“I can’t,” the coachman wailed. “His Lordship would feed my innards to the pigs. I can’t! Please, my lady, don’t ask me to do that. I can’t leave you. ?
??Twould mean my throat being slit, my hide being whipped off my back!”
“I had not believed the earl so very vicious and unfair. It matters not. It is no longer my problem. In truth, I don’t care what you do. Remain or return to Northcliffe. I will be the one to leave.” She swung away and began walking. The valise was heavier than she’d believed. She would make do. She wouldn’t stop and she wouldn’t let her shoulders stoop.
Sinjun was soon at her side, humming under her breath as if she hadn’t a care in the world, as if they were out for an afternoon stroll with nothing more on their minds than the varieties of butterflies they would see. The carriage was soon following some paces behind them.
“This is absurd,” Alexandra said, so frustrated she was nearly shrieking. She whirled about to face Sinjun. “Why are you doing this to me? I haven’t ever done anything to you that I know of. As I said, I don’t even know you.”
Sinjun cocked her head to one side and said simply, “You’re my sister. I’ve never had a sister, only three brothers, and I can tell you it’s not at all the same thing. Douglas has obviously upset you. He is sometimes a bit autocratic, perhaps even stern and forbidding. But he means well. He wouldn’t strap John Coachman, believe me.”
“He means well toward you but I am perfectly nothing to him. Go away now.”
“Oh no, I shan’t leave you. Douglas would feed my innards to the pigs too. He has very firm ideas about protecting ladies. A bit old-fashioned, but nonetheless, he is the head of the Sherbrooke family and takes his responsibilities very seriously. There are scores of us, you know.”
“He doesn’t take his marriage seriously. Go away.”
“I did hear that he wasn’t expecting you, but I paid no attention to that. Tony would never serve him up a pig in a poke, if you know what I mean. I’ve never seen Melissande but everyone says she is the most glorious creature in southern England, perhaps even in western England as well. But I can see Douglas quickly becoming very morose had Tony married her to him rather than to himself. I don’t mean to insult your sister, but Douglas wouldn’t deal with a female who knew she was beautiful and expected everyone to recognize her beauty all the time. Tony did the right thing, though I do hope he knows what he’s doing. But what I don’t understand is why—”
Alexandra stopped her. She said clearly and quite calmly, “Listen to me now. Your brother doesn’t want me. He wants my sister. He loves her. Moroseness has nothing to do with anything. He doesn’t care that she knows she’s beautiful. He is perfectly willing to praise her eyebrows for the next fifty years. He wants to kill Tony. He is bitterly unhappy. I am leaving so that he doesn’t take me himself back to my father and drop me on the doorstep of Claybourn Hall like some unwanted package. Would you not do the same thing, Sinjun? Would you not want to escape such humiliation?”
Her sister-in-law had called her Sinjun, and without hesitation. Sinjun smiled. “I am only fifteen so I don’t perfectly understand what has happened. But I agree with you. Humiliation is not a good thing. Are you certain Douglas would humiliate you in that way? I cannot see him doing it. He isn’t a cruel man.”
“He wouldn’t be to you.”
Sinjun just shook her head. “Douglas took a birch rod to my bottom last year. He thought I deserved it but, of course, I heartily disagreed. I don’t even remember what I did. Isn’t that odd? Listen now, I cannot leave you alone. I fully intend to go with you. May I call you Alexandra? Perhaps even Alex? It is a man’s nickname, just like mine. Do you have any money? We will need money, you know.”
Alexandra stared at the young girl with frustrated awe. The Sherbrookes were a family beyond her comprehension and experience. She found herself nodding. She’d heard of tidal waves, but she’d never before imagined that she could experience the effects of one and not be close to the sea.
“Good, because Mother never gives me any money at all, except at Christmas, and even then I must account for every shilling, every penny, even to what I paid for her present. And she always criticizes my choices. Why, last Christmas, I hand-sewed a half-dozen handkerchiefs for Douglas and she said the linen had cost too dear and that my stitches were crooked and they should be tossed away. Of course Douglas didn’t throw them away. He said he liked them. He uses them. It was humiliating now that I think on it. Perhaps I can understand just a little bit. I would like to be treated like a reasonable person, not patted on the head like a silly pug.”
“Yes,” said Alexandra.
Sinjun rubbed her hands together. “I am taller than you and much larger so I doubt I can wear any of the clothes in your valise, but perhaps we can buy me something else to wear on our way to your home. How far must we go? Several days away, I hope. I long for some adventure. Yes, it will be great fun, you’ll see. Perhaps we’ll even meet some highwaymen. How vastly romantic that will be! Don’t you agree?”
It was then that Alexandra began to realize that she’d been firmly trapped and netted and by a guileless fifteen-year-old girl.
“I do so love to walk and enjoy nature,” Sinjun continued, taking a skip. “I also know a number of quite interesting stories and that will pass the time. If I bore you, why then, you must tell me and I will be quiet.”
Alexandra, overwhelmed, bewildered, and routed, could only nod.
“Douglas merely tells me to shut my trap, as does Ryder. Tysen—he plans to be a vicar—he wants to say the same things but he fears the fires of hell if he did say what he truly wanted to. His perceived path of rectitude is sometimes extremely annoying, but Douglas says we must be patient because Tysen is young and not yet thinking clearly. He says his belfry is still filled with nonsense. Tysen also fancies himself in love with a twit who makes me cringe she is so appallingly good and priggishly proper. Ryder just laughs at Tysen and says she has two names—Melinda Beatrice!—which is nauseating, and she simpers and has no bosom.”
Alexandra gave it up. She eyed the sweet-faced very enthusiastic girl beside her. She turned and waved toward John Coachman.
“What are you doing, Alexandra?”
“Going home,” she said. “We’re going home.”
“Oh dear, no adventure then. How disappointing. Perhaps someday in the future you and I can go seashell collecting. That’s good sport. Come along then, let me assist you into the carriage.”
It wasn’t until five more minutes had passed that Alexandra noticed the quite smug grin on Sinjun’s face. She stared and winced and shuddered as understanding hit her. The chit had knowingly done her in. Guileless, ha! Alexandra felt a perfect fool. Dear God, what malignant force had set her in the midst of this remarkably horrid family?
Done in by a fifteen-year-old girl who looked as innocent as a nun. It was very lowering, more lowering than falling off a horse and landing on her bottom.
Douglas stood on the bottom step of Northcliffe Hall, his hands on his hips. He watched the carriage pull into a wide arc and come to a halt not six feet from him. John Coachman looked triumphant. Relief flowed from his smile. Douglas was glad he’d sent his mother into the hall with orders that she remain there. Her initial impression of Alexandra hadn’t been promising. He sighed even as he stoked his anger. Tysen stood at his elbow, telling him what Sinjun had done, how forward she’d been and how he should discipline the chit, but Douglas had only smiled, knowing rather that he would thank her.
He knew Sinjun. And he’d been right. She’d brought his errant wife back, and with little waste of time. She should have been born a male; she would have made a masterful general.