Chapter One #3
Rafe shook his head. ‘Maybe so, but I must agree with your mother. Much as I loved my brother, I can’t help thinking he used you ill.
He should have married you long since. As the widow of an earl, even without the blessing of children, you’d have status no one could take away.
And more important, you’d have an income that would make you permanently independent of your parents.
You could have remained in the Dower House officially as long as you liked.
’ He smiled fondly at her. ‘Studied nature to your heart’s content, with my blessing. ’
‘You mustn’t worry about me,’ she said quickly. ‘I’ve had quite a bit of time to contemplate my future, and I don’t intend to spend it under my mother’s thumb. I do have…prospects, actually.’
‘“Prospects”?’ Rafe echoed. ‘Hiring yourself under a false name onto some Royal Society scientific expedition? Or has some sly young gentleman, observing the length of your endless engagement, tried to tempt you into breaking it? It would have served Ian right if one had!’
She smiled noncommittally. ‘Would that there might be a scientific expedition to sign onto! And I would never have served Ian such a turn. But more to the point, I stayed on at the Dower House awaiting your return so I might show you around the estate, give you some explanation about what happened and my recommendations going forward. As I mentioned, Baxter’s cousin Sterling is a tenant, so we are aware of the conditions here. ’
She’d ever been independent, unlike most females he’d encountered, not given to disclosing her thoughts and emotions or asking for help or even sympathy with her problems. Rafe only knew about the difficulties she’d had with her mother because he’d personally observed some of the confrontations between them.
Relieved that she seemed to have some viable options for her future—and as concerned about the condition of the estate as he was about Juliana’s security—Rafe tacitly accepted her change of subject.
‘I very much appreciate your staying on and will be most interested in your comments and suggestions. So why has the property fallen into such a state? As I mentioned, I knew Ian had little interest in managing it, but I’m shocked that he would have let it… decline to such an extent.’
‘The answer is…somewhat complicated.’ She paused, as if trying to choose her words carefully. Which she probably was. It would be difficult to answer his inquiry without showing his brother in a negative light, and given her love for Ian, Rafe knew she’d want to avoid doing that.
‘You know Ian has always been a dreamer, more at home in the world of his books than with real people. Inclined to…melancholy.’ She gave him a brief, strained smile.
‘One reason we got on so well—I never taxed him to go to parties or mingle in local Society, as my sister used to before she went for her Season in London and married someone more amenable. As I mentioned, I was in no hurry to wed, content myself with my own books and my wanderings in the fields and forest. But as Ian’s melancholy deepened, he began to shut himself off, even from me.
He started spending days, then weeks, alone in his rooms. Sometimes neglecting to send for meals or leaving them untouched outside his door if they were brought.
Of course, with him already distressed, I couldn’t think of pressing him to schedule a wedding, even a very private one.
As his isolation increased, he gradually ceased overseeing the estate.
Taylor, the former estate manager, had retired by then and Ian had accepted Taylor’s recommendation to have his nephew replace him. ’
Restless, a militant gleam in her eyes, she rose and began pacing.
‘Young Taylor, Sterling quietly informed us after the man had been at Thornthwaite for several months, possessed nothing close to the character or expertise of his uncle, who died shortly after his retirement. But he was crafty, and noting how little supervision he was given, gradually began, Sterling believes, to pocket much of the rents he collected. It’s certain very little was invested back into the farms, the tenants’ requests for seeds, materials or repairs going unheeded.
I noticed myself on my visits here how the estate was declining.
But once again, if Ian agreed to see me—and sometimes he would not—he appeared so nervous and preoccupied, I didn’t feel I could bring up the matter of the estate.
By this time, most of the servants who’d been here for years were gone—discharged, rumour claims, by Young Taylor, and not replaced.
Except for the new housekeeper, Mrs Higgins, whom another rumour says is his mistress.
Certainly from what I’ve observed, she hasn’t much skill at housekeeping,’ she added acerbically.
Rafe had been listening with growing concern—and increasing anger.
He was about to furiously demand how his brother could possibly have let things come to such a point when she turned to face him, tears dripping down her cheeks.
‘Oh, Rafe, I’m so sorry! I tried to intervene as much as I could, but I…
I had no authority to order anything, which both Taylor and Higgins knew.
All I could do was watch and note everything that had been done, or not done, so I might give you the fullest and most complete account when you returned.
