Part 17 (1/2)

Ian returned his gaze dispa.s.sionately, but inwardly he was startled by his verbal thrust and genuinely annoyed with himself for making it. Last night he'd decided to no longer feel anything whatsoever for Elizabeth, and that decision was final. Therefore, it followed that it could make no difference to him that she was a pampered, shallow little aristocrat. Yet he'd deliberately baited her just now, when she'd done nothing whatsoever to deserve it other than sitting across the table looking almost outrageously alluring, with her hair tied at the nape with a bright yellow bow that matched her gown. So irritated with himself was he that Ian realized he'd lost the thread of their conversation.

”What sorts of games did you play with your brothers and sisters?” Duncan was asking her.

”I had only one brother, and he was away at school or off in London most of the time.”

”I imagine there were other children in the neighborhood however,” the vicar suggested kindly.

She shook her head, sipping her tea. ”There were only a few cottagers, and none of them had children my age. Havenhurst was never properly irrigated, you see. My father didn't think it was worth the expense, so most of our cottagers moved to more fertile ground.”

”Then who were your companions?”

”The servants mostly,” Elizabeth said. ”We had grand times, however.”

”And now?” he prompted. ”What do you do for amus.e.m.e.nt there?”

He'd drawn her out so completely and so expertly that Elizabeth answered without choosing her words or considering what conclusions he might later draw. ”I'm very busy most of the time just looking after the place.”

”You sound as if you enjoy it,” he said with a smile. ”I do,” she replied. ”Very much. In fact,” she confided, ”do you know the part I enjoy most?”

”I can't imagine.”

”The bargaining that goes with purchasing our foodstuffs and supplies. It's the most amazing thing, but Bentner-our butler-says I have a genius for it.”

”The bargaining?” Duncan repeated, nonplussed.

”I think of it as being reasonable and helping someone else to see reason,” she said ingenuously, warming to her subject. ”For example, if the village baker were to make one single tart, it would take him, shall we say, an hour. Now, of that hour, half of his time would be used in getting out all his supplies and measuring everything out, and then putting everything away again.”

The vicar nodded his tentative agreement, and Elizabeth continued. ”However, if he were to make twelve tarts, it would not take him twelve times as long, would it-since he would put out all his supplies and measure everything only once?”

”No, it wouldn't take him nearly so long.”

”Exactly my thinking!” Elizabeth said happily. ”And so why should I be required to pay twelve times more for twelve tarts if it didn't take him twelve times longer to prepare them? And that's before one considers that by making things in great quant.i.ty, one buys one's supplies in quant.i.ty, and thus pays less for the single part. At least one should pay less,” she finished, ”if the other person is reasonable.”

”That's amazing,” the vicar stated honestly. ”I never thought of it that way.”

”Neither, unfortunately, has the village baker,” Elizabeth chuckled. ”I do think he's coming around, though. He's stopped hiding behind his flour bags when I come in.” Belatedly, Elizabeth realized how revealing her commentary might be to an astute man like the vicar, and she quickly added, ”Actually, it's not the cost. Not really. It's the principle. you understand?”

”Of course,” Duncan said smoothly. ”Your home must be a lovely place. You smile whenever you mention it.”

”It is,” Elizabeth said, her fond smile widening to encompa.s.s both the vicar and Ian. ”It's a wondrous place, and wherever you look there is something beautiful to see. There are hills and a lovely parkland and extravagant gardens,” she explained as Ian picked up his plate and mug and stood up.

”How large a place is it?” inquired the vicar sociably. ”There are forty-one rooms,” she began.

”And I'll wager that all of them,” Ian put in smoothly as he put his plate and mug near the dishpan, ”are carpeted with furs and filled with jewels the size of your palm.” He stopped cold, glowering at his reflection in the window.

”Of course,” Elizabeth replied with artificial gaiety, staring at Ian's rigid back, refusing to retreat from his unprovoked attack. ”There are paintings by Rubens and Gainsborough, and chimneys by Adams. Carpets from Persia, too.” That had been true, she told herself when her conscience p.r.i.c.ked her for the lies, until she'd had to sell everything last year to pay her creditors.

To her complete bafflement, instead of continuing his attack, Ian Thornton turned around and met her stormy eyes, an odd expression on his handsome face. ”I apologize, Elizabeth,” he said grimly. ”My remarks were uncalled for.” And on that amazing note he strode off, saying that he intended to spend the day hunting.

Elizabeth tore her startled gaze from his departing back, but the vicar continued staring after him for several long moments. Then he turned and looked at Elizabeth. An odd, thoughtful smile slowly dawned across his face and lit his brown eyes as he continued gazing at her. ”Is-is something amiss?” she asked.

His smile widened, and he leaned back in his chair, beaming thoughtfully at her. ”Apparently there is,” he answered, looking positively delighted. ”And I, for one, am vastly pleased.”

