Читать книгу The Reluctant Viscount - Lara Temple - Страница 11

Chapter Two

Adam remained standing for a few minutes after she left, staring at the door, his mouth flat and stern. He stared down absently at the estate accounts and papers that littered the desk, but turned when the door opened. The man who entered was tall and dark-haired like him, but his eyes were a rich warm brown and right now alert with interest and a hint of amused mischief.

‘I thought we were going for a ride? Or are you too busy being besieged by young ladies? I just saw a very pretty specimen wander off through the garden. The English countryside must have changed quite a bit since my boyhood if young women feel free to call on bachelors unattended, especially bachelors of your dubious reputation. Or is she perhaps an old friend, here to renew your acquaintance?’

Adam shook his head ruefully at the innuendo.

‘Miss Drake doesn’t quite fall under any conventional category, Nick. But she most certainly did not come here on any romantic mission. At least not on her own account. She wanted to enlist my help in spiking Percy’s guns. It seems he has got his mercenary sights on an heiress.’

Nicholas Beauvoir cast a critical eye at the worn and faded chairs, then sighed and sat down, propping his immaculately shining boots on a low table.

‘Good for Percy. Why, does that pretty little thing want him for herself? She hasn’t a chance unless she’s wealthy.’

‘Hardly. She likes Percy less than I do. Apparently her little brother is sweet on the heiress, so Miss Drake is guarding the sheep while her brother is off at Cambridge. And she wants me to help chase off this particular wolf.’

Nicholas opened his brown eyes wide.

‘A very primped and pomaded wolf. But why on earth would she expect you of all people to do that?’

‘No idea. She seems to think it is my duty now that I am the head of this misbegotten family.’

‘I don’t know why anyone would expect that,’ Nicholas said reasonably. ‘They never wanted anything to do with you until Ivor died without male issue. Who would have thought that old Lord Delacort would drop dead and lose two sons to mishaps in a mere five years? If you hadn’t been halfway around the world at the time, I am sure they would have found a way of laying the blame at your door.’

‘I wish one of them at least might have waited until they had sired a son before they died. It’s bad enough being saddled with getting this ruin into some semblance of order, I certainly don’t need furious little bluestockings stomping in demanding I do something about Percy’s fortune hunting.’

Nicholas’s brows rose. ‘Is that what she is? She didn’t look the part. How on earth do you even know her? She must have been little more than a child when you were booted out of the county.’

‘I don’t know, she must have been around sixteen or seventeen. And I know her because amongst other things she very kindly tried to warn me off Rowena. To be fair she was spot on—she told me she was sorry that I was about to be hurt, but Rowena was leading me on and had no real intention of marrying me because I was quite poor and that it was probably all for the best, since she would make me miserable if I were unlucky enough to marry her.’

‘Good God! I would wager you didn’t appreciate the lecture at the time.’

‘I remember hoping she’d fall out of the tree.’

‘What tree?’ Nicholas asked, bemused.

‘The lecture was delivered from a branch of the Hungry Tree, so named for its tendency to capture and demolish her siblings’ balls and kites. Their cottage is on Rowena’s family land and Miss Drake and her siblings were always underfoot somewhere.’

‘Why the devil was she was up in the tree?’

‘Rescuing a ball, I think. I offered to help and got that lecture for my pains. And she said I was too fat.’

Nicholas leaned back, clearly enjoying himself.

‘Too fat? You?’

‘Well, too big to help on any but the lowest branches. I was still in my chivalrous phase, but it was wasted on her. I forgot to mention she used to go around in breeches, of all things. It was the strangest household. Her father was always upstairs in his study, writing abysmal poetry, and I think I saw him less than half a dozen times the whole time we lived in Mowbray. Her siblings were always either up to some mischief or following Alyssa about like a tribe of Indians. They were a law unto themselves.’

Nicholas frowned.

‘She didn’t look wild.’

‘Not wild, precisely. Despite the breeches and the tree-climbing she was trying very hard to turn her ramshackle tribe into a proper little brigade. She used to tutor them en masse out in the garden so they wouldn’t bother their father. She roped me into teaching them some Greek plays. It was very odd. The youngest one was seven, but they all sat there on the grass and drank in Antigone and Oedipus.’

