A Taste Of A Vampire

Chapter 11

She stayed in the house and gardens that day and night, and she left her balcony door open to her bedroom, just in case, but she knew that he would not come, and he didn’t, save for her dreams. He was present only there, where he always was, and where she knew that he always would be.

The next morning after breakfast, Colin called her to tell her that he had just arrived at the train station. Hastings had taken the Jaguar to pick him up. A short while later, he was sitting in the nook with her, sharing tea.

He gave her a serious look as he sipped his tea and set the cup down. “Are you certain that you want to give up Grayson Manor, your ladyship?”

She smiled at the formal term. It felt as though they should be friends on a first name basis, but she knew he’d never call her by her first name. “Yes, I have given it a lot of thought, and I don’t want to keep any of it.”

He sighed, and she could see clearly that he was deeply disappointed. “Very well then. I have found a distant cousin who may be interested in taking it on. He’s an older gentleman, in his sixties, and he has no children, so that is a concern, but if you relinquish the estate, it wouldn’t be a concern of yours. How would you feel about the whole of it going to him?”

She swallowed some tea and sighed. “I’d be all right with it. It’s a beautiful place, and it does feel like a home to me now, in many ways, but I have to get back to my life in Manhattan. I’m so sorry. I know that you were sort of set on me taking over the place, but believe me when I say that this is truly for the best.”

He nodded. “Very well. I’ll draw up the paperwork.” He took another drink and looked back at her then. “I’m not sure if you heard, but there was some terrible news about Lord Drake Thomas. I recall you mentioning that he was interested in buying the estate.”

She felt everything in her tighten, and she prayed that Colin couldn’t hear her heart pounding. “Yes, he was interested in it. What happened?” She hoped that her innocent tone sounded genuine.

Colin looked down at his tea and stirred his spoon in it, making swirls of the milk. “He was killed by a wild animal out in the countryside. Terrible mess. Very sad news.”

“That is terrible,” she agreed, focusing on her own tea.

He coughed politely. “So, when will you be leaving?” he asked, looking as if it was the last thing that he wanted to have happen.

“Well, this meeting with you was the only thing that I was waiting on, so I’ll probably leave tomorrow,” she answered, disliking the sound of the words in her ears and the feel of them in her mouth, but more than that, she was hurt by the feeling in her heart; the feeling she had of leaving home.

“Quite so… I suppose. Quite so,” he replied quietly. “Well, the staff will certainly be sorry to see you go. They’ve all said wonderful things about you, and I know that they all wish that you were staying. That’s a compliment.” He gave her a slight smile.

She nodded back. “It is indeed. I do want to make one condition for this distant cousin of mine who is taking it all. He has to keep on the whole staff for as long as they each wish to stay. They must be guaranteed their jobs for life, and a pension following. A good one. There’s plenty of money; please make sure you send it their way.”

Colin grinned. “I’ll certainly see to that, your ladyship.” He was enormously pleased.

He left a while later, telling her that he would mail the paperwork to her in New York, and she went upstairs to pack. It didn’t take her too long to get everything she had brought into her suitcase, though she did add in the ring and the diary, giving it a loving stroke before she tucked it safely into her bag.

She walked throughout the house once more, taking extra time to stop before the portraits and say a sort of goodbye to her distant family, knowing that she would never see them again. She spent several minutes standing before the portrait of Elizabeth. They did look very much alike, and she smiled at the woman whose painted eyes smiled down on her.

“He’s an amazing person, grandmother. I know why you fell in love with him, and I wish that one of us could have stayed with him, but that luck isn’t to be either of ours,” she whispered, and a soft sort of breeze moved around her gently, and disappeared.

Her last night in the manor was a long one. She wanted it to last forever, but she didn’t want to stay either. She was restless, only sleeping occasionally, and finding herself wishing and hoping that he would step out of a shadow and come to her one last time, make love with her one last time, hold her all through the night until the morning took her away from him, but he did not come. She could only hold him in her dreams.

She dressed and readied herself early the next morning, and Hastings drove her to the train station. Granger had been at the door with a gift for her, asking her not to open it until she had gone. Sally had a healthy lunch packed for her, and coffee for the road. Fran stood there teary eyed and not even trying to force a smile on her sad face. Even Roger, the gardener, came in to make his farewells, giving her a beautiful bouquet from the garden.

She thanked them all and told them how she had insisted that the sole condition of inheritance to her replacement was that every one of them be kept on as long as they liked, with a healthy pension after they retired. When she announced that, they all burst into tears, except for Granger, who worked furiously to blink back his emotions until Claire had gone out the door.

Hastings took her to the train station and put her on the train. She sat in her seat and watched the countryside rolling by, trying to hold all her emotions at bay, trying not to think about him, and trying to convince herself that what she was doing was exactly what she should be doing.