The House (Armstrong House Series Book 1) Page 4

  “Edward – I met Sinclair earlier today when I was out walking.”

  “Did you? Neither of you said,” Edward looked surprised.

  “Well, I imagine he was too embarrassed to say it, and so was I, for that matter.”

  “Is there something you want to tell me?” Edward looked worried.

  “I mentioned it to you already – when you were dressing earlier. Well, he just came galloping up to me like he was going into battle and attacked me.”

  “Attacked you?” Edward face creased with disbelief.

  “Well, not attacked me physically, obviously. He verbally attacked me. He shouted at me and told me I was trespassing and told me to clear off his land.”

  “And did you explain who you were?”

  “Well, no. But he didn’t give me chance.”

  “Well, you should have told him you were my wife. That would have put a stop to that. He was just concerned at finding a stranger on the estate.”

  Anna indicated the expensive fabric of her dress. “I hardly look like a thief or a vagabond. He must have guessed who I was, or at least that I was an acquaintance of your new bride.”

  Edward looked perplexed but was determined to defend his cousin. “But you could have been leaving gates open, or anything. Up to mischief.”

  “But I wasn’t.”

  “But he didn’t know that.”

  “But he said it was his land, his estate.”

  “I’m sure he meant Armstrong land, and you misunderstood him.”

  He had used that expression, Anna thought.

  “Perhaps,” she sighed.

  “I wouldn’t give it another thought. He was just trying to protect our land. Sinclair is a good man. The exact opposite of his father.”

  7

  Anna and Edward were enjoying breakfast in the dining room.

  “More coffee, my lady?” asked Barton.

  “Eh, yes, thank you, Barton,” agreed Anna as she sorted through the letters that had arrived for her.

  Barton poured the coffee from the silver pot.

  “I know who this is from!” said Anna excitedly as she singled out a sealed envelope. “It’s Georgina’s handwriting! About time she answered me.”

  She tore open the envelope eagerly.

  “It’s probably the details of the wedding,” said Edward.

  Anna’s face became worried as she began to read. “No, it’s not . . .” She quickly read down the letter. “She’s asking to come and stay here for a week next month . . . but I don’t understand . . . she’s getting married next month.”

  “Perhaps she wants to see you and spend some time with you before the wedding.”

  “But she doesn’t even mention the wedding . . . Is it all right if she comes?”

  “You don’t even have to ask,” nodded Edward.

  He saw her face had become clouded with worry.

  “Now, I have a present for you,” he said, standing up, taking her hand and leading her out into the hallway.

  “Another present? What is it?” she asked excitedly.

  “Come with me,” he said, leading her out the front door and down the steps to where a young man stood waiting.

  Anna looked about, confused.

  “This is Seán Hegarty, and I’m giving him to you as your personal servant,” explained Edward. “Say hello to Lady Anna, Seán.”

  Seán bowed his head and smiled.

  “But we have a house full of servants! And I have my own personal maid!”

  “But they are all house servants with their own duties and cares and your maid is for your needs inside the house. Seán is reserved for you for when you leave the house. Anything you want, just ask and Seán will get it for you. He’ll drive you anywhere you want to go any time, deliver or fetch anything for you.”

  Anna studied the handsome fair-haired youth with the smiling face and twinkling blue eyes.

  “No need to go wandering off across the estate getting lost – Seán will escort you. Isn’t that right, Seán?”

  “Yes, sir,” Seán nodded.

  “But, Edward, I don’t think I have any real need for him. Can’t you put him to better use elsewhere?” Anna looked at Seán apprehensively. And she wondered whether her run-in with Sinclair had made Edward worried about her getting involved in other situations. She wished she had never told Edward about that.

  “Now, if you don’t mind I have a lot to do today. Eh, Seán, look after her ladyship.” Edward smiled and walked off back into the house.

  Anna looked at Seán, bewildered. “Well now, I think you’re going to be very bored working for me.”

  “That’s all right, ma’am, I was half-expecting to be,” Seán said.

  She got a bit of a start and looked for any sign of insolence, but couldn’t spot any. “Yes, well. I might go into Castlewest in an hour or so, so hitch up the carriage and wait for me.”

  She hesitantly turned and went back into the house.

  Inside, she hurried to the library where Edward usually wrote his letters and did his accounts. He was there at his desk.

  “Edward! I wish you’d asked me about this boy before you thrust him on me. I don’t think I want him at my beck and call. I’ll be putting pressure on myself trying to think of how to keep him busy all the time.”

  Edward laughed. “Anytime you don’t need him, the head groom will keep him occupied. I thought you’d be delighted.”

  “I am. He just looks a bit – insolent.”

  Edward laughed loudly. “He is quite spirited and can be amusing, but he’s a very good-natured lad. I picked him out especially for you.”

