‘Yes, Papa. Was it very wrong of me?’
‘I am sure you believed you had good reason, my love. How much of this do you intend to tell Sir Loftus?’
She looked up at that. ‘Everything I have told you.’
‘Oh, my love, he is a magistrate, and in helping Wolfgang to escape you have broken the law.’ He sighed. ‘I blame myself for this. It was I who insisted you and Mr Arrandale should travel to London together. I do not doubt you thought it your duty to help him, but I had not expected you to go this far.’
‘You taught me it was my duty to fight injustice, Papa, and Wolfgang would surely hang if he was brought to trial in Southwark.’ Her voice shook. ‘We both hated the fact that poor Henry’s murderer was hanged, imagine how much worse for it to happen to an innocent man, and I sincerely believe Wolf is innocent.’ She took his hands. ‘I could not in all conscience do other than help him, surely you must see that.’
He smiled sadly. ‘I see a young woman who is very much in love.’
Grace quickly looked away.
‘Do not say so, Papa.’
‘After Henry died you shut yourself off from the world, Grace. I am glad to see that you can love again, I only wish it was your fiancé and not Wolfgang Arrandale.’
‘I wish it, too, Papa.’ She put her head back on his knee. ‘What shall I do?’
‘We shall pray, my child. And you must not show yourself until your carriage has arrived. Then I will write a note to Loftus telling him you are home and inviting him to dinner tomorrow. By then who knows what might have occurred at Arrandale?’
* * *
Grace went up to her room to rest. As soon as she lay down on her bed exhaustion overcame her and she slept soundly until Betty came in, telling her it was time to change for dinner.
‘Have my trunks arrived?’ asked Grace, rubbing her eyes.
‘Aye, miss, they have, and Mrs Graham and her maid with them. Such a to-do there was, Mrs Graham not knowing whether you was safe, but the master put her mind at rest and now she’s in the guest room, changing her gown, and Mrs Truscott’s fretting about dinner and worrying that the capon she’s got on the spit won’t stretch.’
‘I will go and talk to her. And I will arrange my own hair, Betty, so that you may be free to help in the kitchen. Now, have my luggage fetched upstairs and we will look out one of my new gowns to wear.’
Grace marvelled at how easily she was slipping back into the role of keeping house for Papa. There was at least some comfort in that.
* * *
Dinner was excellent, as Grace had known it would be, and if she had no appetite it was nothing to do with the quality of the chicken, nor the boiled tongue and potato pudding that accompanied it. She did her best to eat the lemon jelly that was served with the second course, knowing Mrs Truscott had prepared it especially for her homecoming, but in truth she tasted nothing. She spent most of the dinner hour in silence while her aunt discussed with Papa the best way forward.
‘When Mr Wolfgang was clapped up Grace visited him every day,’ said Aunt Eliza, casting a reproachful glance across the table at her niece. ‘Perhaps you will say I should have stopped her, Titus, but I confess I do not know how I might have done so.’
‘My daughter was merely doing her Christian duty,’ murmured Papa and Grace threw him a grateful look.
‘But then, when I received her note, saying she was riding home and wanted her things sent on to you today I vow I could not sleep for worrying!’
Grace said softly, ‘I am very sorry if I caused you anxiety, Aunt, but as you can see I am here, safe and sound.’
‘Yes, yes, but what if it gets out that you have been aiding and abetting a felon?’
Grace sat up very straight. ‘Wolfgang Arrandale is an innocent man.’
‘I think we may be sure that Mr Arrandale will say nothing of my daughter’s involvement in his flight,’ said her father. ‘We must hold to our story, that she left London with you this morning. But let us hope that no one asks.’
‘I vow you are as bad as Grace,’ declared his sister with a little huff of exasperation. ‘After she lost her first fiancé we were all relieved when Loftus Braddenfield proposed.’ She glanced at her niece. ‘You will forgive me if I speak plainly, my love, but you are nearly five-and-twenty and unlikely to receive another offer. I very much fear all this has put the match in jeopardy.’
‘Let us wait until tomorrow and see what Sir Loftus says,’ replied Papa gently. ‘After all, he is a reasonable man.’
‘Not so reasonable that he will condone his fiancée careering around the country with a man,’ muttered Aunt Eliza. ‘Especially an Arrandale.’
Grace said nothing, but she very much feared her aunt was right. To the weight of her own unhappiness was added the knowledge that she had disappointed her family. By the time they retired to the drawing room she was feeling very low and she excused herself, saying she was going out.
