Grays Hill

GRAYS HILL

By

Barbara T. Cerny

SMASHWORDS EDITION

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PUBLISHED BY:

Barbara T. Cerny on Smashwords

Grays Hill

Copyright © 2010 by Barbara T. Cerny

Book Design: Stacie Tingen

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Your support and respect for the property of this author is appreciated.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

Adult Reading Material

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Dedication

I dedicate this book to my parents, Mary and Carroll Timpte, who were my inspiration for all I endeavored to accomplish. Even though I didn’t grow in Mary’s belly, I grew strong and vibrant because of the amazing love in her heart. She and Carroll are why I am who I am and I thank God every day they adopted me and raised me as their own. Dad didn’t live to see me publish. Mom died at the age of 90 just after I published my first book Of Angels and Orphans and at the very end of my writing this novel. I really miss you, Mom and Dad. Rest in peace.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to say a hearty thanks to all those people in my life who supported my first book, Of Angels and Orphans, and whose excitement encouraged me to continue publishing. I drafted Of Angels and Orphans, Grays Hill, and started book three, The Tiefling, while I was serving our country in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. I would like to thank my in-laws, Elaine and Lawrence Cerny, for being there for my family while I was deployed. They were an invaluable support system during those long 14 months. I would like to thank my husband, Charles, and my two daughters, Oksana and Audra, for allowing me the time to write and publish. I would like to thank my new editor and hopefully a new partner for a long time to come, Martha Bernard. She is a dream editor. And I would like to thank Eloquent Books for pushing me to be all that I can be and put my dreams on paper.

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Preface

I have to admit up front that I stole the Masquerade Hall lock, stock, and barrel from the castle of Český Krumlov in the Czech Republic. My family visited it while I was in the initial thinking about this book and I had to incorporate it. I was stunned at its magnificence and creativeness. Masquerade Hall is a masterpiece of the Rococo period. The architect, Andreas Altomonte, was designated to oversee the building reconstruction of the Hall; Josef Lederer was responsible for painting the walls in 1748. For a complete description of the castle and the ballroom, please go to:

http://www.ckrumlov.cz/uk/atlas/i_semaza.htm

For those of you who have read my first book, Of Angels and Orphans, you will recognize some of the characters and events. Having done significant research for Of Angels and Orphans, I saw no reason not to reuse some of that research. I had written about the annual Masque given by the Duke of Cleveland in that book and when I saw the Masquerade Hall in Český Krumlov, the plot for Grays Hill came rushing into my head and I knew immediately that I had to use the Masque again in a more unique way for my main characters.

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GRAYS HILL

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Chapter 1

Lord Geoffrey Tarkington was enjoying the unusually warm spring day in early April, glad to be rid of the winter at last. He felt as if he had been locked up in the townhouse for months avoiding the dreary cold and darkness of the London winter. This morning he had mounted his horse for a long ride to escape the routine and dark confines of the office and to avoid his foul-tempered brother, Raphael, the Duke of Essex.

As he approached their London townhouse from the south, he noticed a commotion in the next block up. Instead of dismounting and entering his home, he decided to continue up the street to find out what was causing the disturbance. He was surprised to come upon the home of the very recently late Baron Wallingford as the site of the uproar.

In the street were several large wagons on which men were loading what looked like the contents of the Wallingford home. An official-looking man in a tunic bearing the King’s colors and emblem was directing the traffic of men and goods coming from the house.

Lord Tarkington dismounted his horse, Caesar, tied him to a post, and walked up behind two very familiar forms standing on the sidewalk.

Lady Margaret? OJ? What is happening here?

The two women spun around and Lady Margaret practically threw herself into the young man’s arms.

Oh, Geoffrey! They are taking everything!

Geoff looked over the wailing woman’s head at her daughter and his best friend, OJ, more formally known as Lady Oksana Jane Wallingford.

Tears were streaming down Oksana’s round face. Oh, Geoff. Papa was in deep, deep debt and they are taking everything to pay his creditors. We are only being allowed to keep our day clothes, the jewelry Mama owned before her marriage to Papa, my pearls, and a few books and other personal items.

But wouldn’t the sale of the property in Teignmouth be sufficient? Why take all your belongings?

Lady Margaret cried even louder in Geoff’s arms. Oksana hung her head in shame. Unbeknownst to us, Papa sold that property last summer. It is already gone.

Geoff was shocked. The property in Teignmouth was worth a great deal of money! How could they still need more?

Oksana passed Geoff a crumpled piece of parchment she had clasped tightly in her hand.

