‘You saw most of it as well, Little Sister.’
‘Not the killing and the conflict,’ she said, knowing what it must have cost him and Daniel to set out to wound and kill their fellow men. Love for this strong and loyal and, yes, soft-hearted, brother of hers was prodding her to accept Lord Stratford’s offer of employment even if she was not sure it was the right thing to do. Could Alaric become a run-of-the-mill sort of lord to her rather than the special one he was now? Or would she fall even deeper under his spell than she had already?
She sighed and realised only by doing what he wanted and living as Juno’s companion was she ever going to find out. It was a risk—either hurting herself or hurting Darius and Fliss by refusing to stay here and be the widow in the way. Her brother knew how much she had hated living in Bath. He would be even more hurt if she chose to go back there instead and suspicious of her true reason why. She certainly did not want anyone else knowing about these feral longings for a man she could not have.
‘Why is it always one step forward, two back with you, then, Nan?’ Darius asked as if he thought that sigh was for him instead of lordly Lord Stratford.
‘No,’ she insisted with a shake of the head to tell him she really meant it. ‘I have come a long way since you inherited Owlet Manor. But today I need to be left in peace so I can get this one last room clean and usable. It will help me weather Mama’s fussing and dramatising if I make her feel that she and Papa are important here. I robbed her of the wedding she longed for when I ran off to find Daniel and her new friends shunned me when I lived in Bath. I am such an unsatisfactory daughter to her and I know she did not defend me as fiercely as she might have done because in her heart she agrees with them, but at least we still love one another. All three of us always knew we were loved by our parents, however little we understand one another. Mama cannot see why I married Daniel when there are perfectly good curates and one or two gentlemen of leisure I could have fallen in love with if I had only tried a little harder.’
Marianne thought of Alaric’s description of his cold-hearted mother and shivered. His calm acceptance of a total lack of love between them still stung her on his behalf. He could so easily have grown up hating his brother for being the favourite. Marianne sighed because it felt as if an unseen tie bound her to the viscount and it was tugging at her heart more strongly with every day that passed. Could she ignore it and do as he wanted? Of course, that decision was the real reason she was keeping the rest of the world out with the dust of ages, but Darius did not need to know and worry about her even more.
‘If it makes you feel better to do this, then of course you must, Nan,’ he said. ‘But promise me you will stop when you get this room as perfect as you can in such a short time. The rest can wait and I do not care if Fliss and I wed in a church porch and feast in a cow byre as long as we are married. Mama can boast about my splendid wedding to Lord Netherton’s niece to all her friends without them knowing the east wing is in the same sorry state Great-Uncle Hubert left it in and we have borrowed half the furniture and fittings from Miss Donne’s friend Mrs Corham.’
‘I want your wedding day to be wonderful so you can look back on it with a smile for the rest of your lives. If Mama is carping at me and glaring at Miss Donne all day because she feels less important than Fliss’s stand-in mother, I will be miserable and on edge and Fliss will be mortified. Mama is going to be a difficult enough mother-in-law without them starting off on the wrong foot.’
‘Maybe so, but the maids could do this if you let them.’
‘They can help now I know exactly what needs to be done in here,’ she conceded with a sigh.
‘Good, perhaps it will distract them from decking out my bedchamber with every bit of finery they can find,’ he said and Marianne almost laughed. The dreamy look he had been wearing so often since Miss Felicity Grantham stepped into his life one hot and sunny June day took over from brotherly concern and good riddance to it. He was thinking about his wedding night now and that was a much better idea than worrying about his sister.
‘I expect Fliss will like it better with a few improvements,’ she said to encourage him to see those changes with new eyes.
‘I was a soldier for over a decade, sister dear. I recognise diversionary tactics when I meet them,’ Darius argued nevertheless.
‘Then you must know how unlikely it is I shall sit tatting while I wait for your neighbours to call,’ she countered.
‘I can dream,’ he said lightly, but there was sadness and frustration in his eyes all the same.
He had dreamed of making a home for both his sisters, but they were too independent minded to be Squire Yelverton’s dependent sisters even if he could afford to keep them. Fliss had inherited a fortune from her godmother, but Owlet Manor and its farms had been neglected for a very long time. Even thirty thousand pounds would not last forever if Darius’s sisters were here to be a drain on it. Lord Stratford’s offer was a
