It was another beautiful day. Kate set her breakfast tray down on the table and pulled up her usual chair. It felt so strange, being alone in the dining room. It wasn’t the silence, for until the second pot of tea was brewed she and the girls had always preferred to be left to their own devices, it was the lack of physical company.
There was no one to challenge her for the last cup in the pot; no Phoebe to bustle about, seeing to each of their various preferences for food; no Eloise tapping her pencil on the table as she planned her tasks for the day; no Estelle, the only one who would have preferred to talk, biting her tongue until the unofficial silence was over.
Of course it had been a long time since all of them had sat down to breakfast together, for Eloise had been married for four years, but while Estelle had still been here the absence of the other two hadn’t felt so pronounced.
It might be strange, but it was also strangely liberating. Now, Kate thought, as she poured herself the first and best cup of tea, she could enjoy her breakfast in blissful silence, plan her tasks for the day in her head, as she had always done, and work through them at her own pace without interference—something she had never had the luxury of doing.
‘There you are!’
It seemed it was a luxury that was going to continue to be denied to her.
Kate set her untasted tea down as Daniel, dressed in a loose white silk tunic and trousers, wearing his slippers but this time without the gorgeous matching dressing gown, came into the room.
‘I didn’t think you’d be up and about so early,’ she said.
‘I’m always up and about early,’ he answered testily. ‘Did you put a sleeping potion in that soup you sent up last night? My head feels like it is stuffed with wool.’
‘Sit down. I’ll pour you some tea.’
‘Dear God, no. I need coffee. I’ll ring for some.’
Kate pushed her chair back, getting hastily to her feet. ‘I’ll fetch it. Sit down.’
‘You haven’t had your breakfast yet,’ Daniel said.
‘Sit down, Daniel,’ Kate said tartly. ‘There’s no point in ringing the bell. It’s half past six in the morning. There is no one to answer it. I will fetch your coffee.’
‘I’ll get it myself.’
‘But...’
‘I’ll find it,’ he said. ‘The kitchen, the hot water, the coffee—whichever one of those you were going to tell me I wouldn’t be able to find.’
‘All of them. Are you sure?’
‘I don’t want or need you to run after me. I’m perfectly capable of looking after myself. I’ve been doing it most of my life. And your tea is getting cold.’
Nonplussed, Kate sat back down at the table and took a sip of her tea. So much for her breakfast of contemplation. She was destined for a breakfast of confrontation. She smiled to herself, helping herself to a slice of bread and butter, because there was no point in her pretending that she wasn’t looking forward to it.
She had never in her life taken breakfast with any man other than her father, and Papa had always hidden himself behind yesterday’s newspaper, which old Lord Elmswood had sent down from the house at the end of each day. Sitting at the table with Daniel was a very different prospect.
She had tried not to think of her behaviour in the walled garden yesterday, tried not to imagine what would have happened if Oliver hadn’t appeared. Daniel had kissed her hand—that was all he’d done. Just kissed her hand, for goodness’ sake! But even now she could feel the warmth of his lips on her skin, the visceral kick of her response, the urgency of her desire for more.
The way he’d looked at her too, had left her in no doubt that he was as attracted to her as she was to him. She couldn’t say how she knew, but there had been a—a heat in his eyes, and the way her skin had tingled, the way she had been so keenly aware of him sitting inches away from her—she knew he’d felt it too. If only Oliver hadn’t turned up.
It was just as well he had, for poor Daniel had clearly been exhausted by the events of the day, and she’d been racked with guilt afterwards.
She ought to have ordered him to his bed after Sir Marcus and Lord Henry left. Yes, she could just imagine the effect that would have had...
‘What are you finding so amusing?’ Daniel sat down next to her at the oval table, placing a tray with the Turkish coffee pot and cup down in front of him.
‘That was quick.’
‘Would you rather I’d been longer? Are you one of those people who prefers silence at breakfast?’
‘Are you?’
‘I don’t often have any choice, unless I talk to myself.’ He poured the first cup of his coffee and took a sip, closing his eyes. ‘That’s better. Did you put laudanum in my soup?’
