Debutantes Don’t Date (9 page)

He must stop this. He rolled onto his side and stared at the offending door. What
on earth had ever possessed him to open it to begin with?

Jasper was resigned to taking himself in hand when he heard noises coming from the
other side of the door. Both his heart and his penis leapt with hope; could she be
coming here to him? The door knob started to turn. He held his breath. Whoever it
was, he could only assume it was Grace, let go. The door remained tightly closed and
he remained alone for the rest of the night.

Chapter Nine

“Is it done?” Robin whispered to Rupert when they met again.

“They’s left town.”

“What?!” Several heads turned in his direction. He quickly hushed his tone and leaned
closer to the big man at his table. It had been a risk meeting him here at the club,
but Rupert had insisted Robin get him inside the establishment. He wasn’t about to
disappoint him.

“I said, They. Left. Town.”

“Where have they gone? You don’t think they have gone to get married already, do you?”
Robin could hear the panic rising in his own voice.

“Nah, Old Man Lancaster’s Estate.”

“Damnation!” Getting Old Man Lancaster involved was not good. Not good at all.

“I wouldn’t worry about it, boy, I’ll’s just get her when she gets back.” Rupert rubbed
his hands together.

Robin hated that Rupert called him boy, but since the man was twice his size, he wasn’t
stupid enough to ask him to stop.

“I’s can hardly wait to get my hands on her. Ye never tol’ me she be such a pretty
little thing.”

“Is she now? We never had the pleasure of being introduced,” Robin sneered. “This
calls for a change of plans. I’ll meet her; she’s more likely to warm to me than to
a bulk of a man like you.” He would love to sample what Lord Bingham has already discovered.
In fact, maybe that’s what they should do instead. “Instead of killing her you know,
we could sell her. She as pretty as you say, isn’t she?”

“Oh ay, she’d fetch a fair price. We’d have to break her in first of course, but that
won’t be a problem, will it?”

“None at all,” Robin snickered. The weight of his debt lifted from his shoulders for
the first time since Miss Lancaster arrived. His snickering grew to a full belly laugh,
leaving the rest of the patrons in the room to wonder what Lord Wester and his very
large friend were laughing so gleefully about.

Chapter Ten

The Lancaster Estate looked more like a castle out of a movie than a home. The grey
stone amongst the freshly fallen snow and the grey sky made the place look majestic,
but cold. Grace imagined the winters here would be spent huddled around the fire…an
open fire, with no central heating. She shivered at the thought.

The very large front door opened before their carriage pulled to a stop and several
servants bustled out and stood in a line. An old man made his way down the steps,
his weight heavy on a cane.

“Don’t let his appearance fool you, Grace,” Jasper whispered as the footman opened
their door.

“Huh?” She turned her head from the window and looked at him in confusion.

As soon as their feet had touched the ground they were greeted by the old man. “What
are you doing here, Bingham?” For such a frail man, his voice boomed, cutting into
the clear winter air. “You of all people should know you’re not welcome here.” The
old man turned to Victoria. “Lady Harrison, I’m sorry you wasted a trip,” he said
with a slight bow.

“Lord Lancaster,” Jasper said as though he hadn’t heard he wasn’t welcome there, although
his hearing was just fine, “may I present Miss Grace Lancaster? Miss Lancaster, your
grandfather, Lord Lancaster.”

The old man stopped his grizzling and stared into Grace’s eyes. “My granddaughter?”

Grace dropped to a curtsy, just like she had practised. “It appears that I am, sir.”

“Colin’s girl? I never thought to hear from that bastard again. What is it you want?”
All trace of awe had left his voice.

“That bastard, as you call him, doesn’t want a damned thing, you cranky old fart,
and neither do I!” Grace turned on her heel and flounced back into the carriage and
slammed the door. She flung it back open a moment later. “Are you two coming, or not?”

“Grace, you can’t speak to Lord Lancaster like that,” Victoria chided her as they
made their way back down the long drive.

