Josh held the little case reverently in the palms of his calloused and blistered hands and stared down at it with tears in his rheumy old eyes.
‘How did ‘ee find it, lass?’ he whispered, with a catch in his throat. I never thought to see it again. ‘I went up there the once but her …’ he jerked his head towards his daughter ‘ …her wouldn’t let me back.’
Meggy Watts came and stood by her father and lovingly stroked his shaggy head.
‘It were dangerous up there, Dad,’ she said. ‘The roof timbers is falling all along the row and some of them kitchen flagstones have dropped right down into the cellars. You’ve had one very lucky escape—we don’t want no more such accidents, now do we?’
She was studying Harriet’s workmanship with admiration.
‘It’s such a true likeness. But how did you know all this, Miss Cordell?’
‘Reverend Taylor furnished me with the details of your parents’ wedding day from his parish records,’ said Harriet, enormously gratified that her efforts had been awarded such a reception. ‘And your own daughter Rose corrected some errors I had made in the painting.’
Turning to Joshua, she laid her hand on his arm. ‘I know what it’s like to lose treasured possessions, Mr Potter,’ she told him. ‘My family travelled across Spain in the war years and we had to leave our chattels behind on many occasions—and other times they were destroyed almost in front of our eyes. Your sweetest memories—the ones you keep inside your heart—will never die, I am certain, but sometimes a more tangible memento is needed and I hope that this little token might, in some small way, help you to recover from your dreadful loss.’
‘You couldn’t have brought me anything in the world that would have pleased me more, miss,’ said Josh, slipping the little case into the breast pocket of his shabby old jacket and patting it gently. ‘It’ll be like having my own dear Milly with me again and I can take it out and look at it whenever I choose! ‘Twere part of her bridal nosegay, you see.’
His faded blue eyes twinkled at Harriet from under his bushy brows and he patted the hand that was still holding his own.
‘You’m going to make a fine countess when your time comes, miss,’ he said, nodding his head at her. ‘We should’ve known that when his lordship finally made his choice his lady would be worth the wait—and, begging your pardon, miss, we all think he’s struck gold!’
‘Dad! Really!’ Meggy was shocked. ‘Excuse him, Miss Cordell—he goes too far, sometimes. Honestly, Dad—what will the lady think of us all!’
Shaking her head, Harriet rose to her feet. ‘It’s to be hoped that a good many years pass before that day dawns, sir,’ she said, picking up her reticule. ‘And if I could grow to be only half as good as Lady Caroline I should think myself perfect!’
Meggy showed her to the door and Davy Rothman sprang to attention at their appearance, fingering the neck of his smart, new livery nervously.
‘Well, hello, Davy,’ Meggy greeted him cheerfully. ‘My, aren’t you the swell, these days?’
Davy inclined his head gravely towards her, feeling slightly awkward at having to address Rose’s mother in such a formal way but, at the same time, anxious to impress Miss Harriet with his impeccable manners.
Meggy, too, knew her place and expected no more from him. She bobbed respectfully to Harriet and, on behalf of her father, thanked her once again for her generosity and time.
Walking through the village, with Davy the requisite two steps behind her, Harriet found, to her great discomfort, that she was having to acknowledge bobs and curtsies from all sides as she passed. This entire charade is getting completely out of hand, she thought crossly, but managed to smile as yet another tradesman tipped his hat to her. All of these good people actually thought that she would, one day, be their ‘Lady of the Manor’ and it was all terribly embarrassing and, she had to admit, inexplicably quite painful to her.
She had spent most of the past week in her room, pleading exhaustion, and the countess, sympathetic as to her real reasons, had not pressed for Harriet’s attendance at the dining table and had generously arranged for her to take her meals in her room. Harriet had forced herself to venture out on two previous occasions, in the furtherance of her project, both times escorted by the stalwart Davy, and was deeply conscious of the interest her appearance always aroused. She admitted, but only to herself, that she was now quite afraid that there might be another attempt to harm her in some way and the greatest fear of all was that she had no way of knowing who her enemy could be.
She had not spoken to Sandford at all since the episode in the copse and had seen him only once when, about to come out of her room later that same day, she had caught sight of him leaving his father’s chambers. She had stepped swiftly back into the shadows as he appeared and she was certain he had not observed her, but she had been shocked at his demeanour. He had stood for a moment outside the earl’s door, shoulders sagging, his face white and drawn and then, as if in a trance, he had walked slowly to his own doorway and entered his room. Harriet had been intending to visit Lord William herself but, after some deliberation, she had decided that it would be unwise to do so and had subsequently returned to her own chamber.
Judith Hurst had ridden over to Beldale that same afternoon, but Lady Caroline had managed to curb her daughter-in-law’s curiosity. Westpark House had been Sandford’s first objective when Harriet had failed to return to Beldale and Judith had naturally been frantically worried over her friend’s disappearance and had demanded to be kept informed as to any developments, sending Ridgeway to assist his cousin in the search.
She failed to comprehend how anyone as level-headed as Harriet could have wandered off the bridleway and become confused in the copse, until the countess explained that Harriet had felt unwell, possibly suffering from a touch of the sun. It had been particularly warm that morning, as she was sure Judith would recall.
Judith did indeed recall that it was she who had been responsible for Harriet’s hasty departure and, at once, felt guilty at having persuaded her friend to stay so long at Westpark, surmising that Harriet’s headlong dash had been the cause of her fainting fit.
Lady Butler’s contribution upon receiving her daughter’s account of Harriet’s misadventure was to the effect that ‘persons who disport themselves all over the Continent with troops of soldiers could hardly be expected to behave with anything resembling acceptable decorum when they returned to civilised society’ and Judith found herself heaving a sigh of relief that Sandford was not present when these uncharitable remarks were uttered.
Both Sandford and Ridgeway had been behaving very oddly since Harriet’s mishap, she thought. Neither one of them seemed to have time for anything other than estate business and they were usually to be found with their heads together. When Sandford had, almost grudgingly it seemed, eventually found time to give his little nephew some attention in the paddock, he had appeared distracted and disinclined to linger. Judith found Ridgeway’s behaviour strange, too. She had thought that he was beginning to let down his guard a little in her favour, for they had exchanged some very promising conversations since their dance together. Then all of a sudden, his interest in her seemed to have vanished overnight and he had no time for anything apart from riding around the park and hanging about in the stables or disappearing off to Beldale with Sandford.
At the end of the week an impatient Judith paid her second visit to Beldale. She had heard that Harriet was apparently well enough to go walking to the village and was hurt that her young friend had not