In the Lion’s Den: The House of Falconer

Lord Reginald inclined his head. ‘Consider the offer always there, Falconer. You see, I like the cut of your jib.’

At this moment, Lady Jane came into the library, her face calmer and her eyes smiling again. ‘Mrs Bellamy is doing her best to pack the hamper quickly—’

Jane broke off as Alexis followed her into the room, holding an envelope.

James was already on his feet, as was Lord Reggie.

‘Here is the response to my father’s letter, Falconer,’ Alexis said, her voice not quite as strident as earlier, but her tone still cool.

James took it from her, and inclined his head. ‘Thank you, Miss Malvern. I shall be going now.’

Alexis simply nodded, and walked to the other side of the library, where she stood looking out of the window.

Lady Jane glanced at her husband then said, ‘Come along, Mr Falconer. I will take you to the stables round the back of the house, where your carriage is waiting.’

‘Thank you, Lady Carpenter,’ James replied with a smile. ‘And thank you also for your kind hospitality earlier.’

As the two of them walked towards the door, Lord Reginald said, ‘Wait for me, I’m coming with you.’

The three of them walked to the stable block in silence. It was only when they entered the cobbled yard that Lady Jane spoke. ‘I’m so sorry that Miss Malvern seems out of sorts …’ She let her voice trail off, not wishing to make apologies for her hostess, who had behaved badly.

Lord Reginald shook James’s hand before he stepped up into the waiting carriage. ‘Good to see you again, Falconer. Remember what I said.’

‘Thank you, sir. I won’t forget.’

Jane and Reginald, watching the carriage roll out of the yard, then finally turned and looked at each other as it went out of the gates.

It was Jane who spoke first. ‘You like Falconer. You offered him a job, didn’t you?’

‘As good as. Told him to come and talk to me if he tires of Malvern’s. I think he’s first rate, Jane. His self-control, his confidence, his impeccable manners are everything I need in my executives, wonderful qualities. Don’t you agree?’

‘I do indeed. He’s a very nice young man. Rather exceptional, in my opinion.’

‘Damned right he is, and I can’t believe how rude Alexis was to him. She was awful. I hope she doesn’t behave like that at the Malvern Company.’

‘You seem to have forgotten she doesn’t go to work there any more,’ said Jane with a laugh. ‘I fully believe James Falconer runs the company, and that he’s Henry’s right-hand man.’

‘Then she’s a fool, not going to attend to her business … the one she’ll inherit one day. However, would any woman truly be able to run such a company, with several different divisions?’

Jane shook her head. ‘I don’t know. She was very involved in it before she became engaged to Sebastian. And I do think she’s getting worse, more introspective … she seems to be hiding down here, and she’s still focused on Sebastian. Sadly.’

‘As I said, we must find a way to shock her into thinking of her future, get her to move on, unless you believe she should return to Vienna to see Dr Freud.’

‘I don’t think that would help. We must come up with something … important to her … something that might be at risk,’ Jane said.

Lord Reggie came to a stop and turned to his wife to face her. ‘I don’t know what that could be, but I’ll do some hard thinking. Right now, I’d like to go back to the house and up to the nursery. I haven’t seen my heirs since breakfast.’

Jane smiled at him, her face suddenly radiant. ‘This is the perfect time. They’ll have had their afternoon nap, and be ready to smile and gurgle at you, and happily kick their legs in the air.’

Laughing, suddenly feeling much more cheerful, Reggie took hold of Jane’s hand. Together they walked back inside, happily silent, and went up to the nursery to see their twin sons, Sebastian and Keir, whom Reggie often referred to as his ‘little miracles’.

It was during supper, later that night, that Lord Reginald had a brainwave.

Claudia and her husband, Cornelius Glendenning, known as Connie to his friends, had arrived just in time for supper. Halfway through the main course, Claudia made a reference to a fact Reggie had forgotten.

She was explaining to her husband that her father had loved this house, and had built part of it himself. Like everyone else who heard this, Connie was taken by surprise.

‘I can’t imagine Sebastian on a ladder with a hammer or a paintbrush. He was far too elegant,’ Connie said. ‘Mind you he was full of surprises, often doing the unexpected.’

As Reggie listened to this brief discussion between Sebastian’s eldest daughter and her husband about Goldenhurst, the relaxed farmhouse that Sebastian had loved so much, it came to him. Reggie suddenly knew what to do, what would shock Alexis to the core. But not yet. The timing had to be right.

