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Taking the glass from Rob—and making sure her fingers brushed his, Allegra noted—Sapphira took a tiny sip and gazed up at him. “Lord Lynton—our own dear Rob! Pray excuse my weakness, but when I saw you standing there, looking so much like my poor Robert, I was…quite overcome.”
Rob removed his fingers. “Indeed. I expect you will grow accustomed to the likeness, since I intend to sell out and remain in England.”
“Oh, Rob, that’s great news!” Allegra said, speaking for the first time since the little drama unfolded.
Ignoring her, Sapphira gave him a weak smile. “Then I will have you to advise me? What a relief! Managing a household is such a burden for a woman alone, especially as I am still so much cast down…” She allowed one crystalline tear to bead on her long lashes.
At that moment, Hill, Sapphira’s dresser, appeared along with Lizzie. Allegra noted that after Hill assured Rob she and Lizzie could manage taking her ladyship up to her chamber, he made no further attempt to assist her. He simply watched as the women supported Sapphira out of the room, a thoughtful expression on his face.
When the trio had gone, he turned back to Allegra. “I notice you didn’t offer your help.”
“I expect Aunt Sapphira would sooner accept the hand of an urchin off the street than take mine,” she replied.
“You don’t get on?”
After briefly considering a more detailed response, Allegra said only “No.”
Rob studied her, his gaze progressing from her simply arranged hair to her gloveless hands to her worn gown. His eyes returning to her face, he said, “I have an appointment with the solicitors soon, but when I return, I should like to talk further.”
“I’d like that, too. You…” She paused, her eyes filling with tears. “You must wish to know about Uncle Robert’s last days. He often spoke of you, and I promised to convey his blessings.”
“I didn’t know how ill he was until…” His own eyes sheening with moisture, Rob broke off and swallowed hard. “In his last letter, he said only that he’d been ailing with some trifling thing that would soon pass. When I heard nothing further, I should have realized that something was amiss—but there was always one more duty to perform, and the weeks slipped by.”
Shocked, Allegra looked up at him. “You didn’t know how desperately ill he was?”
“If I had, I would have come home at once! But after that one letter, Papa didn’t write again. And his fine new wife sent me…nothing. I didn’t even know you were here. I’m glad he had some family with him at…at the end.”
“Oh, Rob,” she whispered, tears starting again as his face contorted. While he looked away, fighting for control, she took his hand. He gripped hers hard for a moment before turning back to her.
“Thank you for being here, Allegra. I want to know everything, but later, when I have more time. Now I must go up and change for the appointment. Walk up with me, won’t you?”
Letting go of her hand, he motioned her to precede him. In silence they entered the hall and walked up the stairs. Distracted by a renewal of her grief, it wasn’t until Rob stopped at the door to the blue bedchamber that she remembered.
Flushing, she motioned toward his room farther down the hall. “I’ll leave you to finish your preparations. Please do send for me when you get back, and good luck at the solicitors.” After squeezing his hand, she made to walk past him back toward the service stairs.
He caught her shoulder. “Come now, Bessie can manage without you for a few hours. Why don’t you rest while I’m gone?” With a smile, he opened the door to the blue bedchamber and gave her a teasing push.
Caught off-guard by that action, she stumbled. By the time she’d righted herself, her flush deepening as she tried to think of something to say, his sharp gaze had scanned the obviously unoccupied chamber.
“You’re not staying here?”
She summoned a smile. “I have…other accommodations now.”
His lips tightened into a thin line. “I see. Yes, we shall certainly talk later.”
“Of course. I hope your meeting goes well.” Turning again, she walked away, acutely aware that instead of continuing on to his room, he remained in the hallway. She felt the force of his gaze upon her until she disappeared behind the door to the service stairs.
THE IMPERATIVE of revisiting for Rob the last few weeks of his father’s life brought Allegra’s muted grief back to sharp, aching focus. Not feeling up to a battle of wills with Sapphira, she climbed the stairs and slipped inside her little attic room.
