As she departed, Aaron couldn’t resist interjecting with a jest, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “Seems you’re in the doghouse already, Your Grace,” he quipped, a teasing smile playing on his lips. “At least with Mrs. Farnsworth. She seems perturbed.”
“Perhaps,” Leonard agreed. “I am supposed to at least pretend to be a loving husband so that the gossip started by Lady Millstone will stop and I am not making a good job of it.” The weight of his promise to Sally bore down on him heavily, his conscience pricking at him for failing to uphold it. He had vowed to spend their honeymoon together, to show a united front to the world, but his actions spoke otherwise. Indeed, he remembered that he’d told her they were to meet the tenants this day, something he’d pushed out of his mind entirely.
If only she had not fallen in the library. If he hadn’t felt that warmth as he caught her, he might not have felt something stirring within him and he might have thus been able to stick by their agreement. Why had everything become so muddled already? And what in the world did this mean for their future? He had to maintain his distance, to keep their marriage purely practical, as they had agreed upon, but he saw now he’d have to speak to Sally, to make sure she understood.
Leonard and Aaron spent the next hour or so going over the various reports from their holdings, ensuring everything ran as it was meant to when another knock on the door drew him back to the present. He glanced at the tea set.
“It’ll be Mrs. Farnsworth to collect the tea,” he remarked and called for the person to enter. However, when the heavy door creaked open it wasn’t the housekeepers face he saw but rather his wife’s. He gulped, his jaw dropping slightly open as she entered, her eyebrows furrowed.
“Sally,” he said and got up.
“Good morning, Your Grace,” she said stiffly as she glanced at Aaron who likewise rose and bowed before her. What did she want here? Had she come to scold him in front of his assistant? Surely not.
“Sally, my dear, I apologize for not joining you for breakfast,” Leonard began, his tone contrite as he approached her. “I am afraid I had a meeting beforehand. With Aaron here.” Leonard felt a flush of embarrassment color his cheeks under Sally’s pointed stare. He cleared his throat awkwardly before gesturing towards Aaron. “Sally, allow me to introduce Aaron Finch, the Viscount of Finch. He and I are old friends; our fathers worked together,” Leonard explained, hoping to alleviate some of the tension in the room. “The former Lord Finch passed away some years ago and … anyhow we have thrown our lot together now to continue what our fathers started, so to speak. Aaron is my right-hand man so to speak.”
He stopped when Aaron looked at him as though he’d lost his mind. Why was he rambling so much? A simple introduction by name would have done. Why had he recited the entirety of their connection? Then, he realized. He was feeling guilty and somehow wanted to justify himself without telling her the truth. This marriage business was already causing him a megrim that would not end. Fortunately, Aaron took charge of the conversation then.
Aaron inclined his head respectfully, his demeanor polite but reserved. “A pleasure to meet you, Your Grace,” he greeted in a measured tone.
Sally offered a polite nod in return, though her gaze remained guarded. “Likewise,” she replied, her tone clipped as she looked him up and down. If Leonard didn’t know better, he might have thought Sally was judging Aaron somehow. But that couldn’t be right. He didn’t know her well but he knew enough of her by way of Kenneth to know she was not a judgmental person. Still, she looked at Aaron with some mild derision though Leonard assumed this was because Aaron was the one keeping Leonard from breakfast.
The atmosphere in the room grew palpably awkward, the silence stretching between them like a taut string. Leonard shifted uncomfortably, unsure of how to proceed. Had Sally come here simply to remind him of her presence? The thought nagged at him, a sense of unease settling in the pit of his stomach.
Attempting to diffuse the tension, Leonard cleared his throat. “Sally, I recall we were meant to see the tenants today. I assume that is why you are here?” he was not at all sure why she’d come but to his relief she nodded.
“Indeed, I had hoped to have the horses readied but wanted to see how much longer you might be.”
Leonard gulped. He had no desire to see the tenants or anyone else today. Besides, he had another visitor who’d join them soon.
“I am afraid we will have to postpone. I am rather… A matter of urgency has come up. Isn’t’ that so, Aaron?” He stared at Aaron, willing him to back up his ruse. To his relief his friend nodded.
“Yes, Your Grace. I am afraid there has been a terrible incident at the Devon vineyard, the entire batch might be ruined. It is quite concerning,” Aaron said and nodded eagerly though the smile around his lips betrayed the truth. This wasn’t entirely wrong. The vine stored at the vineyard had indeed oxidized and much of it would be lost but that wasn’t why they were meeting. There had been no emergency besides Leonard’s need to procrastinate.
“I see,” Sally said, one eye narrowed as she sucked on the inside of her cheeks. Oddly enough, it made her look at once adorable and stern, a combination Leonard had to admit was enticing more than he’d like. There was a seriousness, a quicky keen observant in Sally he admired.
“Well, I shall leave you to your problem then,” she nodded before sauntering off. When the door closed behind her, Leonard dropped into his seat, sweat pearls dropping down from his eyebrows.
CHAPTER12
Sally
Sally spent the next few hours in Leonard’s library. No. The library now belonged to her as much as him. Her stomach roiled still as she thought of how Leonard had cast aside their plans without telling her. She’d speak to him the moment Aaron was gone, for she would not be treated in such a way.
She knew he hadn’t wanted to marry her, but neither had she. This was not her fairytale any more than it was his. Her anger only began to ease once she lost herself in the many books she’d pulled off the shelf, cross-referencing them as she sought the information she wanted. The sun had begun to dip to the west when a knock came.
“Your Grace?” Mary’s voice echoed off of the high walls. “Lord Finch has left.”
Sally rose at once with a surge of determination to confront Leonard again.
‘Thank you, Mary,” she said and rushed out of the library past Mary, whose mouth was open as if she’d meant to say something more. Sally’s half-boots clattered down the stairs as she raced to catch Leonard before he shut himself in his study again. Alas, she had hardly made it to the bottom floor when she stopped in her tracks. For there, sitting on a stone bench in the hall leading to Leonard’s study was Kenneth.
Under normal circumstances, she might have been happy to see her brother-in-law, but not today, for she knew that his sudden appearance meant Leonard had scheduled yet another meeting to take time away from their plans. She stopped and narrowed her eyes at him.
“Kenneth?”
“Sally, you look lovely. Just like the regal duchess you were always meant to be,” he greeted her with a smile. “Joanna sends her best. She wanted to come but Peter and Louisa insisted on going to visit my mother at the Dower House today, so I am alone.”
Sally nodded. She hadn’t expected to see her sister. Though, neither had she expected Kenneth.
