A Worthy Wife(31)

"Why, thank you. I can see we are going to get along famously. Do you like animals?" His tepid reaction to the mention of frogs was worrisome, for this household.

"I don't ride, if that's what you mean. They said I was too small and too paper-skulled to bother with lessons."

The boy was Windham's heir, for heaven's sake. He had to ride! "I bet you just couldn't see where to go."

Once Andrew got settled, Brianne and Wesley were delegated to give him riding lessons, on old Magpie for a start. Archery and cricket classes were added when his new spectacles arrived. Nialla and Christopher had him reading the newspapers with them, discussing the day's events. They were also teaching him chess, card games, and spillikins, which Kit could manage one-handed. When Aurora unearthed a box of tin soldiers in the old nursery, the boy and his uncle enacted endless battles on Christopher's bed.

Aunt Thisbe and Uncle Ptolemy took him collecting with them, teaching him the wonders of scaly, slimy creatures, and that getting one's clothes dirty was not a crime. They let him help in the laboratory, too, by keeping Sweety busy. But Andrew's very favorite activity was playing with Lucy and her pups. Wesley said he could have one for his very own, but he couldn't choose, so spent hours with them in the stables. Eventually, Aurora had Lucy and the babes installed in the nursery, so that she might get to have some time with her son, too.

With Lucy in the house, Frederick discovered love. He followed the bitch around, panting, and did not bother anyone else, for once. He even let her puppies climb over him and chew on his ears.

Speaking of love, Brianne and Wesley did not argue half so much, not in front of the boy, at any rate. Windham's solicitor was looking into getting copies of Wesley's father's will, to see if there were grounds for a challenge. Ned was also snooping around while he was in London, for hints of skullduggery. If someone forged the will, and if that someone was a professional, Ned would sniff him out. Meanwhile, Wesley's wound was mending, and he was helping put food on the table with hunting and fishing, at which Brianne constantly tried to outdo him. She never wore her black gowns, and she never asked for the diamonds, once they were back. She never left Aurora alone with Wesley if she could help it, but she never let her jealousy override her manners again, either.

Christopher was recovering more slowly, but he felt stronger daily. He decided he might even try to ride again soon. Perhaps then his brother would let him manage one of the lesser properties, so he could support himself and a wife. He could learn, couldn't he? Dash it, if that's what he had to do to provide for Nialla so he could offer for her in good conscience, he'd do it. And she thought she'd like nothing better than to be a farmer's wife, raising roses and little Warriners. Christopher had Andrew fetch him books on agriculture from Windham's library, and made him read parts with him, for the estate was to be his someday and he had to know as much as his father and uncle did.

That was Aurora's job, taking Andrew around in her gig, introducing him to the tenants and explaining how they depended on his family for their livelihoods, so he had to watch out for them. She made sure to show him the land that he was to be caretaker of, and his son after, the fields and forests, the streams and the spinneys. She didn't think a son of Windham's could turn out to be a conscienceless care-for-naught, not with Kenyon's sense of honor, but she was going to make sure her sonthe only son she'd have if Windham stayed gone—knew what was owed his name and his title.

And then, while everything was going so well, of course, Andrew got sick with the mumps, which was, of course, just when Windham decided to come home.



He was not angry. Angry was for the diplomatic corps, which was anything but diplomatic, for the rulers who could not see beyond their own greed and ambition to the people who were suffering. Angry was for incompetence and idiocy. Now Windham was incensed. Smoke should be pouring from his ears. Lava should be bubbling out of his mouth. Lightning bolts should be flying from his clenched fists.

Aurora should be fearing for her life, but she knew Kenyon would never hurt her, no matter what, just as she knew he would get over having his wishes thwarted. He'd get used to having the boy at home and come to love Andrew as she did.

"Love him? I do not want to look at him, madam, as I believe I made perfectly clear. I may have to acknowledge the child as my heir, by all that's holy, but I do not have to accept him as my son. From all reports, the brat is thoroughly unlovable, besides being dunder-headed and doltish. No son of mine would be tossed out of three schools before he reached his ninth birthday."

"Perhaps you should blame the schools, not the boy. Andrew is not the least bit slow. He can already defeat Aunt Ellenette at piquet."

