She swallowed, dragging her gaze free. “How are the Robinovs? Is Carla better? What has happened to Kenneth over the thefts?”
“They are well and spent Christmas with me at Cotley Hall. Carla is almost back to normal, and Dorothea is looking for a place to settle while the legal matters of her inheritance are completed. Lacey seems to have given up on Kenneth. I believe he is off the hook.”
“Why?”
“Because, upon Lacey’s inquiries, other, very similar thefts came to light, from before the Robinovs were even in the country. And they do indeed follow the Marshalls. I told him about our dealings with them, and I believe he wrote to the magistrates here. Alvan will be aware of that.”
“And the Marshalls are quite oblivious to this small army closing around them?”
“I believe they are.”
“Poor Anne,” Helen said ruefully. “I wonder what will become of her?”
“I suspect in the end, she will make a match of it with Kenneth. But they are too young, and Kenneth’s patrimony in Russia too unsettled to support them just yet.”
“She is very fond of children,” Helen observed. “And somehow, she has acquired a decent education. Despite her youth, she would make an excellent governess. I never asked if Lady Overton had replaced me yet?”
“I believe she has not.”
They lapsed into silence once more. A few birds sang their pleasant evening songs as the sun grew lower in the sky. The woods lent a dangerous sense of isolation, a feeling that the rest of the world did not touch her here.
He said conversationally, “We—Dorothea and I—have let it be known that we are not engaged to be married.”
She could not resist a quick glance at him. “You have to stop betrothing yourself to people to help them out of scrapes.”
He held her gaze. “You make it sound like a habit. I only ever did it once, and you may recall, it was not my idea.”
“But the idea was firmly in your head. You promised Mr. Robinov. You were about to go to Russia for her.”
He sighed. “In winter, in wartime, I know. Do you want the truth, Helen? I was bored. Weary of my life in England. I grasped onto Russia as an excuse to do something reckless and dangerous as well as useful. To shake off this…malaise of ennui and tedium. That was my state of mind, the reason I was so unforgivably grumpy and rude at the Hart when you first walked into my life.”
“I know.”
He stopped, turning to face her. “And then there was you, challenging my every word, making me laugh, forcing my interest, intriguing me. I didn’t need adventure. I needed a friend.”
Butterflies were jumping in her stomach as he took her hand.
“Are we friends, Helen?” he asked softly.
“Of course, we are.” Since the world seemed to be standing still again, she searched his intense eyes for his true feelings, for something more than friendship. She took a breath. “When we last met, I did not intend to be rude or hurtful. But I do not believe friendship is reason enough for marriage.”
“But it is the beginning. The foundation of a successful union.”
“That sounds very staid,” she offered.
“Ah, that must be where the love comes in,” he said with mock understanding. “To quicken the heart and raise a mere friendship, however staid, to the dizzying heights of passion and delight.”
She flushed and tried to tug her hand free. “You are making fun of me.” In truth, that wasn’t what disturbed her. It was his talk of passion and delight.
Smiling, he held on to her hand, turning it to press a kiss into her palm. Even through her glove, her skin burned. And somehow, his thumb had slipped under the cuff of her glove, idly caressing her wrist. A sweet, dizzying awareness took her by surprise.
And then he placed her hand in his arm and walked on.
It was never my own love I questioned! She wanted to shout the words at him, but they stuck in her throat, along with fear of losing this moment. God help her, she had begun to hope again.
For the rest of the walk back to Ingolby, they talked intermittently of unimportant things. At least they seemed unimportant compared to the turmoil in her heart. But by the time they parted, she knew rather more about his home, his family, and the state of the land he had brought back to prosperity. She learned a little about his childhood, much of which was spent in France, since his mother was French, and about his most recent adventure to rescue his injured brother.
“In comparison, my life must seem very dull,” she observed.
“I don’t see how, when you are not,” he said unexpectedly. “That is what I have learned from you. One doesn’t need to travel the world or brave war-torn countries to give meaning and adventure to one’s life. There is adventure just in getting to know another person, meaning in small acts of kindness and understanding.”
She considered that somewhat doubtfully, for it was a novel way of looking at her life. But she liked that he had said it.
“Perhaps there is a place for both,” she allowed. “For I would like to see some more of the world one day.”
“I hope you will,” he said mildly. “In the meantime, our adventure is catching the Marshalls in their crimes.”
He left her civilly and quite properly at the Carlukes’ gate, tipping his hat and murmuring that he would see her at Mooreton Hall on Friday. As he walked away, she could not help pausing to watch him. Her hand crept over her heart, as though trying to calm it, for he was right. There did seem to be a massive adventure just in spending an hour with him.
Chapter Twenty
Mooreton Hall, as one would have expected, was a huge, palatial house. From a massive great hall, decorated with potted plants and trailing greenery, a magnificent stone staircase swept upward to rows of galleries. Helen trailed after Mr. and Mrs. Carluke with Sarah and Sophia dangling from either hand, through the great hall to another passage and another broad staircase. They climbed two flights of stairs, then followed a twisting passage to a suite of connecting rooms. Two of the chambers could be entered separately from the corridor. Baby Selina had a cot in her parents’ chamber, and her sisters shared a little dressing room between there and Helen’s chamber.
Although the furniture and the decorations were old, everything was comfortable and clean. It would, she thought, be a fascinating house to spend some time exploring. The duchess looked in to make sure they were comfortable, bringing George with her to take the Carluke girls to tea with the other children.
Helen went with them to the nursery, and on the way, George surreptitiously pointed out the door of the Marshalls’ room.
“Close to the corner,” he murmured with a grin. “So easy to hide while we’re watching it!”
At the children’s tea party, Helen was delighted to see Eliza happy in the company of her twin and her friend Jane Verne, all of whom greeted Helen with almost embarrassing enthusiasm. She introduced Sarah and Sophia, who sat beside them, and Eliza made it her business to look after the younger girls. Helen’s duties were hardly arduous, but if she had hoped to hide among the children until their bedtime, she was quickly disappointed.
She was expected to dine with the other guests before the main festivities began. And there, for the first time, she glimpsed Lord and Lady Overton, and some distance down the table from them, Philip and Phoebe Marshall. Fortunately, there were so many guests at dinner, they could all at least pretend not to see each other.