“I just did.” Grace looked out the window back towards the house to see the little
old man standing on the front steps watching them leave. “If anyone is a bastard,
it’s him. Who could disown his own son…and a granddaughter he’s never met?”

“Your…um…father was not that great a son.” Victoria said gently. “He ran up debts
so large it almost ruined Old Lancaster. He only paid them off on the condition that
Colin left the country and never asked for anything again. I’m afraid he may be thinking
Colin is using you to blackmail him. I suppose bringing you here wasn’t the best of
ideas.”

“Didn’t you tell him we were coming?” Grace asked.

“I thought showing up unannounced would work better in our favour,” Victoria shook
her head sadly.

“Besides, he wouldn’t have opened anything from us if we had sent something beforehand,
he just won’t have anything to do with our family,” Jasper added.

“Why is it that he hates you so? What on earth did you do to him, Jasper?”

Jasper looked at his lap and shifted in his seat. He cleared his throat a few times
before he lifted his head and looked her straight in the eyes, his face flushed with
obvious embarrassment. “It was me to whom Colin owed the most money. In hindsight
I shouldn’t have let him run up debts so high, but I didn’t realise he was unable
to pay them until it was too late. In my defence, I did offer to let Old Lancaster
pay them off over ten years, interest free, but I’m afraid that just made it worse.”

“You offended his honour.” Grace shook her head with a small smile on her face. “You
men are a peculiar species. You’re prepared to sacrifice everything else for the sake
of honour, aren’t you?”

“It doesn’t help that our banks compete with each other either.”

“Grace,” Victoria cut in, “you’re talking to the man who is marrying you because he
compromised you. If that doesn’t come down to honour, what does?”

“True.” Grace thought about all the times men did something just because of their
honour. It seemed to her that it was something that never changed from this time to
her own. “It’s kinda sad for my grandfather then, isn’t it? Does he have any other
family?”

“No, not any more. He had one other son, George, but he was killed fighting Napoleon
and George’s wife died in childbirth. I believe she was to have a daughter, but the
babe died alongside her.”

“Oh, so he doesn’t have anyone?” Something tugged in her chest. He’s just like me,
she thought, she didn’t have anyone either. “Victoria, do you think he will ever let
go of his pride and come to the wedding?”

“I think he’ll come if he knows what he’ll be missing, if he doesn’t know that already
after meeting you.”

Grace reached up and knocked loudly on the roof, just like she had seen in the movies.
“Turn around,” she hollered to the driver. “I’ll show him what he’s missing,” she
said to her companions.

***

Joseph Lancaster watched the carriage rumble down his drive, carrying the granddaughter
he didn’t know he had, away from him. It would be just like his son to use her to
get something from him. But she showed spunk. She obviously didn’t want anything from
him. But then, why did she come here? It was a long way from London. And to come with
Bingham! What was a Lancaster doing associating with that man? He hoped it wasn’t
history repeating itself.

He turned away from the scene before him; it reminded him too much of when he lost
Colin. He too had left with terse words shouted. Things had never been the same since.
George had blamed him for losing the brother he’d always looked up to. He left to
join the army a month after Colin sailed away. Carl never saw either of them again.

He made his way slowly back up the steps. He had been filled with a surge of angry
energy when he’d seen Bingham’s crest on the carriage door and felt like he could
run down the steps like a man of twenty. Now all that energy drained out to leave
only the bleakness which always seemed to consume his life nowadays.

He made his way into his huge empty house and hobbled down the hallway to the library
to return to his book and fire. He didn’t want to be alone any more. Of course he
had loyal servants that looked after his every need, but it was not the same as having
family and friends around. Maybe he should make the effort to go to town this spring
and attend some of the balls. Maybe he could find someone to comfort him, and if he
happened to run into his granddaughter, it would be only right to invite her to dinner.

“My lord?” His butler stood at the doorway. “It appears your guests have decided to
stay after all. They are coming back down the drive. Should I invite them in, sir?”

Carl leapt, as best he could, out of his chair and hustled back to the entrance to
greet his guests. This time he would not let them go; at least not without a hug.

