Chapter Five #2
By the time they reached Fenwick Park, Louisa was beside herself with curiosity.
She wanted to know everything about Rhys.
Where he had grown up, why he had joined the army to go to war, what he intended to do with the rest of his life.
Was he partial to children? What sort of people were his parents?
Did he have any dreams or goals and if so, what were they?
Had he ever been in love with someone? And if he had been, why hadn’t he married already?
But that was the last question she would ever ask him, she thought as she gazed out the carriage window to see a beautiful sight.
There in the distance, set squarely in the center of four massive fields, was a large stone house fashioned in Gothic Revival style.
With large arched windows, two pointed roofs and, to her surprise, a massive turret off one side, Louisa was sure she was looking at a fairytale castle.
A large, rectangular pond filled to the edges with white flowers blooming on lily pads.
It was situated directly in front of the house, which made Louisa assume that it was manmade.
As the carriage swayed back and forth up the crushed stone driveway, Louisa looked back at Rhys to see if he was awake. To her surprise, he was, and he was staring at her.
Louisa settled back against the velvet cushion.
“Do not stop on my account,” he said gently as they reached the front of the house. “I’ve seen it before.”
“It’s lovely. At least, from a distance.”
He smiled.
“Unfortunately, only from a distance. It’s in dire need of work. You’ll see.”
Not for the first time, Louisa wondered what she had gotten herself into. Surely it was livable at least.
As the carriage came to a stop, Rhys leaned over and gathered up the cat in his arms and placed him on the floor of the carriage. When the driver opened the door, the cat dashed out.
“Oh no,” Louisa said, hurrying out after it with the help of the driver.
“Fear not, Mrs. Carlyle,” the driver said. “He’ll come back. They always do.”
She frowned.
“They?”
“Aye, the lieutenant’s animals. He collects them. Don’t you, sir?”
“Thank you, Squires,” Rhys said as he climbed out of the carriage. “But I hardly think of what I do as collecting.”
“Then what is it?” she asked.
He hesitated before answering. “Well, I give them a place to be, I suppose.”
She smiled.
“Sounds like a collection to me.”
“Ah! Lieutenant!” A woman’s voice called out from the front of the house, causing them to turn. “It’s wonderful to have you back!”
The woman, who looked like she was in her early seventies, hurried alongside what could only be her husband. Both were white haired and wrinkled. The man had a cane in his left hand and his wife held onto his right arm as Rhys and Louisa came towards them.
“Aye, who’s this now?” the man, in a thick country accent, asked. He pointed his cane at her. “Another one of your strays, sir?”
“No,” Rhys answered. “This is my wife. Mrs. Louisa Carlyle.”
Both the man and woman’s mouths fell open as Louisa curtsied.
“How do you do?”
“A wife?” the old woman screeched. “The devil takes you, Lieutenant, for not sending word. Oh, the house is in shambles yet—”
“She won’t mind,” the old man winked. “She took up with him, hasn’t she?”
“Oh, Harold, don’t be so daft. Come, dearie,” the old woman said, stepping towards her.
“My name is Mrs. Crawford. This is my husband, Mr. Crawford. We’re the caretakers here, although to be honest, the work has outgrown us these past few years.
Just before the lieutenant here bought Fenwick Park.
You mustn’t judge the house as it is, but what it might be. ”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Louisa said as Rhys surrendered her to Mrs. Crawford.
Mrs. Crawford led the way into a sizeable foyer, with an oak carved staircase off to the right and polished herringbone wood floors. A drawing room was on the left, the dining room to the right. Farther down was a parlor room, an office, and a sizeable room with furniture tucked away under sheets.
“This is the ballroom, if it can be called that,” Mrs. Crawford stated.
“It’s small, but then no smaller than the library.
Right through here,” she said, as she opened two tall doors across the hall as Louisa followed.
The smell from the library was that of old books, mildewy and thick.
“This room requires the most work on this floor.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“Ak, no. But it was once and will be again. Sooner now that a lady is in residence.” She winked. “Come, I’ll show you the rooms.”
“Where is Rhys?”
“The lieutenant went with Mr. Crawford to discuss planting time.”
“And the lieutenant is determined to plant those four fields all by himself?” she asked in disbelief.
“Four? Goodness gracious, no.” Louisa felt relieved. “There’s twenty fields in need of planting.”
“Twenty?”
