His Lordship's Desire

Lady Standish’s face became serious. “The estate has been solely in the hands of our estate manager for a year now, and I think it is time that someone oversees what he is doing. He tells me the cottages by the river need reroofing, but I do not like to authorize such an expenditure without your approval. There are several other things that need doing. It was time for you to come home, Alex.”

Alex thought that his mother, who had been living at Standish Court all the while that he was away, should know more about the necessity of reroofing the cottages than he did, but he didn’t say so. He merely nodded and took another sip of tea.

“We can also use your help in another area,” Lady Standish said. “I am bringing out your sister this season, and Louisa’s daughter, Diana, is to make her come-out with Sally.” Sally was the family’s pet name for Lady Sarah, Alex’s eldest sister. “It will be much more pleasant for us to have a gentleman to escort us than to have to go places by ourselves.”

Alex put his cup on the table closest to him. “Dee is twenty,” he said. “Hasn’t she already made a come-out?”

“Well, she has been ‘out’ in the neighborhood, certainly. And she has had her share of proposals. But she’s refused them all, so I said that when I took Sally to London, Diana could come along.”

“An incredibly generous offer that we deeply appreciate,” Mrs. Sherwood said softly.

Lady Standish patted her cousin’s hand. “I have never forgotten how kind Diana was to Sally the year that she was so ill. And I will be very happy to have your company.”

The two women smiled mistily at each other.

“So you are taking both Dee and Sally to London for the Season,” Alex said. “Is this a husband-hunting expedition?” His voice was a little tense.

“Of course it is,” Lady Standish returned. “That’s the whole reason for any young girl to make a come-out.”

At this point, the door to the Yellow Drawing Room opened and a beautiful girl with coppery-gold curls and wearing a well-used riding habit came into the room. Alex’s breath caught.

“I am sorry to have to tell you this, Cousin Amelia, but Maria fell off her pony and I’m afraid she may have broken her collarbone. She is asking for you. Will you come?”

Lady Standish got immediately to her feet. “Of course I will come. What happened?”

“A deer darted out on the trail and spooked Candy. Maria fell off. I am terribly sorry, Cousin Amelia. It all happened so quickly that there was nothing we could do.”

“Have you sent for the doctor?” Lady Standish asked as she made for the door.

“Yes. I sent one of the grooms from the stable.”

“Oh dear!” Lady Standish moaned. “What is it about that child that she is always in trouble?”

The door closed behind her.

Alex, who had stood up as soon as Diana entered, now said, “Hello, Dee. It’s good to see you again.”

The girl’s dark brown eyes turned to him. Something flashed in their brilliant depths and then was gone. Her hand touched the back of the sofa. “Hello, Alex,” she said. There was a pause. “Or should I call you ‘your lordship’?”

He felt himself flush. “I will always be Alex to you. You know that.”

She raised a perfect winged brow. “Do I?”

He felt his breathing coming faster than usual. She had been beautiful at seventeen, but now, at twenty…“You should,” he managed to say firmly.

She shrugged, a lissome movement of her slender shoulders. “It’s good you’ve finally come home. Your mother has need of you. Standish Court is an enormous estate. You have responsibilities here.”

The brown eyes that were looking at him were cold. He was not accustomed to having Diana look at him like that, and he set his mouth and said quietly, “I realize that. That’s why I have come.”

“The war is over anyway, is it not?” she said.

“Yes. The allies are ready to enter Paris, and Napoleon will be forced to sign an Act of Abdication one of these days.”

Dismissing him from her attention, Diana turned to her mother. “I think I will go back to the stables and check on Candy, Mama. She didn’t seem to take any harm, but I want to make sure.”

“I’ll go with you,” Alex said quickly. “I’d like to see what horses you have. Monty is still here, isn’t he?”

“Of course. In fact, I have been riding him, so he is in excellent condition.”

He turned to Mrs. Sherwood. “Will you excuse us, ma’am?”

She looked from him to her daughter then back again to him. “Of course,” she said after the briefest of pauses. “When you are done, return to our house, Diana. I want to finish fitting that new dress of yours.”

“All right, Mama,” Diana said, and the two young people went out the door.

They didn’t speak as they went down the stairs and through the back hall to the door that was closest to the stables. The garden was still mostly bare from the winter and the great fountain with nymphs and cherubs was dry as well. The footpath to the stable led through the garden and down a grassy hill. At the bottom of the hill stood the brick stable building and the stable yard, which was surrounded by a stone wall. In the distance were the fenced-in pad-docks where two horses were turned out.

As they passed under the stable arch, Alex finally broke the silence. “I wrote to you many times, but you never once wrote back. Not once, in all those years.”

She raised her chin and kept walking. “Did you expect me to? You made your choice, Alex. I said it was either the army or me and you chose the army. It wasn’t I who ended things between us, it was you.”

He put a hand on her arm, forcing her to stop and face him. “You told me to go.”

“It was so obvious that you wanted to go, Alex. I just said the words you wanted to hear. But I never said that I would wait for you.”

“But you haven’t married,” he said.

She shrugged, a typical Diana gesture. “There is no one around here that I want to marry. But I am going to make my come-out with Sally next month and, hopefully, we will both find suitable husbands in London.”

He looked down at her. He was two inches over six feet tall and the top of her head reached only to his nose.

He tightened his grip on her arm. “I thought about you all the time I was away. I missed you, Dee. I told you that in my letters.”

“I never read them,” she said, and pulled away from him and continued on into the stable yard. A tall, broad-shouldered man in his thirties was holding a horse in front of the stable, and his face broke into a huge grin when he saw Alex. “My lord,” he said. “You’re home!”

Alex forced a smile and went over to Standish Court’s head groom. “Yes, Henley, I’m home to stay. How are you? You look well.”

“I am very good, thank you, your lordship. We were all that worried about you when we heard you was wounded!”

“It was nothing,” Alex said. “It healed very quickly. Miss Sherwood has come to check on the pony that threw my sister and I have come to have a look at the horses.”

Henley called to a young boy to come and take the horse he was holding. “Monty is in fine fettle,” he said. “Miss Diana has been keeping him fit for you.”

“Why don’t you show his lordship around the stable and I will take a look at Candy,” Diana said.

“Fine!” Henley said enthusiastically.

Alex glanced at Diana but she was not looking at him. After a moment he moved off with Henley.