Helena twisted a handkerchief in her hands. Another person she’d forgotten today, Daisy thought in chagrin. Helena had been indispensable, at Daisy’s side since she’d heard about the wedding, helping her prepare for it. But precisely because everything had been done so efficiently and naturally, Daisy had taken her help for granted. Now she finally noticed that her companion had also dressed for the occasion, and looked very well. Helena wore a simple but well-cut violet-colored gown to the ceremony, and her hair, though neatly pulled back, as ever, had been allowed to curl around her face. Daisy realized how good-looking Helena was when she allowed herself to be. Unfortunately, she also looked very distressed.
“This is awkward,” Helena said. “I ought to have brought it up before, but things happened so quickly… but the truth is that now you’re married, my lady, my job is done. So I’ll be leaving today. I just wondered, if you’re so inclined, could you write me a letter of recommendation, please? Oh, not now, I quite understand you haven’t the time. But if I leave you my direction, could you send on to me soon?”
“So inclined?” Daisy yelped. “Of course, I am, and will right this very minute, if you want, and if I can get some paper from the landlord. But there’s no need to hurry; you don’t have to rush off!”
“I rather think I do,” Helena said, smiling for the first time. “A bride doesn’t need any companion but her husband after her wedding.”
“My home has more bedchambers than is decent, or so everyone has always said,” Leland commented. “My lady is right; stay on with us until you find a new position.”
Helena shook her head. “Thank you, but no, my lord. I’ve engaged my old rooms in London again. But I thought I’d go north and visit my children for a spell first.” Her expression became wistful. “I always do, between positions. They look forward to it as much as I do. I need only take the stage from here tomorrow morning. There’s one due, I know; I’ve asked.”
“But you didn’t ask for your wages, and you didn’t remind me that they were due!” Daisy said. “That beats all! Please stay, I don’t want you riding off alone just yet.” She saw Helena’s unhappy expression. “Oh all right, you must as you wish, I suppose. But I wish you wouldn’t just leave like that.”
“Thank you, I knew you’d understand,” Helena said. “My job here is done. I never was companion to a married lady, you see, and a newly wed one will definitely not require my services. I go where I’m needed. So, I’ll leave you now and visit my children. I need to see them as often as I can. If it makes you feel better, I thank you for this unexpected opportunity. But I will write to you, and if you know anyone in need of a companion, I’d be happy to meet with them.”
Daisy felt terrible, and looked to Leland for advice.
But the earl spoke first. “We’re all sorry to see you go,” he said. “Leland will take care of your wages, and likely here and now if I know my man. But at least I can help you with your other predicament. No need to take the public stage, I’m going tomorrow morning, too, Mrs. Masters. I’d be happy to take you north. It’s on my way to Egremont.”
Leland smiled and looked at Daffyd, who shared his silent appreciation. The earl’s estate was south of where they were, but Geoff hadn’t even asked Helena’s destination or knew how far north it was. But he was the sort of man who hated to see anyone left on his own.
“Of course I’ll settle the matter of wages,” Leland said. “But see what an expensive wife I’ve got! Married not ten minutes and already demanding my money.”
They laughed. Daisy joined in, not because of the quip, but because it seemed to her that her new husband liked to use the word “wife.” And for a wonder, for the first time, hearing herself called that didn’t cause her heart to sink.
The guests began to toast them again, and they joined in the merriment.
After an hour, a servant in green and white livery ducked into the inn’s common room, looked around, saw Leland, and went to him. Leland spoke with him for a moment, nodded, and sent him out again. Then he took his wife aside, and spoke quietly to her.
“This is amusing, but we shouldn’t outstay our welcome,” Leland told her. “So we’ll stay on here, celebrating, for a little while longer. But then we must leave. A bride and groom who linger too long at their own celebration give rise to gossip just as surely as those who can’t wait to rush off and be alone.”
His eyes were grave and sincere as they studied her. “And you and I must begin this right. I want our marriage to be as little cause for gossip as my life was cause for it before we met.”
“Then you shouldn’t have married a convict,” she said bleakly.
He turned so that his body shielded her from the eyes of the guests.
“Had I married a nondescript little nun of a girl in her first Season, with a bishop for a brother, they’d gossip more,” he said in a low voice. “I don’t mind that. It’s you I’m thinking of. But as for your history? I’d wager that if we sat down, bared our souls, and compared our relative notoriety, I’d win, hands down. But there are much better things for us to bare and compare.”
He smiled, and then shook his head at her involuntary start. “No, don’t worry. It wasn’t a threat or a promise, just a jest. I hesitated to take you back to my house until all the guests had been tossed out and we could be alone. I’ve just been assured that we will be-apart from my long-suffering staff, that is. Speaking of the staff, I’ve also been assured that they are ecstatic at the turn of events and eager to meet their new mistress. Who would have guessed that a wedding and the possibility of a quiet life in future would excite so many people so much?”
His voice gentled, and he smiled. “Including myself. Come with me, if you please, my lady. My pleasure palace awaits us, and so does our duty. We have to make it a home again.”
Chapter Nineteen
“This is it?” Daisy asked, astonished. “This is your little country home?”
“In comparison to my principal seat, where my mother lives, yes it is,” Leland said. “It’s small enough to be manageable, and it’s entirely mine, alone. Not any longer, of course; now it’s ours.”
Daisy looked out the carriage window at his home as it came into view. She’d suspected something out of the ordinary after they’d turned from the main road and passed a gatehouse where a gatekeeper, goggling at their carriage, trying to see inside, let them in. Then they’d gone along a lane that curved and snaked so as to keep showing spectacular views of the grounds of some fabulous estate. But Leland only said they were nearing his humble home, so she assumed the estate was a near neighbor. She and her father had lived in a small manor house adjacent to a magnificent house and lands. It was this noble neighbor’s lands that her father had poached until he’d overdone it, been charged, convicted, and sent far away.
Now they passed huge walls of rhododendron that Leland said he regretted were out of bloom, and she’d gotten glimpses of fountains and statues on distant green lawns, and glints of blue in the distance that was surely a lake. Daisy saw deer that stopped to stare at them and sheep that ignored them altogether as they grazed on long green meadows. She spied a waterfall that spilled into a stream that twisted beside the road until it ran beneath a bridge they crossed, and then rushed away. The coach went over an Oriental bridge, up a hill, and under an arch. And then she saw his home.
It was a sprawling red house with wings on either side, and it embraced a shining white oval of a front drive.
Servants in green and white livery stood on the white stairs to the house, and the big front door was opened wide. Leland got out of the carriage and turned to offer his hand to Daisy.