A humourless chuckle escaped Madeline’s husband as he squinted his eyes to see the approaching carriage through the veil of descending darkness. “There’s a coat-of-arms on the side, but I cannot make out what…”
“The Marquess of Elmridge!” Madeline gasped, her hand unbeknownst going to her throat. Although in the first seconds upon recognising the coat-of-arms the thought of seeing her friend Elsbeth had filled her heart with joy, it was now replaced by dread. Glancing around her, Madeline once more took in the condition of Huntington House, and although her understanding of a person’s worth had undergone a significant change in the past few weeks, she could not help but wish the carriage would simply disappear.
Beside her, her husband seemed equally ill at ease, judging from the way his gaze narrowed as his eyes followed the carriage up the small slope until it pulled up in front of them. His shoulders were tense, and yet, he stood tall, a figure of authority, and Madeline remembered her own mask.
Forcing a smile onto her face, she stepped up beside her husband and raised her chin. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought to see a touch of approval in his gaze before it vanished when the coachman jumped down and opened the door.
“Madeline!” Elsbeth beamed as she stepped out of the carriage, her husband following her. “It is so good to see you. I hope you don’t mind a little surprise visit from an old friend.” Striding forward, Elsbeth wrapped Madeline in her arms and whispered, “I simply needed to see you. When last we spoke, the look in your eyes made me quite concerned.” Then she stepped back, and her watchful blue eyes once more slid over Madeline’s face. “You look well,” she finally commented with a smile.
Did she? Madeline wondered. What did Elsbeth see that Madeline herself had not noticed? After all, the moment she had just shared with her husband had only pointed out the sheer hopelessness of her situation, had it not?
“Good evening, Lord Ainsworth. It is such a pleasure to see you again.” With a charming smile, her hand resting on her husband’s arm, Elsbeth turned to Madeline’s husband. “I hope you don’t mind us staying a few days. It is always hard for old friends to be parted from one another.”
With surprise, Madeline noticed her husband’s shoulders relax and his gaze shift over her friend with a touch of appreciation, and she could not help but wonder what had brought this on. What did he see when he looked at Elsbeth? For sure, she was a delightful creature and there was no friend more loyal in all of England, and yet, the scars that tainted her beauty were often the only thing people saw when looking at her these days.
A soft smile came to Madeline’s face. She should have known that her husband would be able to see beyond such superficialities. After all, had he not seen behind her own mask as well? At least for a moment?
“You are more than welcome to stay,” her husband stated, the tone of his voice matching his words, and yet, Madeline detected a slight strain in the way he spoke. “We shall have rooms prepared for you.”
“You are too kind,” Elsbeth thanked him as her husband inclined his head.
Madeline sucked in a sharp breath at her husband’s words as she remembered the condition of the rooms upstairs. So far, Derek had been able to repair parts of the roof, which meant that Kara’s and Sean’s chamber as well as his mother’s were now mostly free of leaks. However, while her own as well as her husband’s still had a small number of pots and jugs scattered around the room, the remaining bedchambers were in even worse condition.
Panic seized her, and her mind spun with the need to do something.
“Allow me to introduce you to my brother-in-law, Mr. Sean Brewer,” her husband said, gesturing to Kara’s husband, who stepped forward with a slight tremble in his arms. After years as a valet to Tristan Turner, Viscount Elton, he knew very well that?generally speaking?the ton liked to keep their lives separate from those who served them. However, here at Huntington House, that invisible line had become blurred. Even Madeline now rarely found anything odd at sharing a table with those she would have once considered beneath her.
“My lord. My lady,” Sean intoned, a certain amount of deference in his tone as he respectfully inclined his head.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Brewer,” the marquess said, his own voice no less respectful, and Madeline noticed a touch of approval in her husband’s gaze. It was no surprise that he would think highly of people who treated those he deemed worthy with the same respect they demanded for themselves. Maybe this visit would not end in a disaster after all.
Turning to Sean, Madeline acted on impulse. “Would you escort the marquess and his wife inside? I need a moment with my husband.”
Despite noticing a touch of surprise on her friend’s as well as her husband’s face, Madeline pretended not to see anything out of the ordinary. As their visitors followed Sean inside, her husband turned to her, his gaze narrowed as he searched her face, suspicion resting in his eyes. “What is on your mind?”
“Was it so obvious?” Madeline asked, her hands unable to keep still as she wound them around the handkerchief that was still wrapped around her injured finger.
Her husband shrugged. “You seemed as though you wished the earth would open up and swallow you whole,” he observed dryly, and yet, there was a touch of disappointment in his voice that made Madeline cringe as she realised that her reaction had insulted him and all he had accomplished.
Never had she thought of it like this.
“Never mind.” Turning away, Madeline made to climb the steps to the front entrance, but her husband’s hand on her arm held her back.
“Say what’s on your mind.”
Taking a deep breath, Madeline met his gaze. “I meant to ask if we could offer them my room. Next to your sister’s and mother’s, it is the one in better condition than the rest.”
His gaze widened briefly before he stepped closer. “And where would you sleep?”
Madeline swallowed, and for the first time in her life, she did not dare hold his gaze. “With you.” Although she could not say what reaction she would have expected, the silence that followed was maddening. With her gaze darting from the ground to something beyond his shoulder to her own hands, Madeline could not tell what went through his head in that moment.
“Are you so ashamed of our home,” her husband finally said, his voice laced with repressed anger, “that you would make such a sacrifice and share my room?”
As though struck, Madeline’s head snapped up, her gaze meeting his.
“My bed?” he asked, his eyes hard as he stared down at her.
Sacrifice? Madeline thought, her mind suddenly slow as she found herself at the mercy of his anger and disappointment. Again, she had insulted him. Hurt him. How could she explain that this had nothing to do with him or even the condition of his estate? How could she make him understand that although she knew it to be irrational, she could not simply ignore the demands her upbringing had placed on her? Everything around her had changed so drastically in the past few weeks that she did not know how to keep up. All Madeline knew was that she herself was unable to change at the same pace.
Time. She needed time.
“There’s no reason for you to look so terrified, my lady,” her husband stated flatly as he took a step back. “In order to spare your sensibilities, I shall sleep in the stables.”
Madeline’s eyes widened in shock. However, before she could utter another word, he strode past her and vanished into the house. Staring after him, Madeline did not know what to think.
Terrified? Had she truly looked terrified? But not of him. Not of…
My lady? He had called her my lady in a tone that sent a chill down her spine. Not since they had gotten married had he called her that. It had always been Madeline, and although she had been appalled at first, understanding it as a sign of his low upbringing, she had come to cherish it over the past few weeks, seeing it as an intimacy they could not otherwise express. She herself had been on the verge of calling him Derek.