An Affair Downstairs Read online

  “It’s a shame that Mr. Winthrop isn’t here to see it. I believe he would be very pleased.”

  “He would.” Gabriel nodded. “He worked very hard to restore the house to habitable condition, and I’m grateful to him. Some repair and maintenance remains, but it’s nearly ready. I’ll be back in time for dinner.”

  “The long ride has made me so sleepy.” Sophia yawned and stretched. “I’m going to have a nap. Alice, you should try to sleep, too. You must be exhausted.”

  “I’m strangely enervated. I think I’ll go for a walk.”

  Alice needed time to reflect. She didn’t even mind that the temperature had dropped. Being on her own in the cool air boosted her spirits. No Lord Ralston waiting for her. She was free! She spun in a circle on the grass and laughed.

  And what would she do with her freedom? She felt obligated to put it to good use. Hadn’t Logan told her that she reminded him of all the life he had yet to live? What of her own plans, her own life? She had a whole list of things she meant to accomplish, but she’d given up on her first chance to learn to shoot. No time like the present. There was no reason to put anything off.

  She headed right for the storage shed and asked Patrick, the first groundskeeper she came across, to help continue teaching her to learn to shoot. She meant to do things properly, the way Logan would have taught her. If she was to consider herself a modern woman, she could hardly be reliant on servants for all things. Times were changing, as Logan had rightly observed. She would learn to do for herself.

  They stayed out until dusk. First, she learned to name all the parts of the rifle and their functions. Next, Patrick showed her how to clean and load her weapon. It would take a little more practice, but she was surprised at how quickly she’d learned. By the end of the day, before the sun began to set, she’d actually had a chance to shoot at targets. And she’d hit one dead center.

  “Thank you, Patrick, for taking the time with me. You’re a wonderful teacher.”

  “It helps to have an attentive student.” He bowed to her. “Good evening, Lady Alice.”

  She felt an overwhelming sense of pride and accomplishment as she returned to the Dower House to prepare for dinner. She could put a check next to another of the goals on her list. Strangely, though, it didn’t seem quite as satisfying without someone there to share her triumph. Patrick had been a good teacher, but learning from Logan would have been so much better. He had his special way of laughing with her, teasing her, and encouraging her at once.

  Would she find herself in an exotic locale, ready to turn to a partner and share an observation, only to realize that she was alone with no one to care? If she saw all the wonders of the world but had no one to discuss them with, would it be as if she’d never seen them at all?

  She sighed. She didn’t want just anyone along on her adventures. She wanted Logan. She missed him. There was no doubt that he loved her, and she him. Making love with him had been her most amazing adventure so far, and she didn’t think it would be that way with just anyone. She didn’t want to make love with anyone else. Her body longed for Logan’s touch, and her heart was in full agreement. It meant having to admit that she’d been wrong all along. She wanted to marry. In fact, she’d felt more freedom in Logan’s arms than she had ever felt on her own. Needing Logan didn’t make her any less of a woman. He was part of what made her the woman she was, a part of her. How could she ever have thought that she could live without him?

  She wished she’d never left him, but she had to rid herself of any obligation to Lord Ralston. Then she could return to Logan and tell him how much she needed him. Her happiness had been in her own hands all along. Perhaps Logan’s as well. Now more than ever, she was convinced that Ralston had been drugging her. But with what powerful stuff to have had such an effect on her? She would find out for certain, and she would have her revenge.

  “I’m sorry they found you so quickly, my dear.” Agatha embraced her upon her return. “I tried to throw Sophia off your trail, but she would not be deterred. I think she had you all figured out from the start.”

  “You did your best, Aunt Agatha. Admittedly, Sophia would have been an idiot to believe I’d gone anywhere else. It’s good to see that she has some sense to be relied upon.”

  “Did you have time to talk, at least? Did you do what you set out to do?”

  “I did. I wish we’d had more time, but perhaps another day.”

  “He’ll come back for you. Romance is in the air. I can feel it.” Agatha held her hands up in the air as if commanding the winds to blow romance into the room.

  “Are you sure it’s not simply that Miss Puss has got into your perfume again?” Alice teased her aunt.

