Chapter Twenty-Two
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
A sh wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. He had worked solidly for four days, helping to sort the houses that had been most damaged by the flood, making sure that his tenants were fed and had adequate housing in the meantime. It was back-breaking work but he was proud of the result. It would not be long before things were back to normal.
No, they would be better than that; all the money he had earned from his investments would be ploughed back into improving the estate and the lives of those who depended on him. His mother’s stiff-backed disapproval had melted once she had caught sight of the pitiful state of their tenants’ homes. She had even put some effort into the renovations, admittedly in the comfort of her sitting room and with a needle and thread rather than a spade, but every step counted. He rather thought the battle over her excessive spending had been won and the weight off his chest was huge.
His only sense of unease came when he thought of Amelia’s pale face on his doorstep. He’d been working around the clock to house his tenants and had only managed to send a letter to her three days after their arrival at Easton Hall. He knew that letters had been a sore spot between them but she would understand his absence had been unavoidable when she read it. He had to think that because he couldn’t imagine a world in which he might have ruined things between them further. He had not been thinking clearly when he had last spoken with her and had no idea what he had said, whether he had explained any of the situation or not at all.
‘There you are.’ Ash looked up, frowning. He hadn’t expected to hear one of his friend’s voices out here in the country but Adam was striding towards him, his colourful waistcoat at odds with the bucolic country scene. ‘You vanished from town and no one knew where you went.’
‘I’m here.’
Adam rolled his eyes. ‘I can see that.’ He came to a stop in front of Ash. ‘Is all well?’
‘A flood has damaged a large part of the estate.’ Ash scratched his arm, smearing mud over his skin. ‘Many of the tenants’ houses have sustained damage and some were in a terrible state. It’s been tough but now everyone has a roof over their head and clothes to wear, so we are over the worst of it.’
‘You’ve lived up to your reputation as a hero.’ Adam smiled at him.
Ash rubbed his chest, transferring some of the mud to his shirt. ‘You and I both know that I am no such thing.’
‘We don’t. I know it’s what you think. You seem to believe that you are responsible for the deaths of all the soldiers during the battles we faced. It was a war , Ash. People die when there is pointless fighting. It’s not good, or fair but it happens and it is not your responsibility. You always step up when you’re needed.’
Ash could hear what Adam was saying but his friend did not know all the facts. ‘I didn’t with Amelia.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘She needed me to save her and instead I was fighting in that damned foolish war. I try not to but I let people down, Adam.’
But Adam was shaking his head. ‘You’ve not let me down, or Hart or Ezra. Stop being so hard on yourself.’
Amelia had said the same to him and perhaps his actions of the past few days had redeemed himself in his own eyes. There would be time to think on it later. ‘I assume you are not just here to boost my morale.’
Adam nudged a stone with the toe of his boot. ‘There’s news.’
Ash straightened, the belief that whatever Adam had to say was bad and that he didn’t want to hear it settling within him like a dark cloud blotting out the sun.
‘Ezra and Seraphine are marrying. You will need to return to London to be there for him.’
‘Of course. I was planning to return in the next day or two anyway.’ He had already been away from Amelia longer than he was comfortable with. ‘Is that it?’
‘No.’ Adam glanced around and then back towards Ash. ‘There’s a rumour circulating in the ton.’
Ash’s heart dropped to his feet. Adam would not be here to tell him about this gossip if it did not involve him in some way. Dear God, had someone discovered what they had been doing in Amelia’s summer house? But no, that would be impossible. They had been discreet. ‘What is it?’
Adam scratched the back of his neck. ‘There’s some in the ton who are saying that…and it’s not everyone but…a few are saying that Amelia has gone to Stanmere for a house party.’
Ash’s grip on the shovel tightened. ‘If that’s true, then it doesn’t have to mean anything.’
‘No, of course.’ Adam agreed too quickly.
‘Is there something else?’
Adam’s lips twisted and Ash’s heart followed suit. ‘Again, it’s probably nothing but…’
Why the hell was Adam taking so long with this story? Ash wanted to shake him. ‘But?’
‘Seraphine thinks she overheard Stanmere saying that he is going to ask for Amelia’s hand in marriage.’
For a moment, the world seemed to slow, the wind ceasing to stir and the sound of the animals calling to one another deadening. All Ash could see was Amelia’s pale face as she stood in his doorway asking to speak with him. He’d put her wan complexion down to the weather but had there been something truly wrong? Is that why she had turned to another man again? If there had and he had walked away from her when she had needed him most, she may never forgive him. Hell, he would not forgive himself.
‘I am sorry to be the bearer of such news. I thought it best you hear it from one of us, rather than the gossips.’
‘It does not matter if Amelia marries someone else.’
Adam’s head snapped up in surprise. ‘It doesn’t?’
‘No.’ It would definitely be painful; it would rip his world apart, but that was not the point. Something had happened. Amelia wouldn’t have left London for Stanmere’s house party if it hadn’t; she would have been in London attending an exhibition she’d been looking forward to and visiting her modiste about a dress she was excited about. Stanmere’s party was not part of her plan and that, coupled with her pale face outside his home, told him that something had changed. Ash had not been there for her and so she had turned to another man. It was happening again.
But this time, the end could be different. Ash could change the course of things if he acted quickly enough. He had to hope that, this time, he was not too late.