Strange Strange World Box Set

Chapter 3: Warrick

Chapter 3: WarrickAs I’d anticipated, word got out that Meggie was entertaining not only one young gentleman but two, Thomas as well as me. Mother was furious, but Father nodded in satisfaction.

I had no idea how Thomas’s parents regarded our escapade—he never said and was his usual happy-go-lucky self, so I imagined as long as we were smart enough not to get our paramour with child, they looked on it as nothing more than a peccadillo.

Meggie might have been simply a milkmaid, but she was wise in the ways of the world. She knew that sooner or later Thomas and I would have to leave her in order to court a young lady of our own class. We gave her pretty presents, and didn’t abuse her of that notion.

Meanwhile, we visited her a night or two during the week, and spent the rest of that summer off on our own, finding secluded spots to love each other, always making sure to bring back some of the trout in Thorny Walk streams or a clutch of rabbits from Greenbriers.

Those were halcyon days, but unfortunately, they were drawing to a close, along with summer.

I rode onto Greenbriers land just as Thomas came trotting toward me, and of one accord, we turned our horses and set them to a brisk canter.

Once we were on Thorny Walk land, I kicked my horse into a gallop, setting him at the panelled fence that separated the home farm from some fallow land.

“I say, not fair!” Thomas raced after me, but I was the better rider, and my horse cleared the bars with a characteristic flip of his tail. “You blighter!” But he was laughing breathlessly.

I pulled up at the far edge of the field and slid off Monte’s back, waiting for Thomas to catch up with me. “Slow coach,” I teased.

He hopped off his own mount and threw himself into my arms, knocking us both to the soft grass. Monte snorted and ambled off a few yards. Thomas’s Galahad joined him and they began to graze.

White-blond hair spilled across my lips, and tourmaline eyes glinted with laughter. “Let me make love to you.”

I froze. He’d never asked that of me before. I should permit him to, since he was so accommodating as to always let me have his arse, but I couldn’t say the words.

“You’re so beautiful,” I said instead, my voice hoarse, and I drew his head down to mine. “Kiss me.”

His mouth was like honey, and I feasted on it. But there was a desperate quality to that kiss, and of course Thomas sensed it.

His fingertips stroked my cheek. “What’s wrong, my prickly Thorn?”

I turned away from him and plucked a blade of grass, winding it restlessly between my fingers.

“We’re leaving.” I glanced at him to see how he would take that news.

He nodded. “I know. It’s off to university for you and the Royal Military College for me. I shall miss you. I fail to understand why your father insists you go to Cambridge, instead of Sandhurst. We’d make brilliant officers and give our all for king and country—”

“Hardly. I’m not the ‘giving all for king and country’ type. Besides, there’s already one Synclaire willing to do that.”

“Harry?”

I gave him a look. “Harry. He’s just been promoted to major.” And of course Father was over the moon about it.

“Yes, but—”

I kept talking. “John will inherit the title, and I…” I tore the blade of grass in two.

“You, Thorn?”

“I believe I’ll look into becoming an architect.” I forced a grin.

“Why?”

I shrugged and said as nonchalantly as I could, “Why not? I’ve always liked to think what I could do with Thorny Walk if I’d designed the house.”

Thomas sighed. “Still, I wish you were coming along with me.”

I shook my head. “I wouldn’t be a good soldier. At any rate, you don’t understand. I shan’t be going to Cambridge or Oxford or any university here in England. Mother and I are leaving. She and Father had a tremendous row the other night, about Meggie, of all things.”

Thomas groaned.

“Yes. Mother was never able to turn a blind eye to me sowing my wild oats, and that Father wouldn’t listen to her objections about continuing to maintain the friendship with your family was the last straw. She’s going back to Canada.” I ran a hand over my hair.

“I don’t understand. Why should Sir John cease being friends with Mother and Father?”

“Because they’re so casual about this entire thing.”

“So that’s why…” Thomas suddenly looked as unhappy as I felt.

“Yes. She’s insisting I go with her.”

“How can Sir John permit that?” he demanded. He took the larger piece of grass from me and stroked it across my lips.

I shrugged again, trying to conceal the hurt that question evinced. I wasn’t the heir. I wasn’t even the spare, but how could Father let me go?

His first wife had been the daughter of a penniless earl, but he’d loved her—still loved her for all I knew. She’d presented him with his beloved sons, dying in childbirth after the birth of the second one. This left Father not only devastated, but with a young boy and an infant to bring up.

Still enmeshed in grief, he’d married Mother, whom he met while she was touring the countryside with distant relatives—Mother was from Canada, hence her desire to return there now.

After ten barren years, she finally became pregnant. But by that time things had gotten extremely rocky between them. It always puzzled me how I could have been conceived, considering that state of affairs.

I grew up assuming that all married couples sniped at one another over the dinner table, or that they slept in separate rooms, until I stayed overnight at Thomas’s home and realised otherwise.

For the longest time I wanted to be Thomas. But loving him was almost as good.

“When must you leave?” he asked, his voice subdued.

“By the end of the week. I’m going to miss you so much.”

“You could stay with us.” He knew well enough how things were between me and my father. “If you ask Sir John to let you—?”

I shook my head sadly. “Mother would be too hurt. It would be just one more betrayal. I have to go with her, you see that, don’t you?”

His mouth took a mulish turn. “She’s playing upon your sympathies.”

I knew that, and I’d wondered if perhaps her pregnancy all those years ago had put a halt to her plans to leave Father at that time. Now, however, for the first time in my life, she actually seemed to need me.

“All right, I suppose I do understand. But oh, I shall miss you.” His blue-green eyes swam with unshed tears.

I forced a smile and got to my feet. “We have these next few days. Come.”

He took my outstretched hand, and I pulled him up.

With the horses trailing along behind us, we began to visit the spots on the estate where we had played, and I made love to him in each one of them.