in a low voice. Margaret could not see him, but in her mind’s eye she imagined him pulling up sharply alongside the older man, that same fury in his eyes. “Nothing is settled, and it is looking as though nothing will be settled. This engagement that you promised would happen without a hitch is in jeopardy.”
“Why?” Lord Somerville asked. Margaret was impressed by how innocent he managed to sound, even though he was aware of the contents of Margaret’s letter earlier that morning.
“Why?” Reginald retorted. “Because your daughter is an entitled and headstrong woman who would make a very poor wife. The more that I see of her, the more suspicious I grow of her upbringing. I tell you, sir – if you do not find a way to curb that tongue of hers, not a man in all of England will marry her.”
He stamped away down the hall. Margaret stayed by the door until she heard her father’s footsteps receding more slowly to his study, and then sank down in the nearest chair. For the first time since the conversation began, she allowed herself a real, genuine, smile.
Chapter 16
Nigel woke up in the village where he had grown up as a boy, hearing for the first time the sounds of life all around him that he remembered from his youth. There was livestock just beneath his window in the marketplace, the sound of children laughing in the street, and the chattering of shopkeepers opening up and haggling with passers-by.
He climbed out of bed and surveyed the bare room. His father had arranged for the flat to be furnished with a bed and a chest, but there was nothing else in his private chambers. Downstairs, there was a kitchen and dining room attached to a small parlour, where he would be able to receive guests.
His pension easily allowed for a housekeeper, but she had not been there to greet him last night upon his arrival. He heard her now in the kitchen, bustling about. His father had been the one who had taken care to meet him in the square when he rode into town. Guy Bateston had aged more than Nigel had expected over the years. His snow-white hair made his son’s heart ache.
The war had been difficult, and the effects were lasting, but this was one consequence Nigel had not considered. He had missed the last youthful days his father had, and his absence had sped along the process of ageing. The old man didn’t seem to mind, however.
He had spent the whole evening bustling about and making certain that everything was in order for his only son, clucking about the sparse furnishings, worrying that he would have enough to eat, and asking him again and again if he felt quite at home and how long he intended to stay.
“I will stay as long as this village will have me,” was Nigel’s answer. He had felt strange living alone in town when the gamekeeper’s cottage would have suited him well enough. But Lord Somerville had been clear in his desires. Nigel wished, nonetheless, to be as near to his father as he could. “I have an extra room,” he reminded the man. “If you find yourself tiring of the work on the estate, my pension will easily support us both. You are welcome to come and move in with me.”
“No, no. I’m a man who needs to keep busy or my mind will slip. And I don’t mind the work. It reminds me how fortunate I am to still be so spry.” The old man had laughed and patted Nigel’s hand for the twentieth time in that gentle, possessive way that Nigel remembered from his childhood.
Their little interview had ended with one startling comment, however. His father had invited him to the Somerville estate the next day to see the cottage where he had grown up and to visit the staff and family he knew and loved.
“The little lassie is back,” he’d said with a smile. “You will want to see her, of course. She says that she encountered you in London, which was quite a shock to me. If you’re walking around with her, you’ve got to have made it further in society than your father ever did.”
Nigel’s heart had skipped a beat.
“Little lassie? Do you mean that Lady Margaret has returned?”
The man winked. “Aye. She will always be the little lassie to me, even though she has that young one to care for now. She does