“Aye. And twenty more still to the north, but there aren’t any tenants yet.
The lieutenant has a plan to work the bottom twenty fields this year, to gain a sizeable crop, then hopefully, he’ll be able to entice some tenants to move here.
But the tenant houses are in disrepair. Still, first the seeds, then the houses.
That’s what the lieutenant has been saying for months now.
” She pointed to small door tucked away, in between bookcases.
“That is the servants’ door. It leads to the kitchens. Come.”
Mrs. Crawford led the way back out through the ballroom, down the hallway, and up the staircase.
There were two wings on the second floor, the east, and the west. After seeing a music room and several guest rooms, Louisa was led to a sizable door at the end of the west wing.
The room was painted pale blue, with the same polished wood floors as the foyer and a small circular canopy that spread out in the most inviting way over a large square bed.
White linens covered the windows as the afternoon sun shone in.
Heavy, dark furniture such as a wardrobe, trunk, and dressing table were all that were in here, and several portraits of animals playing in the country lined the far wall.
A large marble fireplace sat at the foot of the bed and while it wasn’t as elegant as her uncle’s home, Louisa found herself pleasantly pleased with the country estate.
“Now the nursery and servant quarters aren’t livable, given the roof leaks, but once the tenant houses are finished, the lieutenant should focus on that—”
“Not anymore,” Rhys said from the doorway, startling both women.
“Pardon?”
“I mean, now that Mrs. Carlyle is here, I suspect the rooms will be ready come the winter. I have a man from Brighton coming at the end of the week, an architect who has assured me that he’ll be able to ready the main house if he has someone guiding him.
” Rhys nodded at Louisa. “I believe you’ll be able to manage. ”
Louisa paled.
“But I don’t know anything about architecture.”
“No matter,” he said, coming fully into the room. “The house is up to your discretion. Change everything and anything you want.”
“But I don’t know how.”
Rhys and Mrs. Crawford shared a look before the older woman excused herself from the room.
“I’ll just go find Mr. Crawford and see how supper’s coming along.”
She quickly disappeared and Louisa stared at Rhys. Once they were alone, she stepped towards him.
“I appreciate your faith in me, but I don’t know the first thing about repairing houses and what not.”
Rhys held out his hand.
“Come with me.”
Hesitantly, she took his hand and though she tried to ignore it, Louisa couldn’t begin to understand why placing her small hand in his large and calloused one made her feel all sorts of things.
Warm, hot, small, protected. Protected? From what, she didn’t know, but if there was ever a word to describe being near this man, that was it.
He led her out of the bedroom, down the hall, and up a narrow flight of stairs. The third floor was very dark, as the windows appeared covered in dirt. Cobwebs hung from every corner and large brown spots littered the plaster above their heads.
Rhys brought her into a room where a wooden bedframe, a stool, and an end table sat. It was damp, humid, and smelled awful.
“What would you do here first?”
“I… I don’t know.”
“Try.”
Louisa looked around. Firstly, she’d like to wash the window and open it, so that she could breathe easier, but that didn’t have anything to do with repairs.
“Where should I start?”
“What looks as though it’s in most need of repairs?”
That was simple. The stone fireplace was partially crumbled away. She pointed at it, and he turned to see it before looking back at her.
“What would you have done to it?”
“I would have it rebuilt of course.”
He nodded.
“I suppose so. Is that all?”
Louisa looked up to see the large brown spots on the ceiling. She pointed upward as she continued to face him, so that he might see her lips.
“The ceiling would need to be tended to. I’m assuming those are leaky spots?” He nodded. “Yes, then the ceiling would be next. Then a good, throughout cleaning. Remove the old furniture, see if it’s repairable—”
“We can afford new furniture.”
“Can we?” He nodded. “Still, we shouldn’t throw these pieces out.” She went over to the bed and knocked her knuckles on the post. “It’s a solid piece, only in need of a few repairs.”
“Hm. I suppose I can use some of these pieces for the tenant houses.”
She smiled.
“That would be a wonderful idea. After they’ve had a good polish.
” She took a step towards him, but her foot landed on a soft spot, and she tripped forward.
Bracingly, she was caught in Rhys’s arms and hauled up instantly.
She looked behind her at the spot on the floor.
“Perhaps we could redo the floors as well,” she said turning back to face him.
He gave her a look and seemed to hesitate. “Yes? What is it?”