Chapter Twenty
Hope rode the whole way to Berkshire on the edge of the forward-facing seat, as if it was possible to arrive sooner just by wishing it so. She did not bother to look out the windows to chart their progress for it was nearing sunset when they’d set out and would be full dark by the time they arrived.
Nor had she bothered to pack, or even to stop at the town house to tell her grandmother where she was going. She suspected that, when she did not appear at dinner, the family would guess who she had run to. In any case, it was too late for them to object to the thing they had been encouraging her to do all along.
When the carriage arrived at the manor, she was out of it the moment it came to a full stop and hurrying into the house. The servants looked at her in alarm, embarrassed to be unprepared for her late visit and ready to find who or what she was searching for. She held a finger to her lips and shook her head. ‘It is a surprise for Mr Drake.’
If it concerned them that she had arrived unchaperoned at bedtime to surprise a man who was supposed to be there as an agent of the Earl, they said nothing. But then, there must have been gossip after her last visit. They had to suspect by now that he was more than just another family employee.
To silence any doubts, she added, ‘I was sent by the new Earl with a confidential message for him.’ She tried not to smile, remembering what the message was. But the statement brought her the privacy she wanted for the staff would not dare risk intruding in case she had told them the truth. ‘Do not bother to direct me. I will find him myself,’ she added to send the last curious footman back to his business.
Of course, that left her with the task of locating him. She paused at the foot of the stairs to listen for the sounds of business on the main floor. She heard none, but that was hardly unusual. It was a large house with thick doors. She was used to the sound of silence echoing in the high-ceilinged halls. She also knew that there were forty rooms to search.
She smiled. It was not the first game of hide and seek she had played here, but it was certainly the most gratifying one. To catch him, she would have to think like Gregory, again. If she was completing an inventory, a systematic approach would be the best. Would he work from cellar to attic, or attic to cellar?
Neither, she decided. For while he might proceed in an orderly fashion in someone else’s house, Gregory Drake was a romantic. There was only one place he would be, if he had just arrived.
She went to the first floor, walking down the hall to the bedrooms. It made sense that he would be given the same room he had occupied on the last visit. And it was even more likely that he would be overcome by memories once he entered it. That was where she would find him.
The door was open and she looked in to find him sitting on the edge of the bed, facing away from her, staring out the window. He had placed the candlesticks that belonged in the dining room on the side table next to the crystal inkwell from the study. Between them was a ledger with the beginning of a list detailing the contents of the room. The last item he’d recorded was an Aubusson rug, crimson with gold border, seventeen by eighteen feet.
‘You might add that the weave is exceptionally good,’ she said, glancing down at the tidy lines written without break or blot. ‘One can walk on it and you will not hear a footstep.’ She had proved the fact. By the time he turned to her, she was practically at his side.
He sprang to his feet and spun to face her, before regaining control and giving her the same polite smile he’d worn when they parted. ‘Miss Strickland.’ He bowed. ‘I did not expect you.’
‘I gave you no reason to,’ she reminded him. ‘When we parted this morning, I doubt you thought you’d ever see me again.’
‘That will be at the discretion of Lord Comstock,’ he said, the consummate professional he had been on the first day they’d met. ‘Is there something I might assist you with?’ The mask slipped and his brow furrowed. ‘Do you need my help?’
She nodded. ‘I went to your home to find you, but you were not there.’
‘I did not think you would need me so soon,’ he said, his frozen smile returning. ‘As you can see, I took another position with your family.’
‘And you have removed the candlesticks from the place I put them,’ she said, running a finger down the length of one.
‘I needed the light,’ he said, then added, ‘And they reminded me of you.’
‘Cold and unbending?’ she asked with a smile.
He shook his head. ‘When we found them. The look on your face that day. I think that was the moment I fell in love with you.’ He stared at her for a moment and she felt the heat of it touching her skin. ‘Now will you tell me what brings you here? If it is some task left uncompleted, I will discuss it with you anywhere but in this room.’
‘I broke the vase,’ she said.
‘That was long ago,’ he reminded her. ‘You know where to find a better one. Should you wish to buy it you do not need my help.’
‘No. Today. This morning. On purpose. I threw the pieces on the floor and smashed them to bits. I suspect they are in the dustbin by now, for there was nothing left of them worth saving.’
‘I told you so when we found them.’ He sounded faintly annoyed. But there was something else there, too. Something encouraging.
