‘My wife said the same thing—’ Matthew felt a stab of surprise ‘—and I’ve told her I’ll try, but I’m afraid you’re both mistaken. Alan’s made his feelings about me perfectly clear.’
‘He’s proud. He won’t ask you to stay himself.’
‘So you ask for him?’
‘Yes. He’s a part of my family now.’ Her gaze flickered briefly. ‘Will you stay longer?’
He hesitated for a moment and then shook his head. ‘My wife is eager to return home.’
‘Surely a week or so won’t make much difference?
‘I made her a promise.’
‘Then ask her if you can break it. It would make such a difference to Alan.’
‘Lady Adelaide...’
‘Please.’
Seaweed-green eyes widened with a pleading expression and he clenched his jaw, struck by the disquieting conviction that she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. More than that, he suspected that the only reason she’d spoken to him in the first place had been to persuade him.
‘I’ll ask her—’ he threw another look down the table, just in time to see Constance turn her face quickly to one side, as if she’d been looking at him ‘—but I’m not making any promises.’
‘Thank you.’ Lady Adelaide smiled as if she hadn’t heard the last part of his sentence. ‘It will make Alan so happy.’
Matthew made a face. Making someone happy... That would make a pleasant change, especially when he had the strong feeling that his request was going to make his wife anything but.
In his personal opinion, the sooner they got out of Wintercott, the better.
Chapter Fifteen
Constance listened dutifully to her father-in-law’s seemingly endless description of the Wintercott estate, trying to ignore the way his eyes dropped repeatedly to her chest as he spoke. Even so, she couldn’t help but notice the change in him. Alan was right—when it came to this one subject, Sir Ralph was a different man, his eyes glowing with some powerful emotion she couldn’t quite put her finger on. It wasn’t happiness exactly. It was more like possessiveness or cupidity, an overriding passion combined with an inner sense of importance and power. It was several minutes before he even paused for breath, at which point they were mercifully interrupted by the arrival of the sweet course.
She made a concerted effort to keep her face turned in the opposite direction afterwards, avoiding both her husband and father-in-law, though to her own annoyance, she found her gaze sliding repeatedly back towards Matthew.
She was grateful for Alan, however. Despite his abrasiveness on their arrival, he’d been nothing but gallant today, coming straight to greet her when she’d come down to the hall on her own, even smiling as if he were genuinely pleased to see her again. Something about his manner was almost too effusive, as if he knew what had happened on the roof and was trying to make her feel better, but she was grateful for it anyway. His conversation lifted her mood and his company was far preferable to Matthew’s. The last thing she’d wanted was to find herself seated beside him so soon after their argument. She might have come to his defence in front of his father, but only because at that moment he’d seemed like the lesser of two evils. Whatever kind of malicious point Sir Ralph had been making with his questions, she’d wanted to thwart it.
Besides, she still had questions about what had happened on the roof and, if Matthew wouldn’t answer them for her, perhaps his brother would be more obliging...
‘Alan?’ She kept her voice as indifferent-sounding as possible, casually lifting a sweetmeat to her lips. ‘If I ask you something, will you promise to answer truthfully?’
For a few seconds there was only silence. Surprised, she twisted her head to find Alan staring intently at the contents of his trencher, as if he knew what was coming and was willing her not to continue. Too bad. She wasn’t going to let the subject drop so easily.
‘Who was it who fell from the roof?’
‘Why do you ask?’ Alan lowered his voice, glancing along the table as if to make sure that nobody else could overhear them.
‘Matthew said that somebody fell, or at least he didn’t deny it, but he wouldn’t tell me who.’ She cleared her throat, feeling slightly disloyal, but continuing anyway. ‘Then I remembered he said something about your stepmother Blanche having an accident so I wondered if it was her?’
‘Perhaps you ought to try asking him again?’
‘He says he doesn’t want to talk about it, but after what happened today I think I have a right to know.’ She could tell by the look on his face he knew what she was referring to. ‘Please, Alan.’
He shook his head, muttering something under his breath before leaning closer towards her. ‘Yes, it was Blanche who fell. She was our father’s fourth wife, the one we never talk about.’
‘Why? What was she like?’
‘Blanche?’ He sounded wistful. ‘Beautiful and lively and everything most men would want and value in a wife. Unfortunately for her, our father isn’t most men.’