‘Of course not. You slept well, then?’
‘I’m not sure if it was sleep—more like black unconsciousness. Is that all you eat for breakfast, bread and butter?’
‘Would you like some? Or I can make you some ham and eggs, if you prefer.’
Daniel shuddered. ‘Nothing, thank you. Do you always get your own breakfast? I’m sure I saw a cook yesterday, answering the door. Grey-haired woman, shaped like an apple, covered in flour.’
Kate giggled. ‘Mrs Chester. She is married to one of your tenant farmers who likes a much more substantial breakfast to set him up for the day than bread and butter. So she comes in afterwards, about eight each morning, and goes back to the farm in time to serve her husband’s dinner.’
‘What about your dinner?’
‘She leaves it already prepared with cooking instructions. Don’t worry, I won’t poison you.’
Daniel set his cup down, turning towards her. ‘Have you taken some sort of vow of poverty or have you recently taken up gambling? Because the last time I saw a statement from my bank—admittedly, it was over a year ago—there were funds aplenty.’
‘There still are. Elmswood is a very profitable estate.’
‘Thanks to you. So why do you live so frugally?’
‘I live contentedly and comfortably. Do you want a slice of bread and butter?’ The look of horror he gave her made her giggle again. ‘Don’t you ever eat anything at breakfast?’
‘I’m partial to something called ful medames, which is beans cooked in oil with salt and served with flat bread, but I doubt even you, resourceful as you are, could conjure that up.’
‘No, but I bet Phoebe could. She is always wanting new receipts—especially for what she calls “real people’s food”. I have a whole sheaf of notes from my limited travels to send her. If only she were here I’m sure she would make it for you, she’s so clever at working out ingredients. And she’d be delighted to...’
‘No, Kate. Let’s not go over that again.’
‘But if you’re going to be here for three months, surely...?’
‘At the most. It will likely be less, if something urgent comes up. And something always crops up unexpectedly.’
‘You said that they want us to be seen out and about together,’ Kate pointed out.
‘They can force me to remain here, but what I choose to do with my time is my own business.’
‘But you can’t hide yourself away, Daniel. What is wrong with Elmswood that you don’t want to see more of it? Surely you must have some happy memories? Your sister...’
‘My sister didn’t give a damn about me. She eloped with that fly-by-night character without a thought for the consequences, and as far as I’m aware she forgot I ever existed.’
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to touch a raw nerve. I had no idea.’
‘Why should you? We barely know each other,’ he retorted testily. ‘And it’s hardly raw—it happened decades ago.’
And yet he remained hurt and angry, Kate noted.
Daniel seemed to be regretting his outburst. ‘As you know, I didn’t even know I had one niece, never mind three, and a nephew into the bargain, until my father died. You’ve been a much better mother to them than Gillian ever would have been.’
‘What was she like, Daniel? I mean, I know what she looks like from the portrait...’
‘What portrait?’
‘I forgot—I’m so sorry. I found it in the attics. I had no idea who it was until the girls came to Elmswood. If you want to look at it, you’ll find it on the wall in my bedchamber. Phoebe had some fanciful notion of reuniting them. Of all three, she is the most attached to her mother’s memory, but none of them say very much about her. So tell me, Daniel, what was she like?’
‘Utterly selfish. Extremely beautiful. Heedless. Charming, provided she got her own way. Petulant when she didn’t—which admittedly wasn’t very often. She was the apple of my father’s eye.’
‘Really?’
‘Oh, yes, she had him wrapped around her little finger. He indulged her every whim.’
‘He must have been quite devastated when she ran off, then.’
‘More furious than anything. The one thing my father would not tolerate was insubordination.’
‘He did like to have his own way, but I don’t remember him as a martinet.’
‘Frankly, Kate—and don’t be offended by this—that was most likely because you were not of any particular relevance to him. At least not that he knew of.’
‘You did say all those years ago that he’d never have tolerated a female estate manager.’ Kate wrinkled her nose. ‘Papa was very easy-going and very loyal, which probably explains why he and old Lord Elmswood got on well enough. But I’m still very surprised that his estrangement from your sister was so permanent. If she really was the apple of his eye, surely he’d eventually have forgiven her?’
