Chapter Thirteen #3
There was something to be said about soft beds and silken coverlets.
He was still smiling at those images when the butler approached. ‘A note has just come for you, my lord,’ he said, bowing as he presented the missive on a silver tray.
Curious, Rafe broke the seal. As he quickly scanned the contents, his smile faded, an amorphous pain he couldn’t put a name to and a sense of foreboding settling in his gut.
‘What is it? What’s happened?’ Juliana asked urgently.
Irritated that his unguarded reaction would make it impossible to avoid answering, he felt forced to tell her the truth. ‘It’s from Hart. He wanted to warn me that…that Earl and Lady Altorn have just arrived in town. The earl’s wife is the former Thalia Heathcote.’
He watched with deepening self-annoyance as Juliana’s eager expression faded to a look of concern. ‘I see. Will that present a…difficulty for you?’
‘Nothing I can’t handle if the need arises,’ he replied, trying to imbue his voice with a breezy confidence.
‘You mustn’t be anxious. As a duke’s heir, Altorn will be escorting his wife to the sorts of Society entertainments we avoid, so it’s quite possible we’ll not encounter them at all.
If we should chance to meet, I’ll acknowledge Lady Altorn—it would be rude to ignore her—but I’ll not need to be more than polite. ’
‘I should hate to think seeing her would be…wounding for you.’
As she glanced away, not meeting his gaze, he tipped up her chin so she had to look at him. ‘Thalia is a part of my past, Juliana,’ he said urgently. ‘A heartache I got over long ago. You and I together are both present and future for me. You mustn’t doubt that for a moment. Promise me?’
She gave him a tentative nod.
‘Then show me your lovely smile, and let’s go enjoy our outing.’
As he escorted her down the entry stairs and summoned a hackney to carry them to Great Russell Street, he told himself he would take his own advice to heart and dismiss any further thought of Lady Altorn.
By the time a short while later, when Rafe handed his wife down in front of Montague House, Juliana seemed to have recovered her customary calm. He intended to devote every effort to making sure she forgot about the unsettling news and thoroughly enjoyed their visit together.
Concentrating on pleasing her would help him forget it, too.
‘At the risk of appearing a bumpkin, I’ve never been to the museum,’ Rafe admitted as they approached the handsome domed facade
‘It’s not where I would expect the energetic outdoorsman you have always been to spend any time, so I’ll not hold it against you.’
As they walked inside, she said, ‘Have you any interest in Greek and Roman antiquities? Most of the ground floor is occupied by the extensive library, but they do have Sir William Hamilton’s collection of vases and sculpture along with Egyptian antiquities, including the Rosetta Stone.’
‘Ah, yes, even I know about that—the key to deciphering hieroglyphics. Brought back by our stalwart troops after they defeated Napoleon at the Battle of the Nile. Some military men are interested in culture, redeeming the army’s reputation from dolts like me.
Viewing the sculpture would be interesting, but I’d prefer to see what most interests you. ’
‘That would be the natural history collection on the second floor.’
‘Lead on.’
Rafe followed her upstairs, where she led him into the first of a series of galleries.
‘My friend, Lady Fallsham, introduced me to this. She was the friend of a friend who came to dine with the family after Aggie was engaged and ended up talking with me. When she asked me about making my debut the following year, I thought to put her off by confessing I preferred remaining in the country, observing and drawing plants and animals, to mingling in Society. To my surprise, she avowed her own interest—and invited me to accompany her here.’
‘That was kind of her—and clever, too. I’ll wager she was even more surprised to discover how excellent your drawings are.’
‘She knew the Sloan collection so well, she was able to guide me to the parts of it she thought I’d most enjoy. The large array of plants, some of which I sketched with her. And yes,’ she added with a faint blush, ‘she did admire my work. My favourite exhibits are here. The birds.’
Juliana led him into another room, where a wide variety of bird species were featured, some by their nests, some posed on branches. ‘Especially these—the ibis, from Egypt. And this little jewel—a hummingbird, from America. How I should love to see one in the wild someday! Is it not a wonder?’
Rafe was pleased to note that, surrounded by creatures she loved, she seemed to have wholly forgotten the news about Thalia.
He would relax and simply enjoy watching her, her face radiant as she gestured towards the tiny bird.
He was touched that she would share it with him, this creature from another world she admired so much.
And once again amazed, that she treasured this brilliant, glittering collection of feathers that way other women would treasure the sparkle of a diamond or the faceted face of an emerald.
