Page 1 of The Lord's Compass
CHAPTER1
1806 ~ KENT, ENGLAND
Eric had no idea where he was going.
Did he own this estate? Yes, in a sense. It was one of a few that his family had obtained over the many years of the storied Rowley history that his father had been so keen on sharing with him. Eric, however, did not need multiple estates and therefore had gifted it to his brother and his new bride as it was perfect for Noah.
It was not as though Eric had ever spent a great amount of time here. He had grown up on his family’s entailed estate, Hollingsworth. He was lord there now that his father had passed, although his mother ran the place. He knew he should take on the responsibility but, the truth was, it was far easier for him this way.
He wondered now if these gardens he found himself in were supposed to be a maze, or if the hedges had grown that way over time.
He had no idea how to return to the festivities. He supposed if he wandered long enough, he’d eventually find his way back.
His brother’s wedding had occurred just that morning, and Eric had never seen Noah as happy as he was today.
Despite the bride and groom disappearing for a time, the small party had continued the marriage celebrations, led by Eric himself until he had decided to take to the gardens to smoke his cheroot away from everyone else as the ladies were not fond of the smoke.
Then a little wandering had led to his current situation.
“How in the hell did I end up here?” he mused, scratching his temple and turning around in a circle. He looked up, seeing the house rising in the distance, seemingly grinning down at him mockingly. It should be… north? Directions had always confused him. He had tried multiple times now to make his way toward the house and reached a dead end with every attempt.
Suddenly he heard a snap and a whistle right next to his ear before an arrow hit a target — one he had not noticed until now — ahead and to the right of him with athud. He had enough wherewithal to observe that it lodged directly in the center.
“Having trouble?”
He whirled around at the voice, both surprised and pleased to find Lady Faith Embury standing twenty yards away across the grass, watching him with mirth in her blue eyes, her face, with its high cheekbones and well-defined jawline, otherwise expressionless, her arms crossed through a bow in front of her.
“Not at all,” he said, lifting his chin. “Simply enjoying some afternoon air.”
“I can smell the smoke from here,” she said, wrinkling her nose, and Eric would have laughed if he wasn’t awestruck by her presence. She was a tall woman, as strong physically as she was within, but she held herself with such confidence that he had never been able to resist the pull toward her – one that now caused him some vexation.
He threw down the nearly finished cheroot and extinguished it with his foot, snapping his heel before clasping his hands behind his back and walking toward her.
“Did you need a break from all of your dancing?” she asked, tilting her head to the side, her smile as brittle as the sarcasm that dripped from her words.
“You were watching me?” he asked with a grin that he knew would only serve to annoy her, but he couldn’t seem to help himself from pestering her.
She shifted slightly from one foot to the other, enough to show that he had irked her, and he couldn’t contain his pleasure that he had achieved his goal.
“You’re rather hard to miss, the way you flit from woman to woman,” she said, lifting her nose in the air. “Half the women in there are married. Or does that not concern you?”
He reached out and took her bow, running his fingers over the fine wood as he examined it, wishing it was her soft skin he was touching so intimately instead.
“You’re jealous.”
“I am most certainly not!” she said hotly, crossing her arms over her chest as though warding him away.
“Believe that if you want,” he said, leaning down and tucking a piece of her dark blond hair behind her ear. “But we both know the truth.”
“You’re impossible,” she said, turning her head to the side.
“Not impossible. I am correct. Always am on these things,” he said, reaching out to tap her nose, and she slapped his hand away.
“Do not touch me.”
“I thought you liked it when I touched you.”
“I did once. But that was before.”
