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“I’ve never been very saintly, as ye well know, me boy, but I’ll do me best. Me an’ Walter will get things shined up here. Your father cared enough about his horseflesh and carriages that we’re in better shape than most. It’s what yer going to do over there”—he gestured with his head toward the manor house—“that ye need to worry about, if yer looking to make your highbred lady feel at home.”
“You’re right,” William said. “Which is why I’m headed there now. Even so, I want an honest accounting from you of what can reasonably be done. Carriages, bloodstock, tools, paddocks. A full accounting, Samuel. We want everything at its reasonable best.”
“Right ye are. And everything in the meantime will get shined up proper, don’t ye worry about that. We all done our best to keep the place up for ye; we’re that fond of ye, boy.”
“Thank you, Samuel.”
He hoped the rest of the staff received his news with the same degree of enthusiasm and optimism.
* * *
“Will!” a high-pitched voice shrieked, and William had barely enough time to brace himself before Mary vaulted herself into his arms. “You’re back! You’re staying for good this time too, aren’t you? Oh, Will!” She hugged him with such force that he thought he might suffocate.
“Mary, my best girl and truest friend.” He gently pried her strangling arms from around his neck and took a deep breath. “I am back for today and part of tomorrow, but then I must leave again—but before you frown, I will tell you that soon I will be here to stay.”
“For always?” she asked.
“For most of the time. I may have to journey to other places on occasion, like London.”
“That’s okay,” she said with a nod. “Important gentlemen go to London.”
“Will you let me escort you to the house?” he asked her formally, winging his elbow out for her. It was a game they had always played growing up.
“Why, thank you, sir,” she replied with a grin, placing her hand on his proffered arm.
They walked toward the herb garden together. “Mary, I have some important news to share with you,” he said. “So I’m exceedingly glad you saw that I had returned and came out to greet me. I hope the news pleases you.”
“It will please me, because you will be telling me that you are going to stay here now, when you don’t have to go to London.”
“Indeed, love. But when I return to stay—listen to me carefully, now—I will be bringing someone special. Her name will be Lady Farleigh—”
Mary’s eyebrows came together in a look of confusion. “But your mama is Lady Farleigh, and she died. I cried when that happened, Will. I cried and cried.”
“I know, love. I grieved for her as well, and I still do. But the Lady Farleigh I am talking about . . . will be my wife. Do you understand?”
Her eyes widened, and she stopped in her tracks. “You are getting married!” She threw her arms around his neck again. “Oh, Will! You are getting married, and you will be a husband, and you will have a wife. And that means there will be babies too. I can’t wait!”
He chuckled while he again pried her arms away from his neck. “Perhaps in time there will be babies. But not right away. I am counting on you to help make the new Lady Farleigh welcome when she arrives.”
Mary’s sunny face suddenly darkened. “Will she like me?” she asked. “Will she make me go away? I don’t want to go away, Will.”
He tucked her hand into the crook of his arm this time and patted it reassuringly. “She will definitely like you, Mary. She will discover all your wonderful qualities, and she will even love you, just like I love you.” And he was sure of that too. Louisa would not hold Mary’s infirmities against her. He knew her well enough to be assured that it was not in her nature.
“And she will be Lady Farleigh, and not your mama anymore,” Mary said as if making sure she had remembered all her facts correctly.
“That’s right. Just like I became Lord Farleigh when my father—”
She shuddered. And no wonder, as the man had barely tolerated Mary over the years, putting up with her presence only because William’s mother had promised to keep her out of sight.
“When my father died,” he pressed on.
“I’m glad he’s gone,” she said in a hushed voice. “I hate him. I stayed away from him. But now he is gone, and you are here. I have missed you, Will.”
“And I have missed you, my dear Mary. Shall we go find your mother and Mrs. Holly and Grimshaw now?”
“Yes,” she said. “And now that you’re going to be here, everything will be happy again. Oh, I am so glad you are home! And you are bringing a wife, and she will like me!”
They walked together through the herb garden until they reached the back entrance of the house, and then Mary skipped off, presumably to wash her pots and pans and do the other sundry tasks she’d been assigned by her mother and Mrs. Holly over the years. And William went in search of Mrs. Holly and Grimshaw to inform them of his news.
