Page 109 of Scandalous Heiress
Chapter 20
The next afternoon, Ada climbed into the Setons’ traveling coach.Lily and Julian had been generous to allow her to borrow it.Though they had wished to retire to their own country estate weeks ago, Carbury’s sudden death and the problems afterward mitigated against that.They would not use it soon, Elanna’s hysteria a challenge to her doctors.So was her continuing rejection of her three-year-old son, Nathaniel.
“Please use the coach, Ada.”Julian had told her when he had called upon her the other day.“I cannot leave Elanna as she is.And Nate cries all day, wanting his father.Lily tries her best to comfort him, but he seems inconsolable.Let me do this for you.Make your life easier as we deal with our challenges here.”
She could have taken the train from Victoria Station in London to Brighton.But that would have been unwieldy as she had quite a few trunks, clothing for herself, Vivienne, Deirdre and Wu-lai.The journey, short though it was, required comfort for her, her two step-daughters and nurse.Ada would send back the coachman and footman tomorrow after a hearty meal.
Curious about the house Victor’s parents had gifted them, she delighted at the prospect of decorating her own home.She’d learned much from listening to her sister Lily manage her many Seton properties.Visiting often with her cousin Marianne who was a French princess and a duchess, had exposed Ada to the dynamic of complementing the delicate medieval with the boldness of her husband Remy’s contemporary sculptures.Now Ada had the means, courtesy of her father’s generous personal allowance, to make a house a home with her own taste predominating.Of course, her best adviser would be her step-mother, Liv, who still took clients who wished their homes appointed by her.
As to the quality of the house, she had asked Victor this morning at breakfast to describe it.
Last night after they had made love, he had kissed her cheek, gathered his clothes and left her.
This morning, he had appeared none too rested.His eyes bleary, nonetheless, he was conversational.“I believe you will like it immensely.It’s old.More than one hundred years.Built at the same time as Marlborough House and on the Steine.Though Robert Adam never worked on it, the structure has many of those features.I give youcarte blancheto do as you wish.”
“Thank you.I have a note for your Mr.MacIntrye.”
“Oh?”
“Yards of silk I’d like for the salon or dining room.Draperies or upholstery.Not certain which at the moment.But I thought we’d show off your imports.”
“A lovely idea,” he said, and the curve of his mouth implied his pleasure.“Please write and let me know about all you do, will you?”
“Of course.”She wanted him aware of how she’d manage the house.“It’s your home as well as ours.”
He paused over his breakfast plate at that to check her features.What he saw there must have satisfied him, because he returned his attention to his eggs.“I imagine you will be happy to see your father and step-mother.”
She beamed at the idea for there was much to discuss with those she loved.“Liv is soon to deliver her next child and I’m to remind her, says my father in his note this morning, that she must sit down not run about town.I’ll be pleased to introduce Vivienne and Deirdre to their new little uncle.”
Liv and her father had a young son, born only eighteen months ago.Though his name was William James, they dubbed him Liam.
“Odd to have a brother who is young enough to be your own son.”
“True.But it won’t be a mystery.We’ll all draw charts so everyone understands who belongs to whom and how.”
Victor paused again.“Yes.And who should not belong.”
In theDaily News, Ada had read a piece that the marquess of Ridgemont was to appear before his bankers in the City.The duke of Brentwood, Richard’s and Victor’s father, had changed the security on one of Richard’s loans, calling in the principal.She had wondered if Richard had the means to pay it off, but she had not asked Victor.Quite frankly, she wished to know nothing about the man.
Victor stood then, threw down his serviette and bussed her on the cheek.“Enjoy yourself.”
Powell told her hours later, that Victor had said his goodbyes to his daughters earlier and then had departed for his offices.Ada was glad of that, she wanted no more kisses from him until she had completed her plans.
Hours later, the Seton coach entered the curved gravel drive of her new home.Gazing upon the exterior of the white stucco Palladian with cast ironporte cochère, she had the premonition that she would indeed enjoy herself tremendously.The girls jumped down and ran onto the front portico.A breeze off the shore bore the smell of the salty sea air that refreshed her.And she took the footman’s hand to help her alight.At first sight, she loved the looks of it.The house, she noted with a grin, needed new paint outside and the grounds needed one more essential—a good gardener.
She sent round a note to her parents that she had arrived, but that she would not call until three days hence.She needed to assess what the duke had ordered be done to repair the house—and she immediately appreciated its cleanliness, the new plumbing and electricity.Her next thought was to servants.The butler named Goodings and the only maid named Patsy appeared attentive and useful.She told them what she expected each day and asked them to remain for at least two more months.She would then decide if she would retain their services year round.What they had to work with was next on her list.She had to do a preliminary analysis of the essentials—china, silver, linens, the kitchen equipment, storage and wine cellars.
To ensure that Vivienne and Deirdre were well occupied, she placed ads in theBrighton Gazettefor a French tutor and a piano teacher.The next afternoon she took them to the Lanes where shopkeepers sold everything a child might love from easels (for the artist in Viv) to books about zebras (for Deirdre who loved animals).Afterward, they strolled the promenade along the beach, ate ices and later, she took them to the aquarium to marvel at the fish.For herself, she ordered watering cans, picks, hoes and seeds to plant once she’d strangled the weeds in the old kitchen garden.Satisfied with her progress, she wondered how long it would take for Mr.MacIntyre to fill her order of silk.She would hire Liv’s favorite upholsterer to finish the main salon’s furniture as soon as the material arrived.This house, she was determined, would speak to who Victor Cole was.Past, present and future, Cole Manor—as she now called the rambling beauty—would be a place Victor could love.And if he wished, a home where he could be loved.
When she and the girls climbed into a public hack to journey a few miles west of Brighton to her parents’ home, Ada had a list of questions in her reticule that seemed long as her arm.
Her father and step-mother came out on the drive to meet the carriage.Killian Hanniford at age fifty was a tall, strapping man with a full head of iron grey hair and a hug that told her he was as strong and able as many men half his age.Olivia Hanniford, a beauty with hair the color of autumn leaves, was forty-one, married now for less than three years but pregnant with her second child by Ada’s father.Behind them stood Camille Bereston, Liv’s oldest child and daughter by her first husband.Camille held in her arms a chubby, grumpy baby boy who had inherited the large silver eyes of his father and his once bold black hair.Introductions and a few tears all around and they were soon in the house that Killian had built and Liv had decorated.
“Oh, it’s wonderful to be here,” she told them as she sank into the sofa and heard the sound of the surf against the sands.
Camille had taken the children and Wu-lai away to the nursery.Her father stood by the French doors to the terrace which looked out over the cliffs above the sea.He focused on her with the intensity of a man who had arrived a poor Irish immigrant to the Baltimore docks and built a fortune in ships, factories and investments within a few decades.Lily had married with an enormous dowry for her husband Julian.Marianne’s was equally as large.Ada’s exactly the same.Pierce, their brother, made his own fortune, in shipping but also in newer investments in French copper and pipe manufacturing.He had at one time talked with Victor about the Shanghai city council’s plans for electricity for the foreign settlement.
She knew what they wished to discuss, but her heart was not in describing her marital discord.Because she was here alone, she concluded that these very intelligent people had a good idea what her problems were.
