Regency High Society Vol 3: Beloved Virago / Lord Trenchard's Choice / The Unruly Chaperon / Colonel Ancroft's Love

Whilst her companions dissolved into laughter, Katherine swung round in the chair to discover Daniel framed in the open doorway. ‘Oh, are you here?’ she remarked, totally unmoved by his unexpected appearance. ‘Well, you know what they say about eavesdroppers, don’t you, Daniel?’

‘I’ll give you eavesdroppers, you impertinent baggage!’ he threatened, though the unmistakable flicker of affection in his eyes didn’t go unnoticed by any one of those seated at the table.

Janet exchanged a swift glance with McGann before hurriedly rising to her feet. ‘Well, I haven’t time to sit about gossiping all day. I’ve the dinner to prepare.’

‘And I shall help,’ Katherine informed her, rising also and catching a look of distinct disapproval taking possession of Daniel’s features.

‘I cannot imagine why you’re glowering at me in that objectionable way,’ she told him, instantly proving to one and all that she wasn’t in the least in awe of the master of the house. ‘Janet cannot possibly be expected to manage everything, especially not with a guest staying here. And as I’m not completely useless in a kitchen, I see no earthly reason why I shouldn’t lend a hand. So if you’ll kindly remove yourself from under our feet, and take McGann with you, Janet and I shall make a start on dinner.’

Although muttering under his breath, Daniel departed as requested, and went into the large sitting-room, McGann, chuckling wickedly, at his heels. ‘It’s all very well for you to laugh,’ Daniel remonstrated, once he had the door firmly closed behind them, ‘but I’d sooner be asked to manage a company of raw recruits than be responsible for that unruly little madam!’

‘She’s a spirited little filly, and no mistake. But nothing you can’t handle, I’m thinking.’

Daniel refrained from comment, and merely invited his companion to take a seat before explaining precisely why Katherine was a guest in his house. ‘So you can now appreciate why I need you to make contact with Sir Giles Osborne without delay,’ he went on to say, once he had regaled his ex-sergeant with a reasonably detailed account of his recent exploits on the other side of the Channel. ‘With any luck you’ll find him at his country home in Hampshire. Unfortunately, with the very real possibility of renewed conflict with France, he might well be in the capital. In which case you must go on to London with the letter I’m about to write. You are to hand it to Sir Giles personally, McGann, and await further instructions. In no circumstances are you to leave it with a servant or a secretary.’

‘Understood, sir.’

By the time McGann was on the point of departure, Katherine had taken Janet into her confidence. Her explanation had taken somewhat longer, for she had found herself having to disclose the reason why a gently bred young woman should wish to embark on such a hazardous venture in the first place.

‘But do you not enjoy living in Bath, miss?’ Janet asked in some surprise, when Katherine had quite openly admitted that she had become increasingly dissatisfied with the life she had been leading in recent months. ‘I’ve never been there myself, but I’ve been told it’s an elegant place.’

‘It isn’t as fashionable as it once was,’ Katherine responded, raising her head in time to see Daniel’s trusted henchman riding out of the yard. ‘There’s no denying, though, that it’s a pleasant place to live, and one is never short of company.’ She shrugged. ‘I suppose though, Janet, I’m a country girl at heart. I spent the first sixteen years of my life in Ireland, living in a house not unlike this one. Then, after both my parents died, I came here to Dorsetshire to live with my grandfather, Colonel Fairchild.’

Janet only just succeeded retaining her grasp on the bowl she was holding. ‘You’re Colonel Fairchild’s granddaughter …? Then your mother must have been Miss Charlotte Fairchild.’

Fixing her short-sighted eyes on the figure busily working at the table, Janet scrutinised the delicate features. ‘Yes … yes, I can see the resemblance now. I remember your dear mother well, Miss Katherine. She were a lovely-looking young woman, with a nature to match.’

‘Yes.’ Katherine sighed. ‘I sometimes wish I were more like her in some ways. She was always so placid, so controlled, whereas I—’

‘Tend to be a little volatile on occasions, and act without thinking,’ Daniel finished for her, having entered the kitchen in time to catch the last fragments of conversation. ‘I’m pleased to see that you two are becoming better acquainted,’ he remarked, blithely ignoring the lethal darts emanating from a pair of turquoise-coloured eyes.

