remaining constable with him.
‘Oh.’ Hester sank down on her chair, prey to a feeling of complete anticlimax. Susan was lighting the candles again and Maria, showing far more firmness that usual, was ushering people out of the room and sending Jethro and the footmen to retrieve wraps and coats. ‘Such a shock for all of us, I know you will forgive us for ending the evening so abruptly.’
Her voice faded away as the door shut and Hester leaned back, blinking at the firelight. So it was all over now. The ghost laid, the Nugents routed and Guy at last ready to leave and forget her. She closed her lids; how foolish to stare into the glow like that, it had made her eyes water.
Hester opened her eyes and found the ghost of Diana Parrish standing looking down at her. ‘Hello,’ said the ghost wearily, revealing herself to be Georgiana Broome. ‘Men are very good at this sort of drama, are they not? But not very expert at managing the aftermath. Has my brother gone?’
‘Yes.’ Hester gestured at the chair next to her, too disorientated to ask why Georgiana no longer appeared to think her a scarlet woman. ‘He is angry with me.’ She explained about the skeletal hand.
Lady Broome sighed and sat down, extending a hand to the flames. ‘That cupboard is freezing. I wonder how long it will take the smell to go away-that was an entire bottle of rose essence which went on to the fire. Oh, let me give you these back.’ She lifted the pearls from round her neck and handed them to Hester.
‘Thank you, but I could not possibly take them, they are so valuable-and, in any case I rather think they are yours. You are her granddaughter, are you not?’
‘Yes.’ Georgiana continued to hold out the rope of milky orbs. ‘I insist, please take them. She would have liked you to have it, you have her sort of courage.’
‘What happened to her and her child?’ Hester took the pearls reluctantly and let them run through her fingers, thinking of the woman who had once owned them. It was strange to be sitting here at peace in a sort of exhausted truce with the woman who had crushed her hopes of love and happiness with a few words.
‘The child was our mother Allegra. Diana struggled to stay alive in London. Mama could remember very little of that, other than being cold and hungry and it always being noisy. Then, when Allegra was eight, Diana found employment in the home of Lady Theodora Westrope. She soon rose to become a trusted companion and Allegra was brought up with Theodora’s favourite nephew, our father, who in the fullness of time became the Earl of Buckland and married his childhood playmate.’
‘We knew nothing of this until my mother was dying, then she called us both to her and told us everything, gave us the papers Diana had left. Like a fool I wanted to leave things as they were, not admit to having an actress for a grandmother and a mother born out of wedlock, but Guy wanted the Moon House-I think as a sort of reparation for what had happened to Diana, to bring it back to the woman it was intended for.’
‘And he could not tell me why he wanted to buy it because it was your story too and he knew you would not want it known.’
The two women sat in silence for a while, then Georgiana said, ‘I am more sorry than I can say about blurting out the scandal of your position with Colonel Norton. Miss Prudhome came to see me and told me the truth.’
‘What?’ Hester was startled out of her exhaustion. ‘How dare she?’
‘She dared because she loves you,’ Lady Broome replied. ‘And she made me promise not to tell Guy. She said that my opinion did not matter provided I did not spread the rumour, but that if he did not come to disbelieve it of his own accord there was no hope for the two of you.’
That was true. How brave of Maria to dare her wrath and the scorn of the haughty Lady Broome. Who was apparently not so haughty after all. ‘Does he believe it?’
‘I think perhaps he must after all,’ Georgiana replied sadly. ‘Otherwise, why does he not come and speak to you about it?’
There was a scratch on the door and Jethro came in with a folded note on a salver. Hester recognised the bold, black handwriting and reached out her hand, but he shook his head. ‘For Lady Broome, Miss Hester.’
Politely Hester stood up and moved away, leaving Georgiana to read the message. ‘Have they all gone, Jethro? What were they saying?’ It was possible to carry on, even through a haze of shock and exhaustion, even if your heart was quite broken.
‘Yes, Miss Hester. They were all very shocked, of course, but I don’t believe, once they started thinking about it, that they were very surprised.’
There was an exclamation from Lady Broome who was holding two sheets of notepaper covered in Guy’s sprawling hand and looking at Hester with an expression she could not read. ‘He has gone to London.’ She looked down at the letter again and murmured, ‘Will there be enough time?’
‘For you to carry out the Christmas preparations in his absence? I am sure you can leave it all to Parrott,’ Hester assured her. ‘Parrott can manage anything.’ Did she imagine it, or did Lady Broome mutter,
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The Moon House was easy enough to set to rights after the party, but local society was in a turmoil that apparently would not be calmed without endless repetition, and exaggeration, of the facts.
Hester, wanting nothing more than to sit and mourn Guy’s loss, found herself receiving one visitor after another, each intent on telling her how brave she had been and how they had never trusted the Nugents. Even the villagers had their own way of finding out what was going on and Ben Aston seemed to have no other work than to hang around chopping wood and bringing in kindling for Susan.
‘Christmas Eve tomorrow.’ Hester said brightly, far more brightly than she felt. She was no worse off than she had been before Guy Westrope had entered her life, she told herself robustly, o why was she feeling so very sorry for herself now when she was secure in her home and all danger was past? ‘We must wrap our presents and find a Yule log and do as much cooking as we can so that Christmas Day is a holiday.’
‘I did promise Lady Broome that I would spend some time with her tomorrow, if that is all right, Hester dear?’ Maria looked anxious and faintly agitated, and Hester had not the heart to point out there was plenty to keep her occupied at home. If this new friendship helped bring Maria out of her shell, so much the better. She had already spent several hours at the Old Manor. Hester had said nothing about her breach of confidence: much good had come from it and she had shown more perception than Hester had credited her with in not telling Guy the truth.
Oh, why was she thinking about him again? The entire village seemed empty without him, she felt lonely and abandoned, yet she knew where he was-in London, doubtless on important business-and his whereabouts should be of no concern to her now in any case.
Put it off as she might, bedtime came round with a horrible inevitability and Hester took herself upstairs reluctantly, knowing she was facing another night when sleep would prove elusive. Susan tucked her up, muttering something about some laundry she must set to soak overnight and Hester was left alone in the flickering light of the fire to watch the waning moon through her uncurtained window
The clock struck twelve. Had Susan gone to bed yet? She hadn’t heard her. Then the tread at the top of the stair creaked and she could hear footsteps along the landing. At last. Susan must be tired, she had worked so hard on the party, and then today, clearing up.
Her bedchamber door opened. Bless the girl, she was checking on her.
But the shadow that fell across the floor was male and the footsteps, now they were in the room, were of booted feet. Hester scooted upright in bed with a gasp as Guy walked in and shut the door behind him. He touched the candle he was holding to the branch on the mantel shelf and smiled at her.
‘God, it is cold out there. The air seems to be freezing into ice crystals.’ And, indeed, she could see the frost melting on his greatcoat. He shrugged it off, tossed it over a chair and sat down, starting to tug off one boot.