‘Do you mind if I take time to sketch it?’
‘Of course not. That’s why I gave you the sketchbook and invited you to come here.’
‘I won’t take long.’
While she sketched, Rafe roamed through the room with the birds and then several other adjacent rooms, inspecting the vast collection of shells, coral, fossils and plant specimens.
From time to time, he glanced back, to see her so totally absorbed in her work, he suspected she’d forgotten his presence.
Perhaps he would try to take her to the Americas one day. He knew she would thrill to such an adventure, while he could enjoy her awe and wonder at the plants and animals they would see and treasure the drawings she would make.
At length, she finished the sketch and looked up at him.
‘Thank you for bringing me. Coming here reminds me that I had a letter from Mrs Earnshaw, Lady Fallsham’s cousin who lived with her.
She wrote that she regretted I wasn’t able to join them before her ladyship’s death but invited me to visit whenever I could and stay as long as I liked, sketching the birds and animals of the region.
I don’t think I’ll ever get to the Americas—’ she gestured towards the hummingbird ‘—but I should like to visit Cornwall.’
‘They have the red deer, otters and the badgers I’m so fond of,’ she continued, her eyes bright with enthusiasm.
‘Hares, foxes and wild ponies. Birds of prey like the kestrel, osprey and falcon. Being right on the ocean, there are even more water birds than we have at the lakes, a whole variety of geese, ducks and swans.’
She smiled, gazing off into the distance. ‘She described their great cliffs overlooking the sea, sheltered caves near the beach…’
‘Smugglers’ lairs, I’ll bet. Cornish smuggling was famous.’
‘Perhaps. I can imagine settling in sheltering rocks above the beach to sketch sea-birds, or perching atop cliffs, like on the heights of the fell, wind whipping my hair and trying to tear the pencil from my fingers, the waves crashing below. The vista even vaster than that atop the fells! Truly one could see forever, nothing but ocean all the way to the Americas. Besides the seaside, there’d be hills, valleys, woods and meadows to wander, looking for hares, foxes, deer or wild ponies. ’
‘When this session of the Lords ends, after I check on the estate, maybe I could take you there. I won’t be needed to supervise at Thornthwaite until harvest. I’d like to see Cornwall myself.’
‘Truly?’ she said, gazing up at him, those dark eyes excited but wary, cutting him again with the reminder of how little encouragement she’d been given to pursue what interested her.
‘Truly,’ he confirmed, determined to do all he could to make up for that lack. She demanded so little of him, it inspired him to want to offer more.
Being well away from London, with no chance of encountering someone he’d just as soon not meet, would be another advantage of the trip.
He looked over her shoulder at the sketch.
‘How well you’ve captured the little bird!
’ he exclaimed, impressed anew by her skillful rendition.
‘Your drawing looks more alive than the actual specimen. You really should consider creating a book of your drawings. If such likenesses need to be engravings, we could inquire about having you take lessons from one of the instructors at the Royal Academy. I wager you’d prefer that to receiving Society ladies for tea or promenading in the Park. ’
‘I should love it!’ she cried. ‘But not until later, when the estate is in better form. Mama was forever bemoaning not being about to spend every Season in London, residing in the city being so expensive. I hope we can return to Thornthwaite as soon as your duties in the Lords are completed.’
‘I should like that, too.’
‘The museum closes soon. We must leave.’
Glancing at his pocket watch, he discovered she was correct. He helped her stow away her sketchbook and pencils, sorry to end this private excursion and resolved to have more of them. Together they descended the stairs and walked back into the courtyard where she waited while he summoned a hackney.
Riding back, she leaned on his shoulder while he held her hand. A sense of satisfaction suffused him that he’d succeeded in dispelling her alarm and making her happy, as he had vowed to do.
In return, she’d once again given him a deeper look into the wonders of the world as she saw it, the beauty in the everyday, the majesty in a whirl of iridescent feathers. Enriching his life, as she enlightened it.
Cornwall was farther away, but Thornthwaite would serve, too, to distance him from any ghosts from the past that might cause him disquiet. A place where he and Juliana could preserve and deepen the quiet camaraderie they’d shared today, a sense of well-being underlaid by a strong sensual bond.
How thankful he was to have ended up with a wife who inspired him with only stable, calming, quiet emotions, feelings that would never threaten to plunge him again into a chaos of anguish.