with her. He wouldn’t be upset by her free-spirited ways. He would try to be less old-fashioned—less of a prig, as his mother had said. He would make an effort to charm her. He would demonstrate to her what a good life she could have as Lady Rosefield. It seemed his mother had succeeded where he had failed.
He remembered how glorious Annis had looked racing away from him on Dancer after his awkward proposal. Her seat in the saddle had been as steady and secure as any man’s, her hands low on the reins, her posture well forward, in perfect balance. She had lost her hat, and her hair had streamed in the wind, a dark, rippling flag of farewell.
He was in love with Annis Allington. The embarrassing and shameful fires of lust had died down, thank God, but he still wanted her. Not her money. Herself, with her freckled nose and boyish figure, her cascade of dark hair, her forget-me-not eyes, her stubborn jaw, and all her rebellious, unabashed modern ways. Why in heaven’s name had he not told her that in the first place? It was far too late now.
His eyes stung, and he had to look away. She would think, he hoped, it was the illness that reddened his eyes and rendered him mute. No doubt that was best.
Annis told him she had sent a wire to her father while she was in the village, and that she had just received his response, delivered to Rosefield Hall by a boy on a bicycle.
“I’m going to take Frances home,” she said. “That’s what I came to tell you, James. I wrote to Papa, and he has booked our passage to New York. The Majestic again.”
“How will you manage, with your stepmother so ill?”
“My maid and I can cope,” she said. “Velma’s strong and remarkably patient. Once we’re aboard, it will be simple.”
“I wish you would stay until Mrs. Allington is better,” he said.
Her expression turned somber. “Lady Eleanor said the same thing, but I don’t think Frances is going to be better. Something has happened to her mind.”
“But just you and your maid… What about Mrs. Allington’s maid?”
“Vanished,” Annis said. “She took two pieces of Frances’s jewelry and ran off yesterday. Probably back to Paris.”
“Oh! Shall we summon the sheriff?”
“No. Antoinette wanted me to give her money, and I didn’t have enough to satisfy her. It’s good riddance, truly. I didn’t care for her much in any case, and I don’t care at all about the jewelry. She’s welcome to sell it and use the money for her passage home.” She patted her hands together, as if dusting the issue away. “She will have no reference from us, of course.”
James, so concerned about money himself, thought it must be very nice not to care about the loss of two pieces of expensive jewelry, but he didn’t speak the thought. There was no point.
He let his gaze drift back to the rich green pastures of Seabeck and the tidy cottages of his tenants. How was he going to hold it all together? He had no idea.
When he turned his head back to Annis, he saw that she had gotten to her feet and was standing with her left hand on her pearl necklace as she reached toward him with her right. “I will miss you, James,” she said, in a sisterly fashion. “And I will miss Lady Eleanor, and Rosefield Hall, and Seabeck. And most especially your Andalusians! Thank you so much for allowing me to ride them.”
He took her hand in his and shook it. He wanted to press it to his lips. He wanted to say something, anything, that would stop her going, but no words would come.
“I’ve tired you,” she said quickly, releasing his hand. “As I feared. I’ll come and say goodbye before we go. Rest now.”
When she was gone, James closed his eyes and tried to pretend that his throat didn’t ache with sadness.
37
Annis
The look on her father’s face when she and Velma shepherded Frances down the gangplank of the Majestic made Annis’s blood run cold. She and Velma had done their best to make Frances presentable. They had brushed and pinned up her hair and dressed her in her simplest suit and hat, though they had given up on her corset because she couldn’t stand without them supporting her. They had managed to pull gloves on over her nerveless fingers. She walked well enough, if each of them held an arm and balanced