Page 64 of A Kiss to Stop a Wedding
‘Ain’t nothing much to tell,’ came the wary reply.
‘Come, man, I don’t believe that. An ex-solider, ain’t you? And with a defective leg. We have that much in common.’
‘I doubt it, Mr Talacre. You was an officer, I’ll be bound!’
‘I volunteered at the age of nineteen, but was fortunate to be promoted to the rank of captain before I took a bullet in the leg at Waterloo. Now, what about you?’
Matt gave Jepps the smile that he had always used to put soldiers at their ease and it wasn’t long before they were exchanging tales of their experiences in the Peninsula.
‘And was it the injury that forced you out of the army?’ asked Matt.
‘Aye, sir. A badly set fracture left me with one leg much shorter than the other. I couldn’t walk that far, either, so I was no longer fit for duty. I made my way from Portsmouth to London, looking for work, but couldn’t find anything. No one wants a cripple.’
Matt heard the bitterness in his voice and recognised it. He had felt much the same for many months after he had been wounded.
‘How long have you worked for Lord Whilton?’
‘It must be five years now. He came across mebegging on the streets of London,’ Jepps took another drink of his ale. ‘Sent me to Whilton Hall.’
‘That was very generous of him.’
Jepps shrugged. ‘He said he wanted someone to look after his property, to patrol the grounds and keep them free of poachers and the like, but the wood is too small to attract more than children, catching the odd rabbit. And as for the gardens, they were in a sorry state. I’m no gardener, sir, but I do what I can, the others don’t really care, although I think that will change when Miss Warenne becomes mistress.’
‘She visits the gardens a lot, does she?’ asked Matt, trying to sound casual.
‘Oh, yes, she likes to walk there with that dog of hers. Very friendly she is, sir. A real lady, if you ask me.’
He frowned a little and Matt wondered if Jepps shared his opinion that Flora was too good for the likes of Lord Whilton. Not that he would ask.
He drained his own tankard.
‘Well, let’s hope you don’t have to see the Viscount again, Jepps. You’ll be working in my gardens in future.’
The man’s smile was strained, but it was there. He said, ‘And very glad of the work I shall be! Now, if you’ve finished your ale, I’ll take these tankards back downstairs.’ He gathered them up, saying, ‘You know, sir, I was thinking that meeting Lord Whilton againwas the worst thing that had ever happened to me. But now, well, perhaps it was meant to be.’
Matt frowned. ‘What do you mean, meeting himagain?’
‘I recognised him, see, when I was a beggar in London. I saw this fine gentleman walk by and so I spoke to him. Thought he might remember me and spare me a few pence. Didn’t know he was a viscount then, of course. When he offered to set me on at Whilton Hall I thought he was being charitable. But now I’ve thought more of it, I do believe he was buying my silence. Didn’t want his new friends to know that he was such a bad officer.’ He shook his head. ‘Worst thing I ever did was to helpCaptainGask.’
Matt sat up. ‘Wait, you mean, he was a soldier?’
‘That’s right, sir. I met him in Portsmouth. I’d been there for some months, because of my leg, and that’s when I met His Lordship. Only he wasn’t a viscount then, of course. No idea how he ended up there, but he’d been attacked and lost everything save the clothes he stood in. It being winter, I gave him my cloak and we got chatting, friendly like.
‘A month or so later I met a couple of troopers who’d been under his command and from what they told me I wished I hadn’t.’ He scowled. ‘He ran out on his men during a skirmish on the way to Corunna. The officers preferred to believe he’d been killed in the fight,but a few troopers saw what happened and knew he’d deserted.’
‘Interesting,’ said Matt. ‘I—’
He was interrupted by a knock at the door and the landlord came in to say that the doctor had arrived.
‘Oh, very well, send him up.’ Matt held out his good hand. ‘Off you go, Jepps. Safe journey into Gloucestershire.’
He watched the man walk out with that awkward, halting gait, then lay back against the pillows and prepared himself for the doctor’s examination.
* * *
Flora kept herself busy all morning, but she could not relax. She knew at some point the Viscount would call and she did not know when. It was something of a relief when he eventually appeared, late in the afternoon.
She was in the morning room, mending a flounce on one of her gowns when he was shown in. She put aside her sewing and rose to greet him, schooling her features into a look of polite welcome.
