I contemplated him for a second before I nodded. “Of course. We’ll have to be on the 10:35 train to make it to Sutherland Hall before two. Is that going to be a problem?”
Christopher shook his head. “Did you pack?”
“For both of us. I know what you’ll need for a few days away.”
“Thank you, darling.” He bent and dropped a kiss on my cheek before he brushed past me down the hall towards his own bedroom.
“Sleep well, Pippa,” he tossed over his shoulder. “See you in the morning.”
“See you then.” I watched him walk into the washroom and close the door behind him before I made my way back to my own bedroom and my own bed. I was still awake when I heard the toilet flush and Christopher turn out the light and head into his own room to go to sleep.
THREE
“Christopher, sweet!”
Charlotte, Viscountess St George, swooped in and pecked Christopher on the cheek as soon as we landed in the foyer at Sutherland Hall on Saturday afternoon.
She has always been a smidgeon too affectionate with the male side of the family, if you ask me. Not just Christopher, but his father as well. And of course she dotes on Crispin. Practically suffocates him with affection.
Me, on the other hand, she can take or leave, and I’m fairly certain her preference would be if I had decided to do the latter.
“And Miss Darling.” She dropped her hands from Christopher’s shoulders with a final graze over his upper arms, and turned to give me a polite smile.Her voice had cooled down several degrees by the time she got to my name.
“Lady Charlotte.” I modified a curtsey into a quick dip in the knees while I wondered what I had done to upset her.
We’ve never been close. I was attached to the family on Christopher’s mother’s side, of course, and we weren’t quite as prominent in society as the Sutherlands. Charlotte, as the daughter-in-law of a duke, might feel that my mother’s antecedents as the daughter—and a younger daughter, at that—of a younger son were too plebeian to bother with. And then, of course, there was my father.
But she should have had plenty of time to come to terms with me by now. I had lived with the Astleys for more than a dozen years. Robert’s death was almost a decade in the past. And while the happenings on the Continent had been terrible for everyone, Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Harold hadn’t lost anyone in the conflict. Crispin was their only child, and he had been too young to serve. It was Uncle Herbert and Aunt Roz who had lost Robert, and if they could love me and care for me in spite of my father’s nationality, I saw no reason why Lady Charlotte should have a poor attitude.
She looked at me as if I were something that had made it into the house on the bottom of her shoe, however. I glanced at Christopher to see if he had any idea what was going on, but he looked as perplexed as I was.
“Something wrong, Aunt Charlotte?”
Her expression cleared. “Of course not, darling boy.” The endearment was accompanied by a pat of his cheek, before she tucked her hand through his elbow. “Come along. Let’s go into the parlor while we wait for your grandfather to finish speaking to Francis.”
She click-clacked her way across the marble of the foyer, tugging him along beside her. I hadn’t been invited to accompany them, so maybe she had expected me to take myself upstairs with the bags, but Christopher called out to me. “Come along, Pippa. And don’t dawdle. Don’t you want to see Mother and Father?”
Of course I did. I also had a shameful desire to put Aunt Charlotte’s nose out of joint. Both of those desires were warring inside me as I crossed the foyer and stepped across the threshold into the parlor behind Christopher and Lady Charlotte.
Francis never came back—notinto the parlor—and Crispin wasn’t there to begin with, but after ten minutes or so, Grimsby appeared in the doorway and spirited Aunt Roz upstairs. She didn’t come back, either. I wondered if she might have gone to talk to Francis, if the audience with the duke had upset him enough that he wanted his mother. He doesn’t handle conflict terribly well, not after spending several years shooting at others and being shot at in return, and if the Duke of Sutherland is a master at anything, it’s conflict.
At any rate, Grimsby came back at that point and told Christopher that it was his turn to see his grandfather.
It isn’t usually the valet’s job to summon guests for the master of the house, so I think we had both been a bit surprised to see Grimsby come and go as the duke’s emissary. But Aunt Charlotte didn’t bat an eye, just waved her hand regally. “Go on, Christopher, darling. Don’t keep your grandfather waiting.”
Christopher arched his brows, but stood and buttoned his jacket. I shot to my feet, as well. “I’ll go with you.”
Grimsby turned to me, and so did everyone else. Before anyone could say anything, I added, “I’ll wait outside the Duke’s Chamber. But I’ll accompany you upstairs.”
I didn’t want to be left in the parlor with only Aunt Charlotte and the two uncles for company, after all. I knew that Christopher would likely appreciate the moral support on the way up, and besides, I had a cunning plan.
Christopher nodded, of course, and crooked his elbow at me. I slipped my hand through and let him escort me out. Grimsby closed the door gently behind us before anyone in the parlor could articulate what they were thinking. “This way, if you would, Mr. Astley, Miss Darling.”
He led the way to the central staircase.
About halfway up, Christopher found his voice. “Miss Darling told me you stopped by the flat last night, Grimsby.”
Grimsby didn’t even bat an eye. “Yes, Mr. Astley. I wanted a word.”
