Page 12 of The Earl and His Lady

Randal, who remained standing where he had been, started and then came running down the hall to catch up. “Coming, my lord.”

Lucas tried not to laugh at the man’s startled expression and hurried to his room. If they could get the business of shaving and dressing over with quickly, he might make it to the Gilberts’ a quarter after ten. That would still be later than he wished, but he could hardly help it at that point.

A man didn’t present glue and a marriage proposal without being properly shaved and attired, after all.

Randal rushed through his usual ministrations. Lucas never had a reason to find fault with his valet. When he was shaved in record time, he gave the man a tip for his trouble. The glue was sent for from the work shed, then he went to obtain a horse and be on his way.

Lucas rehearsed his decision and its reasoning to himself again.

Lady Virginia Macon needed a husband to save her children from an overzealous uncle. The boys needed a man in their lives to bring them up properly prepared for their futures. He needed, eventually, an heir to his title and estate to spare his younger brother the responsibility. Marrying the baroness would sufficiently fulfill all those needs, and others besides. There would be a Countess of Annesbury again, seeing to his houses and tenants. He knew his estates lacked a woman’s touch. And perhaps, God willing, she would be a good companion for him.

The echoes of an empty Annesbury Hall would not need to be borne again.

Chapter Five

Virginia watched her sons in the garden, amused by their whole-hearted concentration on their current game. They had built up an animal infirmary and gathered several toys to be ill and others to nurse the afflicted. The wooden horse started the patient roster, as it was laid on a sun-warmed brick with a handkerchief to cover its battered body. A soldier was added as doctor, but then more toys filled sick beds. A wooden lion, a clay dog, a paper bird, were all abed with scraps of cloth to keep them from catching a chill. Tin soldiers were the primary nursemaids, but Edward had found a doll in the nursery and set her as head nurse.

Having breakfasted some time before, the boys had thought the earl would show up immediately after they finished their toast.

“But Lord Calvert cannot come until he has finished his own toast, and we know not when that will be,” she had explained. They decided to wait in front of the house, in a small garden.

Virginia accompanied them with a book, though she found it difficult to concentrate on its pages. Her mind remained consumed with the problem at hand. Phillip’s voice, raised fearfully, interrupted her thoughts.

“—not consumption. None of them can have that.”

“But it’s a real sickness,” Edward, innocent and trying to be clever, argued. “We can have a doctor come and—”

“The doctor didn’t save Papa.” Phillip’s young voice, heavy and somber, cut off his brother’s words. Then Phillip turned away from their make-believe hospital, folding his arms. “This is a silly game anyway. I don’t want to play anymore.”

What could she say? As his mother, what could she possibly do to comfort his heart? He missed his father terribly. Phillip’s words touched a tender spot in Edward’s heart, she could see, as her younger son’s face began to screw up, as though he might cry or shout.

“Now then, what have we here?” she asked, keeping her tone bright as she left her bench and came to kneel in the grass. “What a very fine place for creatures in need. Tell me, Edward, what ails the lion? Has he a toothache?”

Edward’s expression changed back to one of easy happiness. “No, Mama. He’s like the lion in the story with the mouse. He has a thorn in his paw.”

“But where is a mouse to help him?” she asked.

Phillip, slumped over and glaring at the grass, said nothing. Edward began to spin a tale of the missing mouse and talked of an expedition being mounted to find him.

“He must remain in hospital until a mouse can be found to do the job,” he said at the finish, nodding emphatically. “But it’s all right. Someone will come save him.” His complete faith in a miraculous rescue, however imaginary, made Virginia smile.

She had given up on expecting someone to save her from her troubles. That very morning, she’d woken with the conviction that she must act. Her heart was torn between two possibilities. She must find someone to marry, preferably a man with enough of his own wealth to leave her sons’ inheritance alone. Or she could flee to the Americas, where the British courts could not touch her. But that scheme was fraught with its own danger and more unknowns than she cared to think upon.

Either decision required a great deal of study and fortitude on her part.

The sound of hoof beats on gravel brought the boys’ attention to the road. Virginia turned to see the arrival of the Earl of Annesbury atop a large chestnut horse. He waved when Phillip leaped to his feet.

“He came, he came,” Phillip shouted happily.

“Hooray!” Edward jumped up and down, throwing his little fist in the air.

The earl dismounted and gave the animal a pat. A groom appeared from the side of the house, where he must’ve been stationed to wait upon the earl’s horse.

“That is a hero’s welcome, if ever I heard one,” Lord Calvert said, his words laced with good humor. He thanked the groom for taking his horse and came to the boys, a drawstring bag in his hand. “And what is all this?”

“We made an animal hospital,” Edward answered.

Phillip went to the horse’s brick-bed and pulled back the handkerchief. “But the only one really injured is the horse.”