‘His word,’ Daniel said with a marked sneer, ‘was law. You may not have seen that side of him, but trust me—I know. He would not bend, not even for Gillian—even if she asked him to, and I’m not at all convinced that she would have.’
‘It sounds to me like a dreadful case of reaping what you sow. To indulge a child’s every whim inevitably produces an adult who thinks they can do as they please and damn the consequences,’ Kate said dryly. ‘I would never go so far as to say poor Gillian, but it does sound as if your father made excellent work of making the worst rather than the best of her.’
‘That’s certainly a charitable way of looking at it.’
‘The girls aren’t the least bit like her, if that’s what you’re worried about.’
‘I’m not. I’m sure they are fine young women whom I would like very much. But unfortunately that is a pleasure that must be denied me, given my line of business. I can’t afford ties or distractions. I can’t be Uncle Daniel when I am—well, whoever I happen to be next.’
She swallowed her disappointment, telling herself that he wasn’t being cold, only practical. ‘For the next three months you are to be my husband. How will you like that?’
‘It will certainly be novel, but I am sure of one thing.’ He reached across to press her hand. ‘Marrying you was the best decision I’ve ever made. I mean it.’
‘Why, thank you, Daniel. I think it was my best decision too.’
‘I don’t know what I’d have done if you hadn’t proposed to me. I remember sitting opposite you on that cut-down chair—yes, I did know it was cut down—and wondering what the devil this very surprising and very determined chit of a girl was going to suggest. But even if you’d give me a hundred guesses I wouldn’t have come up with the answer.’
‘Were you truly so shocked? You covered it up extremely well!’
‘I was astounded, not shocked, but within five minutes I realised that it was an inspired idea, and what I remember more than anything was feeling profound relief. And gratitude.’
‘You played your part very well. Papa never guessed that it was my idea, you know.’
‘Oh, one thing I can do is play whatever part is asked of me. I’m glad, though, that it ensured he could be comfortable in his last year.’
‘He took a lot of persuading to move out of our cottage and into the manor. I couldn’t understand it at first. I thought he was concerned about what people would say—you know, the estate manager moving into his former employer’s home and getting ideas above his station. But it wasn’t that at all. He simply didn’t want to leave the cottage where he and Mama had been so happy and contented. I barely remember her, and Papa rarely talked about her, but it was clear he loved her very much. So in the end I moved the entire contents of the cottage here and Papa was able to enjoy his last year on this earth. Sorry.’ Kate blinked. ‘Tears at breakfast. I promise you that won’t be a regular occurrence.’
‘He died ten years ago,’ Daniel said, frowning. ‘I’d have thought after all this time... But I know you were close.’
‘We were—of course we were. And in a way, the estate is his legacy, so I’m reminded every day—’ Kate broke off, mortified. ‘Sorry, that was thoughtless of me.’
‘In what way?’
‘Well, Elmswood Manor must be full of memories for you too. I know it’s been more than eleven years since Lord Elmswood died, but you’ve been abroad for all that time, and being here now—well, as I said, it must reawaken long forgotten memories.’
She waited, but Daniel said nothing, staring off over her shoulder out of the window.
‘Why do you hate this place?’ she asked.
‘That’s at least the second time you’ve asked me that.’
Silly of her to imagine he would answer a direct question, but his irritation made her even more determined to find out.
‘How tedious of me,’ Kate said. ‘I do beg your pardon.’
Daniel got to his feet. ‘It’s a lovely day. I think I’ll get some fresh air.’
‘Would you like me to come with you? We could take a walk around the grounds.’
‘Don’t you have better things to do?’
‘I have a hundred other things I could do, though nothing I’d rather do, if you would care for my company. Though if you wouldn’t, then please just say so. I think it’s better for both of us that we be frank with each other, don’t you?’
His brow lightened and he smiled faintly. ‘Then I’ll confess that I’m like a bear with a sore head in the morning until I have had my coffee.’
‘On top of which, you really did have a sore head this morning, and I added tears and recriminations into the mix. Would you prefer to be alone? I really don’t mind.’
