"You seem disgruntled, Alicia," Lord Midrake enquired as he watched his cousin enter the house after her rather short visit to her friend, Miss Sutton.
He had not been back to see her since that afternoon, and he had loitered about the house in a discrete attempt to hear any news of her health when his mother's young ward returned.
She looked at him and sighed as she removed her bonnet. "Poor Cordelia is in the thick of things at the moment."
His concern grew. "What happened?"
"Her brother is causing quite the disturbance, and she is not taking it well."
"Where is she at present?"
"Still at home. She is rather weak. I tried to take her for a walk in the garden, but her brother and the Countess had an argument and it tired her greatly. It is a pity. I am certain she would have enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine."
Lord Midrake nodded, his eyebrows dipping in thought.
"Anyway," Alicia sighed. "I best make ready for Lady Strauss."
She moved across the entrance foyer to the staircase, leaving the Marquis alone. If she had remained, she would have noticed the concerned expression on his face, followed by a peculiar lighting of his eyes when he thought of an idea that he would put into place immediately.
* * *
Cordelia was quiet as she sat on a soft couch placed in her room. The warm sun cast its rays through her opened drapes as she gazed upon the splendid sight of her aunt's back garden. She would have loved to have had a short walk, but the unexpected presence of her brother had sapped any energy she may have had.
She had hoped her situation would not have come to this: a situation where she would have to choose between family.
A heavy sigh left her lips as she leaned her head against the cushion behind her.
There was a knock at her door, and she called for her nurse to enter, assuming that it was her. But the heavy footfalls that entered instantly made her aware of the fact that it was certainly not Martha.
She looked over her shoulder towards the door quickly, and her expression became one of startled surprise when she noticed that it was the Marquis who entered. She hastily ensured that her shawl was adequately draped over her shoulders before she stood and faced him, offering him a small curtsy.
"My apologies, Lord Midrake. I was not expecting you," she said, her gaze lowered to stare at his superbly polished boots.
"I am aware," he responded, his low voice easily filling her room with the sound. "I trust you are feeling better?"
Her cheeks flushed that endearing shade of red. "I am still a little weak, but I am feeling much better. Thank you."
"I am pleased to hear it. Perhaps you would feel strong enough to accompany me for a drive in the Park?"
His invitation surprised her, causing her gaze to snap to his in a mixture of alarm and shyness. "A drive with you?" she asked slowly, thinking she may have misheard.
The Marquis nodded and shifted on his feet, suddenly feeling a little awkward. "Yes, it will be a short one. I wanted to test a new pair of bays, and I thought you might want to join. Should you feel too unwell, I will return you home immediately."
There was a softness to his gaze that made her relax, and she could not help but recall the many times in the past when he had taken her for a drive in the Park. It had been one of their favourite pastimes. And the fact that he was intent on her joining him made her feel a sense of nostalgia for the rose-tinted past.
She offered him a small smile. "Thank you for your invitation. I will be delighted to join you."
The Marquis smiled, and the sight made her heart flutter. "Excellent. I will wait outside until you are ready."
She nodded and waited until he had left the room before ringing for Martha. Her nurse soon entered and failed to hide her surprise when she heard that her mistress needed assistance in dressing for a drive in the Park. She had seen the Marquis briefly on her ascend of the stairs and figured he was the reason there was a sudden light in the young lady's gaze that had not been there at all in the morning.
Cordelia was soon dressed in a stylish but comfortable muslin gown and thanked Martha as she was assisted in walking towards the gentleman waiting outside.
The warmth of the sun beat down on Cordelia's porcelain skin, and she smiled when she looked upon the vehicle. As she thought, it was a Curricle made of dark wood. Its brass furnishings gleamed in the rich sun, making it appear like valuable jewels had been used instead of the hard metal. The pair of horses that drew the vehicle were of extraordinary brilliance, their coats gleaming so remarkably that she was certain she could brush her white glove over their backs and the material would remain spotless.
There was a groom who stood beside the vehicle, and he offered her a short bow as she approached before assisting her into it. Martha then helped her in straightening her skirts before taking a small rug that she had brought with her and gently placing it over her knees to keep her warm.
The hood, which was usually folded, had been extended in an attempt to prohibit too much of a breeze on her, and she felt quite warm and comfortable once she was settled. The Marquis had remained silent while the servants tended to his guest, and once the groom had returned to his position at the back of the vehicle, he raised the reins and urged the horses forward.
It was a little after mid-morning, and the traffic was dense, which left little time for conversation as the Marquis spent most of his attention on directing his horses. She noticed quite quickly that he had significantly increased his skills as a horseman compared to the last time Cordelia drove with him. Although she had always thought him to be a fine driver, there was added confidence about his commands and the fluid movements of the pair left little jostling to those they pulled.
The trip was short compared to most distances, and the bustling streets soon gave way to the calmer, greener surroundings of the kept lawns and roads of the Park. The Marquis eased his hold on the reins slightly, allowing the horses to move at a comfortable pace as they walked along one of the roads that wound around a lake.
"And what do you think of them?" the Marquis asked, finally breaking the silence between them.
Cordelia glanced at the pair of bays. "They are beautiful and well-trained."
Lord Midrake smiled, his stormy gaze meeting hers briefly before returning to the horses. "I thought you would enjoy them. Alicia told me that you were a little upset this morning, and I remember how much you liked to join me for my daily drives in the Park when we were younger."
Cordelia flushed at his words and averted her gaze shyly. "You did not need to encumbrance yourself on my account," she murmured. "I was not so distressed."
