Chapter 24 #2
Bright tapestries hanging from the walls tempered the stiff portraits of people she didn’t know. If Colin commissioned a portrait of her, she would request Victor Pratt be awarded the position. His rendering of Juliana was playful and fun and captured Juliana perfectly.
She stopped at the top of the long stairway, frozen in place by the portrait of a stunningly beautiful woman. “Who is that, Mrs. Campbell?”
“That is Lady Manning. Forgive me. Your predecessor, Margery Hawthorne Bell, the previous Lady Manning.” Mrs. Campbell didn’t appear to be the least bit sorry for failing to recognize Anne as the new mistress.
The woman sighed and, to Anne’s shock, actually smiled as she gazed at the portrait.
“She was a beauty, wasn’t she? And the kindest of souls.
So dignified and graceful. The perfect mistress and viscountess.
She would have made an exemplary marchioness. ”
Anne’s stomach dropped when the woman turned back and raked an assessing gaze over her, clearly finding the new Lady Manning . . . lacking.
The moment Mrs. Campbell escorted Anne inside, Colin retreated to his study.
He needed to think, and being confined in a carriage with Anne for over four hours had done nothing for his peace of mind.
Not when a war raged inside him between the fear over his father’s health and the overwhelming desire for his wife.
How could he think of his own selfish needs when his father might be dying?
He collapsed into the chair at his desk and ran his hands down his face.
The events of the last two days weighed heavily on him, and his whole body ached from exhaustion.
In the silence of his sanctuary, he soaked up the comfort of home.
The familiar smell of the small collection of books, the feel of the leather blotter on the desktop against his fingers, the inkpot with a silver plate engraved with his initials that Margery had given him one Christmastide, the steady tick-tick-tick of the clock on the hearth’s mantel.
After a heavy sigh, he pulled out a piece of foolscap to pen a letter and withdraw his name as an MP candidate.
Pen poised above the paper, the instrument felt heavy in his hand, as if it, too, was reluctant to give up on the dream.
His family lineage stretched back centuries. Would King William actually refuse the well-respected Marquess of Stratford’s request? Colin clung to a thin hope.
A fat drop of ink fell to the paper and marred its creamy surface.
Colin grunted a derisive chuckle. Marred like his hopes.
Yet even as Colin accepted his fate to serve in Lords as Baron Amesworth and continue to live in his father’s shadow, Anne’s question pinged in his mind.
What about the man you want to be?
All the more disturbing was his answer. He truly didn’t know who that man was. He’d spent so much of his life being the man everyone expected him to be, somewhere along the way, he’d lost sight of himself.
Greene tapped lightly on the open door. “Sir, Mrs. Campbell has finished showing the new mistress the house. Which parlor would you like us to put her in for tea?”
Colin frowned at his butler’s choice of words. Put her in? As if she were a decorative object he had brought home. “I’ll join Lady Manning in the blue parlor, Greene.”
“Very good, sir.” Rather than leave, the man stood ramrod straight in the doorway.
“Is there something else?” The day had taken a toll, and Colin snapped the words.
“Well, sir, if I may be so bold, your marriage is just so . . . sudden. We were unaware you had been courting anyone.”
Colin stared at the man’s audacity. “I didn’t realize I needed to keep the staff apprised regarding my personal life.”
The man winced.
Good.
“Of course not, sir. However, the new mistress differs greatly from Lady Manning. We do hope that your lordship has chosen wisely.” With that, he scuttled away.
Colin wanted to throw the inkpot at the man’s retreating back. Greene was an excellent butler, but he had overstepped, and Colin would have words with him later. As it was, he tamped down his anger, folded, addressed, and sealed his letter to be posted later.
As he strode toward the blue parlor, he passed Miss Hart in the solarium with the girls. At least the governess seemed to treat Anne with respect. She gazed up from where she was reading the girls a book and smiled.
When he entered the blue parlor, he halted at the sight of Anne. Seated on the sofa, with her head hanging low, she dabbed a handkerchief at her eyes.
The thought of her in pain closed tight around his heart.
“Anne?”
Her head jerked up at his call, and she tucked the handkerchief in the folds of her skirt. But as he stepped closer, nothing could hide her red-rimmed, still shimmering eyes.
He sat next to her and took her hand in his. “What’s wrong? Do you hate your room? Remember, I told you that you can redecorate if you wish.”
She nodded. “I remember. Everything but your study. But my room is fine.”
“Then what is it?
“Mrs. Campbell hates me.”
Apparently, Greene wasn’t the only one. “Surely that’s not true,” he lied.
“She certainly doesn’t like me. All she could talk about was Lady Manning.”
“But you are Lady Manning now.”
Even though she hadn’t spoken her thoughts aloud, Anne delivered a look that said he was a nodcock.
“Lady Manning was so poised. Lady Manning was so elegant. Lady Manning was so gentle. Lady Manning had been a diamond of the first water. Lady Manning. Lady Manning. Lady Manning.”
Anger lit in his chest. Hot and volatile.
When Greene brought in the tea, Colin said, “Assemble the staff.”
Greene blinked. “My lord?”
“You heard me. Here. Now!”
After Greene rushed off in a huff, Colin turned back to his injured wife. “Would you please pour me a cup of tea, Anne?” Truth was, he could use a brandy for what he was about to say, but on second thought he needed a clear head.
Within ten minutes, Greene had the entire staff assembled in the blue parlor.
Rising, Colin paced before them. Let them stew in their own poor conduct. Of course, not all of them had committed such egregious behavior. Certainly not Miss Hart, and he would speak to her privately later.
“I would like to introduce you all to my wife. Lady Manning.” He held out his hand to Anne and softened his tone. “Would you join me, my dear.”
Anne blinked, remnants of tears still in her blue eyes, but she rose and took his hand.
He wrapped an arm around Anne’s waist and tugged her close for good measure.
Then, he donned the mask that he had worn when he and Anne first met.
“Unless you wish to seek a new position, I expect each of you to treat Lady Manning with respect. There is to be no reference to my former wife unless Lady Manning asks a direct question. I’m sure we all want Lady Manning to feel comfortable and welcome in her new home. Is that understood?”
Mumbled answers of “yes, sir” rose from the staff. From the corner of his eye, he caught a sly smile forming on Miss Hart’s lips. Greene and Mrs. Campbell, however, had paled under his reprimand.
He dismissed them with a wave of his hand. “That will be all. Except, Miss Hart, I would like a word later.”
She gave a nod and exited with the rest of the staff.
When he turned back toward Anne, she gazed at him with wide eyes. “I never thought I’d say this, but I like Lord Grump when he’s being grumpy toward someone other than me.”
He laughed and touched the tip of her nose with his finger. “Good. Be sure and let me know if any of the servants disobey my orders.”
Left to his own wishes, he would have suggested they retire to their rooms for a rest, but he didn’t want to give the servants any more fodder for gossip. Waiting would give him something to look forward to later that night.
And look forward to it, he did.