He held out his hand, helping her to her feet when she took it. ‘I would very much like my wife’s company, if I’m not keeping her from more pressing concerns.’
‘You are, actually,’ Kate said, smiling up at him, ‘but, strangely, I find the prospect of spending the morning in your company a far more beguiling prospect than going through the accounts and paying bills.’
‘What about your precious garden? Won’t your horticultural Adonis be keen to show off the results of all his hard work?’
Kate chuckled. ‘Estelle used to whistle and say “Good golly, it’s Ollie!” whenever he appeared. It became one of our silly family jokes. He is ridiculously handsome though, isn’t he?’
‘Have you an ambition to play his Aphrodite?’
‘Wasn’t she the goddess of love?’
‘Love and desire—the female equivalent of Adonis. The story goes that she fell in love with him, and then for reasons known only to herself handed him over to another goddess, Persephone, who was to act as his protectress. When Persephone refused to give Adonis back the two agreed to share him, though Aphrodite claimed two-thirds of the prize specimen’s time, leaving the unlucky Persephone with only a third. Poor Adonis died when he was attacked by a wild boar which had been sent by another god, who was either envious of his hunting skills or jealous of Aphrodite’s passion for him.’
‘Good grief! I had no idea that mythology was so salacious.’
‘Oh, that’s tame for the Greeks.’
‘I’m afraid I’m woefully ignorant when it comes to the Classics. It’s not a subject taught at the village school.’
‘It was ranked second only to sport in terms of importance at the school I attended.’
‘I’ll wager you favoured sport rather than Latin and Greek?’
‘You’re quite wrong. In fact there was a time—’ He broke off, shaking his head ruefully. ‘I don’t know how we came to be discussing the Classics.’
‘The notion of Oliver being Adonis to my Aphrodite.’
Daniel’s expression cleared. ‘And is he?’
‘I thought I’d made it perfectly clear yesterday where my preferences lie.’
He smiled at that, just exactly as he’d done yesterday. ‘As did I, I believe.’
It was a wicked little smile, and it was having exactly the same effect on her as yesterday. She felt quite unlike herself, reckless and bold.
‘You kissed my hand,’ Kate said, affecting a dismissive tone. ‘I don’t consider that definitive proof one way or the other.’
‘Are you throwing down the gauntlet? Because I should warn you I never refuse a challenge.’
Her heart began to beat very fast. ‘I don’t want you to.’
He put his arm around her waist, pulling her tight against him. ‘Be careful what you wish for, Kate,’ he said, and then his lips met hers.
Be careful what you wish for, indeed.
She closed her eyes and tried to purse her lips against his.
He laughed.
Her eyes flew open.
Mortified, she tried to escape his hold, but he tightened his arm around her.
‘I’m sorry—but how was I to know you’d never been kissed before?’
‘Perhaps because I’m your wife and you know perfectly well that you’ve never kissed me.’
His smile faded. ‘Good grief, do you really mean that you have never...?’
‘Never.’
‘Kate, I am very far from being any sort of rake, but I must warn you that I have—’
‘Daniel, I’m not in the least bit interested in what you have or haven’t done in the past.’
‘Nor am I.’
He smiled again, sliding one hand up her back, his fingers feathering the skin at her nape.
‘Did you know that your mouth is the perfect shape for kissing?’
‘Is it?’
‘A cupid’s bow, curling up at the corners so that you look as if you’re smiling even when you’re not. Here.’ He bent his head, pressing a kiss to one corner. ‘And here.’ Another kiss. ‘And then there’s this tempting little dent in your top lip.’ Another kiss.
His fingers slid into her hair, angling her head towards him, and he covered her mouth with his. His lips were soft on hers. She stayed motionless until his tongue gently urged her mouth open, and then her senses jolted to life.
He kissed her slowly, his mouth moving carefully over hers, and she could have swooned with delight. Closing her eyes, she put a hand on his shoulder and stepped into a whole new world of sensation, following his lead, shaping her mouth to his, and kissing him. Slow, soft kisses, that heated her blood, that made her feel as if she were melting.