Holding a sobbing Baroness in one arm, Geoff held the paper in the other and read the contents, aghast. There in black and white, written by some royal barrister on official-looking letterhead, was a very long list of debts. Baron Wallingford owed almost £50,000 to creditors all over the country! No wonder the man had committed suicide last week!

Anger welled up in Geoff’s chest. That weak and feeble-minded man had left this world the cowardly way, leaving his family to bear the brunt of his stupidity! There was no way Lady Margaret and OJ could pay back this sum of money even with the sale of the London house and all its contents.

The family had received a crushing blow when they found the Baron shot to death in the study of this very house ten days ago, his hand still on the dueling pistol. It was just last week when Geoff stood at the graveside comforting the very same Lady Margaret as they put her husband in the ground. Now she and her daughter were facing yet another catastrophe, as they were losing everything.

Where do they expect you to live?

Oksana wiped tears from her cheeks, trying to be brave. Mama can probably live with her sister, Lady Alice Crawford. Elise, of course, is married to Lord Peter Oakland and is not affected directly, and Bradley is still in Pembroke Hall. At least for the rest of this school year, as Papa did prepay the school. Elise was Oksana’s sister, a year her junior, and Bradley, five years her junior, was now the new Baron Wallingford.

Lady Margaret pulled away from Lord Tarkington. But Oksana has nowhere to go. Alice can only accommodate Bradley and me. Peter can hardly put two shillings together and he and Elise have no extra room in their tiny flat anyway.

Geoff’s wheels were turning. The last thing he would allow was Oksana on the street to fend for herself. Of course she can stay with us for a bit. I am sure the Duke won’t mind. At least he prayed his brother wouldn’t mind.

Oksana turned to look at the men moving their property and yelled, That is our clothes trunk! You can’t take that!

The King’s man moved smartly to Oksana with a look of disdain on his face as if he had eaten something rotten. Your clothes are still in the house. We are taking the trunk to sell.

But our clothes were in that trunk, she said and pointed to a second trunk coming out of the house, and that one!

They are now on the floor. The man turned on his heels and returned to his duties.

Oksana started after him but her mother grabbed her arm. Don’t do anything unseemly, my dear. You will only make it worse.

Now Oksana was seething. How dare they treat her and her mother so callously! They were titled members of the peerage, not some street scum to be treated like dirt on the bottom of a shoe!

I will have some trunks brought around from the house and you can borrow them until you are settled. Geoff grabbed Oksana’s other arm to keep her at bay. Her temper could flare, as he well knew. I will also have a coach take you to Lady Alice’s, Baroness. It can bring back the luggage. Come, ladies. I will have Collins fix us a nice luncheon. Geoff steered the women up the street to the Duke’s London house, grabbing Caesar’s reins as they passed by the horse.

On the way to the house, Geoff thought of a solution. The Duke’s wife, Lady Paula, had died in childbirth five weeks earlier, leaving his brother to raise the children single-handedly. Justin, who was five, and Phillip, who was three, would need a governess to prepare them for Eaton and Cambridge later on. OJ was the smartest person he knew, as she had helped him quite a bit while he was in school. She would make an excellent tutor for the boys. He just hoped he could convince the Duke.

When they arrived at the house, he set the Baroness and Oksana in the parlor and had Perry, his brother’s valet who also served as a butler, prepare tea. Then Geoff searched for the Duke. He found him in his usual spot—the study—surrounded by ledgers.

Rafe, may I have a word with you?

The Duke of Essex looked up at his younger brother in exasperation. Suppose you can since you’ve already disturbed my train of thought. The two of them could not have been more unalike in appearance and personality. The Duke took after their mother, dark hair, almost black, darker complexion, with startling green eyes that could bore right through to one’s soul. His disposition was generally cheerless and stern these days, but it hadn’t always been so. Geoff, on the other hand, took after their father and was taller, strawberry blond, and had a perfect complexion with washed-out blue eyes that always twinkled.

I have solved a problem of yours, or I think I have. Geoff sat down in a chair opposite the desk.

And what problem would that be?

A governess for your boys.

A what?

A governess for your boys, Geoff repeated.

Didn’t know I needed one.

Well, you do. The boys will need some tutoring before heading to formal schooling and as you don’t have time, and Paula— he paused, well, they will need social grooming as well as basic tutoring and I have the perfect candidate.

And who, pray tell, is this perfect candidate? One of your strumpets? Geoff had a reputation, even at the tender age of twenty, of playing the ladies rather well. In fact, at the moment he had a lovely dalliance going with a widow ten years his senior who liked her men young and exuberant.

Uhm, no. Besides, I don’t date strumpets.

The Duke raised an eyebrow.

