Lady In Disguise (The Langley Sisters) (2 page)

Giving his friend a last look, Will then jumped down. Running a hand through his hair, he noticed his fingers were unsteady. Dragging in another deep lungful of cold air, he looked up the stone walls to the corner window on the third floor that had once been his bedroom. Was it still his, or had Joseph moved his belongings somewhere else?
 

“I’ll take the horses to the stables and then head home.”

“Good night then, Luke, and give my regards to your family. I shall call upon them soon.”

“There is no need—”

“As I was the one to lure you away, there is every need. I have no wish to be at odds with your family, my friend.”

“And yours will be happy to see you’ve returned, Will, I promise you that.”

“Perhaps,” Will said, feeling suddenly nervous.
 

He watched Luke until he was out of sight taking those precious seconds to steady himself. Realizing the carriage would have been heard, he approached the front door. Lifting one hand, Will took hold of the iron knocker and banged it three times. Standing back, he waited. The sound of footsteps arrived several minutes later and light spilled through the door as it opened.

“May I help you?”

“It’s only been five years, Alders, surely I have not changed that much?” 
 
Will watched the faded hazel eyes before him widen and a huge smile crease the face of his family’s oldest servant.

“Welcome home! My lord, welcome home!”

Leaning forward, Will gripped Alder’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. The butler wrapped one gnarled hand around his forearm and returned the gesture with surprising strength.

“Do you never age, Alders?”

“I have not yet found the time, Lord Ryder,” the butler said, stepping to one side to usher him in.
 

“Come, my lord. Your family have just finished their evening meal and are reading in the gold parlour. They will be pleased to see you.”

“Lord, I hope so,” he muttered, walking over the threshold. Stopping just inside he looked around him. Growing up here, he realized now, he’d taken its beauty for granted.
 

To the left and right three stone arches defined the long entranceway, and each was carved with intricate patterns of knights, lions, and stories of history that he had never taken time to study. Above hung tapestries and paintings in hundred-year-old gilt frames. Tilting his head, Will looked up to the cream ceilings from which hung a chandelier.

“I hope they don’t still have you cleaning that, Alders?”

“I send the younger staff up there now, my lord.”

Each floor had a gallery that looked down to the entrance where patterned carpets covered the huge floor area and drew the eye to the sweeping staircase at the end.

“Is everyone well, Alders?” Will said quietly.

“They are, my lord.”

He felt some of the tension in his chest ease as he followed the butler down the carpet to the stairs. Walking up slowly, Will trailed his fingers over the polished banister he had slid down many times in his youth. Looking to the top he studied the pictures of his parents, immortalized in canvas, smiling at each other as they had in life and down on all who entered their home.

“God I still miss them, Alders.”

“As do we all, my lord.”

Their feet were muffled as they turned left at the top and continued along the hall to the gold parlour. Will feared his heart would give out, it beat so loudly. Alders didn’t stop at the door, just opened it and walked inside, leaving him no choice but to follow.

“Lord Ryder has returned home, your Grace,” Alders said in sombre tones.
 

Will stepped into the room and paused. Joseph, his brother, had turned to face the doorway; his features looked as if they had been chiselled from stone, cold and emotionless. Thea, his sister, was standing, one hand pressed to her lips the other braced on top of the piano before her. Joseph’s wife, Penny, stood beside her with a tea cup in one hand. Will took this all in within seconds—the longest and slowest seconds of his life.

“Will?” Thea’s voice was a hoarse whisper as she slowly began to move towards him. “Is it really you, Will?”

He couldn’t speak; something had lodged in his throat as he watched his little sister. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she kept repeating his name and then with a sob, she launched herself at him. Will caught her and wrapped his arms awkwardly around her trembling body. She had grown so much in his absence. He breathed in her sweet scent and felt the burn of tears behind his own eyes as she sobbed. He hadn’t been this close to another person in years and had forgotten what it felt like to be held by someone who cared about him.

“Sssh, Thea, I’m home now.”

Will felt her breath heave with a sigh, then she simply laid her head on his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist. She gave him the strength to lift his head and look at his brother.
 

Will now saw the grey hairs and lines on the face of Joseph Henry Edward Ryder, sixth Duke of Rossetter, that had not been there before he had left England, but he could discern nothing from his blank expression. Still standing where he had been when Will entered, the only thing indicating the Duke was less than his composed self was the clenching of his large hands into fists.

Their eyes met and held, neither moving, the only sound in the room the small hiccups coming from their sister.
 

“So you have returned.”

Will’s arms tightened briefly around Thea then eased as his brother spoke, the deep controlled words sounding unerringly similar to the late Duke’s.

“I have, your Grace.”

Will hadn’t meant the words to be an insult, he had simply not known how to address his brother after so many years. They had never been close. The bonds other brothers shared had been lost under the responsibilities forced on his brother from a young age. Yet he saw instantly that Joseph had thought the formal use of his title an insult, his body growing more rigid, eyes narrowing.

“One hopes the years have changed you for the better, William.”

Will would not have stood passively whilst his brother made a statement like that before leaving England, but the years had changed him, he had learnt that strength came from remaining in control at all times.

“I believe I have.”

The brothers once again looked at each other, the gap between them only a few feet, yet to Will it was the width of the ocean he had just crossed.

“And are you to stay with us or is this a fleeting, yet long overdue, visit?” Anger sharpened the Duke’s words.

