AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Greyhame was a place of delirious happiness for Rebecca. It nestled against dark hills surrounding a lake that could be sky blue and peaceful, or leaden and stormy from one day to the next. The house was swathed in ivy along half its frontage, with an overgrown garden at the front and a lawn to the rear, long since gone to seed. The last Lachlands to be resident in the house had died twenty years before and a caretaker from Grindley had struggled to tame the grounds, focusing on keeping the building itself in good order. None of that mattered to Rebecca because her first sight of the house was as Mrs. Rebecca Worthingham.
As such, it was a palace. Lucius was hard at work at the rear of the house, scything the long grass. He worked with shirt discarded, lean torso glistening with sweat under the summer sun. Wild pigs from the surrounding woodlands snuffled in the more feral undergrowth at the far end of the garden, keeping a wary eye on the humans a few dozen yards distant. Rebecca sat on a rough wooden bench, her back to the white-plastered wall of the three-story house and darned Lucius’ clothes.
“I never would have thought to see a Bolton content to sit in a common country garden, darning a man’s shirts,” Olivia said.
She sat in a chair that had been brought out of the kitchen, along with a side table on which rested a pot of tea and plate of sandwiches. Olivia had arrived a week after Rebecca and Lucius.
“I would be content tilling fields or working in a mill,” Rebecca said, “All I need is my Lucius.”
“I sincerely hope you will never have to experience either. And you will not while I have anything to say on the matter. Still, I am glad that my family were able to provide some refuge for the two of you from your brother.”
Rebecca frowned as she pricked her finger on the darning needle.
“I wrote to him, Aunt Olivia,” she admitted.
Olivia put her teacup down on its saucer with a clatter. She looked at Rebecca with compressed lips and sharp eyes.
“Something tells me that I am not going to like hearing the words that are next in your mind.”
“He is my brother, no matter how stubborn and snobbish he is. I know he will be worried about me.”
“We agreed how we would handle that. Please tell me you did not mention this place?” Olivia said.
Rebecca nodded. “Nothing short of telling him where I am will do to assuage his worry. I know it. And I know him well enough to know that he will not have rested from the day I left. His life will be suspended with no thought given to anything but finding me.”
Olivia threw up her hands, aghast. “Good Lord in Heaven but you really have done it now. He will be on his way here like an avenging angel. I suggest you find some employment for Lucius, somewhere far from this house, until I have a chance to defuse your brother’s temper.”
“I thought it would reassure him to know that I am still on Bolton lands, at one of our own houses, albeit through the Lachland family. Not renting a room from a stranger or relying on the hospitality of others. He cannot change anything now. We are married. Man and wife in the eyes of God and no man can put us asunder,” Rebecca said forcefully.
Olivia was shaking her head and muttering to herself. “Lord save me from the unthinking recklessness of the young. You do not understand the implications, child. Edward did not know about Greyhame. It has never been listed as one of his assets. I took great care that it should not be. But, now he does. I have no doubt he has discovered the connection with my family by now and is already making further deductions that I would never have wished to be found out.”
Rebecca rose and went to her aunt, kneeling beside her and putting a comforting hand on her arm.
“Why, Aunt Olivia? Whatever can be so wrong? I can’t imagine what has you so distressed. Edward has a foul temper when roused but even he would see sense when he is presented with a fait d’accompli. How is his discovery of Greyhame such a disaster? Is it that you wished to keep the house for yourself, rather than letting it become another Bolton possession?”
“No, no, no, child. My possessions became Henry’s when I married him. And as far as I am concerned, that marriage remains in force no matter that I am on one side of the great divide and he the other. I am not seeking to avariciously grasp at property. Whatever would make you think so? Have I ever sought wealth or land? In all the time you have known me?”
She seemed quite indignant and Rebecca felt at pains to reassure her. Olivia kept shaking her head.
“There is more to this than you can know and I fear it will all come out now that Edward is surely on his way here.”
“What will come out? Will you please tell me what has you so distressed?” Rebecca insisted, “I owe you so much. We owe you so much. You helped us run away together, guided us, and advised us. You have been like a mother to me, Aunt Olivia. I cannot bear to see you so upset.”
Olivia looked at her as though she would speak, but at that moment came the sound of a carriage. Wheels crunched on the dry earth of the lane that led to the house, horses whickered and there was the jangle of bit and bridle. Olivia’s face went pale and her mouth opened into a circle of despair. Lucius looked up from his work, wiping sweat from his forehead with his arm and looking in question at Rebecca.
Rebecca knew what that question was.
Has Edward finally caught up with us? Is this the moment where we will either be welcomed into the family fold or exiled forever in disgrace?
The sound of a carriage door being opened and closed reached them from the front of the house. Then came the crunch of footsteps coming up the path of red ash that led to Greyhame’s front door.
CHAPTER 45
Lucius saw the sudden tension in his young wife and knew its cause. He put down the scythe, grabbed his shirt, and began to walk towards the house. They both knew that this moment was coming. They could not run and hide forever. At some point, a confrontation would take place with Edward. Lucius resented the fact that he and Rebecca had been forced to marry at Gretna because of Edward’s unreasonable objections. But that was the concession that he had been forced to make. In order to marry the woman he loved, he must do it in secret.
The day was still one that he would never forget; though it was not the perfect wedding that Rebecca had dreamed of, it was still a romantic day in which both of their heart’s desires came true. Now, only God could part them. Edward could rage all he wanted to, it would not change the fact that Rebecca was now a Worthingham. Rebecca was having an animated discussion with Olivia, though Lucius could not hear the words. As he neared the house though, the sound of an approaching carriage did reach him.
He pulled the shirt on over his head, stuffing the tails into his breeches and raking hands through his sweaty hair.
