yourself and Verity by letting the sins of others stand between you and a man truly worthy of you. Society would accept Verity as your adopted child, if Luke does the same. He is a truly noble man, so please don’t hurt him even more than his wretched wife managed to during that ill-fated marriage of theirs, dear Chloe.
By now you will know there are more things to put right than this, even if this tangle concerns me most, but I beg you not to refuse the role I allotted you. I am forcing your hand and making you reveal things to my great-nephew you would rather keep secret, but those things need to be out in the open.
Chloe gasped and found out she was nowhere near as strong as she hoped when it came to Luke knowing the full details of her ancestry. She tried not to notice how sadly her hand shook when she took up Lady Virginia’s letter again to read the last page.
Stubborn independence is all very well, but it’s terribly lonely and for you I fear it might also be dangerous. Your brother Crowdale has fallen into bad company since he inherited, so be wary if he pretends repentance and wants to take you and Verity home. Please don’t push Luke away when he comes to ask you about yourself, as he must once he’s reads the letter beginning my year of wonders. I hope and pray it will be wonderful. There are four wrongs I must see righted and thank God I was granted time to realise they cannot stay quietly wrong for ever.
So there we are. I trust you to do your best to make sure my sins of omission are put right. You are a better woman than I ever was, my love, and you have a fine mind to go with that soft heart. Remember Luke is nothing like the harsh recluse he would have the world believe and look how he loves and indulges his daughter if you doubt me. If the worst comes to the worst, at least you now have a year’s grace to decide what you want to do, but I hope and pray you will reach for a better future and a fine man instead.
Goodbye, my dear, live well and be happy; nobody deserves a blissfully argumentative marriage more than you and my stubborn great-nephew.
Chloe let the letter drop into her lap and stared out of the nearest window, surprised to see twilight outside when she hadn’t noticed she was straining to read the last few words of Virginia’s letter. She wondered how she was supposed to face Lord Farenze with this epistle in mind and decided the best thing to do was to give him his letter and leave him to read it.
* * *
‘Here is your task from Lady Virginia, my lord,’ Chloe told Luke, her composure so brittle he wondered if she might shatter if he breathed too hard.
Luke left it in her outstretched hand and waited for her to meet his eyes with a challenge in her own—ah, that was better. There was his Chloe, furious and ready to fight the world with any weapon she could lay hands on if it threatened those she loved. Somewhere along the long line they’d walked towards each other these last ten years he’d come to know her, despite his resolution never to expect more than hot passion and a few nights of mutual pleasure from any woman when he found out what Pamela had done for ‘love.’
‘I suspect my great-aunt of plotting to push us together as well, Mrs Not-Wheaton, but so far I’ve barely seen you,’ he said, holding her eyes and wishing she would trust him.
‘Read your letter,’ she said with a resigned gesture that might be designed to show off her long-fingered hands and elegant wrists, if she wasn’t his contrary Chloe and convinced there was nothing worth showing.
‘Stay,’ he ordered, wrapping her slender capable hand in his own larger paw and pulling her down on to the elegant little sofa by the fire they had stared into last night. ‘You’re half-frozen,’ he reproached as he rubbed her chilled fingers to get some warmth back into them.
‘Never mind me; you must read your letter. It’s my job to make sure you do, don’t you see?’ she asked and the blank look in her eyes tore at his heart.
‘Just this once I think we can let duty go hang, don’t you? Sit with me, Chloe, let someone take care of you for once in your life.’
‘I don’t want to be a cause you champion because nobody else will.’
‘Apart from our daughters; my late great-aunt and Mantaigne, I suppose? I thought Tom was too idle to bother with anyone but himself these days, then he ups and tells me I should look after you properly before another man leaps in and does it for me. Even my self-absorbed brother wants to make sure you come out of this odd affair unharmed and I thought Poulson was going to adopt you himself if you refused Virginia’s original offer of employment for the coming year.’
‘That’s very kind in all of them.’
‘I tell you people around you have come to care for you and you call them kind? You must always be the one who gives,