‘Yes, I’ve been hearing an account of your recent doings.’ Janet tutted, a clear indication that she did not wholeheartedly approve. ‘When are you going to stop all this gallivanting about, Master Daniel, and settle down? You ain’t a boy no longer. It’s high time you began to think about the future and take responsibility for this fine place of yours.’

‘I have every intention of doing precisely that,’ he assured her before turning to Katherine who was unable to judge whether he was truly in earnest. ‘Your explaining the situation to Janet has saved me the trouble of doing so. Much of what will happen next depends upon Sir Giles’s response to my letter. I’ve sent McGann off to Hampshire to apprise him of your arrival in England.’

Katherine nodded. ‘It’s highly likely that he will want me to travel to London. In the meantime, Janet,’ she added, turning to her, ‘it would seem that you will be forced to put up with my presence here.’

‘That’ll be no hardship at all, miss,’ she answered, and this time there was no doubting the sincerity of the assurance. ‘What bothers me is what I’m to call you.’

‘No need for you to trouble yourself unduly over that,’ Daniel put in, seating himself on the edge of the table, where Katherine was busily engaged in making pastry. ‘We shall put our heads together over dinner and work out some tale which will satisfy the curious. Until word gets about that I’m home, I doubt we’ll be plagued with many callers at the house. In the meantime, I would suggest you continue to call our guest Miss Katherine.’ His lips twitched very slightly. ‘But under no circumstances call her Kate. She only allows me to address her in such a fashion.’

Katherine’s look of exasperation only succeeded in making him chuckle. ‘Just because I became fagged to death requesting you not to do so, does not necessarily mean I now approve. My father always maintained that you could lead a mule to water, but you could never force it to drink.’

‘Horse,’ Daniel corrected.

‘Mule is more appropriate in this instance,’ she countered, which resulted in the kitchen resounding with the housekeeper’s appreciative chuckles.

‘Oh, I think I’m going to enjoy having you here, Miss Katherine!’ Janet declared, much to her master’s intense relief, for he knew better than most that his housekeeper did not take an immediate liking to everyone.

‘That might well be so, but I am going to deprive you of her company for the next half an hour or so by taking her on a guided tour of the house and gardens—if she would care to accompany me, that is?’

Seemingly Katherine didn’t need asking twice, and Janet, watching them leave, caught sight of them a moment later, walking side by side across the yard.

Moving across to the window, she continued to study their progress as they headed towards the gate leading to the garden in which her master’s grandmother had loved to work, and which was now sadly overgrown. But it could so easily be put to rights, she mused, a spark of hope igniting. The next few days would give her a clearer indication if her young master had been in earnest, and had made up his mind to settle down at last. Yet already she was forced to own that there had been a change in him. He seemed very relaxed and happy, something which he had not been for such a very long time. And there was that in his eyes when they rested upon that auburn-haired girl …

‘We’ll trust, Master Daniel, that word of your return doesn’t get about too quickly,’ she muttered, a worried frown dimming the hopeful glimmer in her eyes, ‘otherwise you might receive a visitor to the house I for one would certainly prefer not to see.’

Chapter Thirteen

Katherine found it no difficult matter to settle down to country life at Rosslair. In fact, she loved it, and within a very short time had established a routine whereby she would help Janet in the kitchen for part of the day and spend the afternoons, weather permitting, in the garden. Daniel might frown dourly whenever he saw her down on her knees, doing battle with a particularly troublesome weed, but even he was forced to concede, before his first week back home had drawn to a close, that there was a noticeable improvement to the look of the rose garden.

The master of the house always made a point of returning home to bear her company during mealtimes. Breakfast and luncheon were always eaten in the kitchen, where Janet would join them to make the occasions very enjoyable. Nevertheless Katherine always looked forward to the evening meal when she and Daniel ate alone together in the privacy of the large front parlour, which also functioned as a dining-room.

