Page 26 of The Nabob's Designing Daughter
The lad followed them out, and Ann pulled him aside. “Be good for your mam. But don’t let her allow him to hurt you. If your da comes after you, you run like the wind. If you can’t find me, go to the duke. He’ll help you.”
Errol tied his horse to the back of the gig and joined her on the seat.
Ann straightenedher skirts and pressed into the seat rail. And still, the crush of his big body on the too small bench did strange things to her. Every bump sent a current of electricity through her hip, and arm, and shoulder.
“The boy came for you?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Does that happen often?”
“No, but he knows I’ll help him if I am able. I’d like to check on him more but… I’ve convinced my father that a true lady visits tenants and helps the poor, but he puts limits on me.”
“The Gillespies are not your father’s tenants.”
She turned and looked at his strong, grim profile. He was staring straight ahead, navigating a muddy stretch of lane. How would he know the Gillespies weren’t Glenthistle tenants? He’d left early with Henderson and the duke, without leaving word of their destination.
Surely the duchess would have known where he’d gone. She ought to have asked before she left the castle.
“What wereyoudoing out here?” she asked.
He shot a quick glance at her and bit his lip. “I was visiting my mother’s grave.”
“Your mother’s grave?”
“She’s buried at Mounth Tower.”
She’d been just a girl when Errol’s mother left Edinburgh and never returned. She only remembered meeting the lady once. Errol didn’t discuss her, nor did his father.
“I came to visit her grave and look over the estate my grandfather left me.”
“Darleton,” she whispered.
“Yes. I am now Baron of Darleton.”
“That’s… That’s wonderful.” Errol would be a close neighbor. A baron, and not just the local doctor. He’d be here forever, not just a year.
“Is it?” he said coldly. “Henderson says he has an interested buyer. I’m going to sell it.”
“Sell your birthright?”
Her heart did a flip. Father wanted to buy Darleton.
“But, Errol, a buyer might tear down Mounth Tower. He might mistreat the tenants.”
“My future is in London.” He sat rigidly, eyes straight ahead, mouth grim.
“So that’s why Henderson visited Kinmarty.”
“Not entirely. He had other business here, he said.”
Penelope had spent an hour closed up with him. He’d given Ann a brief fifteen minutes during which he told her he’d informed Errol of the contractual requirement and reviewed her modest but well-placed investments. Father had been lurking and had seen her leaving the study, and, of course, had questioned her. She’d told him she was carrying a message from Penelope.
She’d become a veritable sneak since living under her father’s thumb.
She drew in a deep breath. It was time she was honest with Errol.
“Ann,” he said, pulling the lines and halting the horse. His arm settled around her. “You oughtn’t to have traveled out here all alone.”