Her heart was hammering as their mouths moved and their tongues touched, and if it hadn’t been for his hand around her waist and her hand on his shoulder she was pretty sure her knees would have given way.
And then the kisses stopped, and he lifted his head, and she opened her eyes, dazed, and touched his cheek, as if to reassure herself that he was real, and he smiled at her, and she smiled back, and he let her go.
‘Well,’ Kate said, ‘now I know.’
‘Was it worth the wait?’
She laughed, feeling skittish and girlish and quite unlike herself. ‘I haven’t decided yet. Perhaps one more?’
Daniel gave up pretending to eat the plate of cold meat and pushed it aside.
‘Aren’t you hungry? Are you feeling feverish? The sun is hot and we walked for more than two hours in the gardens—and you had only those strange clothes on, with those odd shoes and no hat, so perhaps...’ Kate trailed off, grimacing. ‘Sorry.’
He was tired, and he was unsettled, but he wasn’t about to admit to either. ‘The fact is that I am not particularly fond of ham.’
‘Why didn’t you say? I could get you...’
‘Kate, sit down. I don’t want anything more, and if I did want anything I am perfectly capable of asking for it myself. As to my unconventional attire—those clothes were designed to cope with the heat and humidity of India, but if you don’t like them...’
‘You’ve been to India!’
It had been a silly slip, but too late to deny, and what the devil? It was hardly treasonous. ‘A country which taught me a good deal,’ Daniel said, ‘including how to dress sartorially.’
‘Do you speak the language?’ Kate asked, agog. ‘What is the language?’
‘There are a great many dialects. I learned enough for my purposes.’
‘I don’t suppose there’s any point in my asking what those purposes were?’
‘I’m sorry, but you know the answer to that.’
‘What other languages do you speak?’
‘English is the only one that need concern you. I’m sorry,’ Daniel added when she scowled, ‘but I did warn you that asking questions was pointless.’
‘Including any question about what you like to eat? If you would at least answer that question I can inform Mrs Chester, and then she won’t be offended by your sending back a full plate.’
‘I ate every bit of that vegetable concoction, whatever it was.’ Daniel tilted his side dish towards her ‘See—empty plate, Nurse.’
She bit her lip, but he could see the laughter in her eyes.
‘It was garden peas, runner beans and lettuce, cooked in chicken stock with mint,’ she said.
‘Let me guess. Another one of Phoebe’s recipes?’
‘If I said it was, would you refuse to eat it?’ Kate snapped. ‘It would be easier if you could tell me what kind of things you like to eat, Daniel. It doesn’t commit you to anything more profound than eating dinner.’
Her insight took him aback. All morning as he’d wandered around Kate’s precious gardens, content to be in her company and be able to smile, asking enough pertinent questions to mask his indifference to it all, he’d felt the weight of the sentence Sir Marcus had imposed weighing on him.
Three months, with no guarantee of release at the end of it. What was he to do here for three months? And how the devil was he to avoid becoming part of the furniture? How his father would have loved that! He was determined to do all he could to avoid it, but Kate was right. He had to eat.
‘Fish,’ he said. ‘lots of vegetables and pulses. I like chicken, pigeon and rabbit. I don’t like beef or pork or ham, and I loathe the English way of loading a plate with slabs of roast meat or wedges of the stuff. Peasant food, I suppose is what I really like. Does that help?’
Kate smiled warmly. ‘Thank you. Now, that wasn’t too difficult, was it.’
He got to his feet, holding out his hand. ‘Fair point. Perhaps we should discuss how we’re going to get through this interlude in both our lives. I think I saw a bench on the terrace facing the south lawn—shall we sit there?’
‘It’s very hot today.’
Daniel laughed. ‘You’ve obviously never been to Arabia.’
‘Meaning you have, I presume? Or is that yet another question you’re not permitted to answer?’
‘Oh, what the devil? I’m not supposed to say anything at all, but provided you swear never to tell Sir Marcus then I will admit that I have been to Arabia, and that I speak reasonable Arabic, as well as a smattering of French, German, Italian, Spanish and Greek.’
