Lady Eleanor's Seventh Suitor by Anna Bradley

Author:Anna Bradley [Bradley, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-09-04T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Ghosts flitted among the tall yew trees lining the main drive up to the manor house.

Amelia waved back at Cam and Eleanor one more time before she wheeled her horse around and pranced toward the house, Robyn behind her. The carriage was some distance away, but it passed onto the drive in front of them and followed the circular path that led to the front entrance, and still Cam didn’t stir from his place at the end of the drive.

No one else seemed to notice the ghosts.

Eleanor glanced toward the house and got a vague impression of a three-story manor with neat rows of windows before she turned her attention back to Cam, who continued to sit motionless atop his horse.

Only Cam could see them.

She could hear Amelia’s excited shouts even from this distance, but they were muted, and she couldn’t hear what the child said. She shaded her eyes and looked toward the house again. The commotion on the drive had attracted the attention of someone inside—a woman had emerged from the doorway, kneeled down on the wide stone steps and opened her arms.

Amelia flew into them.

Mary West.

Eleanor looked back at Cam, then rubbed her fingers against the middle of her chest to ease the ache there. This was wrong. Wrong, that he should be left at the end of the drive to stare up at his home as if he didn’t recognize it. As if he were unsure of his welcome.

She didn’t know why her chest ached, or what she was waiting for. She should ride up the drive and join her family. Leave him here to face his ghosts alone. She didn’t owe him any consideration, and judging by the way he’d just snatched his arm away from her, he didn’t want any.

But she didn’t move. “Cam?”

He turned toward, but his face was blank, as if he’d forgotten she was there.

“Shall we go up?” Eleanor nodded toward the house. “The others are waiting.”

He glanced up the drive. His face was pale and set, but her words jarred him from whatever trance he’d been in, and he nudged his horse forward. “Yes. Yes, of course.”

The horses’ hooves made a muffled crunch against the gravel drive as they rode slowly toward the manor house, the air so still, so silent, the sound seemed deafening.

“There you are,” Charlotte called when they neared the entrance. “I thought you’d never come up. I hope you didn’t ride for too long, Eleanor.”

Eleanor shook her head, but didn’t answer. She watched as Cam dismounted and walked toward the woman who stood in the drive, waiting to receive him.

“Aunt Mary.” He kissed her on the cheek.

She smiled and laid a palm against his face, but her expression was melancholy as she gazed up at him. “Camden. Welcome home.”

Some of the color seeped back into his face at her words, and the tight ache in Eleanor’s chest began to ease.

But her relief was short-lived.

“Back here now, are you? I’d have thought you’d have plenty to occupy you at your fancy townhouse in London.

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