His Contract Bride (Banks Brothers Brides 1)(27)

Their two gazes held. The rest of the world was all but forgotten.

But the moment was not meant to last and abruptly ended when a man carrying an open pint of ale stumbled into Edward.

"Pa'rn me, guvnor," the drunk man stammered before turning away.

Edward turned back to Regina, the intensity on his face gone now. "Are you all right?"

"Just fine," she returned, smoothing her skirts. She lifted her hand to  block the bright sun from her eyes. "What is that fellow wearing?"

"That's a jester!" Edward's excitement at seeing the man dressed in a  yellow shirt with a large white, stiff, circular collar and crimson  breeches with green stockings and blue slippers, jumping around made her  laugh.

She gestured to the silly looking man. "That's what you think of me?"

"Just listen to him for a minute."

"Do ye wonder why the noblemen's all have the pox?" The jester lifted  his bushy eyebrows nearly to his hairline and pulled his lower lip down  until his entire row of bottom teeth were exposed, then cast a quick  gaze at Edward before turning back to her. "They been spendin' too much  time down at the docks."

The only person who seemed to find that remotely humorous was the imbecile who'd spoken the words.

"Once again, I ask you, is that what you think of me?" Regina asked.

"Of course." The lines around Edward's eyes crinkled. "I have to admit  it's been a while since I've been here. I'd quite forgotten how little  intelligence one had to have to enjoy this part of the gardens."

"Did you used to come here often?" she asked as they walked away.

"More often than most." He steered them away from the other jesters.  "When I was a boy, my father used to bring the lot of us here about once  a week when we visited London."

"The 'lot of you'; isn't there just the two of you?"

Edward nodded; his eyes fixed ahead of them. "No. There were four others."

"I'm sorry," she said quietly.

"Don't be." His stiff shrug belied his careless words, and her heart went out to him.

"Did you enjoy coming here as a boy?"

"It was much better than the alternative," he said, laughing. "Yes. Not  only was it a pleasant escape from the mundane life of studying in a  nursery all afternoon, but I actually enjoyed eating a giant turkey leg  and watching the performances."                       
       
           



       

The image of a little blond haired, wide eyed boy flashed in her mind. "You were an adorable child, I'd wager."

"You'd lose that wager." Not a drop of sarcasm was in his voice. "Mother  claimed I had a face that only a mother could love." He twisted his  lips. "Though, if the truth were known, I have a hard time believing  that she loved it."

I do. She bit her lip to keep from embarrassing herself that way. "Surely she didn't mean that."

"I'd imagine she did." He grinned. "When I was three, I found a rock  down by the brook that I was certain had to be a diamond. The largest  one I'd ever seen." He held his hands up and put his fingers together to  show her an oval the size of an egg. "In my hurry to show my father my  discovery, I tripped over a large stick and fell on the front step of  Watson Estate, knocking out these four teeth-" he ran his index finger  along his four front teeth on top- "and these;" he pointed to the two  bottom ones in the center. "I was ten before they all grew back. But by  then, I'd naturally lost some of the others. It was more than ten years  from the time I knocked those out until I had a full set again."

Regina had no idea why that was such an endearing story. But it was. "I  don't have a story that could rival that one, I'm afraid. My life was  always uneventful. When I was four, my mother died of pneumonia and my  brother and I went to live in the country with Aunt Florence. Then when I  was ten, I went to Sloan's School for Young Ladies and Toby went to  live in London to learn to be a banker like Father."

"Did you see either your father or brother again before your come out?"

"Rarely," she admitted. "They were both too busy to visit and preferred I  went to Aunt Florence's country estate for breaks and holidays."

"I'm sorry," he said, leading her to a nearby bench.

"It's all right," she said dismissively, squinting from the bright sun.  "At least at Aunt Florence's, I had more freedom than Father would have  allowed. Not much, of course, but more than just sitting in Father's  townhouse all day."

"Do you like being outdoors?" he asked after a minute, his eyes oddly intent.

"Of course," she said with a wistful sigh. "What young girl doesn't dream of having some sort of adventure?"

"I don't know. I've never been privy to the thoughts of young girls."

She swatted at his arm. "You know exactly what I meant."

"Yes. I think I do."





~Chapter Twenty~





Edward did know exactly what she had meant, and he knew exactly what he needed to do to give it to her.

"John," he said, opening the door of what used to be their third story  nursery before last summer when John had taken some strange notion to  use it as his bedchamber.

John looked up from where he was sitting in a green chair by the fire, reading a book. "Is something wrong?"

Edward stepped inside and closed the door behind himself. "No. I just  wanted to talk to you now in case I don't see you in the morning."

John sighed. "I already told you everything that happened."

Edward lifted his hand to halt his brother's words. "I know," he said  with a swallow. "And though Mr. Sweeny doesn't believe your tale, I do."  This wasn't what he'd wanted to speak to John about, but perhaps now  was the perfect time to reassure him. "John, sometimes our best  intentions can still go wrong. Look at what happened when I tried to  keep the truth about our betrothal from Regina to spare her feelings?"

"It's not the same." John swallowed and closed his book. "I didn't go out there with the best of intentions."

Edward nodded. "I was fourteen not that long ago. I know exactly what your intentions were."

John shifted uncomfortably. "Does this ruin my credibility as a vicar-should I still choose that path?"

"No. It just means you're human." He untied his loosened cravat and  pulled it off. "I think it speaks far more for your character than  against it that you changed your mind and tried to do right by her."

"But if I hadn't changed my mind, nobody would have ever known what happened that night."

"Perhaps, but you'd have known." He took a deep breath. These were  conversations better had between a father and son. A memory of his  father's conversation with him about what had happened to Joseph's  father when he didn't keep his prick in his pants sprang to mind.  Thinking about it that way, Edward might be better suited to guide John  than Father would have been, after all. "I know you're embarrassed right  now because you changed your mind- don't speak, I'm still talking." He  sighed. "In the end, you made the right choice. That's all that  matters."                       
       
           



       

John didn't look so convinced.

"John, what if you had gone through with it and she'd conceived? How would you feel then?"

"I hadn't considered that," John said quietly.

"Well, don't consider it now. You didn't do anything." Knowing John and  his overwhelming sense of always wanting to do the right thing, he'd  have begged Edward to let him marry the tavern wench even if there was a  possibility the child could have been conceived from the seed of  another man. Likely, if he'd been of age when this had happened, he'd  have hauled her off to Gretna Green and married her instead of just  giving her all the money in his pocket and his clothes. "John, you have  to stop worrying about this. You did nothing wrong."

"I know," John admitted dully.

Edward wanted to groan. "Do you regret your choice and wish that you had  slept with her? Because I can tell you right now, there is a vast  difference between a woman who wishes to share her bed with you and one  who's accepting your attentions because she doesn't have a choice."  Edward didn't know who was more stunned by his comment and didn't  exactly care. Though Regina was the only woman he'd been intimate with,  there was an enormous difference in her behavior when she'd welcomed him  into her bed when she'd wanted him there and when she hadn't.

"That's not what I meant, Edward."

Edward took a calming breath. He was this close to snapping at his  brother. But that wouldn't get him anywhere. "John, are you afraid of  someone's altered opinion of you?"