“That little tom you sent from your stables has been a godsend. He’s appointed himself her protector.”
Sir Thomas chuckled. “The staff have taken to calling him Sir Cinnamon.”
Julian’s eyes widened. “What has he been up to? I hope he hasn’t been as bloodthirsty with you as he just now was with me.” He held up his wrist where a line of blood still oozed.
“No one is allowed to scold his mistress without dire consequences. And apparently, that includes you as well.” A smile quirked at the edges of Lord Rumsford’s mouth.
Sir Thomas stood and slapped his riding gloves against his knee. “Gentlemen, I hate to leave, but Rummy has a filly in the stable who’s ailing. I’m going to take a look and see if I can perk her up.”
With that, he turned and headed out the study door, his booted footsteps echoing down the Abbey’s high-ceilinged hallway.
Lord Rumsford turned his attention back to Julian. “I’m glad you stopped by. There’s something I’ve been meaning to discuss with you.” He stood and paced to his desk where he absently picked up a marble paperweight and hefted the orb from one hand to the other as if he were trying to guess the weight. “I’ve been wondering about how to broach the subject, but I suppose I should just come out with it.”
At Julian’s quizzical look, he continued. “I know what a good friend, and inspiration, you’ve been to the boys over the years…”
“Go on,” Julian said, guessing at what Rumsford might be hinting at.
Lord Rumsford continued. “Since finishing up at Eton, George and Wills have been staying at our house in town and kicking up their heels around London, getting into all sorts of things boys of that age tend to fall into without thinking.”
“How can I help?” Julian interrupted, thinking even as he volunteered that George and Wills were too old to remain irresponsible “boys.”
“Would you mind terribly…I mean would you please check in on them, see what they’re up to these days? They carouse all night, sleep most of the day, and wouldn’t listen, even if I were to lecture them.”
“Done,” Julian said, and stood abruptly, feeling as if all the air in the room had vanished. He felt a moment of embarrassment, since he had no idea how to bring the Tindall brothers to heel. He’d volunteered to do something he felt ill-prepared to take on.
He’d also been a bit stung by Lord Rumsford’s earlier accusation that he’d been needlessly overprotective of Mina over the years. He guessed his only excuse may have been that he’d felt they were two of a kind. No one had ever worried overmuch about what he did, either…where he went, or what he got up to, except perhaps Beesley. Although in all fairness, the elderly man had had his hands full over the years with managing the vast Edgewood estate.
A sudden twinge of guilt reminded him of all the work awaiting him back in the estate office. There’d been a considerable stack of documents Beesley had prepared for him to sign on his desk that morning.
“Lord Rumsford, I’m sorry for staying so long and interrupting your plans for the day. I really should return to Edgewood.” Julian picked up his gloves in preparation for collecting Bruin from the stables.
“Wait, Your Grace. Don’t leave so soon. Tell me more about what you’ve been up to with your research on the Templars.” His neighbor settled back onto his desk chair and looked up expectantly.
“I had no idea you were interested in the order.”
“Oh, when I was on my tour of the continent years ago, I got bored and started visiting libraries and museums. In fact, I brought back several cases of dry tomes on the subject. Thought I was going to become a scholar.” He paused and lowered his head for a moment. “Alas, I fell into the vices in town, much like my errant sons.” He laughed then. “Would have expected nothing less of them.”
“They’re good men. I’m sure…” Julian felt an absurd need to defend his old schoolmates. He knew George and Wills were proper sorts. All they needed were a few years of fun in town before they had to settle down. George, the heir, would learn to manage the estate from his father, as Julian had, under the tutelage of Beesley. William, the spare, would probably read law at Oxford or Cambridge.
Lord Rumsford waved a dismissive arm and smiled. “They’ll come around…especially when I cut their allowances.” He laughed again, and Julian joined him.
“I’m surprised you’re not carousing around town with those two reprobate sons of mine.”
Julian paused a moment before answering. “I want to spend at least a year or two at Oxford reading history before settling into the life of a country gentleman. It’s hard to study and carouse at the same time.” He gave Rummy a rueful smile. “Beesley is getting on in years, and I hate to continue to make him shoulder the full burden of Edgewood while I indulge myself in London.”
Lord Rumsford waved a dismissive arm. “Beesley loves Edgewood - it’s been his life for years. He doesn’t care how long you stay away. But…why so much history?”
“I have an idea for a treatise on the Templars that no one has written yet. When I was in Portugal, I discovered their castle in Tomar…and the library. I’ve been studying the archives there on how the Templars set up the earliest international banking system to accommodate Christian pilgrims.”
Lord Rumsford gave him a quizzical look. “You lost me at banking. Thank God for my man of business in London.” He swept a hand toward the line of volumes along the highest shelf behind his desk. “Lord knows I collected enough volumes on the Templars during my travels that are doing nothing but collecting dust now. I’ll have one of the footmen pack them up and send them on to Edgewood.”
* * *
In the hallwayoutside the library door, Mina straightened from where she’d been eavesdropping. The sounds of a chair scraping across the Turkey carpet meant Julian was about to take his leave, and she couldn’t let him, or fates forbid, her father, catch her sneaking around outside the Abbey office library.
She backed away with care and fled silently down the rear staircase to the kitchens below, her favorite place of refuge. All the while, she stored away for future reference the location of her father’s books on the Templars. She’d have to sneak one of them to her room before they were moved to Edgewood. If Julian was so interested in the Templars, then she’d need to find out as much as she could…whatever a Templar was.
The older Julian became, the less they had in common, and she meant to keep his friendship close as long as she could, even if it meant poring over a musty, old book. If she could find some clue to what captured his imagination, then maybe she’d have enough knowledge to stretch out a conversation with him the next time he stopped by the Abbey.
