Trials of Artemis (14 page)

"Take
a groom with you if you plan to ride," he said shortly. At Kellington she
had just ridden with him. Which was unusual now that she came to think of it.
At her family's country house she had ridden whenever the mood had struck her,
which was quite often.

"I
prefer to ride alone," she said softly, wondering why her husband's attitude
had shifted dramatically from the night before. Had he taken her not waking as
a rejection?

"Well,
you won't be doing so anymore." A groom had come up to take Falcon. Gideon
jumped down from the large horse with his usual grace.

Jack
felt a prickle of annoyance. "I always did at home."

Gideon
spun on her with an expression that almost made her back up a step. Pride had
her raise her chin instead. "By home," he said acidly, "I assume
you mean your father's house. Well, you weren't a countess at your father's
house. Now this is home and you are a countess and you will not ride
alone."

She
could feel her heart pounding in reaction but something her mother used to say
came back to her. She said the best advice that her successful merchanting
father had ever given her was that when someone provoked you don't get angry,
get curious. What do they hope to gain? What are they afraid to lose? She
realized now that Gideon had been provoking her at almost every stage in their
relationship and she began to wonder why. Some of her speculation and curiosity
must have shown on her face as his expression became fierce.

"I
can see those wheels turning in your brain. Don't think that you will find a
way around my command. Within the hour every groom at Kellington will know of
it. Within the week every groom on my estates will know it."

It
was extraordinarily difficult not to react to his autocratic approach but Jack
clung to her curiosity. Surely her marriage would be the most important
business transaction of her life, and if there was ever a time to follow her
clever grandfather's advice it was now. What did he hope to gain? What was he
afraid to lose? Those questions would most likely preoccupy her for the rest of
the day, and she and her husband couldn't spend it out in the stable yard
staring at each other.

"Have
you had breakfast yet?" she asked.

It
wasn’t the response he was expecting and his expression became wary.
"No."

"Then
let's go in to eat, shall we? You must be starving after little to no dinner
last night." She wrapped her hand around his elbow and, although stiff
with irritation, he behaved as the gentleman he was and led her back toward the
manor.

"I
ate the plate of food left in my room last night," he admitted.

"Good,
I'm glad,” she said. “I was concerned that you hadn't had lunch."

"Just
a bit of it at the tenant farm."

She
felt him stiffen even more at the memory. "What happened yesterday?” she
asked. “You never did say."

He
looked down at her, appearing very grave, then looked away again as though considering
whether to tell her. He finally blew out a long breath. "I had to evict a
family."

"Oh
Gideon!"

"I
didn't want to." He looked grave and a bit forlorn. "But it was
necessary. The Hobbes. Mr. Hobbes passed away after an accident last year. His
wife and two eldest sons have tried to keep the farm up but they haven't been
able to without him."

"That
doesn't seem fair, not giving them time to put the farm to rights."

"They've
had this year, Jacqueline, and it looked that they were falling further and further
behind. It's one of the larger steads on our land."

"This
is over profit? You would turn them out because they made one of the larger
farms unprofitable?"

"It's
not that. Or not just that. Certainly at some point you need to think of the
business of it. But they couldn't hope to keep up with such a large plot of
land and with the low yield... The family was near to starving and the boys,
Jacqueline, the boys are fourteen and twelve. They would spend all day in the
field to come home to a meal of gruel unless a neighbor took pity and dropped
by with something more substantial. Mrs. Hobbes was beside herself feeling that
she owed her neighbors more than she could ever repay."

"Where
will the family go?"

"Right
now they are at the vicarage. I'm hopeful to find positions for at least Mrs. Hobbes
and the boys so that the family can afford housing. Then the eldest girl will
have to take care of the five younger children."

"How
old is she?"

“Eleven.”

Now
she understood why he had seemed bleak and withdrawn when he had returned last
night. She remembered very clearly the year she was eleven. The Haberdashers
had held their own contest that summer to test which of them was best at
various weapons. It had been a secret contest, of course. But looking back she
knew that year had been silly, innocent, and free of responsibility. She tried
to imagine her eleven-year-old self responsible for five younger siblings and couldn't
picture it. At that age she could barely stand it when Sam had tried to tag
along on Haberdasher outings. Since then she had met more children and knew
that Sam was as sweet as anyone's little sister could be. No, an eleven-year-old
Jacqueline Walters would have been a miserable nanny to five younger children.
This girl might be better suited to it, but was it even a fair task to ask of
such a child?

"Isn't
there anything else we can do?" Jack asked.

Gideon
handed Jack into her seat at the dining table and took his customary place.
"Not that I can think of. Even a poor struggling mother and her eight
children have their pride. She insisted on preparing that lunch. Poor fare as
it was, it probably represented a week's worth of food for her and the
children. And she kept a stiff upper lip as Phillip and I explained what we
needed to do. The only time she came close to crying was when she told me about
the charity of her neighbors and her inability to do them a good turn."

"I
should like to visit them in the vicarage."

Gideon
nodded. "I can take you tomorrow."

"Not
today?"

"I
have some other business to attend to today that will keep me from being able
to make the trip." He stopped in the midst of cutting his meat to eye her.
"And if you should decide to make the trip on your own you will take the
carriage with at least two attendants."

"Did
you presume that after breakfast I would leap on my steed and dash off to the
vicarage on my mission of mercy?"

"Let's
just say that I wouldn't consider it to be beyond you."

"How
very challenged the Earl of Harrington must be with his headstrong new
wife."

