The Cinderella Countess

For a moment he looked at Cecelia and wondered when it was his mother had changed from a gentle parent into this one? The death of his father, he supposed. It could not have been easy for a woman who would listen so carefully to gossip.

‘Perhaps returning to Balmain would be a good thing for you? Lucy’s sickness has not been easy for any of us.’

‘You cannot think I might leave her? My God, she is still at death’s door.’

‘I think we both know that is not true. She is eating again and her countenance is rosier. Certainly, we have passed the point of no return and Miss Smith has done wonders for her.’

‘Wonders?’ The word was whispered. ‘It is witchcraft she has employed and who knows how long such things truly last?’

‘Being grateful might bolster hope, Mama. Miss Smith is a woman who is an accomplished healer and there is no more to it than that.’

‘She knows things.’

‘Pardon?’ Lytton looked up.

‘Lucy says that she can read her mind and find out exactly what she is thinking. She says it is unsettling.’

‘Yet she still wishes to meet her. She told me so this morning, so it cannot be too uncomfortable.’

‘Your father would not have allowed it. Such a one in the house. He would have told her to leave the moment she tried to inveigle herself in to our family affairs and sent her packing back to Whitechapel where she belongs.’

‘He is dead, Mama. And has been for a good year and a half.’

‘Someone shot him. Someone broke into Balmain and shot him. I know it.’

For a second horror slid down the back of his neck. His mother was going mad and he had not noticed. How long had she been like this? He had been so busy trying to save the estate he had given his mother’s mental state little thought but Lucy must have known as well as David and Prudence. No wonder his oldest sister had disappeared off abroad and his brother was playing up at school.

A tumbling house of cards, he ruminated, and walked across to Cecelia, taking her hand as he led her to a seat by the window.

‘I want you to go back to the country. I will bring Lucy up in a week or two and spend some weeks there as well. You need to rest, for this has all been more than trying for you.’

Unexpectedly his mother nodded. ‘Perhaps you are right. I could garden and tend to my flowers and walk a little. The glade is always beautiful at this time of the year. When Lucy returns we can follow quiet pursuits.’

Patting her hand, he was glad as she calmed. ‘The carriage will be readied in the early afternoon and the family physician will accompany you just to be certain. Everything will be arranged so that you will not have to worry again and your great friend Isabel will be thrilled to have you back.’

After his mother had gone Lytton did another hour’s work to see to all the details of her journey before picking up the book and wandering into Lucy’s room. He found her up in an armchair that was slanted towards the sun. She wore a thick nightdress tied at the waist and her feet were bare.

‘It is fine to see you up again.’

Her smile brightened when she noticed him and brightened further when she glanced at the book he was carrying. ‘Mama took it away.’

He handed it back to her. ‘The stuff of treason, she thinks.’

‘What do you think?’

‘I have not read it, but there are movements afoot to cast more light on the inequalities of women. A lot of it makes sense.’

She undid the blue ribbons and found a dog ear on the top of one page.

‘Listen to this.’

With exaggerated care she read a few pages to him, her voice trembling with the tale of the woman she spoke of. When she had finished she placed the opened book on her breast and looked over at him.

‘It is saying that women need to have their own opinions and they are just as valuable as any a man might have. The story is a sad one and one of deceit and lies as the heroine and her friend try to come to terms with their life in a madhouse. Miss Smith says she wants to hear my opinion on the trials of women when I see her next.’

‘Well, it seems that you certainly hold one. Do you like Miss Smith?’

‘I think at first she frightened me. But she is strong. She does not take nonsense easily.’

‘Nonsense like witchcraft?’

‘You have been speaking with Mama? I made the mistake of telling her that perhaps Miss Smith was a witch when I first saw her and she took up this thought and would not stop speaking of it. I didn’t realise how much anger she suddenly seems to be full of, though Prudence had warned me of it before she left.’ She hesitated for a moment and then continued. ‘I was wondering if I could ask Miss Smith to stay for morning tea when she comes. I know how busy she is, but the cook could make her famous scones and we have the raspberry jam from last year’s crop at Balmain.’

‘Of course. I won’t need the carriage so she can be taken home in it afterwards.’

‘Will you be here to join us?’

Lytton shrugged his shoulders. ‘I have a meeting in the city which is important.’

‘But if you can be here, would you?’

‘I will try.’

* * *

In the afternoon Lytton visited the Thornton family banker and was reassured by the state of the finances. He knew the numbers himself, of course, but since attaining the Earldom he had been very careful to check every detail of his investments. He did not trust anyone.

He had a family to look after, thousands of acres of land to tend, servants and workers to provide for. The days of being careless were over, he had accepted that on the death of his father.

The keeping of a mistress was a lot less persuasive than it had once been as well. Susan Castleton had sent him copious notes trying to win back his favours, but he had replied to none of them.

He had heard from Edward how his name had been slandered by her in society, but that was the least of his worries. After the weeks of his sister being so sick, to have a glimmer of light in the future was gratifying and he did owe it to the unusual Miss Annabelle Smith.

Her vibrant blue eyes watched him in memory and for just a second he wondered what it would be like to have her beneath him tumbling into his bed.

The shock of that brought him to a standstill. There was no way in the world that he could enjoy her like that. The next woman he bedded would have to be his wife and she would need credentials and breeding that were incomparable to become a countess.

Still, the vision of Annabelle Smith naked with her dark curtain of hair falling around them was hard to shake off. Was she a virgin? Had she any experience with the pleasures of the flesh? God, even that thought had him hardening, here in the street with the daylight of London all about him and myriad shoppers walking past.

He could teach her everything he knew, every nuance of desire.

‘Thorn.’ The voice came through a haze and he turned to find Summerley Shayborne crossing the street to reach him.

‘You look preoccupied.’

He smiled. ‘I’ve just come from the bank.’

‘Good news?’ Shay knew of the trouble he’d been in last year with the estate when things had been turned upside down.