Page 22 of A Countess Captured for the Captain
“My mother has never been a retiring violet,” Nicholas whispered, as the Duchess wrapped upon the large, highly polished, brass knocker shaped like a lion’s head.
The door was opened by a stiff-looking manservant, who bowed to Duchess Sinclair in evident recognition.
“Your Grace, the Earl is unable to receive visitors today,” he said, as the Duchess handed over her calling card.
“Tell Albert that I have Norman here,theNorman,” she said, turning to where Samantha, Nox, and Nicholas stood at the bottom of the steps.
The manservant looked at Nox in astonishment, shaking his head, before looking again.
“Master Norman,” he exclaimed, and Duchess Sinclair gave a cry of satisfaction.
“You see,” she exclaimed, folding her arms in triumph.
Samantha turned to Nox, who looked astonished, just as the manservant hurried back inside, calling out for his master. The door was left open and Duchess Sinclair ushered them inside, congratulating herself on recognizing Nox’s true identity.
“What a place,” Samantha said, glancing around her.
The hallway was lavishly furnished, a sweeping staircase leading up to a gallery above. All around them hung portraits, but it was one in particular which caught her eye and caused her to gasp and point. It showed a man and woman, the woman sitting amid a classical scene, while the man stood behind her. At their feet sat a boy, perhaps ten years old, and there could be no mistaking the child for Nox. His features were the same, only grown into that of a man, and now Samantha understood how Duchess Sinclair recognized him.
Nox looked up at the painting, his eyes narrowing, and he turned to Samantha, as if unable to believe what he was seeing. There were other portraits, too. Several depicting the same man and woman, one with a baby, the other a small child sitting on a horse with his father at his side. There could be no doubt about it now, Nox was Norman Osmond, and if any further proof was needed, a cry of astonishment now resounded across the hallway.
“It is… oh, wonderful day, truly blessed day, how utterly remarkable. I have dreamed of it, I have longed for it, but how futile was that longing, until now,” the voice cried out.
Samantha turned to find an elderly man, dressed in a red-silk smoking gown, with a long white beard, standing in a doorway opposite. His face was worn, as though the years had given him much trouble, but his eyes now sparkled, and he shook his head, hurrying toward Nox, who seemed somewhat bemused.
“I was right, most certainly I was right,” Duchess Sinclair declared, watching the unfolding scene with satisfaction.
“My dear boy, no longer a boy, but it is you, I see your father in you as plainly as if he were standing here now. Oh, what happiness this is,” Nox’s uncle declared.
“I can barely believe all this,” Nox began, as his uncle took him by the hand and shook is vigorously.
“But do you not remember me? Your Uncle Albert?” he declared, and Nox shook his head.
“I remember nothing until I came on boardThe Rosa Mystica,” Nox replied.
“Those wicked pirates. We were attacked, quite suddenly they came upon us. It was all that we could do to try and repel them. The ship was sunk, it was nighttime, there was such confusion, and it was only when the dawn came that I realized what had been lost,” Nox’s uncle said, shaking his head sadly.
“But the pocket watch, show your uncle the pocket watch,” Duchess Sinclair insisted.
Nox drew it out of his pocket, handing it over for his uncle to examine. Samantha watched as the old man’s face lit up, and he nodded, glancing excitedly around him.
“I was with your father when he had the engraving made. There are several pieces about the house bearing the same inscription in commemoration of your birth. You were the apple of their eye, no child could have been more loved than you,” he said, shaking his head, a tear in his eye.
“But what happens now? Am I to inherit my father’s wealth?” Nox asked, and his uncle nodded.
“There is time to discuss all of that, but now, my boy, you must come and share a toast with me. It is the return of the prodigal son, for he was lost and now is found. What a happy day, and we have Duchess Sinclair to thank for it,” he exclaimed, and before Nox could say anything further, he was ushered off through a door across the hallway, leaving the others alone.
“How wonderful, how marvelous,” Duchess Sinclair declared, clapping her hands together in delight.
But Samantha did not think it entirely so. She had helped Nox to escape from death, risked everything to see him free, and now he was swept up in this remarkable revelation, what would become of her?
“But what am I to do?” she said, glancing at Nicholas, who looked at her somewhat awkwardly.
“Go home to your father, of course. He will be anxious to see you, as will your stepmother,” Duchess Sinclair said, calling for the manservant to see them out.
* * *
Samantha did return home. What other choice did she have? Duchess Sinclair had the carriage call at Hampton Manor and Samantha was deposited at the door where she took a deep breath before entering. She knew that her father would be angry, that Regina would take his side, that insistence would once again be made upon her marriage to Reginald Spencer – a man she yet even to meet – and in the fortune which Nox had now secured she saw her own demise looming. He had represented everything which Samantha had ever longed for, and now all of that had slipped away. There could be no more adventures, only the sadness of unfulfilled longing.
