Candlelit Christmas Kisses. Anne Herries

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      ‘Do we really have to?’ Millie made a face. ‘I should like to stay here for ever and ever.’

      ‘Well, you can’t,’ Amy told her. ‘I hate the idea of this house being pulled down, but we can’t stop it.’ She stood up. ‘I’ve decided I’m going to draw the outside of the house from various angles. I want a memory I can keep. And if you behave, I shall colour one for your birthday, Millie.’

      ‘Will you draw the minstrels’ gallery and the priest holes for me?’

      ‘I should have to do them from memory.’

      ‘Mr Norton would let you draw them if you asked.’

      ‘Yes, he might—but he would have to ask the earl for his permission,’ Selina said. ‘I think there can be no objection to your drawing the house, Amy. Even if the earl does not appreciate it, he might like to have one of your drawings to remind him of what it looked like one day.’

      ‘I think I shall make a start now—before nuncheon,’ Amy said. ‘Will the gentlemen be joining us in the breakfast parlour?’

      ‘I think the earl has asked to be served in his own parlour or the library. He has tea tables, which will do for such a meal, but no dining table—except the huge one that almost fills one end of the great hall.’

      ‘How silly of him to bother with all that when he could dine with us,’ Amy said. ‘Please excuse me, Selina. I must fetch my painting things.’

      ‘And I must …’ Selina looked about herself and felt suddenly at a loss. She had hardly had a moment to spare since they’d arrived, but the house was now in good order, and the earl had lifted the burden of the estate from her shoulders. ‘I think I shall do some embroidery until nuncheon. This afternoon I shall walk to the vicarage.’

      Amy departed in search of her sketching things. Millie followed her, saying she had mislaid a book she wanted, and Selina was left to amuse herself. She picked up a piece of embroidery, put it down again, and wandered over to the window. It was too nice a day to stay indoors, and she was restless now that so much of her work had been taken over by the earl.

      Her interview with the earl had gone well enough. He’d seemed impressed with her accounting and had agreed that his uncle had been systematically cheated by his agent, and perhaps by other servants who had since left his employ.

      ‘There is little I can do now,’ he’d said with a rueful look. ‘But I shall send a new lease to the tenant who has not paid his rent for some years, together with a bill for money owed. If he has receipts from my uncle’s agents, he must present them. I shall then have proof of theft and can prosecute.’

      ‘I agree you should pursue this matter,’ Selina had replied. ‘It was wicked of them to do such a thing—and unfair to the tenant if he believed he was paying rent to the earl.’

      ‘Unless he was in on the scam?’

      ‘Yes, I suppose he might have been, since he would soon have been able to claim the land.’

      ‘My uncle was at fault, but his grief made him ill. I think he knew he was being cheated—which was why, at the last, he asked me to help. After his last surviving son died, he had no one else to turn to.’

      ‘You did not expect to inherit?’

      ‘How could I? When I was young, he had three sons. I enjoyed staying here then, but later, after my aunt and her two younger sons died, it became a house of sorrow. My cousin John left home as soon as he could escape—only to die in an accident—and I was glad to purchase my colours and go to war. I thought it would be glorious …’

      ‘I fear you found it otherwise,’ Selina said, faltering as she saw the frost in his eyes. ‘You must have been reluctant to come back to a house you remembered as being dark and empty.’

      ‘I was extremely reluctant,’ the earl said, and frowned. ‘I did not expect so many changes, Miss Searles.’

      ‘Oh … forgive me. I merely wanted to make it comfortable for you, sir.’

      ‘As you have. I was pleasantly surprised. And the wing you are using has never looked so well. I don’t know what you’ve done. I’m sure it did not look so comfortable before.’

      ‘I changed the furniture, took some pretty pieces to the wing—and of course the spinet and some of the things in my parlour are Mama’s.’

      ‘Ah, that explains it,’ he said. ‘My own wing needs a little more of what you have, I think.’

      ‘You wish me to return the furniture I have borrowed?’

      ‘No, not at all. I have some things of my own which will make the changes I require.’

      ‘Oh … I thought … Someone said they were to remain in store until you rebuild …’ Selina blushed. ‘Forgive me. I am presuming too much.’

      ‘It was my intention to leave the crates as they are, but now I see no reason to do so. The house has a certain appeal it formerly lacked, Miss Searles. Henry tells me it would be sacrilege if I were to tear it down—though he concedes the east wing needs some modernisation.’

      ‘Yes, it is not in as good a condition as the rest of the house,’ Selina said. ‘However, there is nothing that someone after the style of Mr Adam or Mr Sheraton could not put right—a designer with a delicate, modern touch, but simple rather than ornate. This house does not need all the French gilding that is becoming so popular—’ Once again she broke off as the earl’s brows rose. ‘Forgive me. It is your house, not mine.’

      ‘Yes, I rather fancy it is,’ he replied, giving her a brooding look that made her stomach clench. ‘However, I think I agree with you. Henry forbids me to give it the Italianate touch I first thought of …’

      Seeing the glint in his eye and guessing that he was provoking her, Selina refused to rise to the bait. ‘I daresay your architect will be disappointed if you change your mind about pulling the house down.’

      ‘I have not yet completely decided,’ he replied, the brooding look returning to his eyes.

      ‘No? Well, you have plenty of time. After Christmas we shall make plans to leave as soon as we can, and you will have the house to yourself.’

      ‘There is no particular hurry,’ he said, surprising her. ‘I understand you mean to give a small party? I may invite a few friends myself—but it cannot be a large party, for I am still in mourning for my uncle.’

      ‘As we are for Mama,’ Selina assured him. ‘However, she would want us to have a small dinner party, and we shall trim the house—our wing, of course—and shall give each other presents. My sisters have been grieving for too long, sir. I wish to make this as good a Christmas for them as I can; though I cannot give them expensive gifts, they shall have something nice.’

      ‘It is an age since Christmas was celebrated in that way in this house.’ The earl narrowed his eyes. ‘Do you think I should bring the Yule log into the great hall? You could entertain your guests there, if you wished.’

      ‘I think my sisters would like to see the Yule log brought in, if you will permit? However, I shall only invite six or eight guests СКАЧАТЬ