Rand was unsurprised. Animals always seemed to listen to Lily. “Thank you for your patience,” he said, drawing near.
She shrugged, clearly still unhappy that he’d run off. But she seemed unwilling to make trouble, either. She tossed the shorter stick and watched the fawn-colored dog chase after it. “I understand,” she said quietly.
Hurrying back with the wood, the mastiff sideswiped Rand and made him stagger. The mass of these beasts was amazing; not a one of them weighed less than he did. “This isn’t really safe,” he told her. “They’re very aggressive.”
“Balderdash. They were starving for attention.” With a swipe of its huge pink tongue, the hound licked her smack on the face. She tossed the stick again. “You should put some thick, knotted rope in here. They’d enjoy playing with it, chewing on it. And that tree is a hazard.” She waved toward one corner. “Those apples are exactly the right size to get lodged in their throats. I’m surprised none of them have choked.”
He shifted on his feet. “I’m sure my father knows what he’s about. He’s been breeding the monsters for years.”
“Monsters? I thought you said you were a dog person.”
He felt himself turning red. “These don’t count. I prefer the small, fluffy sort.”
Reclaiming the stick from between the dog’s big teeth, she appeared to be suppressing a laugh. “Have you ever had a small, fluffy dog?”
“No. But I used to look at these and wish for one.”
“They can be meaner than these. We shall have to try to locate a sweet one for you.” She dropped the wood to the ground and finally met his gaze. “Are you ready to tell me the rest?”
“Can we get out of here first?”
“I suppose.” She patted a couple of hounds on their heads before bunching her skirts in a hand. As she climbed the fence, the dogs began howling. When Rand went to follow, one beast whacked him with its tail, a stinging blow he half suspected was deliberate.
He probably he deserved it.
When they were safely beyond the fence, he took Lily’s face in both hands and kissed her, relieved when he felt her lips cling to his. “I’m sorry for running off,” he told her. “It’s a bad habit.”
Apparently having forgiven him, she smiled. “I hope it’s your worst.”
“Oh, it is, I assure you. Other than this one oddity, I’m a perfect companion.”
“Those are perfect companions.” She gestured toward the dogs. But her tone was teasing.
Feeling better than he had since arriving, he slipped an arm around her waist and walked her into the gardens. “I’m glad you’ve made friends here already.”
She smiled. “I feel much more at home with them. Not that Hawkridge isn’t lovely,” she added quickly, turning to admire the mansion.
Rand couldn’t help thinking she’d probably rather live here than in Oxford. Surely most ladies would prefer a grand estate on the bucolic banks of the Thames to a smaller house smack in the middle of—
Who was that?
Rand peered at the facade, thinking he’d glimpsed a face in one of the windows…a window near the center. But it was gone so quickly he couldn’t identify the person, or even be sure of what he’d seen.
“Hawkridge shows no signs of damage,” Lily remarked. “Yet your family supported Charles in the war, did they not? How is it that the mansion escaped Cromwell’s wrath, and so close to London, no less?”
“We have my mother to thank for that. Publicly, she was great friends with Oliver Cromwell and went so far as to entertain him here. Privately, she was an important member of the Sealed Knot.”
“What was that?”
“A clandestine organization that aimed to restore Charles to the throne. The members had secret names; my mother was ‘Mrs. Gray.’ When I was very young, she traveled to the Continent several times as a courier. Many letters went back and forth, always written in code.”
“Ah, I see where you inherited that talent for deciphering codes.”
He grinned. “My mother even concocted an invisible ink that they used. In the Sealed Knot letters, Cromwell was ‘Mr. Wright.’ While on the surface she supported him, all along she was plotting his downfall.”
“She must have been quite a woman.”
“She was smart and principled and beautiful. And I suppose she made this home beautiful, too,” he added, knowing, in a detached way, that it was. “But I don’t want to live here.”
“I, too, would prefer to live in Oxford,” Lily assured him, sounding sincere. “Your house is much more modern, so simple and classic. And empty. I’m so looking forward to filling it over time, making it ours.” She frowned. “That is, if your father…well, I suppose if he has his way we won’t wed at all, so it hardly matters where he’d want us to live.”
“I don’t care what my father wants, Lily. I won’t give you up for anything. Anything.”
She nestled closer, and he didn’t even mind the dog slobber getting on his best coat. “Tell me the rest. Your father pledged to marry Margery to his heir, and now you are his heir. What else?”
He began walking her down a path. “Margery’s a commoner, but an heiress. She inherited a vast estate. Land that my father has been managing for twenty years.”
“And?”
“He claims that Hawkridge will bankrupt without the income from that land. He said he was close to losing everything when Margery came along. He mortgaged Hawkridge to the hilt to support Charles during the war.”
“Would he have?”
“What?”
“Risked his estate for the king?”
He blinked. “Of course. Did your father not do the same?”
“It was my grandfather at the time. And no.” Her father’s daughter, she plucked dead leaves off the hedges as they walked. “Grandpapa sent money, but no more than he felt he could spare. And he never went off to fight, nor did he send his son. While we waited out the war and
