Chapter Fourteen
Lady Margaret folded the guest list and put it into her travelling desk. She closed it and placed it on the seat beside her.
Julian looked up from the estate papers he was reading. “All in order?”
Lady Margaret pursed her lips, then nodded. “Yes. Oddly so. Your mother has invited the most eligible young women in London. And most of them have accepted.”
Knowing the sort of overbearing woman his mother was, Julian was not in the least surprised that few had dared to decline. “That still does not make up for having stolen the necklace.”
As soon as the house party was over, he would follow the countess to Austria. If he did ask one of his lady guests to be his bride, it would be with the express understanding that their honeymoon would be spent trying to retrieve the Crusader Ruby. The countess may have thought she had got the better of him, but Julian was far from done with his mother.
“You sent word ahead of all the preparations that need to be in hand before our guests arrive on Saturday?” he asked, changing the subject.
Lady Margaret nodded. If anyone could arrange a successful house party it was her. He could trust all the arrangements to her, knowing that she would have Newhall Castle shining like a new pin before the first guest arrived. She cared that the castle should have a new mistress, one who would see it well-managed for the next generation.
He sat back in the travel coach and looked out the window. It was good to be going home. He had spent too little time at his estate since his father’s death.
“Thank you.”
“For what?” she replied.
“For being here. For all that you have done for me over the years. I know when you were with my father you looked after him out of love, but as for me, you have no obligation. You have always been the one person I can count on. I just wanted to acknowledge that. You are the mother I never had,” he said.
He chuckled as Lady Margaret quickly wiped a tear from her eye. She reached over and gave him a soft slap on the knee. “You just did that to make me cry, you wicked boy.”
When their travel coach made the final turn into the grounds of Newhall Castle, Julian sat up in his seat. He looked out the window, watching the deer, which freely roamed the castle grounds, scatter as the coach approached.
His joy at being home was tempered by the fact that his father would not be waiting for him on the steps of the castle. He would never get used to the emptiness he felt at not seeing the earl’s smiling face.
He sighed and looked back to Lady Margaret. She was staring at him with a wistful look.
“He would be pleased to know that you are moving on with your life. That hopefully the halls of the castle will soon echo with the laughter of children. Running wild over the castle grounds with his siblings was always his favorite memory of his own childhood here. It pained him to his death that you were never able to experience that same happiness,” she said.
Julian shrugged off the lovely sentimental thought. Laughter had always been in short supply while his mother reigned over the estate. To this day, he still felt a sense of guilt over the one time she had made him happy. When he had stood out the front of the castle and watched her climb into the carriage that had taken her away. The very last time she had left Newhall Castle for good.
“Well, let us hope that one of the young ladies we have invited is agreeable and would make a suitable countess,” he replied.
Having daily borne witness to the disaster that had been his parents’ union, Julian was content to settle his matrimonial sights on a woman who could stand to be in the same room as him. A marriage of respect and kindness was the limit of his expectations.
He went back to looking out the coach window. Banks of snow sat on the verges either side of the driveway. Snow that was deep enough that it would not melt with the morning sun.
“I hope you have plenty of indoor activities planned for the week; it looks like the weather could turn foul earlier than it usually does. The last thing we want is to be trying to host outdoor events when the guests are in danger of freezing to death,” he said.
“I had thought about that before we left, so I shall have the staff empty the main ballroom. We can set up archery contests in there if the weather closes in,” Lady Margaret replied.
Julian put his face to the glass and looked up at the sky. The clouds were thick grey ones which sat low in the sky. There was not a patch of blue to be seen.
His hopes for the weather sunk further when his gaze followed Lady Margaret’s hand as she pointed toward the west, the direction from which their weather normally came. More low, dark clouds followed those which already hung overhead.
“Oh dear. That does not look good. I shall send word to the village to bring over more supplies of wood and food. If we do get snowed in for a time, the least we can do is to make sure your guests are warm and well-fed,” she said.
With the members of the house party expected two days hence, there was not time enough to send word to London to cancel the party. Whatever the weather, they would have to make do.
The coach slowed to a halt outside the front door of the castle. Julian helped Lady Margaret down and they accepted the welcome greetings from the Newhall estate steward.
“Here he comes,” said Lady Margaret.
Through the castle door bounded a black cocker spaniel who made straight for Julian. He jumped up at his master, tail wagging.
“Hello Midas. You have missed me,” he said.
His steward chuckled. “He began whimpering a few minutes ago, long before the coach came into view.”
Julian bent down and scratched Midas’s ears. His late father had given him the dog as a present just before Julian left to serve in the war against Napoleon. Midas was one of the few living reminders of his father that he had.
“You are happy to have us home. Well, we will have lots of people in the house this week, so I am sure you will be spoilt rotten by the end of the party,” said Julian.
One of the tests he had set for his choice of wife was how well she handled the dog. His future countess would have to be comfortable in letting Midas have the roam of most of the house. Any young lady who asked for the dog to be kept to the stables would find her name quietly removed from Julian’s list.
