Leave a Widow Wanting More by Charlie Lane

Chapter 24

Henry Cavendish had had eight days to get to know his wife better, and he had not used them wisely. If he thought Sarah would simply stay put when ordered to do so, he was about to be terribly surprised.

Henry had pulled her bodice awfully low. And tugged her skirts awfully high.

But it didn’t take long to put herself to rights, despite all that. Then, very quickly, she performed her first act of marital disobedience.

She did not stay put.

The two indistinct voices she’d heard through a haze of lust earlier were more distinct now and joined by a third. She knew two of them—Ada and Henry. The third belonged to a stranger. Thankfully, though, they were raised to such a volume, that the third would not remain unknown much longer. Sarah swept down a short staircase and careened around a corner, running into a pile of maids with ears pressed against the breakfast room door.

“Excuse me.” Sarah parted through the crowd, then turned to face them. “There are things that need to be done, I’m quite sure.”

They blinked at her as one, then fled.

“You domineering old … old … OH!”

Sarah spun around at the exclamation emanating from behind the closed doors. Ada, it seemed, was not best pleased with something. Sarah flung the doors open and surveyed the drama before her. No one, at present, surveyed her.

Ada paced back and forth across the room. Henry stood in the center like a tragic hero on the stage. A young, handsome man held his hat in both hands, rotating it by the brim, and volleyed nervous glances between Ada and Henry. Pansy, the twins, and James retained, Sarah supposed, the seats they’d been in when the argument broke out. James leaned back in his chair, popping bits of buttered scone into his mouth, and the children stared at their elders, wide-eyed.

Sarah hurried over to them. “All right, Pansy, Nicholas, Thomas. Time to retire.”

Henry pushed frustrated fingers through his hair. “Ada, have a seat, please.”

Ada barked a laugh without stopping her back-and-forth trajectory across the room. “I think not, Father.”

Henry’s face turned red, but a few steadying breaths returned him to his normal coloring. “Ada. Sweet. There’s no need to get so worked up. Have a seat, and we’ll discuss this rationally.”

Pansy pulled on Sarah’s sleeve. “Why is Ada angry?”

“You know better than I. Perhaps you can tell me.” She shouldn’t gossip with a child, but she had to know. Sarah leaned closer to Pansy. “Darling, who is that and what were he and Ada arguing about before Henry arrived?”

“Before Papa came? That was mostly Ada being so loud.”

“But why?”

“Well first, Ada was loud because she was happy. She hasn’t seen Lucas in so long, you see.”

“Lucas?”

“That man. Our neighbor. Lord Stoneyface.”

“Do you mean Lord Stonefield?”

Pansy nodded. “So Ada tried to hug Lucas, but he didn’t want hugs. He said she should behave herself. Ada did not like that.”

“That’s an understatement,” James snorted. “Thought she might hurl him across the table.”

Pansy nodded more enthusiastically. “That’s when Ada got loud because she was angry. Then Lucas asked to talk to Papa. Ada wanted to know why, but Lucas said it wasn’t her business. It was between men.”

James spoke while chewing. “Absolutely the wrong tact. Not at all what I would have done.”

Thomas piped up. “If that means Lucas said a stupid thing, then yes, I would not have done it either. Ada only gets this angry when Pansy runs away and hides.”

Sarah stared at the little girl kicking her legs back and forth under her chair. How often did she run away and hide? Never mind. She would deal with Thomas’s little revelation later. She needed to clear the room and afford the three major players in this drama some semblance of privacy. “Time to leave, the lot of you.”

“But, Aunt Sarah, we just started eating.” Nicholas glared up at her.

“Uh-huh,” Thomas added. “We shouldn’t have to starve because they decided to get angry with each other.”

Sarah patted him on the head, trying to hear Henry’s words to Ada. He’d begun pacing next to her, but the young girl just shook her head with every word he said. “Take whatever you wish to eat upstairs. All right? You can have a picnic in the nursery.”

“I s’pose that’s fine,” Nicholas admitted.

Pansy jumped onto her chair and filled her pinafore pockets with as much food as they could handle. “I’ll get the blanket off my bed!”