My personal affairs are beside the point, Rafe. Lady Oksana is the daughter of the late Baron Wallingford. He was deeply in debt and the creditors are taking the house to pay off that debt. With all of its contents, I might add. Hiring Oksana will help you with the children and help her get back on her feet. It is a solution where both of you come out ahead.

The Duke rubbed his chin. He knew the Baron had had financial difficulties. In fact, he himself had purchased the Baron’s ancestral home in Teignmouth last year, as he wanted to use the land and river for a mill. The house he had resold for a tidy profit to the Earl of Chichester as a wedding gift for his second son. The Duke had paid a fair price for the property and thought the Baron had used that money to pay off his ever-mounting gambling debts.

Oscar Wallingford was always a fool. I am assuming his suicide had something to do with this debt?

Geoff handed over the parchment with the creditor list.

Holy Mary, Mother of God! exclaimed the Duke as he read the paper. He looked up at Geoff, incredulous. His brother could only nod. How the Baron could still be this far in debt was a mystery to the Duke. Coward. To leave his family in this mess. Bring Lady Oksana by and I will talk to her. You may be right that the boys need a tutor about now.

She’s in the parlor. I will bring her in.

The Duke rolled his eyes. He was not accomplishing any work on his bookkeeping and Jeremy Highbottom, his accountant and personal assistant, would arrive at any moment.

Geoff returned immediately with Lady Oksana Wallingford. The Duke rose and had to work hard to keep his jaw from dropping to the floor. In front of him was the largest woman he had ever seen. She was extremely tall; in fact, she came to his brother’s upper lip and Geoff was 6’3". In addition, she had to have an extra four or five stone on her frame. She must weigh as much as he! And she certainly outweighed his brother.

But on top of that massive body was a lovely head of deep brown hair that curled riotously around her face, refusing to stay put in its bindings, full lips that invited kisses, and large brown eyes surrounded by long eyelashes. The first thought that popped into the Duke’s mind was that she’d be a beauty if several pounds suddenly vanished.

Lady Oksana held out her hand as she appraised Geoff’s brother. The Duke was just slightly taller than she, several inches shorter than his brother. She had seen him many times over her life, of course, but she had never interacted with him since he was eight years her and Geoff’s senior. By the time she and Geoff were old enough to play around the house, the Duke was already away at school.

What she did note was the furrow between his brows as if his face was always in a frown and the intensity in his green eyes. They reflected deep unhappiness and pain. She wondered what made him so sad.

Your Grace, it is a pleasure to meet you and I am so obliged at your generous gift of time to see me about a position within your household.

Lady Oksana, the pleasure is all mine. The Duke bowed deeply over her hand and kissed it, his training in social arts impeccable. As he took her hand, he felt a little shiver up his spine. He looked into her eyes wondering what had caused the sensation. Please sit and tell me of your qualifications to teach my sons.

Oksana lingered for a moment over the unusual little shock she felt when the Duke’s lips touched her hand. But she shook off the feeling and took the chair that Geoff had vacated minutes before. She found herself very much wanting to impress the Duke with her qualifications as a governess for his boys.

My father allowed me to receive an education almost equivalent to that of a man’s. He believed I should know how to make my own way in the world in case I never married. She paused. The Duke had the distinct impression she was well aware of the disadvantages her height and weight would cause in the marriage market.

"My tutors taught me everything from history to philosophy. I speak French and Italian fluently and have a smattering of Latin and Greek. My father took me to Paris quite often when he had business on the Continent, and I used to help him translate documents.

"I have studied anatomy and architecture, mathematics and politics. I read extensively and have read most of the major philosophers as well as many of the minor ones: Plato, Socrates, Machiavelli, Descartes, Hobbes, and Locke to name a few.

"I keep up with current affairs and can name the players in King George’s court and Parliament that affect our laws and international policy. I usually have an opinion on the policies put forward. I especially like to study domestic and economic policies that may affect women and children.

In addition, as I am a member of society, I can also teach your sons proper etiquette and social graces. I believe I will be an asset to the Tarkington household.

The Duke listened to this soliloquy, intrigued. Lady Oksana was confident and direct. She spoke well and showed astuteness. She seemed to have a good head on her shoulders and he was now convinced Geoff had a fine idea in hiring her. And even though the Duke thought Oksana would be more attractive if she weighed less, he believed her size to be an asset in his current situation. He certainly wouldn’t have to worry about her bringing a horde of men to the estate and exposing his sons unduly to the seedier aspects of a woman’s life.

The Duke stood and held out his hand this time. Very well. Welcome to my employ, Lady Oksana. I will have Perry arrange for you to be taken to Grays Hill at once where you can begin your new life as a governess and tutor to the Tarkington sons.

