Removing Panther as he attempted to climb onto her chest, she stroked him.
‘I feel I deserve this pain for what I’ve done. Unless Archie has lied to both of us sisters, and is simply the cad I once thought him. I can only hope I was correct when I told Aurelia he is not the marrying kind,’ she told him, scratching his velvety ears. ‘And as for today, I confess I feel rather like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, so I suppose that makes you the Cheshire cat. The question is, Panther darling, why on earth are we here in this house?’
Panther just purred contentedly in response.
17
‘Miss Flora, you are to come downstairs immediately to Mrs Keppel’s parlour.’
‘Why?’
‘You have a visitor.’
‘Really? Is it my sister?’
‘No, it is a gentleman.’
‘What is his name?’
‘Forgive me, Miss Flora, I don’t know.’
Flora followed Peggie down the stairs, holding up her heavy woollen skirts so she did not trip over them. She found Mrs Keppel standing by the fire with Archie Vaughan.
‘Flora dear, isn’t it sweet of Lord Vaughan to call on us to enquire whether you are well and happy in your new home? I have tried to assure him that I have not been keeping you in the cellar, feeding you water and dead mice, but he insisted on me proving it to him. And here she is, Lord Vaughan.’
Flora could think of many adjectives to describe the reason for Archie’s presence here, but the last one she would have used was ‘sweet’.
‘Hello, Miss MacNichol.’
‘Hello, Lord Vaughan.’
‘You look awfully . . . well.’
‘I am in good health, thank you. And you?’
‘I have recovered from my chill, yes.’
Flora evaded his stare, and Mrs Keppel, like the fairy godmother she was, intervened in the ensuing silence. ‘Will you take a little sherry, Flora? It will ward off any chill, I’m sure.’
‘Thank you.’ Flora accepted the glass and the three of them toasted – to what, she wasn’t sure.
‘Mrs Keppel, I see you have expanded your collection of Fabergé ornaments. That is a fine piece,’ Archie said politely, as he nodded towards a small jewelled egg on the table.
‘How kind of you to notice, Lord Vaughan,’ Mrs Keppel said. ‘Now, do please forgive me, but I have to see Mrs Stacey about the menu for tomorrow evening’s dinner and the florist is due at any moment. Please send my best regards to your mama.’
‘I will, of course.’
Mrs Keppel left the room, but not before she had shot a knowing glance at Flora.
The two of them stood in silence, Flora looking anywhere but at him, yet aware of his gaze resting upon her. In the end, in an agony of whalebone and new shoes, she surrendered.
‘Shall we sit down?’ Almost collapsing into a chair by the fire, she indicated Archie should take the one opposite her. Taking a sip of the warming sherry, she waited for him to speak.
‘Forgive me, Miss MacNichol . . . may I call you Flora?’
‘No. You may not.’
Archie swallowed hard. ‘No . . . I must explain . . . you don’t understand.’
‘You are wrong, I saw my sister only yesterday. I understand everything.’
‘I see. May I ask what she told you?’
‘That you and my father had agreed Esthwaite Hall should be sold to provide Aurelia with a dowry and High Weald with a much-needed injection of funds on your marriage to her.’
Archie removed his gaze from her. ‘Yes, that is an accurate appraisal of the situation.’
‘Except, Lord Vaughan, my sister tells me that even though you had ample opportunity at High Weald, you are yet to propose. And Aurelia, having turned down a number of attractive proposals, now finds herself without any alternative other than to retreat to our parents’ house in the Scottish Highlands. Their recent move was engendered purely by the fact that our Lakeland home was sold to fund the continuation of your own – and my sister’s – future.’
‘Yes,’ he replied after a long pause.
‘So, Lord Vaughan, please tell me exactly what you are doing sitting in Mrs Keppel’s parlour with me when you should be rushing to prevent my sister from returning home to the solitary, isolated future which you have condemned her to?’
‘My God, Flora! Your words could kill a man at twenty paces. Have you ever considered putting them onto paper?’
‘I am in no mood for quips, Lord Vaughan. And please desist from calling me Flora.’
‘I can see that, just as I can see how finely you are dressed and how exquisite you look—’
‘Enough!’ Flora stood up, trembling with rage. ‘Will you not tell me why you have played, as Panther would with a mouse, with both of us sisters? And on top of that why you swindled my father into selling the home that has been in our family for five generations?’
‘Can you not guess?’
‘I am struggling to do so, Lord Vaughan.’
‘Well then, let me tell you something that you don’t know.’ Archie stood up and started to pace the room, pausing only to refill his glass from the sherry decanter. ‘When I first met your sister at Esthwaite, I had decided that it didn’t much matter whom I married after all the prospective brides that were marched past me by my mother. I know you are well aware of my reputation and I don’t deny it. I have romanced a number of women over the years. In my defence, I should say that it wasn’t out of ego, merely out of a desperate need to try to find a partner who might capture my heart. You may think, Miss MacNichol, as many women seem to, that men don’t have romantic notions about love the way you do. But I assure you that, in my case at least, you are wrong. I too read Dickens, Austen and Flaubert . . . and wished to find love.’
Flora, who was staring into the fire, took the last gulp of her sherry and remained silent.
‘By the time I met your sister, I had, in all honesty, given up hope of finding such a woman. And Mama, as you can imagine, was terribly keen on the idea of Aurelia – her oldest friend’s daughter – becoming my intended. She and your own mother had already discussed the possibility and your mother had agreed to talk to your father about selling Esthwaite. You might be aware that she has always loathed the house, seeing it as her punishment for . . . past misdemeanours. The thought of having an excuse to visit her daughter and her oldest friend in Kent any time she pleased, and staying for as long as she wished, I believe more than made up for the inconvenience of moving to the Highlands, a place she knew only too well your papa loves.’
‘What “misdemeanours”?’ Flora shot back. ‘You choose to insult my mother’s character too?’
‘Forgive me, Flora, I am simply trying to explain what has brought us to today. Pray, let me continue.’
Flora stared into the fire once more, and gave a slight shrug of acceptance.