Chapter Eighteen
‘So what do you think of the poor old place, Marianne?’ For once Alaric sounded uncertain, as if a lot more depended on her answer than it ought to.
‘Someone should be very ashamed at the state of it. Even my Great-Uncle Hubert kept the roof repaired and windows mended, although that was about all he did do when he was master of Owlet Manor for the last fifty years of his life.’
‘I know it is in a very poor state, but roofs can be mended and windows replaced. Could you live here, do you think?’
‘Is any of it habitable?’ she said suspiciously, because they had only set out on a drive today and he was even more devious than she thought he was now he was presenting her with a potential home rather than a picturesque view.
‘That depends on how high your standards are,’ he said evasively.
Marianne could tell he had fallen in love with the place since he had evaded her perfectly sensible question. She looked down at the derelict old house and the wild wood that had grown up around it since a gardener last came anywhere near the place. It was the perfect site for a manor house, just large enough to be a comfortable family home, if only it had a comfortable family living in it. What it could be, whispered a plea for someone to rescue it from ruin. The man was cunning, though, presenting her with a challenge like this one. With splendid views across the Severn Plain from up here and the sheltering hollow where the house was set out of the worst of the winds that would whistle up the Bristol Channel, she would need a heart of stone not to be tempted by its forlorn air of waiting for them to make things right again.
‘I think we can safely say my standards are not high after some of the billets Daniel and I endured on the march, but what about you, my lord? Could you put up with the howling draughts and leaking roofs there must be in such a place while the builders repaired and redesigned the place for modern living around you, or would you visit the place occasionally until all the work was done and live in splendour at Stratford Park?’
‘I would hire a house with proper windows and a roof nearby and be comfortable while I kept an eye on those builders and made sure it was all done as we wanted it. You would not have me leave them to it, would you?’
‘No,’ she said carefully, knowing he was expecting her to demand her say in how it would all be done and not quite ready to fall into his trap just yet. ‘But why do you even want another house? Don’t you have enough already?’
‘I have more than I know what to do with, but this one would be yours. I know you secretly long for a home from some of the things Juno has said in her letters and my own incredible powers of observation. I want you to have one where only you can say who goes and stays and what is repaired and what replaced. I admit that I came here looking for a home where Juno could be happy if you washed your hands of both of us and walked away, but I knew as soon as I saw it that this place should be yours and somehow I would have to persuade you to let me share it with you. And if anything ever happens to me I want you to have a home that will always be yours to do with as you please.’
‘Why would anything happen to you, Alaric? And how do you think I could endure living here without you? People make homes, not stones and timbers and leaky roofs.’
‘My brother died when he was five and twenty, so I know I cannot promise I will live until I am ninety and die at the same moment you do, Marianne, but I have no intention of going anywhere without you if I can help it.’
‘Good,’ she said and her heart missed a beat as she thought about the uncertainty of life and he was right, it was all a risk, but so few things in life that were worth having came without a bundle of those. She loved him so fiercely and truly and did not want him to think he had won her over with a house. It was important he would always know that he came before any of the riches and wonders he could shower on her and Juno and any other family they managed to make along the way. ‘You have fallen in love with this poor old house, haven’t you?’ she said suspiciously.
And there was his shamefaced look he wore when he was trying to hide his deepest feelings and at least she recognised it now. She hid a smile when he decided they needed to take a closer look at the place to disguise his discomfort at being found out so easily. She was very glad of the warm rugs over their knees and the not-quite-so-hot brick at her feet he had provided to keep the chilly autumn air
