Barely a Bride (Free Fellows League 1)

Alyssa thought her plan of throwing Miranda and the duke together was working until Sussex announced he was going north to his grouse moor two days before Miranda was to leave Abernathy Manor. He offered to delay his departure in order to escort Miranda to her country home in Cheshire on his way north, but Miranda coyly refused. Sussex left in a huff, and Miranda departed the manor two days later.

Alyssa missed Miranda’s companionship almost as much as she missed Griffin.

But she wasn’t left alone for long, for Miranda and the duke of Sussex were only the first in a line of visitors who came to call once the season ended.

Parliament had adjourned, and the great migration north for the autumn hunting season began.

Now that there was a lady in residence at Abernathy Manor, family, friends, and acquaintances paid visits, stopping over for days on end in order to break up their journeys to Scotland and the North Country.

Lord and Lady Weymouth were the first to pay a visit. They stayed a fortnight, taking the opportunity to get to know their daughter-in-law and admire the changes she had made to the manor before retiring to their country home for the autumn and winter months.

Parliament might be adjourned, but the war continued, and with it continued the work the war generated. Lord Weymouth made it a point to stay over at the manor during his frequent journeys to and from London for so long as the war continued, Weymouth intended to play a vital role in the fight against the French.

Alyssa’s mother and father paid a brief visit in late August while on their way to Tressingham Court for the September cub hunting. Lord Tressingham invited Alyssa to join them. Although she loved to ride, Alyssa had never been one to relish the hunt, especially cub hunting. The September cub hunts served as training for the young fox hounds and Alyssa found them to be much too cruel and bloody. She declined the visit by pleading the need to stay at Abernathy Manor.

Alyssa knew Lord Weymouth’s messengers would deliver Griffin’s letters to Tressingham Court or anyplace else she cared to visit, but Alyssa couldn’t bear the thought of another few hours or days of not knowing, of not hearing from him. She kept busy organizing the manor, renovating the gardens, supervising the preparation of the land for the spring planting of hops and flax, and increasing the herds of dairy cows and the flock of sheep. She played hostess to her guests, and she continued to work on her book of recipes for herbal remedies.

Griffin’s letters kept her going, as did the visits from Griffin’s two closest friends, the Marquess of Shepherdston and Viscount Grantham.

She lived for the days the mail arrived from London or when Keswick or Durham relayed the news that Shepherdston or Grantham or both had come to call.

Neither gentleman ever stayed the night. Alyssa didn’t extend offers for them to stay unless she had other houseguests, but even then, Shepherdston and Grantham refused. And Shepherdston had made it quite clear on his first visit that spending a night beneath the same roof as the wife of one of one’s closest friends when one’s friend was unable to do the same was not at all the sort of thing a true gentleman would do. He appreciated the offer of hospitality but told her that, as a bachelor, he would seek his lodging elsewhere.

Alyssa never asked where. She assumed he and Grantham lodged at the nearest coaching inn or in the village or returned to Shepherdston Hall, a mere three hours by coach and a bit over two hours on horseback.

She never knew when they might appear, as their visits never occurred on a regular schedule and, unlike most of her other guests, the mysterious Free Fellows did not confine their travel to moonlit nights. Neither Shepherdston nor Grantham appeared to have any trouble navigating the darkest country roads, no matter how late they stayed.

But Alyssa liked them both despite their secretive ways. She also liked knowing that neither Grantham nor Shepherdston had any idea that she knew they and Griffin made up the roster of a secret organization. No one knew she knew. Not even Griffin. Alyssa had never breathed a word about the conversation she’d overheard. And although Miranda had expressed a certain curiosity about her sudden wedding, Alyssa had never confided the circumstances leading up to Griffin’s proposal.

Everyone in the ton seemed to know that Griffin had been ordered to marry before he left for the Peninsula. Why he chose to marry her didn’t seem to be all that important to anyone except her and friends like Miranda, who had grown to care about her. And the truth of the matter was that most of the gossips were more interested in learning if she regretted the loss of the duke enough to become his mistress. For it was no secret that the Duke of Sussex had continued to visit her at Abernathy Manor.

Alyssa sighed. No one seemed to notice or care that Lady Miranda St. Germaine had been in residence at Abernathy Manor each time the duke came to call or that, like the two other bachelors who visited, Sussex had never spent a night beneath Lady Abernathy’s roof.

The nastier gossips proclaimed that the length of the duke’s stay was of no consequence. One didn’t necessarily need darkness or a roof over one’s head to make a lady one’s latest mistress. Other society gossips simply dismissed the marchioness’s presence as chaperone and forgot all about Lady Abernathy’s repeated refusals of the duke’s suit.

Some said she was playing hard to

get. Others said she wasn’t playing at all.

Alyssa only prayed that Miranda and Sussex would manage to come to some sort of agreement so that her reasons for allowing the duke to continue to call at Abernathy Manor would come to light.

The truth was that Lady Abernathy wasn’t playing hard to get or already gotten. She was playing matchmaker for the Marchioness of St. Germaine and the duke. Unfortunately, her matchmaking efforts seemed destined to go unnoticed and unrewarded.

Chapter Twenty-six

“I must endure. That is the essential duty of the wives of soldiers. To endure the wait, the worry, the loneliness—no matter what.”

—Alyssa, Lady Abernathy, diary entry, 04 May 1811

“I hear His Grace, the Duke of Sussex, paid you a lengthy visit.”

Alyssa sat in the main salon on a sofa across from the Marquess of Shepherdston and Viscount Grantham, watching as Shepherdston gracefully balanced a cup and saucer on his knee and Grantham attempted to do the same—but not nearly as gracefully.

“You and everyone else in the ton,” she muttered.

“How’s that?” the marquess asked.

“I said His Grace paid calls during his recent stay at Haversham House.” Alyssa sighed. Shepherdston was a bit more slender, and his eyes were a light, almost golden brown instead of blue, but he reminded her very much of Griffin. Griffin would never be quite as elegant or refined because he was bigger—taller and broader of shoulder and hip. But his voice… She struggled to keep from trembling with longing at the sound of it because Jarrod’s voice was nearly identical to Griffin’s—or her memory of Griffin’s voice—and Shepherdston and Griffin appeared to share a great many mannerisms: the lift of the eyebrow, the tilt of the head, the way they both frowned when deep in thought.