***

The second time Grace stepped down from the carriage at her grandfather’s door, it
was a much better welcome than she experienced the first time. The old man limped
over to her, leaning heavily on his walking stick. He hesitated but a moment before
opening his arms and folding her in his embrace. The walls surrounding her heart cracked
and the tears in his eyes when he held her back to look at her, made the cracks so
large the walls fell to a heap. Tears flowed freely down her face as she hugged him
tightly to her again. This was home.

She hadn’t felt this way since her parents were alive. Warmth filled the gap that
had opened and she felt giddy with the love that flowed through her for this man.

Her great-great-grandfather held her hand as he welcomed them all into his home.

They stayed a week at the Lancaster Estate getting to know each other and playing
chess by the fireside while a snowstorm raged outside. The snow piled up quickly and
Grace was grateful they weren’t on the road. She found the temperature inside the
manor wasn’t as cool as she first anticipated as long as she stayed at the end of
the room where the fire was located. It tended to be a lot chillier at the far end
of the room.

When it was time for them to head back to London, the man Grace now knew as Grandpapa
called her into his study.

“Grace my dear, I understand why you need to marry Bingham, and after these days of
getting to know him again, I am more than happy to give you my blessing, but I want
you to know you always have a home here. I have no one else to share this big old
house with and I would love for you to visit as often and for as long as you like.”
The old leather chair in which he sat held a depression in the perfect shape of his
bottom from the many years he had spent seated by the fire.

Grace reached for his hand and smiled at the sweet-hearted old man and marvelled she’d
thought he was a grumpy old codger when she first arrived. How wrong she was. “I would
love nothing more, Grandpapa.”

“I want you to stay here with me. There’s no reason for you to go back to town so
soon. You can travel in closer to the wedding. This is your home now. Stay. We’ll
have a grand time together, you and I.”

The crinkles around his eyes pulled her to him and suddenly she couldn’t bear to go
away. “Yes,” she replied, “I will stay. I’ll go and tell Victoria and Jasper they
will be making the return trip without me.” Grace gave him a quick hug before she
slipped out the door and ran into Jasper. Literally. He was standing just outside
the study door.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Waiting for you, of course. Are you ready to go? We’ll be leaving first thing in
the morning and I wanted to make sure you were all packed.”

“I am actually, but…”

“Good, come with me, I want to show you something.” Jasper grasped her arm and like
every other time he touched her, she forgot about everything else.

He led her down the hallway to the rear entrance which opened into the garden. He
wrapped her in a cloak hung at the door before taking her hand and heading outside
into the snow. The night was crisp and clear; the freshly fallen snow shone in the
moonlight and squeaked underfoot as they made their way to a garden bench.

Jasper swept the snow aside and spread out a blanket he had tucked under his arm to
make her comfortable before settling next to her. He gently took her hands in his
and leaned in and softly kissed her lips. “Look,” he said when he raised his head,
pointing at the sky.

She gasped as the wonderful sight assaulted her senses. Meteors showered the sky.
It looked like hundreds were falling all at once. She stood and gazed up in wonder.

“Have you ever seen such a sight?” His voice was filled with awe. Grace heard his
boots crunch in the snow as he stood to join her.

“Yes,” she whispered into the darkness. Tears filled her eyes as she remembered another
night much like this one. When she was a teenager, her dad had woken her up in the
middle of the night and together they watched the meteor shower from her bedroom window.
He had wrapped his arms around her to keep out the cold as they both stood shivering
in the crisp cold air, every once in a while wiping the fog of their breath off the
window so they could see the once-in-a-lifetime sight. A laugh caught in her throat;
all one had to do was partake in a little time travel to enjoy a night like this more
than once.

She wished she could have controlled her travelling. She would have picked that night
to relive.

Jasper moved behind her and wrapped her in his arms. She leaned back into his warmth
and told him about watching meteors with her dad. He seemed to know how much seeing
this again meant to her and he wisely kept quiet. But she couldn’t quite allow herself
to let go and enjoy this moment with him. Maybe those walls she thought had crumbled
upon meeting Grandpapa were stronger than she first believed.