Prince of Ravenscar (Sherbrooke Brides 11)

“My ship was run aground in a storm off the coast of southern Spain. My captain sent me messages, but none got through. Repairs required nearly a month. All is well.”

“Thank goodness for that,” Roxanne said. “None of your men were hurt in the storm?”

He shook his head. “I was afraid of sabotage, but it was not.”

“So you are now richer than Croesus,” his fond mama said.

“It is close,” Julian agreed, a twinkle in his eye. He smiled down at her. “I brought you a present, Mama.”

It was in that instant that every person in the room fell in love with him, including Mint.

He presented Corinne with a two-foot-long rope of pearls, earrings, and a bracelet. They were fit for a princess, Mint said reverently, watching the pearls shimmer through Corinne’s fingers.

“Actually, they did belong to a princess,” Julian said, “a real princess named Labina Falusi. The family has fallen on hard times. I believe they wanted me to marry the princess, but I decided I preferred the pearls. My first mate, Mr. Toft, kept them with him throughout the entire voyage, since I was never sure when bandits might strike.”

“And did bandits try to rob you, Julian?” Sophie asked.

He nodded. “Outside of Naples. Fortunately, they were incompetent.”

“Thank goodness for that,” Corinne said, sliding the pearls through her fingers.

He watched his mother loop the pearls three times around her neck, then fasten on the earrings and the bracelet. He watched her rush to the large mirror over the fireplace and stare at herself.

“You look lovely, Mama.” And he saw in that moment what his father had seen when she was eighteen years old.

Corinne rushed back to him and hugged him tightly. “I love you, Julian. You drive me to madness, but never forget I love you. The pearls, they are amazing. Do you really like them?” She turned this way and that, and the pearls shimmered and glowed.

“They—you—are magnificent.”

Roxanne, Sophie, and Mint admired the pearls and loved him even more when Julian asked his mother to waltz. Roxanne rushed to the piano. Sophie sat on the sofa, watching Julian and his mama in her beautiful pearls sweeping gracefully around the drawing room.

When Roxanne stopped playing, it was to see Mrs. Eldridge and three maids crowded behind Mint in the drawing-room doorway, smiling from ear to ear.

“Excuse us, Miss Roxanne, but the lovely music, all the laughter, ah, t’were lovely,” said Mrs. Eldridge, her hands over her heart. “A man waltzing with his mama, ’tis a fine thing to see.”

Mint said, “I will bring champagne to celebrate the safe arrival of your ship, my lord.”

They drank champagne while Julian answered questions. He finally raised his hands. “That is enough. Really, all is well. I’m not certain, though, that all of you should accompany me to Hardcross Manor. I’m not certain it is reconciliation the baron seeks. I cannot believe Richard has suddenly changed his mind, particularly since he told me he had proof, so—”

Corinne interrupted him smoothly. “We have discussed it, Julian. You will consider us your reinforcements. We will not allow Baron Purley to stick a stiletto in your back. Also, Roxanne and Sophie wish to visit Ravenscar.”

Still, he didn’t like it. But he thought about Roxanne and Sophie alone here in London. With Richard Langworth. He gave it up. “Very well. We will leave very early tomorrow. It will require three days. We will take two carriages.”

On a dismal very early Wednesday morning, thick fog covering the ground, two carriages left Lemington Square.

The sun was setting on the third day when the carriages pulled to a halt in front of Hardcross Manor, sprawled atop a small rise amid rolling hills and thick maple and oak woodlands six miles east of Saint Austell, and only three miles from Ravenscar. The grounds surrounding the house were vast, covered with freshly scythed grass, smooth and green. Neat rows of flowers were beginning to burst into bloom, and trellised rosebushes stretched themselves to the sky. It was a lovely property, Julian had always thought. He realized he’d missed Hardcross, missed the baron, a man he’d known his entire life, a man

he’d always admired, until—he felt the rip of remembered pain, closed it down. The past was done and over, only pain and hatred remained. And endless regrets, and questions with no answers.

He also wished they were staying at Ravenscar, but soon, he thought, soon, they would leave Hardcross Manor.

“It reminds me of the gardens at Allegra Hall,” Sophie said, and breathed in deeply as she stepped to the graveled drive. “Roxanne is quite the gardener. Flowers and plants adore her.”

“It hasn’t changed,” Corinne said, and then she added, “I wonder what Rupert—”

Roxanne waited for her to continue, but she didn’t.

“I don’t know,” she said slowly, “but something isn’t right. That letter of his, it leaves too much out, don’t you think? There was only a hint that he might be nearing death, but I don’t know—”