Page 100 of A Torn Allegiance
Marc’s face clouded for a moment. “Perhaps. But that is nothing we need explore just yet.”
“Really!” Hayes leaned back. “I admit I’m quite surprised.”
Marc said nothing for a moment and then shook his head. “There is nothing to be so surprised over. I simply met someone I might want to know more about.”
“And now that we are sailing to Oldenburg?” Hayes said.
He was silent, and Hayes suspected he would say nothing more about it. Marc said so very little of his personal affairs anyway. And what more could they say about returning home? It must be done.
“We shall return again to England.” Kristoff smiled. “I have a feeling Father will never squelch a good reason to sail to England.”
They laughed in good humor, and Hayes relaxed. He rubbed his chest absentmindedly. “Thank you for being here for me, Brothers. I plan to live for a good many years, but a scare really reminds a man of what he values most. Family, country...” He would have added Elsie to that very short list. Her name was on the tip of his tongue, reverberating through his mind, but he clamped his mouth shut and said no more.
Chapter Thirty-One
Elsie peered out behind them.She hadn’t felt at ease since a new carriage had begun following them. “The other carriage turned as well. Do you suppose it is one of Lamoreaux’s committee?” Driving at such fast speeds in between Lamoreaux and another who might be in his league was unsettling, to say the least.
“Perhaps. I admit to not knowing how large a meeting this is meant to be.”
“This is the road to my estate.” Elsie breathed in the Scottish air and, for the first time in her life, felt little comfort in it. Hayes was much on her mind this morning, and with things ill at ease between them, even Scotland was having little effect on her. And that was an unhappy thought indeed.
“I must mend this. I have to.” Her words came out sounding as desperate as she felt. And even though she and the Duke of Sumter were acquaintances at best, he was falling in love with her best friend. That was reason enough to trust the man, and he was the only person present besides the servants.
He shifted in his seat. “I don’t know how deep or changing his hurt may be, but it can only be a good thing for you to be honest.”
She nodded. If only she had been honest from the moment she’d begun to suspect she was falling in love with him. “We are approaching Everly’s estate.”
Lamoreaux’s carriage slowed and turned into the front drive.
“Do we follow?”
“I don’t see a need, not just yet. Is the other carriage stopping as well?” They passed the Everly estate, and she turned to peer behind them. The carriage behind them slowed. The window opened. She yelped. “Your Grace. Is that—?” She leaned back so he could see.
“By Jove, that’s my carriage.”
“Hayes?”
“Yes.”
This whole time, he’d been traveling right behind her. She shook her head. Hayes’s carriage pulled into the drive after Lamoreaux.
His Grace turned to her, kindness in his eyes. “What will you do?”
She breathed steadily, twice, and then sat back. “We will go to my estate. Send the servants back to Everly’s estate with a gift or something from the house; instruct them to linger with the Wilhelm and Everly servants and to keep watch. I’m certain no one will be leaving before we can get a good sleep and refresh ourselves—they must be as tired as we are—but if they do, we will receive word and be in quick pursuit.”
He nodded. “And the princes?”
She tried to calm herself, to no avail. “They are at Everly’s now, apparently. Do you think they will still be there by the time we can send a servant back? Surely the footmen are exhausted.”
The duke looked out the window again. “I think we can certainly ask around to discover their whereabouts if they leave immediately. My guess is the princes will not stray too far from Everly.”
She nodded. And then she ran her hands down the front of her skirts in a nervous habit she had thought she’d lost years ago.
They arrived at her estate, and a wave of homesickness filled her. How odd to be struck by longing the moment one arrived at a place. She was almost overtaken by it. Everything breathed of home to her. When she stepped her foot out onto the soil, the very land seemed to call to her. And with Hayes over the next ridge, her feelings were a grand stew of emotions.
When the servants stepped out to greet them, she hurried forward. “Mrs. Gordon! Oh, Mrs. Gordon.” She ran to meet her dear housekeeper and squeezed her. Her smile lines were deeper, her frame thinner, but the same woman Elsie had loved for years hugged her back. They rocked a while before Mrs. Gordon pulled away, rested her hands on Elsie’s shoulders, and looked her deep in the face.
“I’m so happy to see you, love. And you, looking all grown up. Is your mother with you?” Her gaze flitted up to His Grace, who was just descending from the carriage.
