AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Theo came down to breakfast dressed in cream pantaloons, shining Hessians with gold tassels, brand new linen and a coat of immaculate dark blue superfine.
‘You are never going to drive dressed like that, surely?’ Elinor asked, putting down the coffee pot. She had put on her new carriage dress in heavy Lyon silk, taken a good deal of trouble over her hair, and had chosen a pair of exquisite kid gloves in honour of her first appearance at the Maubourg court.
The words had escaped before she had given any thought to the fact that things must still be somewhat constrained between them, but Theo shrugged amiably enough. ‘I’ve hired a groom to drive. I did not think my arrival looking like the driver of the London-to-Brighton stage would add to our consequence. We might be relatives, but we’ve got to get in the front door first.’ He accepted the coffee she passed him—strong, black, one sugar, just as he liked it—and added, ‘You look very fine.’
‘Thank you.’ Elinor scrabbled around mentally for things to talk about, then realised they were going to have all day shut up in the carriage together and stilted conversation was not going to be enough. ‘I don’t suppose you have a travelling chess set on you?’
‘No, but I can buy some cards from the waiter. Do you play whist?
No? Let me teach you, then when we get to Maubourg Sebastian can teach you how to be a sharper.’
‘Sebastian? Is he really? From his days as Jack Ryder, do you mean? I wish he would talk about his adventures as a King’s Messenger, but he is desperately discreet.’
‘Rather more than a King’s Messenger,’ Theo remarked, slicing ham thickly. ‘And still is, from time to time, when the government needs him. Although don’t, for goodness sake, repeat that.’
‘And Eva knows?’
‘Apparently she says that so long as it doesn’t involve beautiful young women, he must do as he sees fit.’
‘What would she say about the marquesa?’ Elinor stole one of Theo’s slices of ham, beginning to relax a little.
‘Ana? Eva has more sense than to fret about Sebastian’s past—after all, her first husband was one of the most notorious rakes in Europe. But I would not fancy any woman’s chances of escaping with a whole skin if they decided to set their caps at Sebastian now.’
Elinor envied the Grand Duchess her strength and her certainty. If she could be like that, then an independent life would be easy to achieve. And then she remembered Eva’s confidences about her nightmares, recalled seeing the way she looked at Sebastian when she thought she was unobserved—perhaps Eva was not so self-assured. Perhaps it was a matter of application and holding one’s nerve after all. They would be in the castle of Maubourg tonight and she would talk to her cousin by marriage, ask her advice. Not about Theo, of course—she was certain that she could never speak about what had happened to a living soul—but about making a break from her past and becoming independent. Eva would understand.
Chapter Twenty
It was past seven in the evening when the rumble of the carriage wheels over cobbles woke Elinor. She had been dozing in the corner of the carriage for an hour, worn out by a day struggling with the rules of whist and Theo’s ruthless acquisition of a vast, if imaginary, fortune from her. Her lost wealth was represented by the litter of vowels on the carriage floor.
‘Wake up.’ Theo reached out and shook her arm, gently. The first time he had voluntarily touched her, she realised, since he had left her bed. ‘Put on your hat, we are almost there. Here.’ He held out her pelisse and helped her into it For a moment his fingertips brushed along the nape of her neck, then he was sitting back in his corner, gazing out of the window, leaving her to button up the garment and twitch her skirts into order as though nothing was amiss and her breath had not hitched in her throat with the shock of his touch.
The light still lingered in the sloping square before the wide sweep of steps. At the top the massive double doors, studded with knots of medieval ironwork and with a dragon’s-head knocker in the centre, frowned down at them. The shadows from the tall houses were long and Elinor shivered as she stepped down into shade, suddenly a prey to doubts. ‘Is it going to be all right, just turning up like this?’ she whispered, as Theo turned from giving the driver instructions and came to take her arm.
‘Yes, of course. This is Eva and Sebastian, don’t forget.’ He walked across the cobbles, ignoring the curious stares of passers-by.
‘Yes, but I don’t know Eva at all well, not really,’ she worried. There was an imposing pair of guards in full silver-and-blue uniforms with plumes in their helmets and pikes in their hands at the foot of the steps and another pair at the top. As Elinor and Theo approached, the pikes clashed together in an unmistakable signal to stop.
Theo kept going, arrived at the foot of the steps and addressed the right-hand guard in French. ‘Mr and Miss Ravenhurst to see Her Serene Highness and Lord Sebastian Ravenhurst.’
One of the top pair of guards pulled a large metal knob, producing a sonorous clanging from inside. Elinor, her still-sleepy brain conjuring up scenes from Gothic novels, stifled a nervous giggle. A wicket gate opened, words were exchanged with someone unseen inside, then both doors were thrown wide, the guards saluted smartly and they were climbing the steps to be met by a tail-coated major domo with a long staff in his hands and a footman on either side.
‘This is very formal,’ Elinor hissed in Theo’s ear. ‘But they seem to accept who we are.’
‘Mr Ravenhurst, welcome to Maubourg. Their Serene Highnesses will be delighted at this unexpected pleasure. Madame.’
‘Monsieur Heribaut, it is a pleasure to see you again.’ So they knew him; she should have guessed. ‘This is Miss Ravenhurst, Lord Sebastian’s cousin. I regret, but there has been an incident that has forced us to seek the hospitality of the Grand Duke without notice. Elinor, this is Monsieur Heribaut, the Chamberlain of the castle.’
‘If you would care to come in sir, madame, I will—’
‘Papa, please let me hold him!’ The Chamberlain swung round as a boy walked backwards into the great hall talking to the man who followed him. ‘I won’t drop him, I promise, Mama said—’
The man, tall, broad shouldered, elegant in black evening dress was, Elinor realised, her cousin Sebastian, holding a very small baby against his shoulder and patting it on the back. Her mouth dropped open—this was not at all how she would expect to see him. The boy stopped walking and began hopping up and down on the spot, allowing a small flock of what Elinor assumed were nursery maids to catch up and hover anxiously behind them. ‘Papa…’
‘Your Serene Highness, Lord Sebastian.’ The Chamberlain managed to cut through the chatter of the women and the boy’s wheedling voice without raising his own. ‘Mr and Miss Ravenhurst.’
Elinor, who was always rather in awe of her magnificent cousin Sebastian, swallowed as he turned. Then he grinned and strode over, an incongruous figure with his exquisite clothes and the baby, which had begin to dribble, she noticed, clasped to his shoulder.
‘Theo! My dear cousin. And…’ he stopped and stared down at her ‘…Elinor?’