I was Ian’s almost-wife,’ she continued after a moment, her earnest tone softening to a murmur.
‘I’m…ashamed that I wasn’t able to leave Thornthwaite in better condition for you. ’
Rafe’s anger dissolved at her evident distress. ‘Mouse, Mouse, you mustn’t blame yourself,’ he soothed, once again pulling her into his arms. ‘How could you do anything, when, with no marriage lines, you had no legal authority to intervene?’
This time, she let herself lean into his strength, not moving away until the tremors in her body ceased.
‘I did contemplate shooting Taylor,’ she admitted as she stepped away.
‘Or setting a trap for him to fall into. But I’ve never harmed a fellow creature in my life and I couldn’t bring myself to, even one as despicable as Taylor. ’
In the course of discharging his army duties, Rafe had caused plenty of harm to fellow creatures.
Murder might be out of the question, but if conditions in the house matched the general disintegration of the grounds, he wasn’t one bit concerned about the damage it might cause the man if he discharged the venal agent and his lazy paramour on the spot.
And followed that up with legal prosecution for fraud and embezzlement if he could gather enough evidence to support the charges.
‘There now, dry your eyes and finish your tea. I’m home now, and I do have authority over everything. I shall certainly call on your notes and observations to suggest ways of putting things to rights.’
She nodded. ‘I’m happy to help in any way I can.
Although I lack most of the skills a gently bred female is supposed to possess, once Ian and I were engaged, I did pay close attention to Mama’s instructions on managing a household and an estate—knowing Ian would have little interest in doing so.
I’m hoping you will find my observations and suggestions useful. ’
‘They will be welcome. My training as a soldier will have marginal use in governing the estate,’ he said ruefully.
‘You may find it more useful than you think. After all, I imagine that managing troops and strategizing battles requires a good deal of organizational skill.’
‘We shall see.’
After taking another sip of tea, Juliana turned her dark brown eyes on him, her expression almost…
pleading. ‘Rafe…you mustn’t think too badly of Ian.
He didn’t want to remain so dreadfully paralyzed and unhappy.
He would have pulled himself out of it if he’d found any way to do so.
Every time I visited, he apologized for not feeling up to having the wedding.
’ She swallowed hard. ‘I’d remember the sweet, shy boy he used to be and would be so overcome with sorrow for his pain, all I could do was assure him I was fine and would wait for him as long as it took.
I think… I believe you would have had compassion for him too, if you’d seen how overcome he was. ’
Rafe had seen men break under fire. Turn their faces to the tent wall, refusing to eat or drink once they realized the wounds they’d sustained were mortal. As far as he knew, his brother had never suffered any such extreme circumstances.
But he’d been gone for years, and who knew the depths of despair a mind might become prey to? Straightforward, prosaic Juliana wasn’t given to dramatics or exaggeration. If she thought Ian’s suffering had been genuine and deep, whatever caused it, it probably was.
In any event, his brother was beyond blame or explanation.
Managing the estate was his burden now.
After finishing the last of his tea, he set down his cup.
Looking over at Juliana’s troubled face, Rafe had the sudden feeling that she knew more about the circumstances of his brother’s condition than she’d just related.
He couldn’t pinpoint what prompted that niggle of doubt, nor could he imagine what she could possibly be concealing.
But her revelations had laid out the problem before him, and it was time to address it. Letting go of his conflicted feelings about his brother, he stood. ‘I’ve delayed long enough. I’d better gird my loins and return to the house.’
‘Would you like me to accompany you?’
He shook his head. ‘I imagine most of the depredations will be pretty obvious. I’d better face the shock alone.’ And confront the perpetrators alone, so they cannot accuse you of informing on them. ‘I would like to take you up on the offer of consulting later, though.’
‘Of course. I’m anxious to do whatever I can to help. Then, once you know the whole and have listened to my recommendations, I’ll return to Edgerton Manor and trouble you no further.’
‘Return to “pursue your other options?”’ he suggested with a smile.
She said nothing, merely nodding noncommittally.
‘I’ll be going, then. Thank Baxter for the tea. And Juliana—you’ll never be a “trouble” to me. Only a delight.’
Her lips trembling, she nodded, blinking hard against a glaze of tears. After recovering her composure, she said as she walked him to the door, ‘I’ll remind you of that the next time you’re annoyed with me.’
Smiling briefly, Rafe squared his shoulders and set off to discover just how dilapidated his inheritance had become.