‘Good heavens, that is impressive.’
‘Not really. I have an ear for language, that’s all.’
It was on the tip of her tongue to make a comparison with Estelle, and her ear for music, but he would only brush it aside as irrelevant or a coincidence.
‘It’s impressive all the same,’ she said, making for the bench.
‘No, don’t sit down yet. Let me move it so that you’re in the shade.’
‘Daniel, be careful.’
‘It’s a wooden bench, Kate, not a marble plinth.’ He moved it, pleased to find that it was not as heavy as it looked, and sat down beside her.
‘Did you live in the desert when you were in Arabia?’ she asked. ‘Did you ride a camel and sleep in a tent?’
‘Yes, to all three. And I can tell you that the tent was made of goatskins.’
Kate sighed. ‘I wish you could tell me more. I am imagining you with white robes and a headdress...’
‘Don’t forget my harem.’
Her eyes widened. ‘Do they really have such things?’
‘A harem is simply the women’s quarters in a household, occupied by a wife, her daughters, servants, cousins—her mother sometimes.’
‘Like Elmswood, then, when the girls were here.’
‘A little more restricted,’ Daniel said dryly. ‘You’d have had to give your gardener instructions through a metal grille, and he certainly wouldn’t have been able to roam about half-naked if any of you were in the garden.’
‘Oliver was digging, and he put his shirt back on the moment he realised he wasn’t alone. Are the women there really so restricted?’
‘It varies from kingdom to kingdom.’
Lord Armstrong’s eldest daughter had made enormous changes in Q’adiz, he remembered. Celia, that was her name. A formidable woman. Though, like Kate, she hid her strength behind a pretty façade, there was steel in those eyes of hers. She wasn’t much older than Kate either.
For a moment he was tempted to tell his wife about his encounter with her—such a contrast to her father, who was a slippery customer if ever there was one. But he’d already broken the rules.
‘We didn’t come out here to talk about Arabia.’
Kate sighed. ‘No, but I wish we could. You have led such a fascinating life, and I would love to hear about some of the places you’ve been.’
‘I was working, not taking in the sights.’
‘Yes, but you must have seen so many wonderful things, even when you were working.’ She wrinkled her nose. ‘Whatever you mean by “working”, which I can’t imagine...’
‘No, you can’t.’
She was silent for a moment, staring down at her hand. ‘I’m not sure how I’ll cope when you go back, now I know how dangerous it can be. What if you’re captured again?’
‘I won’t be. Once bitten twice shy.’
His ankles still throbbed where the manacles had been. And the heat had been overpowering. But it was the smell that had been the worst of it. And the vermin. And the dark. Yes, the dark had been the worst. Those long days and nights he’d lost count of, that rush of terror, panic, as he despaired of ever being free. Clawing at the walls. Hammering on the cell door. The humiliation he’d felt when they’d let him out and he’d realised it had been a game for them.
He hadn’t let them win, but he didn’t think he’d be able to go through it again.
‘Daniel? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring it all back.’
He was crushing Kate’s hand between his. He uncurled his fingers, releasing her. It was over. One more life lived and done with. The man in the cell hadn’t been him. What he had to do was concentrate on this version of himself.
‘There’s one thing I can usefully do while I’m here. My will,’ he clarified, when Kate looked at him blankly. ‘Shall I make Elmswood over to you?’
‘You can’t do that!’
‘Why not? It couldn’t be in more capable and caring hands.’
‘That’s not the point. The estate should go with the title.’
‘I have no idea who will inherit that, and I don’t give a damn, but I do care about the possibility of you being unceremoniously turfed out by him. This is your home, you’ve looked after it for the last eleven years, you deserve to keep it.’
‘It’s your home too.’
‘No! Never!’
He hadn’t meant to shout. Kate was staring at him, shocked. He’d shocked himself with the strength of his feelings. He didn’t give a damn about Elmswood, so why get upset about it?
