Discovering Grace: A Regency Romance (Inglewood Book 2) Read online

  Her mother patted her daughter’s hand in a soothing manner. “We did discuss the possibility of such, but the expense and strain of travel is not to be taken on lightly. I could not possibly deprive you of both your daughters, either.”

  “A wise thought.” Papa met Grace’s eyes and she saw his lips turn downward, then he looked to Hope, and the frown deepened. He saw the light of adventure in her sister’s eyes too, it would seem. Given he had recently lectured Hope on improper conduct, the prospect of letting her out of his sight could not be a happy one. “We shall discuss it as a family. When do you need a decision?”

  “The sooner, the better. We leave in a fortnight, after packing and securing the house. Then we shall go to London to buy up what we need for the journey. As I have made the voyage there and back before, you can be certain I know exactly what is needed.” Mrs. Carlbury stood. “You must remember that I am happy to answer any questions you may have about the voyage. I assure you, whichever of the Miss Everlys makes the journey, I will look after her as if she is my very own.”

  Papa and Mama had risen, as had Hope and Grace. With the alarming nature of the visit shared, their guests had nothing further to discuss. Sinking her hands into her skirts at her side, Grace clutched at the cloth as though it were an anchor keeping her firmly at home and away from the sea.

  Why did either of them need to go? Perhaps once she reasoned with Papa, Mama, and Hope, they could reject the idea altogether. As much as she enjoyed Irene’s company, Grace had no desire to part with home and family for a foreign land.

  “Thank you, Mrs. Carlbury. I do not doubt you on that account one whit.” Mama, ever the gracious lady, did not betray what she felt to their neighbor. In fact, she sounded grateful for the extension of the invitation.

  Grace followed as they all walked to the front door again, no longer paying attention to Mrs. Carlbury’s words as she discussed plans for closing up her house. Instead she watched her sister, sensing the building happiness in her sister through the air between them. Her heart ached at the idea of parting from Hope for so long.

  Neither of them would go. Surely Papa and Mama would make certain of that.

  After their guests drove away, Papa closed the door. He turned toward Grace, Hope, and Mama, his intelligent eyes taking them in. Grace bit her bottom lip, waiting for him to pronounce the very idea of one of them going a ridiculous scheme. Instead, he sighed and offered them a chagrined expression.

  “Do we even need to discuss who will go?”

  Hope stood on her toes, her hands raising to cover her heart. “Oh, Papa, really? You will allow it?”

  Mama stepped to his side, sliding her arm through his in an easy manner born from many years of practice. Grace’s heart sunk when she saw no evidence of hesitation upon her mother’s face. “We know our girls,” she said. “Hope has always wanted an adventure.”

  Grace’s stomach dropped all the way to her toes, and she took a step back from her family. “No, Mama. You cannot mean it—”

  Hope’s squeal of delight drowned out Grace’s whispered plea. She covered her mouth, as shocked at her outburst as she was by Hope’s clear delight in the decision. Had her sister not thought of what it would mean?

  “Thank you,” Hope sang out, her voice echoing through the hallway. Grace winced, wondering if the whole county might hear her sister’s happiness “At last, something marvelous has finally happened.” She leaped forward and embraced first Mama, then Papa, laughing all the while. At last she turned to Grace, her pleasure undimmed when she took up her hands. “Grace, I am so happy. I wish you could come too.”

  Was that to be her only regret expressed on the matter? Grace ought to point out all the dangers ahead, all the drawbacks of leaving a settled and civilized country for the wildness of an ocean voyage and a visit to untamed islands. Months aboard a ship, even longer in the tropical climate, with foreign people and no family nearby for support. What about privateers? What of hurricanes?

  When she hesitated to answer, Hope’s excited grin started to fade. All the elder twin had ever wanted, ever dreamed of, was to experience wild and exciting exploits.

  The Carlburys had been and come back again from the West Indies. They were experienced travelers. They had given Hope the very thing her heart most desired.

  Grace affected a pleasant expression. “We both know I could not enjoy it half so much as you. Congratulations.” Those simple words, which Grace had to force from her tongue, were enough to brighten Hope’s mood again.