Sarah groaned but said nothing. Let them do as they pleased. As long as they left. She could worry about whatever mess they created later. At the moment, she had this mess to worry about.

“Lord Eaden,” Lord Stonefield said, still twirling his hat.

“Not now!” Henry roared.

“Oh dear,” Sarah whispered.

James spoke around the scone in his mouth. “Henry’s not best pleased with Lord Stonefield.”

“Oh! James, you must go, too!”

“Why should I? This is interesting. Besides, what about her?” He pointed his thumb toward the corner of the room where Nora stood, still as a statue.

“Nora! I didn’t see you there.”

Nora shrugged, her eyes never leaving the pacing forms of her sister and father. “When I saw you throwing everyone out, I hid.”

“Out. You too.”

Nora frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. “But Ada might need me.”

“If she does, I’ll send for you.”

Nora set her jaw in a way eerily reminiscent of Henry. Heaven help her. She’d married into a family of stubborn mules.

Well, she could be stubborn, too. Sarah pointed toward the door. “Out, the both of you. Now.”

She must have seemed serious because they left, each grabbing a scone per hand as they left the table, which held nothing much more than crumbs anymore. Sarah straightened her skirts. Her first job complete, she dove into the fray. “Excuse me. Perhaps I could help. Would anyone mind introducing me to this young gentleman?”

Henry and Ada stopped pacing and turned to her, wearing identical frowns.

“You did not stay put,” Henry said.

“No, I did not. Let’s move forward, please.” Sarah smiled at Lord Stonefield. “And you are?”

Henry stepped around the table, coming to Sarah’s side. He took her hand and led her forward. “Lord Stonefield, may I present my wife, Lady Eaden. Sarah, this is the Earl of Stonefield.”

Sarah stepped forward with her brightest smile and sank into her best curtsy. She’d only ever met one earl before—Lord Hellwater—but this one seemed keen on proprieties. She wanted to perform introductions right, no matter the fraught circumstances. “It’s wonderful to finally make your acquaintance, my lord.”

Lord Stonefield pulled himself up tall, hid his hat behind his back, and dipped a courtly bow. Rather formal, wasn’t he? And his face, when he raised it to her looked rather … blank. But surely, if Ada fancied the man, he had some sort of appeal. Surely. “Now that we’re all introduced, may I ask what is going on?”

Ada thrust a finger toward her father. “He wrote a letter to Lucas!”

Sarah already knew that part. Best not to mention it.

Henry threw his arms into the air. “I may certainly write to my neighbor when I choose. And it’s my duty to take an active interest in my daughter’s future.”

Ada’s form grew rigid. Her eyes grew cold. “No. It is not.”

“Ahem.”

All eyes turned toward Lord Stonefield.

“Miss Cavendish, while I appreciate your …” He set his hat on the table and seemed to consider his words carefully. “Your passionate defense of your independence, I came here to discuss matters with your, um, father.”

“Why weren’t you brought to speak with me, then?” Henry exploded.

“No one knew where you were,” Lord Stonefield replied.

Henry’s jaw tightened, and Sarah crept quietly to his side, laying her hand on his arm. “It wouldn’t have seemed at all out of the ordinary to send a guest to visit with the family, Henry, especially one so well known as Lord Stonefield.”

Henry’s jaw ticked. “We’ll speak now, Stonefield. Alone.”

“You’ll not speak without me present!” Ada insisted. “It is my life which you discuss.”

Sarah slanted Ada a compassionate glance. “Ada, perhaps we could wait here for your father and Lord Stonefield to finish their chat. Then we can all ta—”

Ada barely moved her lips to speak. “No.”

Henry’s hands clenched, then opened. He spoke with a deathly calm. “Ada Constance, you will remain here. Stonefield, you will come with me.” He strode for the door, Stonefield promptly following.

Ada flung herself around the table toward them. She grasped Lord Stonefield’s hand in both her own. “Lucas.” She held him fast though he pulled away. “Don’t let him bully you.”

“‘Bully you’?” Henry flung his arms in the air. “Since when, Ada Constance, have I ever bullied anyone?”