  Anna bit her lip. She had better resign herself to making the best of Seán.

  8

  Seán sat on the driver’s seat in front of the small open-topped landau while Anna sat in the back.

  “Is it far to the town?” asked Anna.

  “About another seven miles,” he said. “You’ll probably be mightily disappointed when you get there.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, you’re used to the big shops and everything in Dublin. The town won’t compare at all.”

  “Well, to quote yourself – I was half-expecting it to be so.”

  The local town, Castlewest, was a large busy market town with one long street coming down a hill at its heart. Anna spent the afternoon investigating the different shops and making some purchases. She was surprised to find that she really enjoyed herself. It certainly wasn’t Dublin but it seemed to have most things she might conceivably need, and she was met with friendliness as well as courtesy in the various shops.

  Satisfied, at last she returned to the carriage and they set out for home.

  “So are you settling in to your new house all right?” asked Seán as he drove.

  “Yes, I am.” She looked at him, surprised by a servant asking a question in such a cavalier way.

  “That’s good. Lord Edward would be mighty upset after all the hard work he put into the house if you didn’t end up liking it.”

  “Only a fool wouldn’t like that house.”

  “Well, when I say Lord Edward put the hard work in, he did up to a point. It was really Mr Sinclair who put the real work in.”

  “Mr Sinclair?” Anna leaned forward, her interest piqued.

  “Yes. But Mr Sinclair made everyone work round the clock to make sure the thing got finished. Lord Edward came up with all the ideas and the designs and the fancy meetings with architects. But, if you don’t mind me saying, it was Mr Sinclair that made sure the house got built!”

  “I do mind you saying actually,” said Anna. She wanted to think of her house as being lovingly created by her husband, not as a result of slave-driving by Sinclair.

  “Sorry, ma’am, I’ll say no more.” Seán looked suitably chastised and stared ahead.

  They sat in silence as the carriage rode on.

  “How long has Mr Sinclair been here?” she asked eventually, her curiosity getting the better of her.
<
br />   “Oh about five years. Ever since Lord Edward and he finished at university and moved down here.”

  “And does Mr Sinclair put in ‘the real work’ into the estate and get things done like he did while building the house?”

  “He’s a hard worker all right, Mr Sinclair,” said Seán. He quickly looked over his shoulder and looked innocently at Anna. “Not that I’m saying Lord Edward isn’t a hard worker too, of course.”

  “Of course.” She looked at him wryly.

  They sat in silence for a while as Anna admired the scenery and thought about Sinclair lording over the building of her beautiful house.

  “Seán?”

  “Yes, ma’am?”

  “Do you know a place called Hunter’s Farm?”

  “Of course, ma’am. It’s the place rented out to the Englishwoman.”

  “Is it far?”

  “Not too far? Why? Do you want to pay Mrs Hunter a visit?”

  “No I . . . I just heard it’s a fine house and wanted to drive past it to take a view of it. Would that be possible?”

  “Your wish is my command, ma’am.”

  He soon turned the carriage off the main road.

  “Do you know much about Mrs Hunter?” Anna ventured. Seán seemed a vessel of local information and didn’t seem shy about divulging it.

  Seán made a face. “She’s not a kind woman, ma’am. She treats her servants and her workers very badly, that’s all I know. She landed in here from England and has been going around as if she’s Queen Victoria ever since. Nobody knows anything about her, her dead husband or her family. But I’ll tell you one thing, ma’am . . .”

  “And what’s that?”

  “I don’t know where she’s from but she’s not gentry. She might have pulled the wool over your husband’s and everyone’s eyes, but not mine. Real gentry don’t go on like her. She has airs and graces but no refinement, just a cruel streak.”

  “How reassuring to know you are groomed in observing social breeding,” she said mockingly.

  Hunter’s Farm came into view. It was a small Georgian country house of nice proportions situated up a long avenue from the road. The countryside was rolling and flat. Large trees were to either side of the house, and as the evening was coming in, a mist seemed to be enveloping the building.

  “Stop the carriage a minute,” ordered Anna.

  Anna studied the house, feeding her curiosity.

  Suddenly the front door opened and the unmistakeable figure of Sinclair walked out, followed by Diana Hunter.

  Anna got a start to see him and, as she watched Sinclair and Anna speak intimately together at the top of the steps to the house, she became panicked. She did not want Sinclair to see her. Hunter’s Farm was out of the way, and it would be clear she was spying.

  “Quickly, Seán, get going!” demanded Anna.

  The horse began to move forward. Anna saw Sinclair bound down the steps, jump on his horse and gallop down the avenue to the road. In less than a minute, he would be passing them in the carriage.

  “Seán! Can you pull the carriage in somewhere and hide for a minute or two?” cried Anna urgently.