Elizabeth was beginning to wonder if a tiny streak of insanity ran in the family, and only good manners prevented her from remarking on it. Instead she stood up and began clearing the dishes.

When the dishes were washed and put away, she ignored the vicar's protest and went to work tidying the lower floor of the cottage and polis.h.i.+ng the furniture. She stopped to have dinner with him and finished her house-keeping tasks in mid-afternoon. Her spirits buoyed up with a sense of grand accomplishment, she stood in the center of the cottage, admiring the results of her efforts.

”You've wrought wonders,” he told her. ”Now that you're finished, however, I insist you enjoy what's left of the fine day.” Elizabeth would have loved a hot bath, but since that was impossible under the circ.u.mstances, she accepted his suggestion as her second choice and did just that. Outdoors the sky was bright blue, the air soft and balmy, and Elizabeth looked longingly at the stream below. As soon as Ian came home she'd go down there and bathe in the stream-her very first time to bathe anywhere but in the privacy of her own chamber. For the present, though, she'd have to wait, since she couldn't risk having him come upon her while she bathed.

She wandered about the yard, enjoying the view, but the day seemed oddly flat with Ian gone. Whenever he was around the air seemed to vibrate with his presence, and her emotions fluctuated crazily. Cleaning his house this morning, which she'd decided to do out of a mixture of boredom and grat.i.tude, had become an almost intimate act.

Standing at the edge of the ridge, she wrapped her arms around herself, gazing into the distance, seeing his ruggedly handsome face and amber eyes, remembering the tenderness in his deep voice and the way he had held her yesterday. She wondered what it would be like to be married, and to have a cozy home like this one that overlooked such breathtaking scenery. She wondered what sort of female Ian would bring here as his wife and imagined the two of them sitting side by side on the sofa near the fire, talking and dreaming together.

Mentally, Elizabeth gave herself a hard shake. She was thinking like-like a madwoman! It was herself she'd just imagined sitting on that sofa beside him. Shoving such outrageous ruminations aside, she looked about for something to occupy her time and her mind. She turned in a complete, aimless circle, glanced up at a rustling in the tree overhead. . . and then she saw it! A large tree house was almost completely concealed from view by the ancient branches of the huge tree. Her eyes alight with fascination, she gazed up at the tree house, then she called to the vicar, who'd stepped outside. ”It's a tree house,” she explained, in case he didn't know what was up there. ”Do you think it would be all right if I have a look? I imagine the view from up there must be spectacular.”

The vicar crossed the yard and studied the haphazard ”steps,” which were old boards nailed to the huge tree. ”It might not be safe to step on those boards.”

”Don't worry about that,” Elizabeth said cheerfully. ”Elbert always said I was half monkey.”

”Who is Elbert?” ”One of our grooms,” she explained. ”He and two of our carpenters built a tree house for me at home.”

The vicar looked at her s.h.i.+ning face and could not deny her such a small pleasure. ”I suppose it's all right, if you promise you'll take care.”

”Oh, I will. I promise.” He watched her kick off her slippers. For several minutes she circled the tree, and then she vanished to the far side where there were no steps. To Duncan's shock, he saw a flash of jonquil skirts and realized she was climbing the tree without aid of the old boards. He started to callout a warning to her, then realized it wasn't necessary-with carefree abandon she'd already gained the middle branches and was edging her way along toward the tree house.

Elizabeth reached the floor of the tree house and bent over to get inside. Once through the door, however, the ceiling was high enough for her to stand without stooping-which made her think Ian Thornton must have been tall even in his youth. She glanced around with interest at the old table, chair, and large, flat wooden box that were the only items in the tree house. Dusting off her bands, she looked through the window in the side of the tree house and breathed in the splendor of the valley and hills, decked out in bright hawthorn, cherry, and bluebells, then she turned back to inspect the little room. Her gaze slid to the white-painted box, and she reached down to brush the grime and dust off the lid. Etched across the top were the words ”Private property of Ian Thornton. Open at your own peril!” As if the young boy had felt that written warning was insufficient, he'd etched a gruesome skull and crossbones below the words.

Elizabeth stared at it, remembering her tree house at home, where she'd held lavish and lonely tea parties with her dolls. She'd had her own ”treasure chest,” too, although she hadn't needed to put a skull and crossbones across it. A smile touched her lips as she tried to remember exactly what treasures she'd kept in that large chest with the s.h.i.+ny bra.s.s hinges and latches. . . a necklace, she remembered, given to her by her father when she was six. . . and the miniature porcelain tea set her parents had given her for her dolls when she was seven. . . and ribbons for her dolls' hair.

Her gaze was drawn again to the battered box on the table while she accepted the evidence that. the virile, indomitable male she knew had actually been a youth who had secret treasures and perhaps played make-believe as she had done. Against her will and the dictates of her conscience Elizabeth put her hand on the latch. The box would probably be empty, she told herself, so it wasn't really snooping. . . .

