“I trust so,” the earl replied pleasantly. “Since you are leaving on the morrow.”
The estate carpenter thought it rather odd to spend his afternoon pounding useless nails into the solid floor of the earl’s bedchamber, but he said nothing.
When the earl entered his bedchamber near to teatime, ostensibly to inspect the carpenter’s work, he cheerfully praised the now overly secure floorboards.
“Actually, my lord,” Turpin said, scuffing the toe of his boot on one of the over-nailed boards, “there was very little to be done. Of course, what there was to be done, I did an excellent job, as you would expect, as I would expect from myself.”
The earl smiled at him. “I agree, Turpin. Here is a guinea for your labor.”
Turpin accepted the undeserved piece of gold, gathered his tools, and made his way after the earl from the grand suite. He would never understand the Quality, never.
Lady Ann tracked the earl down in the estate room. “Justin, I would speak to you, if you don’t mind.”
He set down the ledger, giving her a guilty grin. “Please, Ann, do come in and speak all you want. I admit that I have read this page three times now and still have not gathered together a correct total. I miss Arabella. I can see clearly that she will save my wits in the future.”
“I just realized at luncheon that you and Arabella have come together. I am more pleased than I can say. It was also evident that both of you have guessed then that it is the comte and Elsbeth, not the comte and my daughter.”
He gently laid his quill down on the desk. “I would have spoken to you, Ann. Your daughter has forgiven me my stupidity, my blindness. She has told me that since I am her other half that not to forgive me would be the same as not forgiving herself. It is a logic that isn’t all that logical to me, but since I am the beneficiary of the logic, then I readily accept it.
“I love your daughter, Ann. I would give my life for her. I will spend the remainder of my days on this earth making up for my mistake.” His smile widened. “I doubt not that Arabella will see that my nose is often rubbed in the dirt.”
“Tell me how you came to believe that she deceived you in the first place.”
And he did. All of it, not sparing himself. “I was a fool, yet I was so very certain because of what I had seen.”
“Did Arabella tell you that she has what I called her private place in the barn? She would go there even when she was a young child when she was unhappy, when she was furious with her father or with me, when she was uncertain what to do. She obviously went there the day before your wedding because she wanted to think about how her life would change.
“It is a pity that you were there and saw her. It is more a pity, indeed it is a tragedy that Elsbeth is Gervaise’s lover. I don’t know what to do about that, Justin. Obviously you and Arabella have discussed it.”
“Yes, but neither of us is really thinking about it until, well, until after the comte leaves.”
“Why did Gervaise come here, Justin?”
“You know more than you are telling, don’t you, Ann?”
“Oh no. It’s just that there are so many mysteries, so many unanswered questions, indeed, so many questions that have never been asked. I don’t trust Gervaise. I would like to know why you have allowed him to remain.” But the earl just shook his head. He wasn’t about to tell Ann that he and Arabella wanted the comte to make his move tonight. He didn’t want to worry her. Also, he didn’t want her to take matters into her own small white hands. He didn’t know if the mother was possibly as unpredictable as the daughter. No, he wouldn’t take the chance. “You and I can discuss it perhaps tomorrow, Ann. When Paul is here. Is that all right?”
“You’re lying to me,” she said, sighing. She rose, shaking out her primrose skirts. “I am pleased that you and Arabella have mended your fences. As to the rest of it, well, I will speak to Paul, you may be certain of that. If he comes after you tonight at the Talgarths’, you will know what he wants, Justin.”
“Yes, I’ll know,” the earl said.
When everyone arrived back late in the afternoon from their explorations, Arabella immediately excused herself and went to the earl’s suite. She eyed the floorboards and grinned. While Grace was fetching her bath, Arabella restlessly paced her room. Where was her husband?
He strode into the huge bedchamber while she was singing a high G at the top of her lungs in her bathtub.
“If I weren’t looking at you, I would believe that I had a screeching magpie in my bedchamber. Goodness, Arabella, did you not have voice lessons?”
“You’re back! Where have you been?” She realized that he was staring pointedly at her breasts, and waved her hand at him. “Look at my face or you will make me blush like the maiden I was until just a short time ago.
Yes, that’s better. No, you’re still staring at me. All right, my lord.” She stood up, sending the water sloshing over the sides of the tub.
“Oh my God.”
She grabbed the towel off the stool beside the tub and quickly held it in front of her.
“I wish you hadn’t done that,” he said, disappointment stark in his voice. He sounded almost as if he wanted to cry. “Perhaps you would consider dropping that towel? You’re beautiful. Do we have time before we must dress for dinner? Ten minutes would suffice, maybe less. Indeed, much less.”
She stared at him. “You want