  Seán turned around and glared at her as if she were mad. “Hide? What for?”

  “Never mind what for! Just do it!” Anna ordered.

  “Is it that you don’t want to be seeing Mr Sinclair?” asked Seán curiously.

  “Seán! Please!” Anna begged.

  Seán nodded, snapped the whip at the horse and they took off down the road at great speed and pulled into a small wood. Seán jumped down from the carriage and went to calm and soothe the horse. Anna held her breath as she looked around, seeing they were well hidden by the foliage of the trees. She heard Sinclair’s horse tear down the road and storm past the wood and could glimpse Sinclair’s black cloak flying in the wind as he rode by.

  The very sight of him filled her with a fear she didn’t understand. It was her husband’s estate. Although Sinclair was a cousin, he was still an employee of hers and her husband. Yet the way he carried himself, the way he had spoken to her, intimidated her.

  “Very well,” Anna said to Seán. “You can take me back to the house now.”

  Seán nodded and jumped back up on the carriage.

  The evening was coming in when they pulled up in front of the house.

  Anna stepped down from the carriage.

  “You can bring my purchases to the back of the house and get one of the maids to take them up to my rooms,” she instructed.

  “Alright,” said Seán. “And, tell me, will you be wanting me tomorrow?”

  “I’m not sure. See Barton in the morning and he’ll inform you of what I am doing for the day.”

  “Right so. You know, I don’t think it’s going to be as boring working for you as I thought,” said Seán with that insolent smile he had.

  Anna walked through the main door and into the drawing room where she found Edward sitting, smoking a pipe and reading a book.

  She walked over to him taking off her bonnet and kissed him.

  “Good day?” he asked, smiling.

  “Yes. I went into town, and bought some things.”

  “How did you find Seán?” Edward smiled knowingly at her.

  “A little impertinent, from what I can see.”

  Edward laughed loudly. “As I said – amusing!”

  She walked over to the servants’ bell and rang it.

  “I’m not sure ‘amusing’ is the right word. I think he might get on my nerves after a short while.”

  A maid came in.

  “Draw the curtains, would you, please,” ordered Anna.

  The maid hurried to obey.

  “I – eh – I passed by Hunter’s Farm today,” said Anna as she took off her gloves.

  “Really?” Edward seemed uninterested as he reopened his book.

  “Yes. It’s a fine house, isn’t it?”

  “One of the best in the neighbourhood. Probably the best outside our own house.”

  “Hmmm. I saw her, Mrs Hunter, outside the house.”

  “Did you stop to say hello?”

  “No. I was just passing by on the road. She was talking with somebody. I think it was Sinclair.”

  Edward looked up and frowned slightly. “Really? I hope everything’s all right. Not a problem with a mare or something.”

  “Probably something like that,” mused Anna as she concentrated on the candlelight. “But please don’t mention I saw him. He might think I was spying on him.”

  Edward glanced at her curiously. “Of course I won’t.”

  9

  Anna had counted the days until her cousin Georgina would arrive, each day becoming more and more excited. Georgina was due to arrive from the east by a Bianconi coach, and Anna had got Seán to drive her to the Bianconi stop in Castlewest.

  “It’s running late, the coach,” stated Anna anxiously as she watched down the street for it.

  “Sure isn’t it like everything that comes down from Dublin . . . always running late!” Seán looked at Anna pointedly, a reference to her bad time-keeping.

  She looked at him irritably. “I’d rather be late than slow, like you!”

  “Here she comes!” said Seán loudly as the coach came down the street.

  Anna stood up in the carriage, excitedly looking for any sign of Georgina through the coach’s windows as it drew to a halt. As the drivers got down and opened the coach door, Anna watched expectantly as people got out and then she saw Georgina step onto the street.

  “Georgina!” Anna squealed.

  “So that’s the cousin you’re making all the fuss about! She’s looks a little contrary,” said Seán, looking her up and down.

  Anna stepped down from the carriage and ran to Georgina. She embraced her cousin warmly and kissed her.

  “Oh, it’s so good to see you again!” exclaimed Anna.

  “And you,” nodded Georgina.

  As Anna happily studied Georgina, she realised there was something
different about her. She looked the same, but it was her eyes. They had changed and become duller, sadder, the joy gone out of them.

  The Bianconi coach drivers were taking the luggage off the top. They placed Georgina’s trunk on the ground beside her.

  “Seán!” shouted Anna. “Don’t just sit there! Come and take Georgina’s trunk!”

  Seán raised his eyes to heaven and got down from the carriage. Taking up the trunk, he put it on the back of the carriage and after the two women had settled themselves comfortably they headed back to the Armstrong estate.

  Anna clasped Georgina’s hands tightly as they made the journey.