  “You’ll see,” Agatha waved a finger. “Fate has a grand surprise in store for you. You can always count on fate.”

  “The only thing I can count on is that we’re going to be late for dinner if I don’t get in the bath.”

  ***

  Later that night at Thornbrook Park, Alice discovered that fate’s grand surprise was perhaps only a cruel trick on her, the early reappearance of Lord Ralston.

  “Darling.” He took her hands in his as soon as she entered the drawing room. “My love. You’re looking well. How do you feel?”

  “I feel much like myself.” She pulled her hands back. “Completely restored.”

  “I had to rush back. I’ve been too long without you. You gave us quite a scare. Didn’t she, Sophia?”

  “Yes.” Sophia stopped gazing at her own portrait long enough to respond. “We were overcome with worry. For a time, it seemed that you would never be yourself again, Alice. And here you are back to us.”

  Sophia had commissioned a portrait for over the central fireplace, one to replace the painting of Gabriel’s mother, the Dowager Countess, that Sophia had never liked. It was Sophia posed as the goddess Aphrodite, a suggestion of Gabriel’s brother one night after dinner. Eve and Marcus had shared a laugh at the idea, as if there were a private joke, but Sophia had embraced the notion. She’d been posing for it all summer, and just over a month ago, it was finally finished and hung up. The Dowager Countess had been put into storage.

  “If only it could have been the real one packaged up and put away,” Sophia had commented on the occasion.

  “She’s in Italy, far enough away that she shouldn’t bother you.” Alice didn’t see that Sophia had any cause for concern. Rumor had it that the previous Lady Averford was involved in a tempestuous affair with an Italian count, which meant that she wasn’t rushing home any time soon. “You’re the mistress of your own house.”

  “About time.” Sophia had folded her arms over her chest, only looking away from her own portrait once Gabriel walked into the room. She’d waited all day for him to notice. He’d had the nerve to not even realize there had been a substitution until long after dinner, when Eve Thorne had begun to admire it. Ah, Alice remembered now. That was what had occasioned the gift of the diamond cuff, Gabriel’s ignorance of his wife’s new portrait.

  “Yes, I really am quite well,” Alice said, about to add that she would like to speak to Lord Ralston privately, no time like the present. Except that before she could speak, she was interrupted.

  “This calls for champagne!” Ralston cheered. “Finch! Finch, my good man, pop open a few bottles from the case I brought.”

  “You know which to open, Finch. Stick with ours. You brought a case?” Gabriel responded immediately, surprising Alice. Perhaps he, too, had finally begun to realize they’d let a fox into the henhouse. “No need for that, Ralston. We’ve plenty of champagne.”

  “Consider it a gift. I’m very particular in my tastes.”

  “If by particular you mean wanting, I completely understand.” Gabriel adjusted his cuffs, giving the appearance of remaining calm. But Alice noticed the golden licks of flame dancing in his dark brown eyes. “You can’t get better champagne than I have in my cellar. I bought the last of it before even Bertie himself could snap it all up.”r />
  “Champagne fit for the king? I suppose I’m not that particular. We’ll go with yours. I’ll make a present of mine to my aunt and uncle. They’ll be delighted with it. My apologies, Averford.”

  Gabriel nodded coolly. Alice hadn’t seen him look so dangerous since his brother’s reappearance at Thornbrook Park during the previous year. There was definitely some unspoken war being waged between the men. Alice’s evening suddenly became more interesting. She wondered if it had something to do with Ralston’s departure for Holcomb House during Sophia’s absence.

  As if sensing the very wrong thing to do to placate his host, Ralston took a sudden interest in Sophia’s portrait.

  “It’s an uncanny likeness.” Ralston framed Sophia with his fingers and turned back to the portrait. “Down to the last detail, from the perfectly shaped bow of your lip to the mysterious gleam in your cornflower-blue eyes. I confess it draws my gaze even from my lovely Alice.”

  “Even from me? What a thing to say, my dear Ralston.” Alice hated to even speak to the man, suspecting him more strongly of foul play by the minute, but she felt it her duty to keep the peace between him and her brother-in-law. Sophia seemed unaware of any tension between them. “Nothing should command your attention from the woman you’re to marry. Am I right, Lord Averford?”