"I
shall pretend to ignore that. But your instincts are good. Visiting the Hobbes
at the vicarage is very much the correct thing for a countess to do. And I’m
sure Mrs. Hobbes would appreciate it,” he added. “Speaking of the correct
thing, that reminds me that we have been at Kellington for over a fortnight and
will be expected to join the local society soon."

"I
thought it was a honeymoon,” Jack said, “not a honey fortnight."

Her
tart reply managed to thaw Gideon enough that he smiled. "We can make it a
honeymoon if you like, but we should begin planning now for a ball."

"A
ball? You mean we should hold a ball? Here? Soon?" She felt stunned.

"Yes,
that would be the customary thing. A ball to celebrate our new marriage."

"I'm
sorry, sir, but you have the wrong Walters sister."

He
placed his hand over hers on the table.

"I
don't have a Walters sister, I have Jacqueline Wolfe, Countess of Harrington.
We must have a ball. It is expected." She must have looked as shocked as
she felt because he squeezed her cold, tense hand and then leaned closer to
whisper in her ear. "Perhaps after the first waltz we can rendezvous in
the library."

As
he pulled back, Jack looked up into his eyes. "Last night did I... sleep
through something important? My friends can tell you that I'm famous for
sleeping through everything."

Gideon's
expression became guarded again. "If you sleep through that then I have
sincerely done something wrong."

"One
time they put me on the roof."

"They
what?" Gideon asked, startled.

"Sabre
and George. They considered it a challenge to find out how many things they
could do without waking me."

"These
are your friends? They could have killed you if you had rolled off."

"Oh,
they tied me up there,” Jack said. “In my blanket. Snug as a bug in a rug. When
I woke up I couldn't get out and started screaming for someone to help me. That
was one of the times Mama found out so they got in some real trouble."

"The
other times you didn't tell on them?"

"Of
course not, they're my friends."

"Darling,
I don't know how to tell you this,” he said, “but those aren't friends."

Jack
raised a brow. "You're telling me that you and the duke wouldn't have
tested such a weakness if you had found it in the other?"

Gideon
laughed as he considered it. "Oh, Quince would have woken up tied at the
top of a church steeple. Naked. Honestly I shudder to think what his fertile
imagination might have come up with if the tables had been turned."

"Exactly.
Friends can't help but to tease one another."

"Well,
but you're..."

"Girls?"

Gideon
shrugged. "Exactly."

"We
may be women but we were never girls. Not the way you mean it."

"I
knew there would be dangers in marrying a free-thinking bluestocking."

"I
offered to break the engagement," she said with mock sweetness.

He
looked at her speculatively. "Yes. Yes you did."

After
breakfast the earl withdrew to his study and Jack decided to take a walk as she
had much to think over. The book for one, the contents of which still made her
blush just to think about. She couldn't imagine discussing it with Gideon but
there was certainly no one else to talk to about it. Her husband's moods for
another, how he seemed to alternate between drawing her closer and pushing her
away. And last but not least how she was going to handle the social obligations
of being the Countess of Harrington. She realized now that this fortnight had
indeed been a honeymoon period and that she would not be allowed to continue on
with as few responsibilities.

Gideon
had not enjoyed the emotional tumult of the last few days and was relieved to
be back in his study dealing with problems he could solve. Financial decisions,
business decisions, agricultural decisions, governance decisions. He was
finishing off a letter to Pitt and staring out the tall windows that afforded
him a magnificent view of the front lawn when he noticed a wagon coming up his
drive. It was a bit unusual to receive a delivery at this time of the day,
especially as the driver seemed to come towards the front of the house rather
than go around to the side entrance, but he thought little of it and merely
watched the wagon idly as he considered his words to the Prime Minister. Idly,
that was, until he saw his wife running up the driveway. And saw the driver
break the wagon and jump down to catch her as she flew at him with the joy of a
child. The man spun her around while she laughed and they looked for all the
world like reunited lovers. Gideon was out of his chair and pounding down the
hallway to the front door before he had put together a coherent thought.

Jack
stepped back, still laughing. "Look at you, Justin! I can't believe how
much you've grown. I have to look up at you now."

The
young man blushed and looked at the ground. "I suppose I should be bowing
and calling you milady."

She
grabbed his hands. "Don't be silly. We shall always be friends, regardless
of anything else."

Still
staring at the ground, he said, "It's alright Miss Jack-ma'am-milady. I
know my place."

"Poppycock.
You are Sabre’s brother and that makes you my brother as well, just like Robert
and Charles. But why are you here?"

"Sam
wrote and said you would probably like to have your trunks when it was
convenient."

Looking
at the wagon Jack almost melted. "Oh Justin. You brought my trunks? From
the attic? That couldn't have been convenient."

"Anything
for you, Jack."

The
earl's voice cut through their conversation like a steel blade through soft
flesh. "Take your hands off my wife."

Justin
jerked away from Jack's hands like he had been burned and immediately started
bowing to the earl. "Begging your pardon my lord."

"Gideon!"
Jack admonished. "Justin is one of my oldest and dearest friends."

The
earl continued advancing on the young man who was now cowering back towards the
wagon. "And how dear a friend is he?"

Jack
grabbed Gideon's arm and began tugging him back before he had Justin pinned
completely against the wagon. When she gave one particularly vicious tug Gideon
turned his gaze on her and she decided his expression was most likely the one
the devil wore when you showed up in perdition. It made her realize that this
wasn't just an irritating situation but one that was rapidly becoming dangerous
for her young friend.