Page 97 of Deceiving an Earl
“No.”
Oliver contemplated him for a moment longer.Why show up on my doorstep?
“The bath is ready, my lord.”
Oliver nodded to his valet.
“Go with Richard,” he said to Philip. “He’ll get you cleaned up and Cook will give you a warm breakfast and hot coffee to warm your innards. I have an important meeting that I must prepare for. We’ll talk after.”
He sensed that sending the boy back to his mother was not prudent at the moment. There was a reason Philip was here, and Oliver would get to the bottom of it just as soon as he concluded this business.
Philip trailed after Richard, his head still low. Oliver shuddered at the tongue-lashing he was going to receive from his housekeeper at the mess Philip made in his wake. Even his shoes squished when he walked.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The meeting went well. Oliver was very pleased with the contract and the representative from the American shipping company seemed to be equally satisfied. He wouldn’t see any profit for a few years, but he speculated that when the profits started rolling in, they were going to be very fine, indeed.
When he returned home, he half expected Philip to be gone, but he was still there, sitting in that rarely used front room, staring down at his feet.
Oliver sat in the chair across from him. “You look a bit warmer and drier.”
Philip nodded.
“I’m assuming you were fed as well?”
“Yes. Thank you.” The words were said so softly that Oliver barely heard them. This was not the Philip he had come to know. What had happened to send him here?
“Do you want to tell me how you got that black eye?”
Philip shook his head.
“I’m assuming there is a reason you were sitting on my front stoop all morning.”
“How did your meeting go?”
Oliver hesitated. So this was how it was going to go. Philip did not want to talk about what happened, yet he’d stuck around, waiting for Oliver to return. Which meant, what? That he reallydidwant to talk about it, but in his own time?
How the hell was Oliver supposed to know? He didn’t have children of his own, and it’d been a hell of a long time since he’d been Philip’s age.
“It went well. I invested in an American shipping company. We’ll be transporting cotton and tobacco, among other things.”
Oliver thought he saw a flair of interest in Philip’s one eye but he ducked his head again, before Oliver could be certain. They had briefly spoken about foreign investments, and Oliver thought that was something Philip might like, but it was not something Oliver could teach him, since Ellen did not want him near her son any longer.
“Does your mother know you are here?”
“It doesn’t matter to her where I am.”
Ah. So they were finally getting to the crux of the problem.
“I’m certain that is not true. She’s probably beside herself with worry.”
Philip shrugged. “She has more important things to think about, like her wedding.”
Oliver felt a stab in the region of his heart, but he brushed it away. He needed to become accustomed to hearing about Ellen and William together. And this was precisely the reason he was going on an extended holiday.
Damn. His secretary was due in any moment now to go over the logistics of Oliver’s holiday.
“I’m certain you are just as important to her, if not more, than her wedding.”
