Page 23 of A Secret Consequence for the Viscount
She had worn it then on the third finger of her right hand, a troth, a promise, a way to the future that she could see so very easily before her.
And even when he had disappeared she could not bear to have it away from her skin and so she had fastened it to a fragile chain her father had made her a gift of on her fifteenth birthday and she had worn it there every day since.
She looked at the clock. Half past nine. Perhaps the Viscount was not returning from Bromworth Manor tonight after all. Perhaps things had gone awry with the uncle that her brother had said Nicholas had gone to expel from the family estate. Perhaps there had been a fight or an accident on the road like her father and Ralph had had. She shook that thought away.
Jacob had told her this morning that Nicholas was almost certain his guardian had been the one to waylay him in the alley. After today there would be no more looking over one’s shoulder and expecting trouble, for if he knew the perpetrator of all his problems he could deal with the man summarily. She breathed out with decided relief and was pleased for the decisions she had made last night to help Nicholas Bartlett with his lost week.
Noises came through the quiet and then there was the sound of horses and bustle, a called-out goodbye and footsteps leading up the steps. After that the front door closed behind the newcomer and his voice reached her with its deep and steady tones, hints of another land in the cadence.
Eleanor hastily tidied herself and put her needle through the next stitch needing execution. She also quietened her nerves as best she could.
‘You are up still?’
He looked more relaxed then he had yesterday. The boots he wore now were Jacob’s. She recognised the engraved silver buckles.
‘I seldom retire before ten.’ She gave this back to him and was glad when he came into the room and sat in the chair opposite.
‘My brother said you went to Essex to the Bromworth estate?’
He nodded. ‘Oliver leant me his carriage and driver. With such horses it was a quick run both there and back.’
‘I hope it all went well.’
At that he laughed. ‘Well for me and poorly for my uncle, but I am finally shot of Mr Aaron Bartlett and his plotting so at least now I will be able to afford my own boots.’ He added this in a wry tone as he stretched his legs out before him.
‘I heard that you had won a substantial sum at the card tables last night?’
He frowned. ‘A dubious talent in the eyes of theton. Once it was losing I was better at, failure more acceptable to the doyens of good taste here.’
She smiled because what he said was the truth. She had heard the rumblings of gossip before she had left Frederick’s and the strong opinion on the Viscount’s new ability to fleece any other man at the table was not flattering.
‘Perhaps you should pretend sometimes to be a lesser player?’
He sat up at that and looked at her directly. ‘Dromorne threatened to foreclose on his IOUs if I did not fully reimburse him last night.’
The truth of this made Eleanor place down her flowery craftwork. ‘There was no choice for you, then?’
‘None. Tonight, however, I have my title and my estate returned into my care. Undoubtedly there will be others who will come forward demanding payments of past debts that I have long since forgotten, but now I can manage.’
‘You will open your town house again?’
‘I have a man hiring staff as we speak.’
‘And your memory? Has it been jogged at all with the sojourn back to Bromworth Manor?’
‘No. I had thought perhaps...’ He let this tail off and shook his head. ‘But, no.’
Standing, she walked across to the hearth, using the mantel for support. ‘Then I want to offer you a proposition, Lord Bromley.’
She stressed his title. Better to make the suggestion formally and holding no whisper of emotion.
He looked up at that, his eyes darker than they normally appeared. ‘A proposition, Lady Eleanor?’
‘I want to help you retrieve your memory.’
After these words he said nothing, but merely waited.
‘I was with you for many of the days that you have forgotten. The days before your attack,’ she qualified.
