Rescued By A Viscount(72)

“I thought it best–”

“Well, stop thinking,” Simon snapped. “It only makes you do idiotic things.”

She flew around the desk and into his arms so fast, he stumbled backwards several steps.

“Thank you, oh thank you so much for…well, everything.”

He held her face in his hands. “We will wed, Claire. I’ll have your word.”

“But you do not wish it.” He saw the vulnerability again, the belief that she was not worthy.

“I wish it with everything inside me, sweetheart,” Simon said, kissing her. “Now go and collect your nephew. Your brother and I need to talk.”

“Is he really Anthony’s child, Claire?” Mathew Belmont sat now, and he looked suddenly a lost man.

“Yes, Mathew, he is.”

“Go now, sweetheart. Louis will be scared alone with strangers. Give us a few minutes, and then bring him back to meet his uncle.”

“I won’t let him hurt him, Simon.”

“He’s a good man, Claire–you know he is,” Simon said, knowing Belmont was listening. He hoped he was right. She nodded, and then he watched as she ran from the room. He walked to the chair on the other side of the desk and sat, giving Belmont a few moments with his thoughts.

Lifting his head, Mathew Belmont stared at him for several seconds before nodding. “I don’t understand how you came to be involved in any of this, Kelkirk.”

Simon sat forward, looking steadily at Claire’s brother. “I intercepted her as she was about to get on the stagecoach for Liverpool.”

“Dear god.” The man was now whiter than the paper on his desk.

“Precisely.”

“What happened to your face?”

“I got these protecting your sister,” Simon said, deciding it wouldn’t hurt Belmont to hear a few details, even if he modified them slightly.

“Dear god,” he said again, however this time it was a hoarse whisper.

“I will marry your sister as soon as can be arranged,” Simon said, making sure the man understood his claim on Claire.

“Should I ask why?” Suddenly, Mathew Belmont was a brother. His eyes narrowed as he glared at Simon, who was glad to see evidence of emotion because it meant he cared.

“No.”

Neither man looked away until finally Mathew said. “I could not have chosen better for her, Lord Kelkirk. Thank you.”

Simon had thought about this conversation on the way to London, and he believed it was time to rid this family of their secrets. Only then would they start to heal the wounds left by their brother’s death and the years of misunderstandings and indifference. He hoped Claire would understand why he was doing it and forgive him. Simon knew the importance of family, and deep inside, he suspected Claire did, too. “Did you know your sister doesn’t sleep, Belmont? That she walks these halls for hours until dawn? She has not slept well since Anthony’s death.”

“Anthony once mentioned it to me. However I did not ask Claire until recently if she still suffered, and she did not give me an answer.”

“She rigidly controls everything else in her life because only then can she get through each day.”

“How do you know these things?” Once again, his eyes were narrowed, and he had half risen from his chair.

“A little late now for brotherly concern, don’t you think, Belmont? And how I found out is not the concern, only that I did.”

Belmont sank back into his chair. “She has been looking tired lately.”

“Perhaps if you had looked a little further than the end of your nose, you would have seen how much she needed you,” Simon snapped.

Simon vowed then and there that he would never treat Claire so carelessly. Their marriage would not be starting under ideal circumstances, but then neither had Eva and Daniel’s, and look at them. She would know she had a husband who cared for her, Simon vowed.

“Why didn’t she tell me?” Mathew Belmont whispered. “I would have helped her.”

“You’ll need to ask your sister that, Belmont, because right now I want to discuss our wedding.”



Louis smiled as Claire entered the kitchens. He was sitting on a bench and had two maids and Plimley dancing attendance on him, all trying to get him to talk by tempting him with cake.

“Thank you all for looking after Louis.”

“Tis our pleasure, Miss Belmont. He’s a sweet little boy.”

“Thank you, Plimley. Yes he is.”

Lifting Louis down, Claire saw the questions in the eyes of the maids and butler, and she knew there would be talk soon. Squaring her shoulders, she took her nephew’s hand and made her way back upstairs.