He tightened the sash on his dressing gown and waited, aware that if there were tears in her eyes she wouldn’t turn until they had subsided.
In less than a minute, his mother cleared her throat, jerked the velvet curtain decisively, as if she had gone to the window merely to adjust a fold of it, and turned to him. “You’d better ring for Perry,” she said. “It’s time to dress and join our guests in the morning room. The solicitor will be here at eleven.”
She marched away from him toward the bedroom door, and he stood helplessly watching her. They were rarely affectionate with each other. That wasn’t done in their social class. He had spent most of his youth at boarding school, and even when he was home on holidays, his parents were often abroad. Lady Eleanor was in many ways a hard woman, with old-fashioned principles and a spine as stiff as American iron.
Still, he admired her, and he certainly respected her. She was a fine example of a woman of her class, a true noblewoman who accepted her duties and responsibilities without demur. She would, of course, expect him to do the same.
He stood frozen in place as she went out and closed the door behind her with a decisive click. He wished he had found the words to tell her what he thought. A new century was coming, he wanted to protest. A new age was just around the corner. There had to be something he could do to save Seabeck, something practical, businesslike. Streamline farm production. Sell a parcel of land. Cut some corners.
The idea of putting himself on the marriage market, as if he were one of his Andalusian colts, filled him with self-loathing.
Other men in his position had done it, of course. They attended the balls and teas of the London season, singled out the richest heiress they could find, and secured their futures that way. There was a regular business associated with the process.
He wanted nothing to do with it.
He crossed to the bellpull and summoned his valet. He would go through the proper motions. He would listen to the provisions of the will and examine the finances of the estate.
As he waited for Perry, he moved to the window and took up the spot his mother had occupied. He gazed past the gardens and the drive to the woods beyond, and past those to the gentle slope of the coombe rising to the top of the hill.
If there was one sentiment he shared with Lady Eleanor, it was the love of Seabeck, of the house and grounds and stables and farms, the woods and hills and streams. Seabeck had been in the family since the Wars of the Roses. James felt his roots here as surely as if he were one of the great beeches growing in the woods. His heart seemed to beat with the rhythm of the life of Seabeck, and he wanted nothing more than to live and work right here, raising his horses, assisting his tenants, managing his estate.
The new Marquess of Rosefield would take his seat in the House of Lords as expected, but his heart would always be here, in Dorset, in the family seat. Surely, as the century drew to a close, a man should choose his own path.
If he could find it.
11
Annis
Annis enjoyed the sea voyage despite herself. The Majestic seemed to her a wondrous vessel, with decks to explore and a bountiful library. Dinners were elegant affairs, with waiters in white coats and gloves, officers in their dark coats with shiny buttons, women in beaded gowns and long white gloves. She usually prided herself on her disdain for such luxuries, but aboard ship they seemed part of a different life, a separate life.
She worried about Bits, of course, but Robbie had promised to watch over him. She had made a fresh poultice, adding the recommended powdered ginger, and had wrapped it around his leg herself, with instructions to Robbie to see that it remained for at least three days. On board the Majestic, however, there was nothing further she could do. She had to trust that Robbie would see to Bits’s welfare. She decided she might as well give herself over to the adventure.
And adventure it was. Frances, who found herself queasy at the slightest rise of the sea, spent most of her time in the stateroom, which set Annis free to roam the