“Well, everything that has been said…so uplifting, I thought,” Lady Redfield said. “As for myself, well my dear Arabella! So lovely and lively and everything I could have wished for. And dear Peregrine, you have become like a son to me.”
Harry could not help himself. He glanced at the duchess once more to see how she would take the news that her son had now a second mother. As the lady’s fingers had gone white round the handle of her teacup, he assumed she was not entirely sanguine over the idea.
“And in Town,” Lady Redfield continued, “you are both right next door to my own. Did I say how much Lord Jeffries has enjoyed your company when you visit? And he is there? He is there sometimes. When he visits my household. As he does from time to time.”
Lady Redfield had gone rather pink at the mention of Lord Jeffries. Was there a December romance in the offing?
“Well, really, what more can I say?” Lady Redfield asked. “Arabella has brought so much joy into my house.”
“And other things into the house,” the duchess said acerbically.
Lady Redfield nervously crumpled her skirt in her hand. “Well, yes, Theodosia, there was the squirrel. His name was Rusty. He is back outside now. And all those birds, the cocks, they were never inside the house, you see.”
Harry was almost crying, his laughter was so ready to burst. Everybody had heard of Lady Arabella’s pet squirrel that had made an untoward appearance on the table at one of Lady Redfield’s dinners. Now they were to know that it had been Lady Arabella who’d set free Skeffington’s birds ahead of his Welch Main?
“In any case,” Lady Redfield said rather hopefully, “Arabella will not be bringing in any creatures to this house?”
Though it ought to have been a statement, poor Lady Redfield could not manage more than a hopeful question.
Lady Blackwood, just now on her husband’s arm, gave a noncommittal shrug. “I only mention,” she said, “that I did note a rabbit on the side of the drive who may be rather poorly. I will check on the poor fellow in the morning.”
That was too much for everybody. As if on cue, the room erupted in laughter. Fortunately, none of the matrons appeared to have any notion that they were a large part of the cause.
Of course they did not. These six indomitable souls could never dream anybody was laughing at them. Harry could not hold anything but amusement and affection for these women—who could do otherwise?
They were confounding creatures. However, they had also, whether they meant to or not, been the means to his happiness.
*
Harry and Isabeldid not go to Town that first season. They’d felt their time was better spent at Somerdon House, ensuring the success of the estate for generations to come.
Isabel saw a good deal of Margaret and her squire, Margaret being as flighty as ever. The idea that the estate was not entailed had made her far more cheerful than she had been. Isabel adored how patient Harry was with her often nonsensical ideas.
She and Harry spent far more time with Lord and Lady Bertridge. Sometimes, they brought the earl along with them, though he was not known to be a great socializer. Still, it amused Harry no end when the earl would catch Lady Easton staring at him critically and he would lean forward and say, “Staring. Why?”
Lady Easton usually had the same response. “I was thinking about your poor clocks, Lord Somerdon.”
Lord Somerdon sometimes answered and sometimes did not. Though one time he’d pointed at her and said, “You.Strange.”
Summer came round again, and Isabel and Harry were convinced that Browning had the estate well in hand. They determined it was time to get out of the steward’s way and set off.
Though Isabel had been thoroughly convinced of Harry’s acumen at keeping an estate afloat, it was only over time that she understood just how well he’d done for himself. He not only had the estate in Cornwall and a house in Town, but another smaller estate in Bedfordshire that was outside of the entail. Harry was determined that a second son would not be forced to choose the military or the church and could live as a gentleman. Should there be a third son, he’d find another estate, and money was already being put by for daughters’ dowries.
Harry also happened to own a very charming cottage by the sea.
It was to the cottage by the sea they went.
The little stone house was not located nearby a town of any size and Harry had bought a mile of land on either side of it so there would never be any neighbors in sight. He had a small staff to run it when he wished to be there, and kept them on a retainer when he was absent.
As there was not any neighbors, Isabel and Harry took to their own version of sea bathing. Isabel would wear her shift into the water and then remove it and throw it on the beach to be retrieved by Harry when they were ready to come out.
As for Harry, himself, he simply left his clothes on the beach. Isabel did not know if all men were so used to walking about as unclothed as the day they were born, but her husband was certainly in the habit.
Whatever went on in the water in the meantime was their own private business.
In the evenings, they ate dinner on the veranda with wine and sea breezes and talked about how to enlarge the cottage should they find their little family expanding.
At night, they slept with the windows wide open, letting the salt air wash over them.