‘I have decided you are right,’ she said. ‘We can go back and buy the one we saw that had no cracks in it. No one will know the difference.’
‘How will you keep the secret from Lord Comstock?’ he asked.
‘Very poorly, I suspect,’ she said. ‘If he asks me, I will admit I broke it and that there was nothing more that could be done.’
‘That is surprisingly sensible of you,’ he said, his eyes widening. ‘And what do you mean to do about the matter of the diamonds?’
‘He already knows,’ she said. ‘Grandmother told him immediately upon his arrival. She has decided to leave him to his fate.’ Though it was probably not ladylike to gloat over someone else’s misfortune, she could not seem to stop grinning. ‘And though he seems very nice, I do not think there is anything I can do to help him.’
‘You have spoken to him?’ he said, embarrassed.
‘To find you,’ she reminded him. ‘He said you told him he should marry me.’
‘I thought it was what you wanted,’ Gregory said.
‘I know what I said. I want to know why you said it.’
He rubbed his forehead, feigning confusion. ‘I am still feeling the effects of the brandy I drank after we parted. By the time I spoke to Comstock, I was in no condition to speak to a future employer. It was an act of mercy on his part to send me here. But I seem to recall informing him that you were hoping for a proposal.’
‘I have been hoping for that for some time,’ she said, giving him a significant look. ‘A decent one that has nothing to do with honour or duty.’
Apparently, the hint was lost on him. ‘By God, if you prefer the man, take him. But I will not say another word on the subject of marriage until I am sure you’ve had the offer you were expecting when we met. Accept him or refuse him, then notify me of the results so I might know if my heart will ever be my own again.’
She sat down on the bed. ‘Do you think I would be here, if I’d accepted the offer of another man.’
‘Where you are concerned, I have no idea what to think any more,’ he said, sitting down on the bed beside her. ‘Now tell me what I want to know. Did he offer, or not?’
‘He does not wish to offer. I do not want to accept.’ She smiled at him. ‘I do not want to settle for a man as ordinary as an earl. I would much prefer a man who is truly exceptional.’
‘You deserve nothing less,’ he agreed. ‘As I said before you are an exceptional woman. But what does any of that have to do with me?’
‘I think you know,’ she said.
‘Please reassure me.’
‘Comstock was relieved to find that I loved you. You are his employee now and I am to tell you that you must marry me within the week so that everyone will stop bothering him about me.’
The corners of Gregory’s mouth twitched. ‘I am, am I? And how much will he pay me to do it? For I do not recall marrying you as being part of our original agreement.’
‘You said before that you were too foxed to remember what was said,’ she replied. ‘But we all know that he has nothing to offer you. If you still want me, I am afraid you will have to take me without a dowry. I am poor, you know.’
‘If I still want you?’ The smile he gave her as he said it was the same one he had worn the last time they’d been alone in this room, as if she was the most wonderful thing he had ever seen. ‘I have never stopped.’
Without another word, he slid from the bed and dropped to one knee. ‘But if you will not have me, Hope Strickland, I don’t know what I shall do, for I cannot manage to let you go.’
‘Nor I you,’ she said, smiling back and taking the hand he held out to her and kissing it.
With his free hand, he reached into his pocket and produced a ring, captured her hand and slipped it on to her finger. ‘It is not as big as the Comstock diamond, but unlike them it is genuine.’
She spread her fingers, admiring it. ‘It would not matter if it were real or not, as long as we can be honest about it. How long have you had it?’
‘I found it in one of the shops I visited, when searching for your family jewels.’ He shrugged. ‘I had meant to offer it to you yesterday morning. But things did not go as planned.’
‘Things are going much better now, I think,’ she said, standing and pulling him to his feet.
‘I agree.’ He pulled her forward and wrapped his arms around her waist. ‘So Comstock wishes us to wed within a week? That is very close to the amount of time your grandmother allowed me to secure your hand.’
‘And when you promise to do a thing you never fail,’ she reminded him. ‘Since I do not want to spoil your perfect record, I think it best that we abide by their wishes.’
‘It is too late to marry you tonight,’ he said, with a yawn. ‘And I have not completed nearly as much of the inventory as I had hoped to.’
‘Then I will help you,’ she said with a smile. ‘We have already done the rug. I think, next, we must inventory the bed.’