Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Richard worked his way steadily through the contents of a bulging dispatch case the following morning. He had commandeered the Earl’s estate office and his desk. He was not alone.
“You do this every morning?” Will asked, warming his hands on a cup of coffee. A dozen reports lay in organized array across the desk, with a pile of requests, forms, and other documents to be signed in front.
“Most days. There will be more in London. These are the most pressing.” Richard spoke without looking up.
“The Ottomans are gone, thank God.” Will sighed. “Now if I can just rid my house of the Foreign Office,” he added slyly, “I can get back to my estate.”
Richard grunted. “Your estate didn’t suffer,” he said without looking up. “It is far too well run to require your daily attention.”
“My hands haven’t been dirty in eight days,” Will complained. When Richard glanced at his own meticulous manicure, the Earl chuckled.
Richard caught the grin and looked back at his work. “Only you would care,” he said. The fashionable world didn’t call Will the Farmer Earl for nothing. Family and fields made up his entire universe.
“Perhaps my children will recognize me when they see me again,” Will went on, “now that the demands of King and country have been met.”
“Your children weren’t neglected. I know you climbed the infernal stairs to the nursery at least twice a day all week. Catherine more often.”
“Scandalous as it may seem, Catherine nurses Emma herself,” Will said. “It suits them both.”
Richard had no comment on mothers and babies, the most foreign bodies on the planet in his estimation. He worked his way silently through a pile of papers.
“It would do you good to set up a nursery of your own,” Will prodded.
Richard looked up at that. “If you mean, it’s time I married, I’ve been considering it.”
“Your mother certainly pushed a number of choices your way the past few days. Did one of them catch your attention?”
“Lady Sarah Wharton merits additional attention,” Richard mused. He finished one pile and shifted another into its place.
“Really? I had no idea you were attracted.”
“Attraction isn’t relevant. She is a duke’s daughter and an earl’s granddaughter on her mother’s side. She has enough wit to maintain diplomatic dinner conversation and sufficient polish to show well at functions.”
“‘Show well at functions?’” Will sputtered. “You aren’t hiring an ambassador.”
“She looks healthy enough. I presume she could provide an heir with little trouble,” Richard went on, eyes firmly on his work.
“You aren’t buying a brood mare either, Richard! Did she inspire any feeling in you at all?”
“She possesses all the right attributes to make bedding her pleasant enough, if that’s what you mean.”
“That is precisely not what I meant,” Will said. “Do you care for her at all? Why even marry?”
“As you pointed out, it’s time, and it’s my duty. Marriage would also put an end to my mother’s interference. She can go back to making my sisters miserable.”
Will looked as though he had more to say, but a discreet knock interrupted them.
“Enter,” Richard commanded, ignoring the owner of the office who sat next to him.
Roger Heaton, one of his operatives, entered.
“She left, my lord,” he said.
“Lilias Thornton? I would expect so,” Richard answered. “Most of the guests plan to leave today.”
Heaton glanced at the earl; Richard motioned him to continue. “His lordship is trusted,” he said.
“She borrowed a horse from the stables an hour ago,” Heaton explained, “And left.”
“Without her luggage?” Richard asked.
“Odd that. She ordered her luggage be delivered with her aunt to London. The aunt didn’t seem to know much.”
Dotty old Marianne Thornton wouldn’t know anything, no matter how obvious to others, Richard thought.
“The old lady said something about her wanting air and joining the carriage along the way,” Heaton went on.
“Perhaps it’s true. Volkov?” Richard demanded.
“That’s the thing. Left shortly before. On horseback, his one bag tied to his saddle. I thought you would want to know.”
“A meeting?” Will asked.
“An assignation more likely,” Heaton said. “Dalliance on the road. Volkov hardly took his eyes off her all week.”
A vision of Lilias Thornton in Volkov’s arms, in his bed, exploded in Richard’s mind. Willing or unwilling, he found the idea disgusting. Cold fury, all the more potent for being controlled, took hold. He had warned her to stay away from Volkov.
She knows something. I’m sure of it. And Volkov has some hold over her.
“Do you want me to follow them? If so, I need to leave immediately,” Heaton asked.
Richard had already risen. “No. I’ll take care of Miss Thornton myself.”
Heaton bowed out.
“I’ll need your fastest horse. I need Mercury,” Richard told Will.
A knowing look came over Will’s face. “You’re mighty anxious to intercept this Thornton woman, if you dare ask for my favorite mount.”
“I know he has your heart. I’ll bring him back safely.” Richard stuffed the papers into the dispatch case. “I’ll be back by late afternoon to finish this.”
“I have no doubt you’ll care for my horse. It’s the Thornton woman’s fate that concerns me.”