‘Oh, no, Adam, not Oedipus!’

‘That’s what I thought, but she insisted. She said it was important they know the classics. I toned it down as much as I could. They were a good audience—the only ones who showed any interest in what I was studying. My parents certainly never did. The only reason they consented to my going up to Oxford instead of starting work with old Delacort’s estate agent right away was because I received a fellowship. That way I would be up there at Trinity earning old Delacort’s goodwill by making sure Ivor did enough not to get himself sent down. Anything to insinuate us further into the Delacort social fold. My mother always made it clear that the chief redeeming feature of becoming plain Mrs Alistair was the Delacort connection. She was the reason we came to live in Mowbray on old Delacort’s charity in the first place. She always hoped Timothy and Ivor would take at least one of my sisters off her hands, preferably both. Until I ruined everything, that is.’

‘Yes, your mother is a piece of work, all right. Now that I think about it, you haven’t said a word about your family since we returned to England. She should be delighted now that you’ve come into the title and estates, no?’

Adam picked up the bust of Heraclites from his desk and walked over to place him on the mantelpiece. He stood for a moment considering the morose face and his own reflection beyond it, then turned his back on both.

‘“Delighted” is a word I wouldn’t associate with my mother. Now that my sisters are eligibly married the benefit of my newly elevated status is minimal, certainly when balanced against my tarnished reputation. I think now that my father is dead she prefers to remain safely in Northumberland to bask in the borrowed glory of my sisters’ husbands. And thank goodness for that. I am very comfortable with the current arrangement where any communication between us is through my sisters.’

Nicholas shook his head.

‘I can see where you got your stubborn streak, man.’

Adam shrugged.

‘I spent two-thirds of my life doing just about everything she wanted and for one act of folly she demands that the only way to make amends is to erase myself from our family’s life and disappear. She didn’t even have the decency to write to me when Father died. She left that task to Sybil and Cammie. But that knife cuts both ways. I promised myself that was the last time I would do what was proper. I didn’t just erase myself from my family’s life. I erased who I was. So now I can do whatever I want and be accountable to no one.’

‘Well, you can certainly do almost anything you want. But I would argue against your being accountable to no one. You took pretty good care of me when I was sick in Punjab, for example.’

Adam smiled, relaxing.

‘I would have done the same for my horse. Besides, I was responsible for you, in a way. I never understood why you decided to come along. You should have stayed at Oxford, then gone home to Berkshire and married one of those pretty little ladies you were always rhapsodising about.’

‘There you have it in a nutshell. Unlike you, I always wanted to live an adventurous life and being a third son meant there wasn’t much for me to do back in Berkshire, lovely ladies or not. I knew an opportunity when I saw it. That’s not to say there weren’t days I would have much rather stayed safe at home and I won’t be going back to that particular village in Punjab in this lifetime, but all told, joining you was the best decision I’ve made. So, get this dilapidated old mausoleum into shape and let’s return to London, where we can continue to reap the fruits of our labour. As long as you don’t fall back in love with the mercenary Rowena now that we are in the neighbourhood. Is she very beautiful?’

Adam frowned in concentration.

‘I think so.’

‘You think so?’

‘It was a long time ago. I thought so at the time, but I can’t quite remember what she looked like.’

‘For heaven’s sake, Adam. This is the woman who broke your heart and you can’t quite remember what she looks like?’

‘I’m certain she had blue eyes. Everyone kept going on about cornflower orbs.’

‘Blast you, Adam, you’re about as romantic as a wet boot. How do you have such luck with women?’

Adam grinned.

‘Luck has nothing to do with it. But I will certainly continue to leave the romance to you, you old fraud.’

‘Well, I admit to being curious about the woman who was your Helen of Troy and catapulted you into battle, so to speak. She must be ten years married now, which is all for the best. Bored matrons are the easiest of prey. Imagine, Adam—if she had not been such a devious fortune hunter, you might even now be the proud owner of a brood of cornflower-eyed brats.’