He felt himself relaxing, some of the tension of earlier dissipating. Both he and Jane worried about Alexis. What troubled them most was this change in her personality. Once full of charm, she was now often cantankerous.

That had certainly risen to the surface with Falconer. Perhaps it wasn’t hatred for him at all. Two sides to a coin, his grandmother Carpenter often said, pointing out that love and hate went together.

The thought lingered in Reggie’s head all through supper, knowing Alexis the way he did. If she was attracted to Falconer, she would also feel guilty because she had loved Sebastian so much. But Sebastian had now been dead for over a year, and he of all people would have wanted her to start a new life.

We shall see, we shall see, Reggie thought as he sipped the red wine, one of Sebastian’s best. The first thing was to see if Alexis would give up this self-imposed isolation from society and immersion in her grief. It might have suited Queen Victoria, but it was quite the wrong course for a woman like Alexis.

SEVEN (#ulink_debf75c8-72d2-5084-a516-25496ba965a6)

‘Well, that’s that,’ Henry Malvern said, looking across at James. ‘She’s not coming back.’ He held the letter in his hand for a moment longer and then threw it in the grate.

The two men were sitting in front of a blazing fire in the library of Henry Malvern’s house early on Saturday evening. The roads from Kent had been empty and Bolland had made it in excellent time.

It was James who broke the silence when he said, ‘Does she mean never? Or maybe in a few months?’

‘The latter, as ever,’ Henry responded quietly, and then shook his head. ‘But I’m beginning to think she will never come back … that she’s stringing me along. How say you, Falconer?’

‘It’s hard to answer that question, sir. Deep down inside, I believe she will realize she has a responsibility to you. And I know she thinks of Malvern’s as her company. Also, I have a feeling she might eventually get bored sitting in the depths of the Kentish countryside. And as the months pass she might start looking to the future, finally leaving the grief behind.’

‘I hope so, for her sake. What kind of life is it, longing for a dead man?’ He sighed deeply. ‘I thought she had started to recover after her spell in Vienna, that when she visited France with you on my behalf she was ready to return to the company. No one expected her to vanish again. When I wrote today, urgently needing her approval on the Hull plans and her signature, I thought I’d told her enough about the plans for the future, the things we were doing in order to encourage her, to excite her, to push her into coming back … but apparently not.’ Throwing James another questioning glance, he asked, ‘How was Alexis anyway? Did she look well? Was she dowdy or glamorous? Was she alone or did she have guests?’

‘Yes, she did have guests, Mr Malvern. Lord and Lady Carpenter were there and she was expecting Mr and Mrs Glendenning. She didn’t look dowdy, but she certainly wasn’t what I’d call glamorous in her appearance. She had been riding and was dressed in the appropriate habit, still in mourning colours, of course. However, she appeared to be well …’ James paused for a moment, wondering how truthful to be. He decided he was going to tell Mr Malvern exactly what happened.

James announced, ‘I’m afraid she wasn’t particularly happy to see me. She was a bit rude, actually. I let it float over my head, so to speak, and gave her your letter. I waited for her reply and she was glad to see the back of me, I do know that, sir.’

‘I’m sorry she was rude, Falconer. You didn’t deserve such treatment, since you were there at my request. But I’ve noticed those angry moods when she has been here in London. Not like her at all … not as she used to be, I mean.’

‘It’s surprising to me she wasn’t excited about the idea of a new arcade in Hull,’ James volunteered. ‘Building something is always a great venture, even an adventure. I can’t wait for next year, when we start the construction.’

‘Once we’ve found the site,’ Henry reminded him. ‘I hope we’re ready for the trip up there next week, since your cousin William now has a few good sites for us to view.’

‘I’ll write to him, sir, and tell him to expect us next Tuesday or Wednesday. Which day do you prefer?’

‘Tuesday, and if we have to stay on we will, and come back later in the week.’ Henry sighed again and sadness slipped into his eyes. After a moment or two staring into the fire, he said, ‘If Alexis doesn’t want the company, doesn’t want to come and supervise the running of it, even while we’re in Hull, if she can’t do that herself …’ He stopped, seemed to choke up. But he shrugged and finished, ‘I suppose I should think of selling it.’

‘Don’t sell it, Mr Malvern. I feel certain Alexis will come to her senses, be back here sooner than you believe.’