A few hours later, after reviewing her time with her late uncle and choosing the details she would recount to Rob, she reread the note she’d just received from Mr. Waters at the employment agency, summarizing their interview earlier in the week.
Her qualifications looked excellent, he wrote, and given the gentility of her carriage, voice and demeanor, he felt certain he would have no trouble obtaining a post for her as soon as he received her letters of reference.
Sighing, Allegra cudgeled her brain trying to determine whom she might approach to obtain such letters. Giving up the effort for the moment, as she had often these last few months when she struggled with some problem, from her reticule she drew out her most prized possession—her father’s last letter, written when he knew he was dying.
The vellum was smooth and worn from use. Just holding it gave her comfort, nor had she any need to unfold it to recall the words written within.
“My precious daughter,” Papa had begun in a struggling hand, “I now accept that this feeble frame has refused my will’s demand to recover. But before I go, I must tell you that while music was my life, you and your mother have been my heart, my soul, my spirit and my joy. Though I rejoice that soon, she and I will be together for all eternity, my heart breaks at leaving you alone. You must not be afraid, carita. Always remember you possess your mother’s grace and the Antinori fierceness.”
The writing growing steadily more illegible, he concluded, “With your courage, intelligence and spirit, all will be well in the end. Adios! Your adoring Papa.”
At this moment as never before, Allegra felt truly alone in the world. A rush of panic and despair escaped her attempt to supress it. Would everything ever be well again?
A knock sounded at the door, interrupting her thoughts, and Lizzie popped in. “The Captain be wanting to see you in the library.” Belatedly adding a curtsey, Lizzie continued, “At your convenience, he said.” She sighed. “Oh, Miss Allegra, ain’t he just the handsomest man you ever saw? And as gentlemanly as handsome!”
Calling Rob’s face to mind steadied Allegra. With her old friend returned, she wasn’t completely alone. “Handsome and gentlemanly indeed,” she agreed. Resolute and gallant as a knight of yore, she added to herself, picturing him again in his regimentals. If only her childhood hero might ride to her rescue.
A sudden flare of hope made her straighten. Even as a boy, Rob had followed his father’s lead in supporting her and her family. He’d chastised his friends when they teased her and once knocked down another boy who called her a “dark-faced foreigner.” Might he offer some more attractive alternatives for her future?
She mustn’t depend on anyone but herself now, she reminded. But though she told herself she should count only on delivering Uncle Robert’s messages to Rob before going her own way, Allegra could not forestall a swell of excitement.
Not sure whether he would include Sapphira in their discussion, Allegra was relieved when she entered the library to find only Rob within. But seeing him seated behind the desk where she had so often found Uncle Robert, she had to take a deep breath.
“Allegra, come in!” he called. “Some wine?”
After pouring them each a glass, Rob ushered her to the sofa and took a seat beside her. “First, accept both my condolences and my apologies. You must have thought me an unfeeling beast! I didn’t learn until I talked with Bessie this afternoon that you lost your parents last fall. Please believe that I would have written at once, had I known. I can only be glad that after that awful event, you had the good sense to come here to Papa.”
Determined to banish the threatening tears, she took a sip of her wine and composed herself. “It was…a dreadful time. I think we helped each other, Uncle Robert and I.”
“You certainly helped him! Bessie told me he was already ill when you arrived. That you put aside your own grief and devoted all your time to entertaining and tending him…and at the last, to keeping vigil. Chores his new wife did not feel up to performing, I understand.”
Allegra shrugged. “He was almost as much a father to me as my own. It was a pleasure to spend time with him.” Amazing herself, she felt compelled to add, “Sapphira is rather young, and has neither the sensibility nor the skill to be of much assistance in a sickroom. I believe she has been all her life much cosseted and indulged.”
Rob grimaced. “So I gathered upon entering my front hallway. I thought at first I’d stumbled into the wrong house! I stopped to see Hobbs this afternoon and learned I have him to thank for sparing this room from invasion by crocodiles and lacquered paint. I’ve reinstated him, by the way.”
