Page 2 of A Devilish Element
“I shall certainly keep your words in mind, Martins.” Eliza slipped from the high seat. The moment her feet touched the gravel, the great door opened, revealing dear, Silent Jane. It seemed quite a feat for her to have captured a viscount.
“Eliza…Oh! It is so very good to see you.”
“And you also,” Eliza accepted her swaddling embrace with a degree of perplexed amusement.
“I can hardly believe you are here. When the fog came down, I was certain you’d about turn, but bless my heart, I am joyful that you did not. It has been so, so long.” She grasped Eliza’s hands tight and led her towards the entrance. “We are a small party for the week. Friends of Linfield’s. I should be quite lost if you were not here too. You must tell me all that has happened since we last saw one another in… was it really April? But first, come inside. I am forgetting myself. You must be half perished after your journey. I’ll have Mrs Honeyfield draw you a bath.”
“No, indeed,” Eliza waved away the offer. “A fire and your company will soon ward off the chill. Although I will not say no to a saucer of tea.”
“Which you shall have at once.”
Martins had handed down her trunk to the footmen and was all set to turn the gig about. He doffed his hat at Eliza by way of goodbye.
“Your manservant’s not staying?” Jane enquired. “Oh, but he must, at least until the fog clears.”
“They’re expecting him back home. You’ll be quite all right, won’t you, Martins?”
“Aw reckon the moon’ll be peeping out afore long, Miss. Don’t see no sense in lingering. I’d rather be tucked up snug afore the witching hour comes around, so seeing as you’re all square, I’ll be gannin, though I do thank yers kindly, Lady Linfield, fer ya offer of warmth and victuals. Alls be back at end of ah week t’ get ya, Miss Wakefield, as arranged.” He touched his cap again and was off, the mist swallowing him within a couple of feet.
“Not your man, then?” Jane observed.
“The cobbler’s. Desperately superstitious, the whole family is, but Freddy’s of a mind to train him for better things. I’m not sure what will come of it.”
“Your brother is well?”
“Aye, and all my sisters, and my niece too, but what of you, Jane? I was most surprised, I must confess, when you wrote at Michaelmas to say you were wed, and to an earl’s son, no less. ‘Jane has married a viscount!’ Caroline was positively astonished. ‘How did such a mouse capture such a man?’ she said, but it is perfectly obvious, for what man could not look at you and stumble. You have grown lovely, my friend. I believe your hair was still in plaits, with no hint of curl papers last we met. I think marriage suits you.”
Jane tapped her hand in gratitude at the compliment, but there was a strain to her smile that showed plainly in her eyes. “I don’t know that it has entirely sunk in. It has all been rather… overwhelming. A veritable whirlwind, what with the marriage and the move. We’ve only settled here these last two weeks, and you will surely know it when you see what I have invited you to.”
“I’m sure I will be very comfortable, and very much at home. The fire is delightful.”
Seeming to recall her friend’s recent arrival, Jane nudged Eliza closer to the hearth. The entrance hall was a large square space, blessed with an enormous fireplace, and oak-panelled walls, over which were draped a series of ancient tapestries. It created a welcoming feeling, but it was true too that a certain mustiness sat in the air, and cobwebs still clung to the ceiling rafters, conjuring a sense of abandonment and crawling decay.
“I’m afraid Cedarton has not been a home for a good many years, and no amount of fires can quite take away the chill in its bones. I hope you will not find it too uncomfortable.”
Eliza bore Jane’s fussing a moment, before warding her off by handing her the shawl from her shoulders. Prior to the visit, her middle sister, Caroline, had been only too eager to relate all the gossip and rumours about Cedarton and its unhappy history that she could muster. Most of it had no business outside of a novel. All of it was overblown and fanciful.
“Don’t fret so, Jane,” she squeezed her friend’s hand. “I’m certain I’ll find it very pleasant indeed. Besides, once Cedarton has seen your touch, it will be transformed into the very warmest of homes. But, let us not talk of property. You must tell me of your adventures. How came you to be Lady Linfield?”
“Oh, there is little enough to tell. We met a time or two, and now we are wed, and that’s really all there is to say of the matter. I wish you would tell me of your doings instead.”
“And so I will, but you will not divert me so quickly. Is this to be your main abode? Are there grounds to explore? How many rooms? Have you other guests? And of course, both Caroline and Maria beg me to ask for a full account of your romance with Lord Linfield.”
“Perhaps if we head to your room and take that tea.” Jane shooed a footman off to see to a tray and drew Eliza through a doorway towards a grand carved staircase. “I will show you around as best I can once you are properly warmed and settled, but I hardly have a proper sense of the place myself. It is rather vast and sprawling, too large really, for two people alone, but the housekeeper is very good, and has everything in hand. I thought we would stay in London, but”—she shook her head sadly—“there is some… I don’t know. A difficulty that Linfield prefers to avoid, and so we are here, tucked away in the countryside, away from everyone and everything. I confess, I had no idea Cedarton was so remote. I supposed when he said it was on the moors I ought to have realised, but Yorkshire always brings to mind your quaint little cottage, or the cobbled streets of Harrogate, or the seaside at Scarborough.”
“What sort of difficulty?”
“Scarborough was so glorious this last summer,” Jane replied, as if she hadn’t heard Eliza’s question. “I had such fun chasing waves and paddling in the sea. It was thoroughly delightful.” Her expression took on a wistfulness that Eliza couldn’t fail to notice. Something about her seaside stay had obviously made a lasting impression, and she didn’t think it likely it’d been the North Sea pounding the shore. Matter of fact, she’d hazard it was a person—a man—responsible for that glow in Jane’s eyes, and not the one to whom she was now wed.
“It was right after that Linfield and I were engaged,” she said, practically confirming Eliza’s supposition.
“You said there was some difficulty in London,” Eliza prompted.
Jane tipped her head from shoulder to shoulder. “Oh, don’t ask me about it, for I don’t know a thing. It’s a trivial matter. He says we can return in the Spring.”
“You must miss your family,” Eliza hazarded, seeing her friend’s smile fade. “And here I am glad to have a break from mine, but are Linfield’s family not here? Is there no sister or cousin you might strike up a friendship with? No company?”
“I have you.”
