Page 166 of Feathers in the Wind
“Of course, now I am blessed with a son-in-law to take the worry of Kinton Lacey from my shoulders, I shall be leaving the castle in Jack's capable hands.”
Luke’s fingers clenched as he understood the reason for Deliverance's stiff shoulders and bowed head. To her credit she rose to kiss her sister and offer public congratulations to the happy couple, but he knew her heart would be breaking.
He seemed to be alone in understanding what Kinton Lacey meant to Deliverance and a white hot anger rose in his chest at Sir John's blindness to everything his daughter had done. As she sat down again his fingers sought hers under the table and he squeezed them in silent sympathy.
Sir John set down his glass and turned to Luke. “Collyer, I quite forgot. A letter came for you in Gloucester just after you left. I have it about me, somewhere. Oh, here we are.”
He handed Luke a much creased and stained square of folded paper. Luke turned it over. He read the words written on the outside, recognised the writing, and for a moment the world tilted on its access.
How had she found him?
There could be no good news to be imparted in this missive. He stowed the letter inside his jacket without breaking the seal.
“Luke?” Deliverance looked at him with an enquiring lift of her eyebrow.
He smiled at her. “Nothing of any importance.”
His heart hammered at the lie. Whatever the letter contained, it was not something to be read in public. It could wait until later when he was alone.
The paper burned in his jacket throughout the interminable meal, and as soon as Sir John dismissed them, Luke retired to his room.
With Sir John's return, Luke and Ned had found other quarters in the upper floor of the residence, in a room badly damaged by shot. It had begun to rain and the roof leaked abominably.
Luke found a dry corner, lit a candle and with shaking fingers pulled out the paper. He traced Ann’s bold handMsr Luke Collyer, officer of Gloucester garrison. His sister had always been tenacious. Somehow she had tracked him down.
He broke the seal, swallowed and read the short epistle three times before the import of the words sank home. He sat down heavily on the one chair in the bare room, balling the paper in his fist.
A gentle knock on the door roused him from his reverie. Deliverance’s coded knock. He opened the door to her, checking first to see that the corridor beyond was empty.
When he didn't rise to take her in his arms, she crossed over to him and knelt at his feet. “Luke, what is it? You look as if you've seen a ghost?”
“In a way I have,” he said.
“Who was the letter from?” Deliverance asked.
He laid the crumpled paper on the table, smoothing the creases. “You can read it.”
“Who is Ann?” she asked, having only glanced at the signature. He heard the suspicion in her voice and smiled.
“My sister,” he said.
“She has terrible writing,” Deliverance said. “I can barely read it. Oh, it's dated over five months ago.”
“Go ahead,” he said.
Dearest Luke,Deliverance began,It is only by sheer chance that I have had reports of you being seen in Gloucester so I am sending this there, even though it is in enemy hands, in the hope that somehow it will reach you. They tell me you go by the name of Collyer, so I have addressed this accordingly. I write with sad news of great import to you. Our father was wounded in a minor skirmish in March. He came home to recuperate but the wound turned gangrenous and he died in great agony. He did not, despite all his threats, change his will and you remain his heir. Nick has inherited our mother’s estates in Yorkshire, but as the estates and title are entailed, you are now Lord Harcourt. I begged father to forgive you but I fear he remained obdurate and unforgiving even on his deathbed. He would not hear your name mentioned in his presence. So we remain a house divided but, despite Nick's injunctions, I think of you often and while Nick is away from home, dear brother, you are always welcome in this house. I long to see you. Your loving sister Ann.
Deliverance set the letter down on the table and rose to her feet. “Who are you, Luke?”
Luke swallowed. “I am the disappointing eldest son of the late Lord Harcourt of Chirton in Warwickshire. My father and my brother, Nicholas, fight for the King and my sister Ann stands between us both, as she always has done.”
Deliverance stared at him. She shook her head, opened her mouth and shut it again. For the first time in all of their acquaintance, Deliverance had been struck dumb.
He took her hand and pressed it to his lips. “Here, with you, I am plain Captain Luke Collyer. Collyer was my mother’s name. The person referred to in that letter no longer exists. I have been estranged from my family for two years before this accursed war.”
“Tell me again what you did?”
Luke looked away, propping his elbow on the table and leaning his head on his hand. He took no pride in the cause of the family estrangement. “It was a foolish disagreement over a lady that came to a duel. Father sent me across the channel to cool my heels. When I returned our political differences put a greater divide between us. I’m sorry to deceive you, Deliverance. I thought it a life I had put behind me.”