Three months at the most he had to sit it out here—it didn’t mean he was filling his father’s shoes, and he wasn’t even here at his father’s behest. What he had to do was see this as just one more assignment, one more role. Not Lord of the Manor—that part was being played by Kate, who had not a drop of Fairfax blood in her, and was moreover a woman. And that, he thought, tickled by the notion, would have made his father furious.
His wife was eyeing him as if he were a pot about to boil over. ‘Please excuse my temper. I think perhaps I have overdone it a little after all,’ he said.
‘It’s my fault. I was so caught up in seeing all the changes in the gardens I forgot that you’ve only just risen from your sickbed. And you indulged me,’ she added wryly. ‘Don’t think I didn’t notice how tedious you found it.’
‘I found the botany boring, but not the botanist.’
She laughed. ‘And you said you weren’t a diplomat!’
‘Oh, I’m not—not at all.’
She was blushing. It fascinated him, the way the colour stole up her throat to her cheeks, and yet there was not a trace of false modesty in the way she reacted, eyeing him frankly, weighing up her response, trying to decide whether to put him down or respond in kind.
‘Daniel, delightful as this is, we can’t flirt away the next three months.’
‘Why not? I’m thoroughly enjoying it and it seems to me that you are too.’
‘Oh, you know perfectly well that I am. As you are well aware from this morning, I’m as much a novice when it comes to flirting as kissing, but I think I might prove to be rather good at both.’
‘What a bold piece you are!’
‘Of course I am. I wouldn’t have proposed to you elsewise.’
‘Have I told you that I’m very glad you did?’
‘Yes.’ Her smile faded. ‘But seriously, Daniel, what are we going to do? What are we going to tell people?’
His heart sank. ‘Do we have to tell people anything?’
‘Think about it! Elmswood has been without an earl for a very long time—long before you inherited, remember, for your father was rarely seen in his later years. And you are the Earl, whether you wish to use the title or not. The elusive and completely unknown Earl. But word will already be out that you’re here. People will be desperate to meet you.’
‘I’m ill. Far too ill to receive anyone.’
‘Actually, I agree with you on that point, but for how long do you think that story will hold up to scrutiny? The few servants that we have all live out, and they have family, friends. People will talk and they will speculate. It’s inevitable. One of the reasons you married me is because I am a practical, pragmatic person. I’m being both right now. We need a story and we need a plan.’
‘I’m an explorer. I’ve been very ill. I’m home to recuperate. I’ll be off again to darkest Africa just as soon as I’m able. There—that’s the beginning, the middle and the end of the story.
‘But Sir Marcus said we should—’
‘I don’t give a damn what Sir Marcus thinks we should do. I’m here, and I’ll stay here until they realise that they need me, which will be sooner rather than later. So there’s no point in me getting to know our neighbours or paying house calls or involving myself in estate business or—before you suggest it again—in my meeting my nieces.’
‘You can’t meet Estelle anyway. She’s off traipsing around Europe.’
‘Don’t be waspish, Kate, it doesn’t suit you.’
‘I’m not usually waspish. It’s your fault. Oh, dammit. I sound like a petulant child and I’m not.’
‘No, you’re not. You’re a very sorely tried woman who has been to hell and back for an ungrateful, curmudgeonly husband.’
Shifting on the bench, he put his arm around her, pulling her up against him. With a sigh, she let her head rest on his shoulder. She smelled of something floral and peculiarly English. Daniel let his chin rest on her hair.
‘Do you like lemon with your tea, or cream?’ he asked.
‘What an odd question. Neither. I like milk. Why?’
‘And do you like to put it in your cup before the tea or after?’
‘Before. Doesn’t everyone? Why...?’
‘So that I can prepare your tray properly in the morning if I’m up before you. It was obvious to me this morning how important your first cup of tea of the day is.’
She gave a little huff of laughter. ‘As important as your coffee is to you. Although I thought I’d disguised it better than that. Are we to take breakfast together, then?’
‘I’d like to if you would.’
‘I rather think I would. What about dinner?’
‘Oh, we’ll definitely dine together. I have consumed my last bowl of nourishing broth in bed.’
‘And for the rest of the day, Daniel?’
He let her go, getting to his feet. ‘Let’s take it a step at a time, shall we?’