Like Diana, Luke needed to marry and well. He hated to be so mercenary in his choice of bride, but it was a reality he couldn’t ignore. However, it didn’t mean he had to wed the first merchant’s daughter with five thousand a year who threw herself at him in an effort to be the mother of the next Earl of Ingham. ‘Surely you could’ve chosen someone better suited to you than that old man.’
‘My first duty is to my father and my family, not to you, not to even myself.’ She settled back into her chair, her brown eyes at last meeting his and filled with a silent plea for understanding. He couldn’t withhold it. He’d abandoned his men and his military career to come home and do his duty for his family. He couldn’t blame her for doing the same.
‘It seems we’re both obliged to make sacrifices. You with Lord Follett, me as the heir.’
‘But your brother and his wife?’
‘After ten years, there’s been no child. If things stay as they are—’
‘You’ll inherit.’ She pressed her palm to her forehead, realising what she’d given up by following her parents’ demands. However, Luke knew the way of the world. A possible title at some future date was not the same as an old, wealthy baron on a woman’s doorstep with a special licence.
Not wanting to torture her further with his presence or his ire, he took the shako from Collins and tucked it under his arm. ‘I wish you all the best and future happiness. Good day.’
He left the house and climbed into the hack waiting at the kerb. He knocked Captain Reginald Crowther’s feet off the seat where he’d rested them to nap.
His friend jerked upright and tilted his shako off his eyes. He was about to crack a joke when a warning glare from Luke turned him slightly more serious. ‘I take it all didn’t go well with your fair damsel?’
Luke rapped on the roof to set the vehicle in motion. As it lumbered out of Mayfair towards the Bull in Bishops Street, he told him what had happened inside the Tomalins’. ‘This isn’t how I imaged this would go.’
‘And I can see you’re utterly heartbroken over losing her. More like inconvenienced.’ Captain Crowther threw his arms up over the back of the squabs. ‘You thought you’d marry a tidy little sum, produce an heir with the least amount of bother and be back in Spain with the regiment inside of two years.’
Luke fingered the regimental badge of a curved bugle horn hung from a ribbon affixed to the front of his shako, unsettled by Captain Crowther’s frank assessment of his plans and secretly relieved. If he and Diana had entered into marriage negotiations, the Inghams’ debts would have been revealed. Diana’s family would probably have made her cry off and all England might have learned of his family’s financial straits. His rapture for her had faded too much during their time apart for him to go through so much on her behalf. ‘Her refusing to marry me before I left and insisting we keep the engagement a secret always did rankle.’
‘Now you must give up the hell of battle for the hell of the marriage mart.’ His friend chuckled. ‘Wish I could be here to see you dancing like some London dandy.’
‘When I agreed to come home, I didn’t think I’d have to face it.’ Or the ugliness he’d glimpsed in Diana’s situation. He set the shako on the seat beside him. Worse waited for him in the country. With the future of the earldom hovering over him, all the tittering darlings and their mamas who’d ignored him as a youth because he wouldn’t inherit would rush Pensum Manor faster than Napoleon’s troops did a battlefield.
‘You don’t have to do this. Write and tell your brother to pay more attention to his wife and come back to Spain,’ Captain Crowther urged.
‘I’m sure their lack of a child isn’t from a lack of trying and it isn’t only an heir they need, but money.’ Luke stared out the hackney window at the crowd crossing London Bridge in the distance. He couldn’t have refused the request to come home even if he’d wanted to. His father had called on his old friend, Lieutenant Colonel Lord Henry Beckwith, using the connection he’d employed to begin Luke’s Army career to end it. Luke might have ignored one or two orders in battle, achieving both victory and forgiveness for his transgressions, but he couldn’t dismiss a direct command from Lord Beckwith to return home.
The carriage lumbered to a stop in front of the arch of the bustling Bull Inn. Luke tucked the shako under his arm and stepped out, as did his friend. Behind them the driver unloaded Luke’s things while Captain Crowther’s stayed fixed on top. After he visited his sister, Reginald was going back to Spain, his mission of delivering dispatches complete.
Luke flicked the dull edge of the bugle-horn badge with his fingernail. He would catch a coach to Pensum Manor, his family’s estate in Hertfordshire and take up the position of second in line to the earldom and groom-to-be to some willing, and as of yet unnamed, wife. ‘I wish you’d accepted my offer to buy my commission.’
‘You know I don’t want it, or the debt to secure it. Don’t look so glum.’ Reginald cuffed Luke on the arm. ‘We aren’t all meant to be leaders like you. Your intelligence, wit and daring will be missed.’
‘But they’ll have your ability to charm the locals, especially the gambling men.’
Reginald grinned with self-satisfaction. ‘I do have a flair with language.’
Luke snapped off the Forty-Third Regiment of Foot bugle-horn badge affixed to the front of the shako and handed the now-unneeded headpiece to his friend. ‘Stay safe.’
Reginald ran his thumb over the bare felt front, a rare seriousness crossing over his face before it passed. ‘You’re the one who needs to watch yourself. I hear those unmarried ladies can be dangerous.’ He tossed the thing inside the coach then took Luke’s hand. ‘Go on to Hertfordshire, find a wife and give your family their much sought-after heir.’
Reginald climbed back into the carriage and then hung one elbow out the door window.
‘Give Napoleon hell,’ Luke encouraged, the edge of the badge biting into his palm where he clasped it tight.
‘I intend to.’ With a rakish salute, Reginald tucked inside as the hack rolled off down the crowded street.
With each turn of the wheels, the most accomplished and contented ten years of Luke’s life faded into the past. He opened his palm, the tin against his skin tarnished with Spanish mud and rain. What waited for him in Hertfordshire was everything he’d joined the Army to escape: the oppressive weight of previous generations which hung over Pensum Manor, and his own insignificance to the line as magnified by his brother’s importance.
He slipped the badge into his pocket and strode into the inn to arrange for a seat in the next coach to Hertfordshire. He’d do his duty to his family, as fast and efficiently as he could, then he’d return to the Army and a real sense of accomplishment.
Joanna had never been to a ball before. The Pensum Manor ballroom was decorated with autumn leaves, straw bales, scarecrows and bunches of wheat tied with orange-and-yellow ribbons. The same musicians who played in the church on Sundays now performed on an equally festive stage at the far end. In front of them, young ladies and gentlemen danced in time to the lively music. Everyone in attendance seemed happy and carefree, except Joanna, and, it appeared, Major Preston.
Joanna