She raised the lid, then stared in smiling bafflement at the contents. On top was a bright green feather-from a parrot, she thought. There were three ordinary-looking gray stones, that, for some reason, must have been special to the boy Ian had been, because they'd been painstakingly polished and smoothed. Beside the stones was a large seash.e.l.l with a smooth pink interior. Recalling the seash.e.l.l her parents had once brought her, Elizabeth lifted the sh.e.l.l and held it to her ear, listening to the muted roaring of the sea; then she carefully laid it aside and picked up the drawing pencils strewn across the bottom of the box. Beneath them was something that looked like a small sketchbook. Elizabeth picked up the pad and lifted the cover. Her eyes widened with admiration as she beheld a skillfully executed pencil sketch of a beautiful young girl with long hair blowing in the wind, the sea in the background. She was seated on the sand, her legs curled beneath her, her head bent as she examined a large seash.e.l.l that looked exactly like the sh.e.l.l in the box. The next sketch was of the same girl, looking sideways at the artist, smiling as if they shared some funny secret. Elizabeth was awed by the zest and sparkle Ian had captured with a pencil, as well as the detail. Even the locket the girl wore around her neck was finely drawn.

There were other sketches, not only of the same girl, but of a couple Elizabeth presumed to be his parents, and more sketches of s.h.i.+ps and mountains and even a dog. A Labrador retriever, Elizabeth knew at a glance, and she found herself smiling again at the dog. Its ears were forward, its head c.o.c.ked to one side, its eyes bright-as if it were just waiting for the chance to run at its master's feet.

So dumbfounded was she by the sensitivity and skill evidenced by the sketches that she stood stock still, trying to a.s.similate this unexpected facet of Ian. It was several minutes before she snapped out of her reverie and considered the only other object in the box-a small leather bag. Regardless of what the vicar had said when he gave her permission to explore to her heart's content, she already felt like a trespa.s.ser into Ian's private life, and she knew she shouldn't compound that transgression now by opening the bag. On the other hand, the compulsion to learn more about the enigmatic man who'd turned her life upside down from the moment she'd set eyes on him long ago was so strong it couldn't be denied. Loosening the string on the leather bag, she turned it over, and a heavy ring dropped into her hand. Elizabeth studied it, not quite able to believe what she was seeing. In the center of the ma.s.sive gold ring an enormous square-cut emerald glowed and winked, and embedded in the emerald itself was an intricate gold crest depicting a rampant lion. She was no expert on jewels, but she had little doubt that a ring of such splendid craftsmans.h.i.+p was real-and worth a ransom in value. She studied the crest, trying to match it up with the pictures of crests she'd been required to memorize before making her debut, but though it seemed vaguely familiar, she could not positively identify it. Deciding the crest was probably more ornamental than real, Elizabeth slid the ring back into the leather bag, pulled the drawstring tight, and made up her mind. Apparently Ian had placed no more value on it than he did on three stones and a seash.e.l.l when he was a youth, but she knew better, and she felt certain that if he saw it now he'd recognize its value and realize it had to be put somewhere for safekeeping. With an inward grimace she antic.i.p.ated his anger when he realized she'd been snooping through his things, but even so she had to at least bring it to his attention. She'd bring the sketchbook, too, she decided. Those sketches were so beautifully executed they deserved to be framed, not left outdoors to eventually crumble.

Closing the box, Elizabeth put it back beside the wall where she'd found it, smiling at the skull and crossbones. Without her realizing what had happened, her heart had softened yet more toward a boy who'd carried his dreams up here and hidden them in a treasure chest. And the fact that the boy had become a man who was frequently cold and distant had little effect on her tender heart. Untying the scarf from her hair, Elizabeth put it around her waist; then she slid the sketchbook between the makes.h.i.+ft belt and her gown and slid the ring onto her thumb, for want of anywhere else to keep it while she climbed down.

Ian, who'd been coming toward the yard from the woods to the west, had seen Elizabeth walk around the tree and vanish. Leaving the game he'd shot at the barn, he started for the house, then changed his direction and headed for the tree.

With his hands on his hips he stood beneath the tree, looking down the mossy slope that led to the stream, his forehead furrowed in a puzzled frown as he wondered how she'd scrambled down the incline fast enough to disappear. High overhead branches began to rustle and sway, and Ian glanced up. At first he saw nothing, and then what he did see made him doubt his vision. A long, shapely bare leg was poking out of the branches, toes feeling about for a st.u.r.dy branch on which to begin a descent. Another leg joined it, and the pair of them seemed to hang there, levitating.

Ian started to reach up for the hips to which the legs would surely be attached somewhere further up in the leaves, then he hesitated, since she seemed to be managing well enough on her own. ”What in h.e.l.l are you doing up there?” he demanded.

”Climbing down, of course,” Elizabeth's voice said from among the leaves. Her right toes wiggled, reaching for the wooden step and finally touching it; then, as Ian looked on, still ready to catch her if she fell, she s.h.i.+mmied down the branch a bit more and got the toes of her left foot on the step.