Page 46 of Scandal at Greystone Manor

‘Did Jane share your feelings?’

‘I believe she did at the time, but it is certainly no longer true.’

‘So you are going away disappointed again.’

‘Not over Jane.’

‘Who, then?’

‘It does not matter because nothing can come of it. I go away for her sake and yours.’

‘Isabel!’

‘Look after her, Mark, and be happy.’ And he turned on his heel and left.

Mark stood for a minute so confused he could not think coherently. When he pulled himself together to go after his friend, the street was empty.

* * *

Somehow the day was got through, with Isabel white-faced and their aunt flitting about trying to be helpful. Jane was glad when all the preparations were complete and she could go to bed. She undressed and crept between the sheets, but sleep eluded her. She was committed to persuading her sister to go ahead with the marriage because not to do so would be unkind to the man she loved and cause him distress. And it would upset her parents. On top of his money worries, it might very well kill her father. Money worries. What was Lord Bolsover playing at? If only Teddy had not gambled so heavily, if only her sister had not flirted with Andrew Ashton, if only she herself did not love Mark quite so much. Dear Mark. He did not deserve to be embroiled in scandal from any direction. How was it all going to end?

Chapter Seven

Throughout that long journey home, Isabel was quiet and withdrawn, Jane was thoughtful and Mark was unusually taciturn. It was evident they all had a great deal on their minds and hardly conversed at all, except to order food and drink at some of the inns where they pulled up for the horses to be changed and to approve the accommodation when they stopped for the night at the White Hart in Scole. The inn was a very old one, which had once provided lodgings for Charles II and Lord Nelson, not to mention sundry highwaymen, standing as it did on the crossroads between Norwich and Ipswich, Bury St Edmunds and the Norfolk coast.

They were offered exceptionally good food while they waited for their rooms to be prepared, but no one was hungry and the conversation was limited to comments about the magnificent fireplaces and the grand staircase, the food and wine, and the time they meant to be on the road the following morning. Jane and Isabel, who shared a room, were too tired to talk and, in any case, had nothing to add to what had already been said. Even so they slept fitfully.

* * *

The second day was spent in much the same manner as the first and thanks to Mark’s foresight in arranging frequent stops for fresh horses to be harnessed, they made good time and arrived at Greystone Manor in the early evening. They were home, much to Jane’s relief; the responsibility for her sister would now devolve on her parents.

Mark stayed only long enough to oversee the unloading of their trunks and pay his respects to Sir Edward and Lady Cavenhurst before carrying on to Broadacres.

‘Oh, it is so good to have you home,’ their mother said, hugging them both. ‘I have delayed supper and you shall tell us all that you have been up to while we eat. Isabel, are you fully recovered from your fall?’

‘Yes, Mama, and no harm done.’ She turned as Sophie came hurrying along the hall to greet them.

‘Oh, I have missed you,’ she said. ‘It has been quite boring here by myself. I am longing to hear all your news.’

‘Go up to your rooms and change out of those travelling clothes,’ her ladyship said to the two older girls. ‘Supper will be served as soon as you come down again.’

Sir Edward looked down at the two trunks which had been deposited in the hall. ‘As I recall,’ he said, ‘you only took one trunk with you. Am I to assume you have been shopping?’

‘Well, I could not go out and about town with Aunt Emmeline in the shabby gowns I had taken with me,’ Isabel said. ‘It was different for Jane, she was too busy with her orphans to worry about how she looked.’

‘And how did you pay for them?’

‘On your account, naturally. I only had pin money.’

He sighed. ‘It is evidently useless to tell you to be frugal.’

‘A few gowns and fripperies, Papa, will surely not break the bank,’ she said.

‘You are impertinent, child. Now go and change before I lose my temper with you.’

Isabel was smiling as she went upstairs with her sister. ‘Papa has never lost his temper with me,’ she said. ‘With Teddy, yes, but never with me.’

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