Ada stuck out her chin. “You are gone most days of the year, and when you come home, you tell us all what to do. This time, you brought a new wife to do your bidding so you can control us even when you’re away.”

Sarah shrank back. “Oh.” She’d never been punched in the gut, but she imagined, it felt quite like this, painful and out of breath. “I … well … I …”

Henry sucked in a sharp breath and made a demand. “Apologize now.”

“Why should I apologize to you? You owe me years’ worth of apologies.”

“Not to me,” Henry ground out. “To Sarah.”

Ada’s eyes flicked toward Sarah, and Sarah met them, though it hurt to do so. Ada’s gaze darted away. Was she ashamed?

Ada pulled herself upright. “I will not apologize for saying the truth. Isn’t that what you’re all about, Father? The pursuit of truth? Well, here’s a truth. I will marry Lucas if I so wish, and not a thing you say to him in private will change that.” She spared not a glance for her suitor as she gave her little speech.

But Sarah did. Lord Stonefield turned beet red. He tugged his hand, still held tight in Ada’s clasp, as inconspicuously as possible, and his eyes searched the room for some escape. When he caught Sarah staring, he held her gaze. Help, he begged silently.

Help. Yes. Sarah could do that. “There’s no need to apologize to me, Ada. But I’m not here to control you. I wish to help.”

Ada snorted. “Help? If you wish to help, then tell my father to leave.” Ada finally let go of Lord Stonefield’s hand, flinging it from her. She turned on Henry. “Just leave already.”

“Ada.” Henry’s voice, soft, pleaded, but it fell on absent ears. His daughter fled from the room before he could quite begin to say her name.

The room rang with the memory of unwelcome words.

“I, um, I suppose I should be getting along home now. No need for that conversation at this very moment, Lord Eaden. I think we can agree that—”

“As far as I know, boy, we agree on nothing. We’ll talk now if you please.” Henry strode from the room, not even checking to see if the young Lord Stonefield followed.

The earl turned to Sarah as he retrieved his hat from the table. “It was, ah, delightful to meet you, Lady Eaden. One could wish for, um, better circumstances than these.”

She smiled, but it felt wan even to her. He turned to follow Henry out of the room and who knew where. His study, perhaps.

“Lord Stonefield?” Sarah stopped his departure.

“Yes?” he replied, swinging around.

“Do you love Ada? I mean, is it a love match between the two of you?”

He twisted his hat by the brim again, his brow furrowing. When he spoke, finally, it was in spurts. “You know, um, my parents were a love match.”

Yes, but that did not answer the question. Perhaps Henry had a point about the boy. He had more hair than brains.

“I’m not convinced, Lady Eaden, that love matches are advisable.”

“But, Lord Stonefield—” She didn’t finish her rebuttal because he was already gone. “Great Gutenberg,” she muttered, looking around the now empty breakfast room. What now? She could follow Henry and Lord Stonefield and make sure their conversation didn’t end in fisticuffs. Hm. Now that she’d actually met the man Ada had chosen as her match, Sarah wasn’t sure he was the type of man to engage in fisticuffs.

Perhaps, then, Ada presented the more pressing problem. Sarah could track the girl down and … and do what? She thought Sarah little more than a spy. The accusation cut deeply. Didn’t Ada like her? Weren’t they friends? She certainly liked Henry’s eldest daughter. But she didn’t want to seek her out with the cut so raw and with Ada’s emotions so high.

What then? She couldn’t just stand around the breakfast room like an imbecile. She picked a piece of scone off of James’s abandoned plate and popped it into her mouth. Her stomach rumbled, welcoming the morsel. It had been quite a long day, and much had happened.

She would follow the food. She happened to know where to find an indoor picnic. After an afternoon spent battling Henry’s determination to remain celibate, the interrupted passionate interlude, and the ruckus that had just occurred, Sarah sighed. She needed the uncomplicated company of children. She headed toward the nursery. Later, after she’d fortified herself with tea and biscuits, she’d seek out Ada.

After that, she’d find Henry and hopefully continue the activities that had been so dramatically interrupted.