Nick watched his stepmother race past him on the stairs. She was crying and hadn’t even noticed him. His shoulders slumped a little lower as he sat down on the step. Had it already begun, then? Had she started to hate him the way his other mother had? He went over a list of his actions in his head — no, there was nothing there that would upset her, nothing that would give her cause to hate him as the other one had. He had been very careful ever since she had come into his life a few days before — he liked her and wanted her to like him. He had made a mental promise to be good, but maybe that wasn’t enough. Maybe she would turn away from him as his other mother had. He didn’t think he could bear that.
“Nick.” He looked up. His father was standing in the hall, Crouch helping him on with his coat. “Nick, come with me a moment; I wish to speak with you.”
Nick watched as father took his hat, gloves, and stick, then waved him toward the library. He sighed. There would be no help from that quarter. He had failed his father just as he had failed his mother.
“Your stepmother wishes you to accompany her on her calls this morning. I am sure that you would much rather be attending your lessons, but I have given my permission for you to go with her. It goes without saying that I expect you to act in a manner befitting my son.”
Nick closed his ears to the rest of the lecture. He’d heard it before. Sometimes the words changed, but the meaning was always the same. He was to behave in a manner befitting his father’s station. That was of the utmost importance, just as Nanny Williams had said it was. “Your papa’s an earl, and that’s a very important man,” she had told him. “Someday he’ll have a son to follow in his footsteps and be an earl after him, but until then, he’s got you, so you’d best do him as proud as you can. Not that it matters, in the end, since you can’t be the son he needs, but still, you’re here, so you’d best be showing your papa how grateful you are that he recognizes you.”
“Nick.” He looked up to find his father squatting before him, the big hands warm on his knees. “Nick, you do like Gillian, do you not?”
He nodded.
“Good. I like her too. I think—” His father stopped, looking toward the library doors, a wistful expression on his face. Nick had never seen it before, but the sight of it made something deep inside him want to hug his father, and be hugged in return. “I think she likes us too.”
Two pairs of almost identical gray eyes surveyed one another for a moment, exchanging thoughts and emotions without words. Nick blinked back the wetness in his eyes when his father suddenly took him in his arms and squeezed him tight. He buried his face against the stiff neck cloth and wrapped his arms around his father’s neck.
Maybe things would turn out all right after all. Clasped firmly in his papa’s arms, Nick did something he hadn’t done in almost five years. He began to hope.
CHAPTER SIX
“Honestly, Gilly, I thought Mama would never leave us!” Charlotte said, slumping back against a watered-silk rose settee and kicking off her slippers.
“I think she just wanted to gossip a little, Char,” Gillian said with a smile, watching as Nick sat on the floor, his knees to his chin as he contemplated Roget, Charlotte’s bad-tempered cat. “You forget that I am now a countess, and therefore someone worth gossiping with.”
Charlotte snorted and threw a fat pillow at her cousin. “Stop your gloating and tell me how you are.”
Gillian tossed the pillow in the air and caught it with a little laugh. “You heard me tell your mama I was fine. What is it you really want to know?”
“Perceptive as ever.” Charlotte giggled, then tipped her head meaningfully toward Nick.
“Nick darling, why don’t you go down to the kitchen and see if Mrs. Tennyson has any of her delicious fruit tarts left? I’m sure Cousin Charlotte would let you take that four-legged curmudgeon with you.”
Nick gave her a long glance that let her know he was aware he was being sent out of the way, but scooped up Roget and left without delay.
“There, I have sent my son away for you, now what did you want to discuss that we couldn’t in front of him?”
Charlotte leaned forward and clasped her hands together. “That.”
“That what?”
Charlotte prodded her with her foot. “You know. That.”
Gillian narrowed her eyes. “You don’t mean…that?”
“Yes, I do. That.”
“No, truly, that?”
“That!”
“Oh.” Gillian thought for a moment. “You know, it really is strange. I don’t feel changed, but now that I am married, things are different. For instance, it wouldn’t be at all proper for me to discuss that with you.”
“Fudge about what’s proper. Did you enjoy it? Was it as pleasurable as Penny says, or horrid like Mama told you?”
Gillian blushed. “Honestly, Charlotte, you shouldn’t believe everything your maid tells you. And I don’t believe I’m supposed to discuss that with you — I’m sure it’s breaking some sort of married women’s rule or possibly a law or some such thing.”
Charlotte scooted over to the edge of the love seat and took a firm grip on her cousin’s arm. “If you do not tell me about that, I shall tell Mama about the time I saw you kissing that scrumptious stableboy.”
Gillian raised her chin. “Do your worst, cousin. I am beyond your mama’s reprimands now.”
“But not your husband’s.”
Gillian blanched at the thought of that. “What in particular did you wish to know about that?”
Charlotte told her.
A half hour later Nick returned to the sitting room to find both Charlotte and Gillian doubled over in laughter.“…but it wasn’t really broken at all, I just thought it was! It worked quite well later — oh, hello, Nick. Did you have a nice time in the kitchen? Did Cook give you a tart?”
Nick nodded and looked shyly at Charlotte. Gillian held out her hand for him and, scooting over, pulled him onto the seat alongside her. “I was just telling my cousin about last night. Now you’re up to date, Charlotte.”
Charlotte appeared thoughtful and watched absently as Gillian ruffled her stepson’s hair and gave him a little hug. “Whose house was it that Lord Weston was found in?”
“His own! It is the house he keeps for his mis…uh…his lady friends.”
“Gillian! How can you be so blasé about that?”
“I’m not in the least. But you see, I happen to know that Noble has dispensed with his latest friend’s services.”
“Oh. Do you think she had something to do with his abduction?”
“I’m not sure,” Gillian said thoughtfully, her hand resting on Nick’s shoulder. “But I mean to find out. Which is where I need your help — to uncover this dastardly plot against Noble and bring the miscreants to justice. Then I will have his full attention and can begin to lay the ghost of his beloved Elizabeth to rest. Once I’ve done that…well, things will be better.”
Charlotte patted her free hand sympathetically. “I’m sure he loves you, Gilly; he wouldn’t have married you if he didn’t. And after such a short courtship — only a gentleman very much in love would marry someone after just a few meetings.”
Gillian smiled at her cousin and flicked the fat cushion back at her. “You need not look so cautious, Char. I promise I won’t fill your ear with lengthy does-he-love-me-doesn’t-he-love-me dialogues. Now, you have far more experience than I in this — how do you think I ought to begin the investigation?”