  “Absolutely, Alice. And it’s not often I will allow you that.” Gabriel smiled in her direction, though she could still see a hint of menace buried beneath his jovial surface. Gabriel was not a man she would dare to cross. She’d always been glad he was on her side, more or less. His brother, Marcus, was the only man she could imagine successfully standing up to him, and that for no other reason than she’d seen it with her own eyes. Once, Marcus had knocked Gabriel unconscious over a disagreement concerning Eve.

  “My husband took nearly a whole day to even notice my portrait.” Sophia flashed a glance at her husband. Did she know she was playing with fire, adding to the tension that simmered between the men? That Alice believed Sophia to be aware of her actions concerned her all the more. “When we first hung it up, he didn’t realize I had removed his mother’s portrait and replaced it with my own until Eve Thorne mentioned it that evening.”

  “It commands me to look.” Ralston’s lips curled back from his teeth in a predatory grin. “I can hardly look away.”

  “Aren’t the Thornes coming to dinner?” Alice grasped at any potential change of subject. “It feels like the longest time since I’ve seen them. I miss them. Mina must be getting so big.”

  “It has only been three weeks,” Sophia said. “Maybe a month. They were going to come tonight, but they sent another excuse. Eve promised me that they would be here for Christmas. They’re coming tomorrow.”

  “Christmas Eve.” Alice laughed, thinking of Grace and her gracing them with her presence. “How fitting. Eve, on Christmas Eve?”

  Sophia nodded, not welcoming the interruption. “With Mina. And they’re staying through the New Year. It will be a merry week of celebrations.”

  “I’m happy to hear it. Christmas is so much better with children in the house.” Sophia and Gabriel exchanged grim looks that told Alice she had been the one to say the wrong thing this time. They hated to be reminded of their childlessness, and especially of their baby’s untimely death. Their only son had died the night he was born. Still, perhaps their grief bonded them in ways that nothing else could. “Mina is always a delight,” Alice added, hoping she was not too late to save the situation.

  “That she is,” Gabriel said. “I can’t wait until she sees the rocking horse Winthrop restored for her.”

  “Winthrop?” Instantly, Alice lost all ability to think of anyone else. “When did he have time for that?”

  “He found it at the old McGinty place, in the attic. It was in good condition, just needed sanding and staining to be shiny as new. Girls love horses, do they not? Sophia being the exception, of course. A toast to my wife,” Gabriel said, taking the first glass from the tray as Finch appeared. He waited until everyone had a champagne saucer in hand. “My wife, an extraordinary woman. I don’t always say it enough, but you are the love of my life, and I’m grateful for every minute we have together.”

  “Gabriel.” Tears were shining in Sophia’s eyes. She’d been rendered speechless, a rare occasion.

  Well done, Lord Averford. Alice turned to Ralston, her eyes narrowed as if to say, “Just try to compete with that.”

  Not to be outshone, Ralston made his own toast. “Plato said that ‘wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.’ To the wonder of the woman I’m to marry. To Alice.”

  She smiled, raised her glass, and sipped, certain he hadn’t had the chance to poison it. Ralston did enjoy his Greek philosophers. She had suspected he was going to raise a glass to Sophia. Even after he said Alice’s name, she felt like a last-minute substitution, a poor comparison to her sister in his eyes.

  Sophia moved across the room to join hands with her husband as they lifted their glasses. Ralston watched them before turning to Alice. “Might we be as happy one day?”

  “We might,” she said. If they managed to part soon enough. Alice now had a theory as to why Ralston wanted to marry her so badly. The true object of his affection was taken. Being married to Alice was the next best thing to winning her sister’s heart, putting him in proximity to Sophia as often as he liked. And maybe one day, he would drug Sophia’s tea and try to take advantage of her.

  Alice could not allow it. “Lord Ralston, I wonder if I could have a word with you in private.”

  His eyes narrowed shrewdly, then widened again with relief. “Ah, no, my dear. It will have to wait. My aunt and uncle have arrived to join us for dinner.”