Undoubtedly the parlour was Katherine’s favourite room in the house. There was always a welcoming fire burning in the huge grate by which she and Daniel would sit together in the evenings, sometimes talking; sometimes in companionable silence: Daniel reading a book while she continued to make the new parlour curtains Daniel’s grandmother had begun more than a decade before, and which she and Janet had come upon quite by chance in one of the trunks in the attic, whilst they had been searching for garments suitable for Katherine to wear.

Having been forced to don the late Mrs Ross’s clothes was the one slight blot in what for Katherine had been a rewarding and very happy first week at Rosslair. The novelty of parading round in garments worn by ladies a quarter of a century before having swiftly dwindled, she longed to dress in her own fashionable clothes again. Unfortunately there had been no word from Sir Giles Osborne, and she had seen no sign of McGann either.

‘You don’t appear in the best of spirits this morning, sweetheart,’ Daniel remarked, after consuming a substantial pile of ham and eggs, and glancing up to catch Katherine’s pensive expression.’

‘Oh, I’m all right,’ she assured him, having no intention of burdening him with her rather insignificant concerns.

He had been very busy since their arrival at his home. Every day he had ridden out with his land manager, discussing ways to improve the yield from the vast acreage of farmland that Mr Prentiss had maintained well during his master’s long absence from home.

‘No, you’re not,’ Daniel countered, betraying that keen perception which Katherine sometimes found faintly unnerving. Increasingly she was beginning to suspect that she would never be able to keep anything secret from him, at least not for long.

‘Oh, very well,’ she relented. ‘If you must know, I’m not quite happy that we’ve received no word from Sir Giles.’

‘Ah! But we have,’ he surprised her by announcing. ‘McGann arrived back late last night, after you’d gone to bed. I’m to receive further instructions in due course. In the meantime, Sir Giles wants you to stay here and not attempt to journey to London.’

Katherine didn’t object to remaining at Rosslair in the least. If the truth were known, she was beginning to dread the thought of having to leave the place. There remained the problem, however, of her attire. ‘I do not suppose Sir Giles mentioned anything about forwarding my clothes, did he? I left a trunk full of them in his care for when I should arrive in the capital.’

‘Afraid not. And McGann certainly didn’t bring anything back with him, except Sir Giles’s letter.’

‘Oh, confound it!’

Daniel appeared mildly surprised by the unexpected show of annoyance, but Janet perfectly understood, and suggested that a trip to the local market town was all that was required.

‘You’re sure to find something suitable,’ Janet added. ‘At the very least you can purchase some lengths of material which we can make up into dresses.’

‘What’s wrong with what she’s wearing now?’ Daniel asked, displaying all the tact of the typical male who paid scant attention to fashionable female apparel. ‘I rather like her in those clothes. It’s a pleasure to see a female clad in garments that emphasise a trim waist. And in its proper place too!’

Katherine’s pained expression drew a chortle of laughter from Janet, a sound frequently heard reverberating round the kitchen in recent days. ‘You might like them, but I happen to prefer the prevailing mode,’ she countered. ‘How can I possibly continue to go about looking like a leftover from the last century?’

Daniel’s winning smile swiftly crushed her slight feeling of pique. ‘All right, sweetheart. I’ll take you into town in the gig. We can stop on the way at Lord Kil-bride’s residence. Prentiss told me yesterday that Kil-bride’s eldest son is being forced to sell his light travelling carriage and a pair of horses in order to pay gaming debts. We’ve not had a decent carriage here since I parted with Grandmother’s aged landau some years ago. You pop upstairs and put on a cloak and bonnet, whilst I hitch up the horse to the gig.’

Katherine didn’t need telling twice. Hurriedly finishing off the last mouthful of buttered roll, she hurried up the stairs to don the wide-brimmed straw bonnet that she had worn during the afternoons when working in the garden, and collect the rough woollen cloak that Daniel had purchased for her in France. Then she returned speedily to the kitchen to discover only Janet there, busily clearing away the breakfast dishes.

‘I’ll give you a hand until Daniel is ready to leave,’ Katherine offered, and was a little surprised not to receive one of the housekeeper’s grateful smiles in response.