Oksana stood and grasped the Duke’s hand in a firm grip, again surprising him with her bold manner and that little shock that sped through his spine. He looked into her smiling face, her eyes almost on par with his. Thank you so much, Your Grace. You won’t regret hiring me.

Geoff also thanked his brother and the Duke watched the two of them leave the room and caught a glimpse of them hugging in the hallway before the door closed completely behind them. The Duke raised his eyebrow wondering about Geoff and Oksana’s relationship, given that she wasn’t the kind of girl Geoff usually chased.

Once in the hallway, Oksana flung her arms around Geoff. Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!

Geoff hugged her back. No problem, OJ. What are best blokes for?

Chapter 2

It took no time at all for Geoff to arrange for the ladies to retrieve their belongings and move Lady Margaret to her sister’s home. Oksana, of course, would spend the night at the London house and then travel with Geoff to Grays Hill in the morning.

She ate a quiet dinner in the kitchen, as the Duke and Geoff hosted some guests for a business gathering. She didn’t feel it was her place to intrude.

She awoke early the next morning, excited about moving to Grays Hill and meeting her new charges. She wandered down to breakfast, but Geoff and the Duke were nowhere to be found.

They are in the ballroom, m’lady, explained Perry when she finally asked their whereabouts.

Oksana thought that was odd. Why would they be in the ballroom at this early hour? She climbed the stairs to the third floor ballroom where she and Geoff had spent many hours playing as children.

What she found surprised her. There in the middle of floor were the two brothers seemingly locked in a battle to the death. Both men were shirtless, shoeless, and sweating profusely. Each held a rapier in his right hand, and they were lunging and parrying for all they were worth. It took a moment for Oksana to realize the swords had little balls on the tips. The brothers were merely sparring.

And they were very good. She had always known that Geoff loved to fence and was the captain of his fencing team at school. Obviously the Duke shared Geoff’s enjoyment of the sport.

Oksana leaned against the door frame, crossed her arms, and watched the show.

Geoff was three inches taller, had a longer reach, a leaner muscle structure, and was more agile. The Duke was stronger, his muscles thicker and more defined, and had more stamina. All in all it made them closely matched opponents.

The men were unaware they had an audience, as they were entirely focused on each other. This sporting match was played out every day before they began their rounds at business or at Parliament undertaking politics.

Fortunately, neither man had ever needed to use his skill in a real duel.

Finally, the Duke overcame his brother and tore the sword from his hand. Geoff immediately rolled away from his opponent, landed on his sword and popped up with it in his left hand.

Ah, so you want to try to best me on the left? The Duke then also switched hands. It seemed to Oksana that he was even better with his left hand. It wasn’t long before the sword once more flew out of Geoff’s control, skidding under a bench.

Geoff bent over and put his hands on his knees, panting. Okay, okay. I concede—for now. One of these days, I am going to best you finally.

Never, my brother! I will always be older and craftier than you. The two men laughed.

Well, interjected Oksana as she walked through the doorway toward the exhausted men, I certainly won’t pick a fight with either of you.

The men looked around in surprise.

Oksana! exclaimed Geoff, How long have you been standing there?

Long enough to watch your brother whip you with both his right and his left hand.

Well that’s because he is left-handed. He uses his right just to toy with everyone.

Oksana raised an eyebrow. Impressive. Not many fencers have the skill to use both hands equally. You must be feared by half the peerage.

The Duke wasn’t sure if Lady Oksana was complimenting or mocking him. But then he saw a twinkle in her eye and decided she was as much of a tease as his brother.

Geoff simply laughed. At least by the drunk half!

The Duke gave a slight grin. You can insult me, brother, when you can finally best me!

As the Duke moved to put on his shirt and shoes, Geoff gave Oksana a big bear hug.

Ugh! Geoff! You’re all sweaty! Move away from me! She pushed him away and ran into the room with him chasing behind. He easily caught her and rubbed his sweat-drenched head on her back.

That’s disgusting! Ugh!

Geoff just laughed and continued to wipe his sweaty arms and hands on her as she kept batting him away and trying to escape. The Duke wondered again, as he buttoned his shirt, at his brother’s relationship with this girl. Geoff had never dated large women, but he obviously had some real feelings for Lady Oksana. Their relationship was almost childlike in its playfulness. At least it was very comfortable.

He shook his head and exited the room, leaving the unfortunate lady to fend for herself.

*****

After Geoff bathed and Oksana changed and repacked, they headed for Grays Hill, a five-hour drive by carriage, three and a half hours on horse.

Close enough to visit but far enough to be away from the hustle and bustle of London, quipped Geoff.

The estate was located in Essex in the county of Grays Thurrock. It