  She turned, disappointed to see Finch about to announce the Holcombs. “After dinner, then. I’ll just have to wait.”

  Twenty

  Dinner, a tedious affair, lasted far too long, and the Holcombs were unfortunately aware of the engagement. Of course Ralston had told his aunt, but the more people who were aware that Ralston and Alice had an understanding, the harder it would be to get out of it. It didn’t stop Lady Holcomb from chattering on about Matilda Furbish as often as she liked. For her part, Alice spent most of the meal imagining her fiancé’s wedding to another woman. Matilda Furbish would make a fitting bride for him.

  Alice’s main conversational contribution at dinner had been to inform the gathered company that she had learned to shoot, with a pointed look in Ralston’s direction. He failed to take the hint. Logan would have been proud of her following through at last.

  The gentlemen passed through to the drawing room almost directly after the ladies had gone, telling Alice that Gabriel had no desire to linger with Ralston any longer than necessary. Alice took the opportunity to try to get Ralston alone. The sooner she could tell him, perhaps the sooner the Holcombs and Ralston would decide to leave.

  “Lord Ralston,” she said, taking his hand to tear him away from the selection of music at the piano. Alice suspected that Sophia had asked him to play. “I need a word with you. It can’t wait.”

  “Perhaps you would like some tea first.” He pressed the back of his hand to her forehead as if testing for fever. “I’ll ring for Finch. I think you still tire easily. You can’t rush recovery.”

  “I don’t care for tea, thank you.” She took his hand and led to the small parlor down the hall. “As you know, Lord Ralston…”

  “Alice, why is it that you refuse to use my given name? We’re to be married, darling. Please, call me Harry.”

  “Harry,” she said. “As you know, I was quite compromised when I consented to marry you.”

  “Winthrop, the bounder.” He nodded knowingly. “I suspected as much. He got there before me. I understand. But Alice, it doesn’t bother me. I’m willing to accept that you come to the marriage in a compromised state…”

  She stifled the urge to slap him. He wasn’t worth it. “I meant compromised as in mentally off. In a fog. Sti
ll recovering from a head injury.”

  “Oh. Oh, that. Of course.”

  “Of course,” she echoed, wishing she could accuse him point-blank of having kept her in such a state on purpose, but how could she without proof? “I don’t think I can be held accountable for anything I might have said when I wasn’t quite myself.”

  “No. You said some terrible things, especially to your sister, but we were willing to overlook them.”

  “There is no we, Lord Ralston, when it comes to you and my sister.” He was trying her patience now, and she suspected he did it on purpose. She pulled his ring out of her pocket. She’d chosen a skirt with pockets for just such a reason. “I’m returning your ring. I no longer wish to marry you. I’m not sure I ever did. I think it best we part as friends.”

  He refused to take her hand or the offered ring. “Part? Don’t be ridiculous. Of course you’ll marry me. I’m an earl.”

  “And? Am I supposed to be impressed by that? My sister is a countess, but she hasn’t changed from the sister I’ve always known. What’s in a title?”

  “Everything. Besides, we’re engaged. You said yes. There’s no going back on it gracefully. I won’t accept it.” He turned and walked toward the bookshelf, leaning with his back to her.

  “Be reasonable. We haven’t told anyone outside family. It’s not too late for us to part without anyone being the wiser. I’m sorry to hurt you, but you were right about Winthrop. I love him, Lord Ralston. I’m not in love with you.”

  He laughed bitterly and turned back to face her, closing the distance between them. “I told you, I don’t care about Winthrop. He’ll never have you. Or, not again.”

  This time, she slapped him. Square across the face.

  “I’ll let you get away with that now.” He rubbed his cheek. “But once we’re married, don’t think I won’t take my rights over you. I wouldn’t hurt you on purpose, but I certainly wouldn’t avoid retaliating.”

  The answer would have disturbed her if she had any notion to stay with him. “We’ll never marry. It’s what I’m trying to tell you. Take your ring back or don’t, but I’m not going to marry you.” She placed the ring on the table next to him, walked to the door, and held it open. “I suggest you all enjoy a quiet Christmas at Holcomb House. I’m sorry things didn’t work out.”