“You already are the Earl of Ashendon.”
He shook his head. “In name only, I’m afraid. There’s a lot more work to be done. Speaking of which, I have to go out of town for a few days. I hope you don’t mind.”
“No, of course not, I’m stuck in this bed until Dr. Duncan says I can get up.”
Bed rest? For a shoulder injury? When Cal was shot in the shoulder he’d been back at work the minute the fever had passed. But probably women were more delicate than men.
“Where are you going?”
He rose from the bed and stirred up the coals in the fire. It didn’t need tending, but he couldn’t lie to her face. “To the country. Just some estate business. I hope to be back in a few days.”
***
The village of Bucklebury was quiet and pretty. At the local inn Cal asked directions to the home of Sir Humphrey Westwood and was soon bowling up the driveway of Westwood House—a rather grander place than Emm had led him to believe.
He presented his card at the door. The elderly butler tookit with a sorrowful air. “Sir Humphrey rarely receives visitors these days, my lord.”
“I think he’ll want to see me,” Cal said. “I’m his son-in-law.”
The butler’s eyes widened, then his face lit up. “You have news of Miss Emm?”
“She’s Lady Ashendon now,” Cal said proudly.
The butler’s hopeful gaze shifted to the traveling carriage. “She’s not—”
“No, but I’m hoping to bring Sir Humphrey to her. In London.”
The butler’s eyes filled with tears. “He hasn’t been off the estate since he came home nearly seven years ago, after combing the country for weeks, looking for signs of her. Brokenhearted, he was, to come home alone.”
Cal’s sympathy was limited. The man should have had more faith in his daughter in the first place. But he wasn’t here to rake over old coals but to heal old wounds. “Take me to Sir Humphrey.”
Chapter Twenty-three
The voice of conscience is so delicate that it is easy to stifle it; but it is also so clear that it is impossible to mistake it.
—MADAME DE STAËL,GERMANY
Emm was upstairs getting dressed when Cal arrived home four days later. Burton told him the doctor had just left. He’d given her permission to be out of bed and moving around again.
When she saw him she ran toward him, flung her arms around him and then winced. “Forgot my stupid shoulder. Kiss me, Cal darling. I know it’s only been a few days but you wouldn’t believe how much I’ve missed you.”
He proceeded to demonstrate that he had, in fact, missed her much more. She drew him toward the bed, saying, “The doctor said it’s all right.”
Cal abruptly recalled himself. He drew back. “Not yet. I forgot to tell you, you have a visitor downstairs who’s very eager to see you.”
She sighed. “People have been very kind; you have no idea how many callers and flowers and succession-house fruits I’ve received. I didn’t even know I knew so many people. In fact, I don’t. I think it’s mostly because shortly after I weathered a horrid scandal, I was shot by a notorious assassin and thus I have become something of a celebrity. It’s all a bit overwhelming. Let us hope people soon find something else to fuss over.”
She paused and said mischievously, “Do I really want to see this visitor? I could still be confined to bed, you know.”
It was tempting, but this couldn’t wait. Besides, when he finally took his wife to bed, he wouldn’t want to leave it for a week. He offered his arm. “You do want to see him, and he very much wants to see you. Come, my lady, I’ll escort you downstairs.”
“Oh, very well, if I must.” She took his arm.
She was still holding Cal’s arm when he signaled for Logan to open the sitting room door, and Cal was glad of it, because when she saw the stiff, pale-faced gentleman who rose nervously to greet her, she stumbled and almost fainted again.
“Papa?”she whispered. “Papa, is it really you? But I thought— Oh, Papa!” And she ran across the room and flung herself weeping into her father’s arms.
An evening followed then of tears, apologies, explanations and forgiveness. Sir Humphrey was so obviously grieved at the breach with his daughter, blamed himself so savagely by being taken in, was so remorseful at not having more faith in his daughter, and so very apologetic, that even Cal forgave him.
