Lord Crayle's Secret World. Lara Temple

tall windows overlooking St James’s Street.

      ‘My highway robber paid me a visit today, Sinjun,’ Michael said casually as he sat down next to him.

      ‘You sent her away, of course,’ Anderson said hopefully, folding his newspaper.

      ‘Not at all. We are to expect a visit this Monday morning. Unless she absconds with my twenty pounds.’

      ‘Michael, you cannot be serious. What on earth are we going to do with her? I thought we agreed it wasn’t suitable.’

      ‘We agreed to no such thing. I merely said that with any luck she would not show up. It seems your luck is out. Don’t be so negative, Sinjun. She might prove useful.’

      Anderson leaned his forearms on his knees morosely, and Michael tried not to smile. Unlike Michael, Anderson had no sisters and he had always been diffident around women. Though he had frequently professed to being in love with some pretty girl or other in his youth, he conducted his liaisons the same way most men dealt with the nursery—he enjoyed himself once he was there, but usually found an excuse to postpone his next visit.

      ‘Then you take responsibility for her,’ Anderson said finally. ‘You always seem to know what to do with women...and stop grinning, that’s not what I meant. I mean they’re always comfortable around you and you just don’t seem to care.’

      Michael’s grin widened.

      ‘But I care a great deal, Sinjun. That’s why they are comfortable with me. And I don’t know why you say you don’t know what to do with them. I seem to remember you falling in and out of love with some fair maiden or another every term whilst we were up at Oxford.’

      It was Anderson’s turn to grin.

      ‘Everyone was falling in love then. Except you—I remember how offended I was when you told me to stop making a fool of myself and just go and get the job done.’

      Michael laughed.

      ‘Well, it was damn exhausting, listening to you go on about Jane, or Sophia, or Anthea or whomever. I was trying to study and you’d be reading your maudlin poetry out loud. You were lucky you were too timid to ask any of them to marry you, otherwise you’d probably have at least ten children by now.’

      ‘Anthea! I’d forgotten her. Lucky is right. She’d have made my life a living hell. But I still want to get married. Do you really not want to?’

      ‘Thankfully, I don’t need to, now that Chris has two healthy sons. He’s much better suited to managing Crayle Hall anyway. He lives and breathes estate management. If the estate and title weren’t entailed I’d hand them over without a qualm, except that he’s too proper to consider such a flouting of convention.’

      ‘For heaven’s sake, one doesn’t marry just to produce an heir. I mean, there’s love, and companionship...and I don’t mean the kind of companionship provided by someone from the muslin company,’ he added with asperity.

      Michael smiled affectionately at his friend.

      ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about when you talk about love. And frankly neither do you. I would wager you can’t even remember the names of all the women you’ve been in love with. It’s just a fancy name for unrequited lust.’ The smile faded. ‘And when it’s something more than that it’s usually destructive. My father was in love with my mother and look where that got them. All I can remember was his jealousy and her misery. You saw what it was like when they came to the Hall. Sometimes I think you had the best of it with your parents being away in India for all those years. You only had to see them once a year.’

      ‘If that. I much preferred spending the school holidays with you lot, though I do admit your parents did put a damper on our fun when they would come down from London. I never understood why your father always was so jealous. She was far too sweet and timid to ever stray.’

      ‘They were both fools,’ Michael said dismissively. ‘Thankfully they rarely stayed for long.’

      Anderson laughed suddenly. ‘I just remembered how he used to line you and Chris up the first day they arrived and quiz you about your achievements at school like a drill sergeant. No wonder you always excelled. I was always terrified he would put me in the line, too.’

      ‘If we’d had any courage we would have told him to go to hell,’ Michael said with a self-deprecating smile.

      ‘Well, you did eventually, I suppose. Enlisting in the army amounted to the same thing. It definitely wasn’t what he planned for you. But that’s not the point. Not every marriage is like your parents’. And even if you don’t believe in love, then what about children? Isn’t that a good enough reason to marry?’

      Michael could indulge him no longer.

      ‘It was bad enough being responsible for Letty and Christopher and Allie or for my men during battle, but at least they are their own masters in principle. I’ve done my share of being responsible for other people and a damn poor job of it too often. I have Lizzie and my father and more of my men than I care to count on my conscience and I don’t need any more opportunities to let people down, especially not those who are wholly dependent on me for their survival and wellbeing.’

      Anderson gaped at him.

      ‘Good God, Michael, your father had a heart attack and overturned his curricle with Lizzie in it. If anything, it’s his fault that your sister broke her back in the accident. You weren’t even there!’

      ‘I might as well have been. He was so furious when I told him I was joining the army that if he could have disowned me he would have. He made it clear that if I left I wasn’t to come back. Don’t tell me the fact that he had a heart attack the next day was unrelated.’

      ‘It’s still not your fault. And as far as I can remember he’d already had one heart attack years earlier and the one that killed him in the end happened much later when you were already in Spain. Were you responsible for those two as well?’

      Michael shrugged. Even with Anderson he had no intention of touching this particular wound. He had already said too much.

      ‘We are straying from the point, which is that there is no reason why you can’t deal with Miss Trevor. In fact, she might be just what you need.’

      ‘You make her sound like a medication, or a trip to Bath to take the waters.’ Anderson grimaced.

      Michael laughed. ‘I hope it’s not as bad as that.’

      ‘Fine. At least tell me what she is like. Big and vulgar?’ Anderson asked despondently.

      ‘Not at all. I would wager she is a gentleman’s daughter, though I haven’t the faintest idea how she ended up on the wrong side of the Heath. I will leave the family history exploration to you. I have a feeling she will answer your questions more readily than mine since she and I did not exactly hit it off. As for size, she is a small thing, a couple inches shorter than Allie, I would say.’

      He sipped his whisky, watching with amusement as a faint bloom of colour spread across Anderson’s cheeks at the mention of Alicia. He wished his friend had more stomach when it came to women so he could follow through on his obvious attraction. No wonder he was horrified at the prospect of being saddled with Miss Trevor. Michael wondered how he could make her sound more acceptable, then decided it was best for Anderson to be forewarned.

      ‘She is quite pretty which could be useful. Very direct—in fact, painfully direct. A bit of a shrew, I think, but clever and quick to grasp what is good for her. From her behaviour on the Heath she appears to have an inordinate amount of loyalty for her silent giant friend. I have no idea how they ended up working together in such dubious circumstances. Another piece of the puzzle for you to uncover...’

      Anderson sighed. ‘I hate puzzles.’

       Chapter Five

      Sari