He shrugged nonchalantly. "I wanted to."
His words made her cheeks flare an even darker shade, and she failed to find an appropriate response to his admission. So, she turned her gaze to the outside world instead and breathed in the calm tranquillity of the Park. Several people and horses were dotting the landscape with several horse-drawn vehicles as well. But the path that they were moving along seemed to take them further away from the crowd.
That little detail followed by the fact that the hood had been extended made Cordelia's pulse quicken. She had initially thought that the hood being extended was to ward off any chill in the air, but she realized then that it was possibly more for the sake of privacy against both the outside world and his groom than for her health.
She pressed her lips together anxiously and began to twiddle her fingers.
"There is a specific reason you asked me to join you," she asked at length when the silence grew too great in her ears.
She watched his shoulders straighten slightly as he drew a breath into his lungs. "Not exactly," he replied and flicked the reins lightly. "I did want you to join me to aid you in your recovery but also because we have not spoken for a while. Uninterrupted, that is," he added somewhat grimly.
Cordelia's eyebrows drew together a little at his remark, but she attempted to hide the joy she felt at his confession. She knew that she should not feel that way, the fact that he actively sought her company should not have lightened her heart the way it did, but it was a feeling she could not repel. Especially not when she had been wishing for his company for most of the morning.
"All right," she began. "What is it you would wish to discuss uninterrupted?"
There was a tug at his lips at her little attempt at humour, and he glanced at her with a fondness that instantly made her avert her eyes.
He returned his attention to his horses as he felt the heat flare against the back of his neck and cleared his throat. "I believe your brother has been causing a bit of a disturbance," he eventually said and noticed the way she tensed beside him. "Would you like to talk about it?"
She pressed her lips together and glanced down at her hands. "There is not much to say," she started, paused, then sighed in defeat. "He is merely wishing that I stay with him."
"Why? Are you not happy with your aunt?"
"I am very much happy with her," Cordelia quickly defended. "But my brother is not. If he had not been away at the time of our parents' passing, I would have stayed with him. He . . . disapproves of my aunt."
"I noticed that at the ball," the Marquis admitted. "Is there something that she did that caused such ill feelings between them?"
"More like what she did not do," Cordelia corrected and glanced out at the quiet lake. She could feel Lord Midrake's gaze on her face, but she did not turn to acknowledge the glance. "My mother was always a sickly woman, often too weak to walk for extended periods and needed to rest constantly. As you know, we were a poor family. She had no choice but to work despite her failing health. One day, Edward and I decided to write to our aunt for assistance with our mother . . . She never replied."
"And your brother still holds that against her," the Marquis concluded, and she nodded in affirmation. "But you do not hold the same feelings?"
"I did, initially. That was why I hated her so terribly when I first arrived in London."
"I thought that was because you felt she forced you from your family?"
"A bit of both," Cordelia conceded. "But the longer I stayed with her, the more the doubt crept in on why she did not respond. She seemed to be a caring individual in her own way, and it started to create a dissonance within my mind that she would have ignored our letter. One day, after a particularly heated discussion, I confronted her on why she never wrote back to us."
"And what was her response?" Lord Midrake asked, glancing at her to see her eyes filled with emotion.
"She said she never received any letter of the kind."
He frowned. "So . . . what happened to the letter?"
"I do not know."
The Marquis twisted his lips at her words, finding the situation most strange. "Have you told your brother this?"
"I have not had the chance. This morning was the first time I had seen him since the ball, and he was hardly in any state of mind to see reason. Aunt Eloise may be a hard woman who appears to be unbothered by whatever happens around her, but she has never been unjust. She did not deserve the words that my brother said to her."
A brief silence settled over them as the horses ambled along the path, their hooves moving in perfect rhythm with each other that the sound almost lulled Cordelia to sleep, but her head was swarmed with too many thoughts to allow for such a peaceful state.
"And do you think your brother will be happy with you continuing to reside with your aunt once the allegation has been cleared?" the Marquis eventually questioned.
Cordelia sighed heavily. "I do not know. I am happy with my aunt, but I feel that if we return to Mayfield, then I will hardly see my brother. His business is in London. I . . . do not know who to choose."
"Perhaps . . ." Lord Midrake began, a different tone to his voice that caused her to look at him. "You do not need to choose. You might not be required to live with either of them soon."
She frowned, not understanding his words before the realization struck her like a bolt of lightning. The Viscount. He knew about the Viscount's proposal!
Her lips thinned tightly and she looked away, confusion lacing her features. How did he know about that? She did not tell anyone. Her blood ran cold. Who else believes that she has accepted him?
The horses had already moved along three-quarters of the lake's perimeter, and they were nearing a more crowded portion of the Park when she noticed a familiar black stallion standing proudly in the distance. Through the shambles of her mind, she forced herself to look closer. Her aunt's refined posture and elegant grace were unmistakable even from such a distance, and Cordelia watched as she spoke to a gentleman, his horse standing alongside Leviathan.
"Cordelia . . ." Lord Midrake began, but she was too focused on the sight of her aunt to notice how he had referred to her by her Christian name.
She watched as the discussion seemed to end between them, and her aunt turned her stallion away when out of nowhere, Leviathan reared to the side with such haste that he lost his footing on the soft grass and landed harshly, crushing the Countess beneath him.
FUN FACT: a young, unmarried lady could take a drive with a gentleman alone, but only in an open carriage. This was accepted, as the open carriage prohibited untoward liberality between the two. As an added measure, the gentleman would usually have a servant with him as well.