“For a while if that is acceptable?”
 

“Of course it’s acceptable, Will,” the Duchess said, pausing to glare at her husband before stepping between the brothers. “You have a nephew to become acquainted with.”

“A nephew,” Will said shocked as he looked into the pretty face of his brother’s wife.

“He is two, Will,” Thea said with a last sniff as she eased out of his arms.
 

“And thoroughly spoilt by everyone here,” the Duchess added, moving forward to kiss his check and give him a surprisingly sturdy hug.

Petite with red hair, the Duchess might appear angelic yet she had a backbone of pure iron when required. She loved her husband and family passionately and Will was relieved to see no censure in her eyes when she looked at him.

“His name is William but everyone calls him Billy,” she added.

“William? Did you doubt I would return?” he questioned her, yet it was directed at his brother.

“It is a dangerous world out there, Will, and we had no idea in what part you resided or if, indeed, you lived or died. Joe and I wanted our son to carry your name in case you did not return.”

“I’m sorry,” Will said. “It was never my intention to hurt you, any of you.”

“And yet you walked away from here without word, William, and stayed away for years, never once sending so much as a note to let us know your situation.”

The words were spoken quietly yet Will heard the anger in them. His brother had no intention of forgiving him any time soon for his departure.

“I have no defence against your words, Joseph, everything you say is true.”

Surprise flashed across the Duke’s face briefly, he had expected Will to argue with him.

Penny squeezed Will’s hand before going to her husband and slipping her arm around his waist. Joseph unbent enough to do the same, pulling his wife closer.

“It is late now, and Thea needs her bed, therefore the reunion will wait until the morning, William,” Joseph said.

“Oh but—”

“Go to bed, Thea, we will talk tomorrow.” Will kissed the top of his sister’s head and then urged her from the room.

“Alders will have your room ready by now, therefore I bid you good night, William.”

He watched the Duke and Duchess leave the room, the later throwing him a final wave before passing through the door ahead of her husband.

“Goodnight, Joe.”

Will knew his brother heard him, as his footsteps faltered briefly, but he did not stop.
 

CHAPTER TWO

Olivia Langley gritted her teeth as Jenny, the family’s housekeeper, poured something that burned like fire over her shoulder.
 

Dear God she’d robbed William Ryder!
 

Lying face down on her bed Livvy gripped the blanket with both hands. Desperation had forced the Langley sisters out into the cold tonight in the hopes that they could steel enough money to survive, and of all the people who could have stepped down from that carriage it had been Lord William Ryder, the man she had once loved.
 

“I should have put a stop to this foolishness before it began!” Jenny said.

 
Livvy heard her sister Phoebe soothing the housekeeper as thoughts tumbled around inside her head. She felt numb, even the chill from hours spent outside could not penetrate it. They had stolen money from an innocent man and no matter how dire their circumstances Livvy didn’t think she would ever forgive herself.

“It had to be done,” Phoebe said, reading her thoughts.

“I know we had no other choice, Phoebe, yet I still struggle with the guilt.”

“And the shock of who we robbed, sister. I know seeing Lord Ryder after so long has upset you.”

It had upset her because Livvy always believed that when she saw him again she would be prepared, yet how could you prepare yourself to see the man you loved whilst pointing a gun at his head.
 

“Tis wrong for gently-bred young ladies to go about dressed as hoydens brandishing pistols!”

“We’ve talked this over, Jenny.” Livvy sighed, suddenly feeling older than her twenty-two years. “Phoebe and I believe this was the only course of action open to us. After our cousin sent that letter stating he would no longer support us financially, everything changed.”
 

The sisters had sold anything of value in the house over the past few months, even their father’s precious hunting pictures, but the money had soon gone.

“The tonic Bella needs to ease her pain is expensive, and now that you’ve told us her leg is worse, we must find the money to get her to Scotland for treatment, and this is the only way we know how.” Seeking a diversion Livvy, found the miniature of her mother that sat on the small table beside her bed. The mirror image of Phoebe with her blond locks and pretty face, she could have done with her soothing presence now.

“Thieving from people is the only course of action open to you?” Jenny demanded. “Have you written to your cousin again? The new Viscount Langley, explaining how dire your circumstances are now that he has withdrawn his assistance? Surely he has obligations to you all.”

“I have written to him many times telling him of our struggle, yet he has not replied. We are out of options, Jenny, you must see that.” Frustration and fear made Livvy’s voice sharp.
 

“Jenny is only trying to protect us, Livvy. After all, this step we took was a dangerous one and goes against everything we’ve been raised to believe in.”

Livvy closed her eyes as Phoebe spoke from behind her. “You think I don’t know that? That I haven’t spent days thinking about how our parents would feel if they knew? Believe me, it is only desperation forcing us along this path. I will not see Bella suffer because she does not have the proper care. And I will not have our name blackened, and therefore both yours and Bella’s chances of happiness hindered, because our cousin will not fulfil his obligations and support his family.”

“And your happiness, Livvy?” Phoebe added.

“We cannot even afford the most basic necessities at the moment and even if I could find work, it would only produce enough money to stave off disaster. Nothing further.” As the eldest in her family it was Livvy’s responsibility to secure her sisters’ future happiness, not her own. She had long since cast aside her dreams of handsome men and happy ever afters in favour of reality. “I have not been back to the village since Mr Bailey inquired when he could expect payment for the outstanding meat bills.”