Page 20 of Christmas Comes to Little Valentine

Meg blushed, for Betty was looking at her oddly, as if wondering how on earth any self-respecting fiancée could have forgotten such vital information. Meg didn’t blame her; she was only now realising how little she knew about Mr Ashford, and they were supposed to be engaged. It was all well and good for him to say it was a whirlwind romance, but if she did not wish to appear to be either an adventuress or a nincompoop, she had better be on her guard.

“Quite. Yes, of course. It’s just rather daunting, meeting everyone at once. My nerves are getting the better of me,” she said defensively.

“Don’t fret, my dearest. I will look after you. Just put yourself entirely in my hands.”

Betty sighed at this romantic prospect, gazing at him as if he were Apollo and Lord Byron rolled into one. Mr Ashford’s eyes glittered with amusement and Meg glared back at him. The rat. He would pay for teasing her, that much she promised herself.

Settling back against the squabs once more, she told herself to calm down and get a grip upon her nerves before she said something she ought not to. Yet she had barely taken a breath to settle herself when the woodland they had been travelling through parted, and a sudden glitter of blue caught her eye.

“Oh!” she cried, making both Betty and Mr Ashford jump at her outburst. “Oh, the sea! Mr Ashford, is that the sea?”

She immediately regretted the words, for what else could it be? Yet how beautiful it was, how vast and glittering and so very blue. It stole her breath.

“You’ve never seen the sea before?” he asked in wonder.

Meg shook her head, mesmerised by the sparkling sight, like diamonds thrown over a carpet of lush blue silk. “No. I’ve only ever read of it, but my imagination did not do it justice,” she said, feeling foolish as tears prickled at her eyes. No matter what, she vowed, no matter what happened over the next weeks, she would not regret it, would not regret taking this chance. For she might never have seen something so vast and lovely if she had stayed in London, might never have realised such beauty existed in the world.

The woodland returned to the path they traversed, stealing the sight from her view and Meg sat back again, disappointed. Glancing up self-consciously, she was unsurprised to find Mr Ashford watching her, she having made such a spectacle of herself. Yet he did not look amused or ready to tease her. There was quite a different look in his eyes, one she could not read but which made her feel even more abashed.

“Don’t worry. You’ll see it again. In fact, you’ll see it every day. Hatherley House is high up and looks down upon the town and the sea beyond. You’ll probably see it from your bedroom window, and we can walk down to the shore when the weather is fine, if you’d like to.”

“May we?” Meg asked, so delighted by this prospect her fears of everything she must face over the coming weeks quite fell away. “I should like that above anything.”

“Whenever you wish, though you may not feel so fondly on a freezing cold, windy day when the rain is lashing down. An angry sea is a daunting thing to behold, not to mention exceedingly wet,” he said with a laugh.

“Well, I should still like to see for myself,” Meg said staunchly, not about to let a bit of bad weather put her off such an experience.

“Your wish is my command, my sweet,” he said, grinning at her like an amiable buffoon.

Meg narrowed her eyes at him but said nothing, knowing he delighted in provoking her with his silly endearments. So she returned her attention to the scenery, still determined to pay him back for his teasing.

Chapter 5

The Lion’s Mouth.

Hatherley Hall, Little Valentine, 6th December 1815

Though outwardly calm, Nat’s nerves were all on edge. The excellent steak pie was sitting somewhat heavily in his stomach, and the sooner they were out of the carriage, the better. Except that the sooner they were out of the carriage, the sooner they’d have to face his family.

It was strange, really, for he’d been eager to bring Miss Bancroft down here, eager to thrust her in his family’s face and stand back looking smug when they realised their plans to get him leg-shackled were all for naught. Now, however, when his moment of triumph was at hand, he was getting cold feet.

He knew why it was, obviously. It was because of her. It was the sea that had done for him, or at least her reaction to it. She had looked so utterly spellbound, as astonished as a child seeing snow for the first time, such was her innocent pleasure in the beauty of something she had only ever read about and never seen. Though he had done it with the best of intentions, he was putting her in a dreadful position, and the reality of all the things that could go wrong, which had seemed so frail and insubstantial in London, suddenly seemed a good deal larger and uglier. He had realised too late just how much he wished to protect her from being hurt, something he might have considered before they set off on this harebrained adventure. But it was too late now. All he could do was exactly what he had promised to do: protect her, to keep her safe, and to ensure her future was a happy one, as best he could.

Oh, well, that was all right, then. It wasn’t as if his own future was a complete mess, he thought with a sigh.

The carriage drew them through the gates to Hatherley Hall, and suddenly there it was before them, the grand porticoed front door, flanked by neatly clipped topiary bushes, the windows glinting gold as the sun began its journey down to sink beneath the sea. Nat wondered what Miss Bancroft would make of that, of the way the sun turned the great expanse into liquid gold. His spirits lifted as he determined to see her reaction the sight.

“Well, here we are, then,” he said, forcing himself to appear cheerful and relaxed and all the time praying Hawkney wasn’t home. He could do with a bit of time before he faced his cousin with the news of his engagement.

“I thought you said it weren’t that grand?” Betty objected, staring up at the house and appearing somewhat daunted.

“It’s not, not really. You’ll soon get used to it,” he assured her.

Betty scampered down, where a footman instructed her to present herself to the housekeeper at the servants’ entrance. Miss Bancroft did not move from her seat, just gazed out at the house with an expression close to terror.

“Well, Miss Bancroft,” Nat said, reaching for her hand. “No backing out now.”

“No,” she said, producing a smile that was less than convincing. He only hoped she could do better for his grandmother or they’d be in the basket before the day was out.