He thought he heard a soft whisper of a laugh in the cool shadows beyond the kitchen and gazed hungrily past Mrs Turner’s slender form, hoping for a glimpse of his niece. ‘Just let me see you are unharmed, Jojo, and I promise you I will go away again until you are feeling better,’ he said quietly and willed her to step forward. He loved his niece far more than he had ever been able to let her know, but he was the adult and he should have told her all through her lonely childhood if he wanted her to believe him now.
‘You used to call me that when Papa was alive,’ she said so softly he had to strain his ears for the words and he longed for her to come properly inside the room so he could catch a glimpse of her for the first time in far too long.
‘And how he would rip up at me for letting his little girl be so miserable in London that you felt you had to come so far to find Miss Grantham.’
‘You will not make me go back to live with Grandmama, will you?’ she said and finally found the courage to peer around the doorpost at him.
All he could see was two anxious blue eyes looking warily at him and her pale face looking thinner and even more worried than last time he had set eyes on her. Then he had been bidding her goodbye at his London home before he travelled on to Paris. ‘No, even if I wanted to I could not since the Dowager has left the country and will live overseas from now on. I will not make you go anywhere you do not want to go ever again, Jojo,’ he promised recklessly and with a wobble in his voice he wished Mrs Turner was not here to pick up on.
‘I want to stay here,’ Juno managed to say almost out loud.
Alaric’s heart sank as he realised it could be too late to put his relationship with his niece right. Maybe he had defended himself against loving anyone for so long it had become a habit. But how could he have refused it to a child who had lost her father so young she could barely remember him? It seemed feeble and self-pitying to admit he had felt so shaken and alone when he lost his brother that he had built a wall around himself. Perhaps George had been lonely as his parents’ only surviving child, but whatever the reason, he had taken to his baby brother and refused to hear their mother’s orders to let the brat go to the devil and come away. Even as a boy he had taken care Alaric was happy and well looked after when he had inherited their father’s title as a mere lad himself. George had always done his best to shield Alaric from the Dowager’s cold dislike and it had hit him like an Arctic blast when George was killed and Alaric had to step into his brother’s shoes. Within the new Viscount Stratford’s barricades he must have looked self-sufficient and composed instead of bereft and terrified. Men of power were certainly fooled and they began to use him for not quite official tasks like the one in Paris to help the Duke of Wellington through an awkward situation in any way he could. Little did they know there was a coward lurking behind all that lordly composure and now Juno had paid the price.
‘Then so you shall, if I can make arrangements for your board and lodging and any other expenses. And if Mrs Turner does not mind having such a demanding young lady about the place when she has a great deal to do?’
I will miss you like the devil, but that will serve me right, he did not add. It would not be fair, after all he had not done for his niece up to now, to put any pressure on her to try and get her to love him back. Serve him right if he never did after walling her out along with the rest of the world ever since her father died.
‘You really do not mind if I stay, then?’ Juno said and she was so eager to hear his reply she actually crept past the doorway and stood just inside the room like a feral kitten ready to bolt for cover if he made the slightest move towards her. ‘I promise not to get under your feet, Mrs Turner,’ she added earnestly. ‘I know you are very busy, but I would love to help you clean and sort through all the curious old things you have found. Miss Grantham made it sound such an adventure I feel as if I know you and the house already.’
‘I wonder if she knows how hard that work can be. It is rough and ready living here, Juno. I have a great deal to do before this old place even feels like a proper gentleman’s residence once again. If you really want to stay with us for a while and rough it and His Lordship is content for my brother and me to have you here until you have recovered from your long journey, then I