Kenyon raised one eyebrow. "The monkey could outplay Aunt Ellenette."

"He only beat Christopher at chess once, so far, but Andrew is invincible with marbles. Uncle Ptolemy is impressed with his ability to draw the insects and such they are studying, and Nialla says he has an aptitude for music."

Kenyon made a rude noise. "It sounds as if you've done a fine job of getting him used to life at Windrush. But you have done the boy a disservice, madam wife, for he is leaving here as soon as the school reopens."

"No, we shall find a better school, closer to home."

"You can send him to Baluchistan, but he is not coming back here."

Aurora thought she had a better chance of persuading Kenyon if he met Andrew. "He is anxious to see you, too, my lord." Andrew was petrified, besides being puffy, peevish, and as hard to please as any sick little boy. This was not the time she would have chosen to bring the two together, but this might be Aurora's only chance. "He cannot leave the nursery, naturally. You'll have to go up."

"No. No, I will not meet him, and no, I will not change my mind. I do not want him in my house. Can you not understand that, woman?"

"No, and I cannot understand a man who would turn his back on a sick child, especially his own son." She crossed her arms over her chest, showing that she could be just as stubborn. "I do not wish to be married to a brute like that."

"Your wishes do not matter, Lady Windham. We are wed, remember?"

"Then we can live apart. It is done all the time in the ton , I understand."

Although that was what he'd intended at the time of their wedding, he refused to accept such an arrangement now. "I will not permit you to leave, Aurora, I swear it."

She sniffed at his high-handedness. "And I will not permit such a cold, cruel man to be father to my children, by heaven, to reject them if he is out of sorts."

His eyes narrowed, seeing her bedroom door slammed in his face. "Meaning?"

"Meaning I cannot love a cruel man."

"Love again? That claptrap had nothing to do with our bargain."

"Well, it matters now, you moron, and if you are too blind to see that, no spectacles can help you!"





Chapter Twenty-three


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Did she love him? Was that what she'd been saying? Kenyon rolled the thought around in his mind. He considered the way Aurora rushed out to greet him, forgetting the servants watching, and how she seemed to glow with an inner smile when he was near. Could she love such a hard-hearted man, he asked himself, so wounded in his pride that he would not trust another woman? And did it matter? They could have a fashionable marriage like most of his friends, without the tender emotions, but the earl was suddenly finding that idea dismal, so, yes, it mattered. More than he could have imagined, Kenyon desired his wifeand no other. He had not even been tempted by the courtesans flocking to the powerful at the peace talks. But he craved more than Aurora's exquisite body. He wished her to share his house and his thoughts and his worries as much as his bed. And he wanted her to want that, too. He wanted her to like him. Kenyon was beginning to think that without her affection, her respect, her love, he would never be a whole man again. Damn, he must be in love with the plaguey chit. What a coil!



Could she truly love the impossible mandespite his arrogance and pigheadedness? Well, yes, Aurora very much feared that she did. Her heart was as silly as the rest of her, the parts that tingled at his touch and warmed at his glance of approval, refusing to listen to her head. Logic and limiting one's involvement had nothing to do with love, she was finding. But everything was going to be all right, for he loved her, too. He would have strangled her otherwise.



Too weary from his journey to argue more that night, Lord Windham went to his own bed. Tomorrow he'd make her see reason, he swore. But tomorrow came and he never saw his wife at all. He met with Dawson and the new bailiff, watched his brother try to exercise some strength back in his muscles, listened to his sister sing her highwayman's praises, and looked for Aurora. He was not going to the nursery.

At dinner, she wore a pale green silk gown and her mother's pearls. Deuce take it, Kenyon thought, he still had to purchase something for her, something just from him, not out of the vault. He knew the Windham diamonds were returned, if Dawson hadn't switched paste for the real ones, for he'd seen them in the safe when he put some government documents there this morning. He would not think about the jewels, nor how Dawson had opened the blasted safe to put them away.

Aurora had purplish shadows under her eyes that he could see from the opposite end of the table, most likely from catering to the brat, as if there weren't a hundred servants better suited to be nursemaid. He could not say anythingnot that she'd listennot when the others were so studiously making polite conversation. No one mentioned the boy.