‘Thank the heavens she was, then.’ Adam stretched lazily. ‘As much as I resented it at the time, Miss Drake was right—marrying Rowena would have been one version of hell. And getting my pride handed to me so brutally has been very useful. Life has been much more enjoyable since. Sometimes it amazes me to remember just how serious I used to be. And stupid. I honestly thought Rowena was the embodiment of all that was good and right in the world. Unbelievable. As you said yourself, it was the best thing that happened to me.’

‘Probably,’ Nicholas conceded. He glanced sideways at Adam. ‘Still, it is strange that you can’t even remember what this beauty looks like. Seems to me you remember this Miss Drake quite well.’

‘The Drake household was singularly unforgettable. It couldn’t have been any more different from mine. She was a wild little thing with big eyes and her hair in a ribbon, and a mind which would have done an Oxford don proud. The last thing I thought she would become was a pattern card of propriety. Still, the fact that she dared come here, and unchaperoned, shows there is still something of that wilful girl she hasn’t managed to tame.’

‘I still don’t quite understand why she came to you about her cousin and not to her father.’

‘She has an overactive sense of duty and her father has none at all. He is one of the most self-centred people I’ve ever encountered, which is saying a great deal. Unfortunately for her I also don’t have quite the same tribal loyalty. Percy is hardly my concern.’

‘So Miss Drake and her little heiress “go to it”?’

Adam’s eyes narrowed.

‘If you are reduced to quoting Shakespeare, I gather you disapprove,’ he stated, his tone flat. Nicholas shrugged.

‘Not at all. I’m just thinking you might. Disapprove, I mean. Remember I’ve known you since we were eight years old.’

Adam stood up and walked over to the window, staring down at the gardens below.

‘I don’t know what she expects me to do. It’s not as if I have any influence over Percy and I refuse to buy him off. I’ll never be rid of him if I do.’

‘That’s true. The only thing that would convince Percy would be cold hard gold or a wealthier heiress.’

Adam turned back towards Nicholas, his eyes narrowing. ‘You’re probably right,’ he said slowly.

‘I mistrust that look, Adam. Last time I saw it we almost ended up in an Indian jail.’

Adam laughed, his intent expression lightening.

‘Don’t complain. That look, as you call it, earned you a nice fortune.’

‘And I’m grateful. I just don’t want to see you get into any trouble.’

‘What possible trouble can I get into in Mowbray?’

Nicholas raised one brow quizzically. ‘Wasn’t the reason you had to leave England because of the trouble you got into in Mowbray? What if you fall back in love with the beautiful Rowena when you meet her again?’

‘Back in lust, you mean.’

Nicholas shook his head.

‘I don’t know how you became so cynical, Adam. You’re worse than I am.’

‘That bad? Miss Drake attributes it to Rowena taking the man out of me.’

Nicholas’s eyes opened wide. ‘She didn’t say that!’

‘She did. Straight for the jugular, or rather, below the belt. To be fair, she apologised.’

‘Well, that’s all right, then. My goodness, I wouldn’t mind meeting this peculiarity up close. So you’re really going to stay here for a while?’

Adam shrugged and nudged a crate of crumpled documents with his boot. ‘I have to spend a couple of weeks on the estate anyway. The place is a shambles. Apparently neither Timothy nor Ivor had any idea what they were doing, the poor fools. Someone needs to oversee the workmen getting this mausoleum into shape until Thorpe can take over and I can’t leave all the negotiations with the tenants to him, at least not initially.

‘Besides, I have an idea about Percy which just might provide us some entertainment while I am marooned here. Remember when we met with Derek and Ginnie in London? She said she missed her days on the stage now that she was a respectable wife and mother. Perhaps she might like to spend a few days visiting the famous Mowbray spa in the guise of a wealthy widow. She should have no trouble attracting Percy’s attention.’

Nicholas shook his head ruefully. ‘Ginnie would have no trouble attracting a blind man’s attention. She will love the idea and will no doubt talk Derek into approving it. He never could say no to her. Still, take care what you’re at, Adam,’ he cautioned, but Adam merely smiled.

‘For a rake, you’re a timid old lady sometimes, Nick. If you’re so worried, you can stay and keep an eye on me.’

‘London society is a bit thin during the summer months, so I just might linger for a while. And I’ll try not to cut you out with the beauty.’