  “Come, let us find our atlas. We must plot the voyage.” Hope took up Grace’s hand and tugged her along, as she had all through their childhood, determined to make Grace enjoy the very things that made her most uncomfortable.

  Whatever would Grace do without her sister?

  As always when he visited the Everly family, Jacob Barnes knocked smartly at the front door and preemptively removed his hat and gloves. The Barnes and Everly families had been on intimate terms since before Jacob’s birth, and the few formalities he adhered to when visiting were still bent from time to time.

  Their butler, Mr. Garrett, answered with his usual stiff decorum. “Good afternoon, Mr. Barnes.” He stepped aside for Jacob to enter, accepted the articles handed to him, and then bowed. “The ladies are upstairs in the west parlor, sir.” Garrett’s eyebrow twitched to one side and the servant frowned.

  “Should I wait to be accepted up?” Jacob asked, adjusting his cuffs.

  “Not at all, Mr. Barnes.” The butler’s eyebrow twitched again. “The ladies will be pleased for the distraction your visit will bring.”

  “Distraction? What am I walking into, Garrett?” Jacob did not bother hiding his amusement. Something had annoyed the butler and it obviously had to do with one particular miss in the house. Everyone knew that when there was an upset or uproar, Hope most likely sat at the center of it.

  “Effusions of joy and a confusion of packing,” the butler said, then snapped his mouth shut. His eyes widened as though he could not believe his own audacity to speak of any matter pertaining to the family with an outsider, no matter how well he knew Jacob.

  Jacob chuckled and pushed his blond hair back away from his forehead. “Never fear, old fellow. I will not breathe a word of your clever quip to anyone.” Garrett had been a butler in the household for ten years and was perhaps only fifteen years Jacob’s senior. He had been an upper footman who had dared to take Jacob to task once for encouraging “the young misses’ misbehavior.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Barnes.” Garrett gestured to the stairway. “Allow me to show you upstairs.” The stiff primness returned, and with it the eyebrow twitch. For something to rattle the butler, there must be an interesting state of affairs in that sitting room.

  Jacob did not allow himself to worry, knowing that all would be revealed soon enough. Whatever new trick Hope had got herself up to, or misadventure she had dragged her poor sister into, could not be so terrible as the time she decided to dress the sheep in every bonnet and shawl her family possessed. Or the time Hope had sent anonymous letters to all of their neighbors pretending she had spied upon them and discovered their deepest secrets. That had been a true mischief and she had been sentenced to her room for an entire month when it was discovered.

  With that memory still fresh in his mind, Jacob entered the sitting room and delivered his customary bow. “Good afternoon, Mrs. Everly, Hope, and Grace.” No one even batted an eye at their using Christian names with one another. How could they? Jacob, Hope, and Grace had shared nursery games almost as soon as the girls knew how to walk. He was only two years their senior, and quite a fixture in their home.

  Even as they had all aged, adding new friends to their acquaintances, the three of them had remained close.

  He took in the attitudes of the women in the room, sensing some sort of anticipation in the atmosphere. Mrs. Everly rose from her favorite chair, but she held a scrap of paper in her hand rather than her customary sewing. “Dear Jacob, how good it is
to see you today.”

  Hope stood in the middle of the room and offered her curtsy, which was abbreviated in order for her to quickly take up pacing, which must have been her activity of choice before he entered. She moved rapidly, her eyebrows drawn down, but a wide smile turned up her lips. She said nothing to him, though her lips moved silently as though rehearsing something to herself. Jacob followed her progress across the room with his gaze before turning to Grace’s customary place.

  But her chair was empty.

  Where was Grace?

  “Good afternoon, Jacob,” she said at last, giving away her position at the window, nearly tucked behind a curtain. “How is your family?” That was always Grace’s way. She did not stand upon ceremony, but she always looked after the social niceties.

  “They are quite well, thank you. Anticipating a visit from my Aunt Barnes, actually. I am come to visit and to ask your family to a card party while my aunt is here.”

