frowned. ‘Are you supposed to be wandering around the fields on your own?’
‘No,’ Lizzie said. ‘But we ran away.’
A cold chill travelled down Marguerite’s spine. ‘Why?’
‘Because Papa is mean to us,’ Janey said. ‘So we runned away.’
‘Ran,’ Marguerite said. She did not like the sound of this. Not at all. How many times had she, too, had the urge to run away?
In the end, it had been Neville who left her. She never had understood why he, of all people, had gone off to war with her brother and brother-in-law, but of the three of the women left behind to become widows, she must have been the only one who celebrated her husband’s departure with a toast to whatever impulse had sent him off.
She hadn’t wanted his death. But she had been glad to see him go. Unfortunately, she wasn’t yet free of the misery he had imposed on her life from the moment they wed. But she would be. Very soon.
Not far down the lane, a side gate into the Bedwell estate stood ajar.
She frowned at it. This lord did not care very much for the welfare of his children, that much was certain. She ushered the children through and closed it behind them, making sure it was firmly latched. With growing anger for this careless papa, she marched the two girls up the path to the back of a beautiful Palladian mansion. Once, this house had belonged to the Westrams. Back before Oliver Cromwell had turned England upside down.
It would not have looked like this then. It had been vastly improved since its Tudor days.
Not a soul hustled out to meet them. Had no one realised these girls were missing?
* * *
‘My lord?’
Jack Vincent, Earl Compton, glanced up from reviewing his bailiff’s weekly report on several matters relating to the estate. He frowned. Johnson was staring out of the estate office window with a puzzled expression.
‘What is it?’
‘A young woman, my lord. With Lady Elizabeth and Lady Jane in tow.’
Jack shot out of his chair and around the desk to see what Johnson was talking about. Indeed. It was as his bailiff had said. A willowy woman was striding across the stable yard with his daughters dragging their feet as she urged them along.
‘Wait here,’ he commanded. He strode for the kitchen door.
Cook looked up, flustered at his entry. ‘Is there...?’
He opened the door to the courtyard and emerged into the spring sunshine. He blinked against the glare.
‘Lord Compton?’ an imperious, slightly out-of-breath voice asked.
He bowed slightly to the dishevelled woman whose hems were damp and muddy and who had locks of auburn hair dangling from beneath her cap as if she had been pulled through a hedge backwards. ‘Who the devil are you? And what are you doing with my daughters?’
She recoiled and drew herself up straight. ‘We have not met, but I am Lady Marguerite Saxby. I live in Westram.’ Her mouth tightened. ‘As for your other question, I found these ladies wandering in the field outside your walls. Lady Elizabeth has had an unfortunate encounter with a stinging nettle.’
He froze, looked at the tears staining his eldest child’s face and felt anger rising inside him. How had this happened? ‘Why were you outside?’
Lizzie flinched.
Damn it. He hated when she did that. He reached for a modicum of calm.
‘We runned away,’ Janey announced.
‘Ran.’ He and this woman, this Lady Marguerite, spoke at the same time.
He glanced at her. She glared back. As if he was somehow in the wrong.
‘You know you are not allowed to go outside without a maid.’ He sounded gruffer than he intended.
Lizzie lifted her shoulders. ‘Nanny said everyone was busy.’
‘Then you wait.’ He ran his hands through his hair. ‘Look, if you can’t do as you are told, Lizzie, then I’m sorry, but you know the consequences.’
Lizzie burst into tears. ‘Nooooo!’
The woman thrust herself between Lizzie and himself. ‘Leave the poor child alone. She has been punished enough, I should think. Look.’ She gently pulled Lizzie forward and held out her hand for his inspection.
It was covered in white bumps with red edges. His stomach churned. His brain went numb at the sight of the painful swelling. ‘Go,’ he yelled. ‘Upstairs. Get Nanny to put something on it.’
‘I gave her dock leaves,’ Lady Marguerite said. Her voice was beautifully modulated, if a little deeper than most women’s. For some reason it calmed him.
She crouched down. ‘Take the leaves to your nanny, she will know what to do.’ Lizzie nodded and ran off with Janey scurrying behind.
Jack hated to see his children hurt. Could not abide it. Why the devil would they not do as he had instructed and stay indoors with Nanny James?
The young woman rose to her feet. She was almost tall enough to look him in the eye. And delightfully feminine, despite her drab clothing. ‘What on earth are you about, Lord Compton?’
He stared blankly ‘About?’
‘Those children should not be wandering the countryside alone. Anything could happen.’
‘Do you think I don’t know that?’
She blinked.
Damn and blast, he had raised his voice. Again. He lowered his tone. ‘They know better. I have told them time and time again.’
Her finely arched eyebrows, a darker auburn than her hair, lowered. Her pretty green eyes narrowed. ‘The gate to the lane was open. They were a long way from home and you had no idea of it. Children of their age need proper adult supervision.’
Good lord, who was she to come here laying down the law? He was the magistrate. ‘Nonsense. They have proper supervision. Indoors.’
‘I see.’ She looked completely unconvinced.
‘There is a nanny, three footmen and a cook, all there to see that they have whatever their little hearts desire. Is that enough supervision for you, madam?’ Devil take it, why was he explaining himself to this woman? He took a deep breath.
Somehow, she managed to look down her nose at him. ‘Not enough of the right sort of supervision, apparently, and while a punishment is likely in order, I beg that it be denial of some privilege, a story at bedtime, a visit to the village, something that will not cause physical pain.’
Stunned, he stared at her. Pain?
She narrowed her eyes. ‘Good day, Lord Compton.’ She spun around and marched back the way she had come.
How dare she come here and accuse him of not looking after his children? And...and did she think he was going to beat them? Damn her, for judging him so poorly. ‘Johnson, get a chain and a lock and secure the damned gate. And find out who left it open.’
He strode for the nursery. As he expected, his daughters, his little girls, were gathered around Nanny’s chair. They looked so innocent. So sweet. They were the bane of his life.
No. No. That was not true. But somewhere along the line he had lost control. And that would not do. A man needed to be in control of his family or bad things happened. A shudder ran down his spine. The memory of what had happened to his wife when she took it in her head to go visit her scallywag of a brother without his knowledge leapt to the forefront of his mind. If he had been stricter, more in control of his wife, she would be alive today.
‘Elizabeth, what on earth were you thinking?’