Page 102 of Snapdragons
“You look as though you had an accident,” Mother said. “You’re bruised, and there’s been a cut on your face.”
He gave a reassuring smile. “I grew a little too enthusiastic during a game of sport.”
“You do have a tendency to do that.” Mother leaned in a bit, lowering her voice. “You and Miss Seymour do not seem to be at odds.”
“We aren’t,” he said. “Quite the opposite, in fact.”
Mother turned wide eyes on him. “That is unexpected.”
“It certainly was.”
She shook her head. “That will make this evening very interesting.”
“How so?”
“We are to have supper at your grandparents’ house, and neither of them has reached the place of equanimity that I have on the matter.”
This welcome reception, then, was not an escape from the reckoning he’d anticipated but merely a delay.
“Niles.” Father’s greeting was not nearly as tender as Mother’s had been. He didn’t pull Niles into a hug, nor say his name in the same soft way. But there was no obvious animosity in his eyes. If anything, he looked as uncomfortable as Niles felt. “It is good to have you home again.”
“I am sorry my original letter went astray. It was not myintention to cause the distress that I did.” But that wasn’t entirely forthright, and he thought it best not to add to his deceptions. “I knew staying away would cause difficulty, of course, but I hadn’t meant to leave you guessing what happened to me.”
“Mr. Seymour wrote to us after finding you in Yorkshire. He explained that you said you had been unwell.”
That you said you had been unwell.Not that Nileshadbeen unwell. That hehad saidhe had been. There was significance to Mr. Seymour’s explanation but even more to Father’s recounting of it.
“Lord Aldric’s letter was far more eye-opening,” Mother said.
“Lord Aldric wrote to you?” Niles hadn’t been informed of that.
Mother squeezed his arm. “He said you were more yourself than when he had first arrived at Pledwick Manor, which set my mind at ease. He also said we were fortunate to have a son like you, and that far too many people don’t treat you as they ought.”
“I believe,” Father said, “his admonition was that too many people don’tlistento you as they ought. It was not difficult to understand what he was telling us.”
“I didn’t ask him to write to you.”
Father reached out and set a hand on Niles’s shoulder. “I know you didn’t. But I’m glad he did. It forced me to look at things a little differently.”
“But Grandfather doesn’t see things any differently?” Nervousness trickled over him once more.
His parents exchanged uncomfortable glances.
“Mother said our time at Ipsworth tonight will be interesting.”
Father raised an eyebrow. “Veryinteresting.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Niles pulled Aldric aside asthey all gathered in the entryway, awaiting the carriages. He’d not yet had a chance to speak with the others, as they’d all been ushered to various bedchambers shortly after arriving in order to dress for dinner at Ipsworth.
“My parents told me you wrote to them from Yorkshire.”
Aldric looked a little unsure how Niles felt about that discovery.
“Thank you,” Niles quickly added. “My father said your letter is the reason he began thinking differently about my situation and the family’s demands.Thank you.”
“Stanley would have marched here directly and diplomatically given your family a piece of his mind.” A corner of Aldric’s mouth pulled in a hint of a smirk. “I am not easily suited to the role of diplomat.”
