They were in the drawing room later in the afternoon. Elizabeth was bent over her embroidery, though her mind was not really on what she was doing. It was a shame, she felt, that John had chosen to sleep longer than usual this afternoon. Playing with him would have been a distraction. Helen was seated at the farther end of the room at the escritoire, writing a letter. Whoever she was writing to, she was not finding the task easy. The surface of the desk was littered with papers that had been crumped into little balls, and she seemed to be staring at the wall ahead of her, stroking her chin with the feather of her quill pen every time Elizabeth glanced at her.
Finally, when she was beginning to convince herself with the greatest of good sense that Robert would not come today after all, but would surely come on the morrow, she heard the unmistakable sound of horses' hooves on the cobbles outside the main doors. Embroidery was dumped unceremoniously beside her, and Elizabeth was on her feet in a moment.
'That must be Robert,' she said. 'I should wait here, should I not, Helen? The servants will think me a mistress of scant dignity if I rush to meet him. Anyway, it is only a week since I last saw him. Is my hair tidy? The water here is so much softer than that in London. My hair just refuses to keep its chignon.'
Helen turned on her chair and smiled at her hostess. It was an unusual sight to see Elizabeth agitated. 'There is not a hair out of place,' she said, 'and I think probably servants like to serve people who show affection for each other.'
Elizabeth laughed. 'Your encouragement is all I needed,' she said. 'Helen, you are having a terrible influence on me.'
And she was out of the room and flying down the staircase and across the wide hallway without a second thought to her dignity. An expressionless footman was already holding open the door at the approach of his master. Elizabeth went rushing past him and down the first six steps. Two arms reached out and lifted her over the remaining two and swung her in a wide circle.
'Hoyden!' the Marquess of Hetherington said with a wide grin. 'Are you not afraid of what the servants will think, Elizabeth?'
And he was seeking out her mouth and kissing her thoroughly right there in front of the footman and the butler hovering in the background, and the groom who was holding his horse's head, and William, who was standing on the cobbles still holding the reins of his own horse.
She flushed and pushed at her husband's shoulders. 'William!' she said breathlessly. 'You have come too? I am delighted to see you.' She held out a hand to him. 'But I am not at all sure that you have done the right thing to come here. Helen will be upset, you know.'
He accepted her hand and bowed over it unsmilingly. 'I am afraid I invited myself quite unashamedly,' he said. 'How is she, Elizabeth? I had to make one more attempt to speak to her. If I can see after a day or two that it is no good or that I upset her too much, I shall leave without having to be told to do so, I assure you.'
'I did sound inhospitable, did I not?' she said contritely. She linked an arm through his and led him toward the door. 'You must be tired if you have ridden all the way from London. Do come up and have some refreshment.'
'It seems that having my wife rush from the house like a schoolboy was welcome enough for me,' Hetherington grumbled cheerfully, following them into the house and up the stairs to the drawing room.
Helen was still seated at the escritoire, the pile of discarded papers now spilled over onto the floor. She turned as the door opened, the beginnings of a polite smile on her face. When she saw Mainwaring, she scrambled to her feet, brushing yet more papers to the floor.
'Oh,' was all she could think of to say.
He hurried across the room, took a nerveless hand from her side, and raised it to his lips. 'Nell,' he said, searching her eyes with his, 'how are you?'
She stared back without a word for a few moments, during which time the room seemed curiously quiet. 'Oh,' she said again. And then, loudly, accusingly, 'Oh, someone has told you!'
And she brushed past him, ran the length of the room, and pushed her way with lowered eyes past a silent Elizabeth and Robert and out into the hallway.
Chapter 16
“Wh
'I believe he will fall asleep at any moment,' Hetherington said, brushing a cheek against the soft curls of his son, who had become very quiet against his shoulder, except for the sounds he made as he sucked on one fist. 'And it is not before time. I am near exhaustion from playing so hard.'
'I did not mean with John, silly,' she said, smiling at him from her perch on the window seat. 'And he would have fallen asleep long ago if you had not persisted so long in tickling him and getting him overexcited. I meant with Helen and William. It has been dreadful since yesterday' afternoon, has it not?'
'I did not find last night half-bad,' Hetherington said, ogling her over the baby's head and grinning broadly when she blushed. 'But, yes, you are right. Last evening was most uncomfortable with that little chit with her nose in the air, quite ostentatiously talking to none of us, and William his most gloomy, taciturn self.'
'This morning was awful too,' Elizabeth said. 'All four of us seem to have had the same idea-to breakfast early before the others were down. And there we all were again, you and I making polite conversation to two deaf-mutes.'
'If they had been deaf-mutes, all would have been well,' Hetherington said. 'We might have carried on a cozy, personal conversation. The situation is going to be impossible for you, Elizabeth. Are you really intending to stay with this girl until after the birth of her child? She must have six months to go at least. She is the most morose little brat it has ever been my misfortune to meet.'
'Oh no,' she said hastily. 'That is really a misconception, Robert. I have got to know her in the past week, and really she is a very vital and a very interesting girl. Very intelligent, I think, and artistic. She was beginning to settle down and relax. I have come to like her very much. I cannot help feeling that William mistimed his visit quite dreadfully. She needs time, Robert, and a great deal of it. Now she is right back to the state she was in when I brought her here.'
'Yet I must sympathize with William,' Hetherington said. 'He really does dote on her, you know. I have been feeling sorry for him, but from what you say, perhaps he has not made such an unwise choice. But really, he has got himself into a dreadful mess. The girl wants nothing to do with him, and he obviously knows that she is with child.'
'Yes, was that not dreadful?' Elizabeth said. 'Helen still believes, I think, that we have told him. And then when she left the room yesterday, he asked us what it was he was supposed to have been told. You could just tell that he knew very well, but he was afraid to put it into words just in case he was wrong. And of course we could not say anything.'
Hetherington sighed loudly. 'Elizabeth, is this little tyke asleep yet?' he asked, turning so that she could see the child's face. 'I am sure he must be. There are no longer loud sucking noises assailing my ear, anyway.'
'Yes, he is,' she said, getting to her feet. 'Put him down in his crib.'
They both stood gazing down fondly at the sleeping baby. 'Do you think he has gone to find her?' Elizabeth asked.
' 'He' being William, I suppose,' Hetherington said. 'I would think it very probable. She disappeared with painting equipment right after breakfast and has not been seen since. He disappeared soon after luncheon and has not reappeared. I would imagine that somewhere on our grounds, my love, there are two people either glowering at each other in sullen silence – that seems the most likely possibility with those two -or having a battle royal. I hope for the latter. It is more likely to accomplish something.'
'Oh, I do hope so too,' she said. 'Hope that something is accomplished, that is. They should be together, Robert. Not just for the sake of the child, but for their own sakes. They are a rather odd couple, but in a strange sort of way I think they suit admirably.'
