Harry stopped satchel-stuffing long enough to make a face. “I have to go to London to meet with the head of the Home Office. It’s nothing I want to do, Plum, but it is my duty to go when it concerns a past investigation of mine.”
“Investigation? What sort of an investigation?”
He set down the satchel. “I told you that I did some work for the government, didn’t I?”
“Yes, although you didn’t say what sort of work, exactly.” And at that moment, Plum didn’t care what he had done in his past, except in terms of it necessitating his return to London.
“The nature of the work is neither here nor there, the fact is that I have to present the results of my findings to the new head of the HO, and discuss with him the possible repercussions. As it is my preference not to leave my new wife alone for who knows how long, and since I know you won’t wish to leave the children, I have decided that we will all go to London. Granted the city may never be the same after the children get through with it, but we’ll just have to take that chance.”
Plum wrung her hands and tried to convince her husband to leave the children and her at home, but he would have none of it. “Plum, I don’t want to leave the children behind because…well, I left them earlier this year to check out this property when it had been left to me, and during my absence there was a fire. An entire wing burned down, the wing housing the nursery. It was only by the quick thinking of Gertie and George that the children were saved. You know that the girls’ governess died?”
“Yes, but—”
“She died in that fire. The children were upset about it for months.” His thumb stroked a line down her jaw. “I know it’s silly of me, but I don’t want to leave them again. I almost lost them once — I don’t wish to tempt fate again.”
Her heart melted under the look in his eyes. “Harry…the scandal—”
“What scandal?” he asked, nuzzling her neck.
She gave up. She knew there was no way she could stand against neck nuzzling, so she didn’t even try. Instead she gave the (reluctant, and with much misgiving) orders for their things to be packed, and three days later they set out in numerous carriages.
“You’re making too much of it,” Thom told her two days after they had started their journey, as they were about to leave the inn at which they’d spent the night. “Probably no one will recognize you — it’s been twenty years, Aunt! And how long has it been since that man you married died? A year?”
“Six months. Even if no one remembers the scandal itself, I will be recognized, and then everything will come out,” Plum said glumly, one eye on the younger children as they romped around the inn yard chasing geese. “The whole dreadful thing will be aired once again, and everyone will mock me, shame Harry, ruin the children’s and your lives, and then he will regret marrying me, probably going so far as to hate me, no doubt ending with him going to the Lords asking for a divorce, at which point I shall die homeless and friendless living in a ditch with an earthworm named Fred as my sole companion. I just hope Harry will be happy then.”
Thom laughed and patted her on the arm. “Don’t be such a pessimist. I’m sure you’ll have a perfectly lovely time in town, and no one will know who you are if you don’t want them to. Twenty years is a long time.”
“Not nearly long enough, but at least I can do right by you,” Plum said thoughtfully, noting how well a new gown suited Thom. Her dark curls were glossy with health, her cheeks bright, her eyes sparkling with good humor and happiness. “I can see my duty through with regard to your future. You will make your debut. You will go to balls and routs and breakfasts, and possibly the opera, if I can arrange all of that before I’m recognized and our lives are completely and utterly destroyed.”
“No!” Thom said, her face turning pale. “I don’t want to go to balls and routs and breakfasts, and I especially do not want to go to the opera! I can’t think of anything I’d like less! I’ll be miserable! I’ll hate it! I’ll be wretched!”
“Welcome to my world,” Plum said, then hurried off to rescue a goose that had been cornered by the twins and McTavish.
Two nights later Plum stood with a trembling hand on her husband’s arm as they paused at the top of a long curved flight of stairs. She wondered briefly if she threw herself down the stairs whether or not she’d break her neck outright, dying instantly, or if she’d just bounce down the steps, embarrassing Harry by displaying to everyone not only her sad lack of ability to navigate stairs, but also showing too much limb and perhaps even petticoat. Since she suspected it would be the latter, she allowed him to pull her unwilling self down the stairs, a grim smile curving her lips.
“Plum.”
“What?” she asked, transferring her grim smile to her husband.
“You look like you’ve been asked to roast a small child over an open fire.”
“I do not.”
“You do. You have a horrible expression on your face.”
“It’s called a smile, Harry.”
“Yes, but it’s a I’ve-been-asked-to-roast-a-small-child-over-an-open-fire sort of smile, one that is going to frighten the elderly and make everyone else stay away from you.”
“Good,” Plum said, her voice rich with satisfaction, the first morsel of satisfaction he’d heard her express since he had informed her that morning that they would be venturing into society by way of Lady Callendar’s ball. “Perhaps that way no one will discover who I am and I might just possibly survive this evening.”
Harry stopped at the bottom of the stairs and drew his wife aside, out of the way so he could speak to her without being overheard. He stopped her next to a large man-sized potted palm. “Why do you think I would lie to you?”
“Lie to me?” Plum looked startled, her lovely brown eyes wide with surprise. At least that wiped the childroasting smile off her face. “I’ve never thought you’d lie to me, Harry. Never!”
“Then why do you assume that what I’ve told you before — that your past will not be an issue — is untrue?”
“I…I—”
Harry kissed her hands, damning the need for him to prove to her that she had nothing to worry about with regards to her past. He’d much rather be home with her now, trying out yet another of the inventive Connubial Calisthenics, but he couldn’t just think of his own needs, he had to reassure his wife once and for all that she was worried needlessly over something so trivial only she and a few countrified tabbies remembered it. “I will say this just one more time, and then if you continue to disbelieve me, I shall be forced to punish you — no one will care what happened to you twenty years ago. You are my marchioness, and that is all.”
Plum stopped worrying her lower lip and pursed it, instead. Harry resisted the urge to kiss the wits right out of her. “Punish me? What sort of punishment are you talking about? Because frankly, husband, forcing me to come to this ball should count as the worst sort of punishment.”
“Look at it this way,” he answered, tucking her hand into his arm. “At least you’re not alone in your desire to be elsewhere. Thom is miserable, too.”