  “How thoughtful of you,” Mrs. Everly said, somewhat distractedly. Returned to her chair, she now scrutinized the paper in her hands and barely glanced up at him. “But some of us may have to decline the invitation, depending upon the date. We are all rather distracted at the moment, you see.”

  “Ah, are you?” Jacob came further into the room, standing nearly directly in Hope’s way when she turned and retraced her steps. They must have been out of sorts, given that no one had even asked him to sit down yet.

  Hope nearly ran into him but stopped muttering to herself long enough to realize he stood directly in the middle of her path. “Jacob,” she said, nearly gasping out his name. “You do not know.” She looked from him to her mother, then to where Grace stood.

  Jacob, though he would much rather study Hope’s curls brushing across her neck, or the way her lips parted when she said his name, decided to glance in Grace’s direction as well.

  “I do not know what, exactly?” He offered Grace a teasing grin, thinking she would share with him their customary expression whenever Hope ran away with her thoughts.

  But Grace’s lips remained pressed together in a grimace and she turned away. Odd.

  A melodious laugh turned his attention back to Hope and her face beamed. “My incredible news, of course.” She reached out and took both of his hands in hers, leaning forward in a conspiratorial manner. Jacob’s heart barely had time to adjust its speed from the excitement of her nearness when she made her announcement, causing it to stop. “I am to go to the West Indies.”

  The room changed from warm and bright to cold and cramped. No, he must not have heard her correctly. Forcing a smile, Jacob managed to utter a one-syllable plea for the misunderstanding to be cleared up. “What?” He did not release her hands, squeezing them gently instead. She was real. The room was real. This was not a dream. Nor a nightmare. And Hope could not go anywhere—

  “The West Indies,” she said again, shaking his hands in her enthusiasm before she pulled away, executing an excitable spin. “Across the Atlantic Ocean, to the beautiful island of St. Kitt’s. An adventure, Jacob. At last!

  Jacob stared after her, his hands still hanging pathetically in the air as if to urge her back. He numbly turned to Mrs. Everly, who still studied her paper, then looked to Grace. He needed confirmation, unable to trust Hope’s own words.

  Grace turned just enough to glance over her shoulder at him, her eyebrows drawn down and her lips a straight line. She nodded once, correctly interpreting his unasked question.

  “With the Carlbury family,” Grace said, her voice barely loud enough to carry to where he stood. “They are going back for a visit, and Hope is to accompany Miss Carlbury.” Though he could tell from the way she stood, stiff with her arms wrapped about herself, that this news was as poorly received by Grace as it was by him, she managed to keep her tone quite neutral.

  He supposed he ought to follow her lead. Swallowing past a tight knot in his throat, Jacob tried to focus on Hope’s joy. In all the time he had known her, Hope had been as daring as any boy who crossed his path. Her fearlessness, her desire for daring exploits, had landed even him in trouble a time or two. A trip such as this one would be something out of her dreams.

  “That is wonderful,” he managed to say at last, surprising himself with how cheerful he sounded. “You have always wanted to travel.” He forced his mouth to form some semblance of a smile, but the facade was weak at best. Jacob stepped further into the room, determining that no one would remember to ask him to sit. “How do you fare, Mrs. Everly, knowing your eldest daughter is going on such a journey?”

  Hope’s parents could not be happy to have her out of their sight, could they?

  “I would be a good deal happier about it if we could finish the packing list,” Mrs. Everly said with a sigh. “Hope, darling, do you think you ought to take an umbrella or purchase one upon arrival? And ought you to bring one for the sun and another for rain? I should hate for you to take up too much space in a trunk with umbrellas. Do you suppose they have umbrellas for purchase in the St. Kitt’s markets?”

  Umbrellas. All his concern over Hope’s safety and her own mother was fretting over mere accessories. When Hope flounced over to take a seat next to her mother to discuss the subject in greater detail, Jacob fled the seating area and went to the window to stand near Grace.

  Always the levelheaded member of their little group, Grace would be able to tell him what was going on and why. She had turned back to the window, so he faced the same way, tucking his hands behind his back.

