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“Yes, but it wasn’t a woman that reformed him, it was Thornhill House. Working on improving the estate and the sorry plight of his tenant farmers gave him a new purpose. My fondest wish is to finally be declared a spinster so that I may go and live with him at Thornhill and plunder his vast library.”
“Isn’t Thornhill House rather decrepit and run-down?”
“And haunted by shades,” said Beatrice.
“That’s appealing to you?”
“I have a dark turn of mind. I’ve always loved gothic tales and ghost stories. I hear that Thornhill House crouches on a tall hill overlooking a bay. Black stone shards pierce the sky on either side of the massive front doors.”
“Sounds inviting,” said Mina with a short laugh.
“Some ancient lord—not an ancestor of ours, because Thornhill was acquired by Papa as payment for a debt—added pinnacles and crenellations wherever his whims suited him, attempting to create the impression of a medieval cathedral.” Lady Beatrice’s eyes shone behind her spectacles. “I’ll wager that it’s altogether glorious.”
“Wasn’t there some great tragedy that occurred? A great number of people crushed to death, I believe.” The Duke Dossier had mentioned a brief history of the estate.
“One of the owners in the seventeen hundreds undertook extensive renovations and he wanted to complete a new family chapel before his bride arrived. He pushed the workmen; he wouldn’t let them sleep or eat. The last stone was finally set in place in the family chapel. His bride arrived and they moved the wedding to an earlier date. But the workers had hastened too much. The chapel ceiling collapsed and killed him, his bride, the clergymen, and most of the assembled guests. His brother inherited the estate and sealed up the house. It sat vacant for decades, until my father acquired it.”
Mina shuddered. “A chilling tale.”
“They say a ghostly bride wanders the halls at night, wailing for her lost wedding night. I’d like to go and meet her.”
“Surely you don’t believe in shades.”
“I believe that stories don’t spring from nothing. Someone saw something.”
“It sounds quite lonely to me.”
“I think Drew is lonely there. It’s as though he used his new life as an excuse to disengage from the old—he’s cut us out of his life. It hurt me so much when he never returned my letters or came to visit.”
“It must have been so difficult.”
“But he’s here now and this is my chance to reconnect with him. All Thornhill requires to make it a home is me... and you, Mina. Your brightness—your passionate nature. I sense a coldness in him, a perpetual state of frostbite, as though he’s lost feeling not in his toes but in his heart. The house gave him purpose... but you could teach him how to love.”
The warming of Thorndon’s cold heart was not her goal and never would be, therefore it was best to simply move on to another, less perilous, subject. “Have you told the duke that you wish to live with him at Thornhill?”
“Many times but he won’t listen. He thinks it would be too limiting and that I wouldn’t have recourse to stimulating society or suitors. He thinks that if I don’t marry I’ll regret my choice later in life. But marriage wouldn’t make me any happier, especially if the gentleman wed me only for my fortune, as he must, because who would lovethis.” She waved a hand at the side of her face that sagged.
“Don’t say that, Beatrice. You’re lovely.”
“I’m not, you don’t have to lie just to make me feel better. All my childhood there were the doctors, the specialists, the treatments. Everyone watching me, observing me. Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like if I’d been born poor. No doctors or supposed cures: no hope, in other words. No false hope. I think it would have been simpler but we can’t change the past, can we?”
“I wish I’d said good-bye to my parents before they left on their last journey and never came home. I wish that I’d been able to meet other girls my own age and to strike up friendships.”
“It’s never too late to change, and we’re both young. Our whole lives ahead of us.” Beatrice plucked a velvety red rose from the trellised side of the swing and brushed the petals against her cheek. “What will you do with your life?”
“I’ve always been on the periphery of things, always hidden away. I want in,” Mina said. “I want inside the beating heart of life. I want excitement. Intrigue.” She wanted to be worthy of the name Penny.
“And you shall have it.”
If Beatrice wanted to believe that Mina might fall in love with Drew, and that he might fall in love with her, then Mina would allow her to have her fantasy. It was the most expedient way of framing her request for time alone in Lord Rafe’s town house.
“Beatrice, I wonder if you might... cover for me. I would like to visit the other town house.” She glanced at the window where she’d seen Thorndon.
Beatrice’s eyes sparkled behind her spectacles. “You have a romantic tryst planned with Drew. He told me that he was visiting his club but he would be back in time to speak with you.”
“I wouldn’t call it a romantic tryst, but I do have something to speak with him about.”
“Say no more. I’ll take care of everything. I’ll tell Mama that I’ve taken you up to my room to show you my collection of female writers. She won’t disturb us. I’ll stay inside my room reading a book and give you time alone with Drew. Mama will be perfectly content to gossip with your great-aunt for hours.”