  Quietly, he asked, “When does she leave?” Perhaps, if he had a few weeks, he might talk her out of going. Or at least give her a reason to stay.

  “They go to Town next week,” Grace answered, resignation in her tone. “They are finalizing her purchases in London, and then they will set sail.” Shaking her head, Grace released a quiet sigh. “Her trunks are already packed. Mama is just worrying over final details now. The Carlburys will visit this evening and, I am certain, will put her mind at ease regarding the umbrella situation.” The tiniest note of humor crept into the last of Grace’s words.

  He appreciated her efforts on his behalf, for she obviously saw his distress. But had anyone taken notice of hers?

  Jacob took a step to the side, so their arms nearly brushed. “Are you going to be all right? You two have never been apart. Hope will be gone for—”

  “A year,” she supplied the term with reluctance. “Perhaps a little less.” Grace released a shallow sigh and tipped her head to the side, regarding him with heavy eyes. “I cannot quite believe it, yet with Hope speaking of nothing else for the past two days, I have little choice in the matter.”

  Had they been alone, Jacob would have reached for her hand or put his arm around her shoulder. They were old friends, after all, and the ache in her eyes matched what he felt in his heart.

  “I am sorry, Grace,” he whispered, then turned his eyes back to the window. He did not truly see beyond the glass. “Sorry for us both.”

  How could Hope leave them like this?

  “Jacob,” Hope said, pulling his attention around to the woman causing his distress. His heart thumped sorrowfully as he compelled his features into another pleasant expression. “What should I bring on the journey? I wonder if you might think of something we have not. You are always so practical.”

  Was that how she saw him? Merely as practical? The word sounded so entirely her opposite at the moment. But then, she was right. A third son from a large family, he had learned to be practical and to make the best of things from a young age. Stepping away from the window and Grace, likely the only person as saddened by Hope’s good fortune as he, Jacob endeavored to make himself useful by speaking of voyages, packing lists, and the sort of things a lady might expect to do while visiting the islands of the Caribbean Sea.

  His visits normally took up a half hour or more of time, but with Hope fluttering about the room in her preoccupied state, he barely managed to remain a quarter of an hour. When he took his leave, Hope gave hi
m a brief curtsy, her mother a quick nod, and it was Grace who followed him from the room and down the stairs.

  When they came to the entry, where his gloves and hat rested on a table near the door, Grace broke into his thoughts with her hesitant words. “This has come as a shock to you. I am sorry, Jacob.” She reached her hand toward him, as though to place it on his arm, but then raised it instead to tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear. Grace had always been less demonstrative than Hope, but just as compassionate.

  He took it upon himself to lay his hand upon her shoulder, offering a gentle squeeze of comfort. “It is a shock. But given what we know of Hope, we can only be happy for her. Everyone in the neighborhood will miss her.” He cleared his throat and stepped away, averting his eyes. He had no wish for Grace to see how much her sister’s announcement affected him.

  “Good day, Grace.” He bowed and hastily exited, pulling on his gloves as he practically leaped down the stairs. His horse remained waiting for him, and that made it an easy matter to mount and hurry on his way. The future had seemed perfect that morning, ready as he was to take on a living that would at last allow him to also take a wife.

  Kindly Mr. Spratt, who was aged two and seventy, was finally stepping away from the living and the parish. The vicarage would be Jacob’s in June. Mr. Spratt had been an attentive spiritual leader for decades, never even entrusting his parish to a curate. His wife had passed two years previous, leaving the old man alone with a handful of servants to look after him. Ready to retire at last, the vicar planned to move away to live with a grown daughter.

  The bright May morning sun hid itself behind clouds, much like his hopes and plans had hidden away behind the shock of losing Hope. She would not be gone forever, but a year was a long time. Especially when he had plans he had hoped to put in motion more immediately.

  The living was the Earl of Inglewood’s to give to whom he wished. The church and vicarage stood at the edge of the earl’s property, near the village. When Silas, the current earl and a friend from Jacob’s childhood, learned of his friend’s decision to take orders he had immediately promised him the position.