Page 57 of The Seductive Love of a Lady
Drew took a bolstering breath and walked into the room. Now was his moment to prove Mary’s words true. ‘We will be happy.’
Suspicion glinted in Pembroke’s eyes. He must wonder how much Drew had heard.
Enough to know that Pembroke was as close to Mary as Drew was to Caro.
Mary stood.
Drew walked to her side and held her hand. ‘I love your sister, Pembroke, she will be happy.’
Pembroke smiled, with the mellow look Drew had only just discovered he was capable of.
‘I shall leave you to your breakfast.’ He nodded at Drew, then walked out.
Drew sat in a chair beside Mary.
‘He approves. I told you he would. If you make me happy, Papa will approve too.’
29
Mary rested in the afternoon, leaving Drew at a loose end. They had explored more of the grounds on horseback before luncheon, but after luncheon, she said her condition had made her tired.
Drew also thought it might be because she had not been eating well. He had filled her plate at luncheon. But he did not want to disturb her sleep, so left her alone in bed.
He wandered along the upper hall, his hands in his pockets.
‘Steady now, one step at a time.’ Pembroke’s deep tone had a happy sing-song pitch.
A gurgling, gleeful sound followed.
Drew saw Pembroke walking from the other direction, doubled over, his forefingers gripped by an infant’s chubby little hands. The child toddled before Pembroke on unsteady feet, rocking and swaying, but grinning happily.
A lancing pain struck Drew in the chest.
He had eavesdropped this morning, but now he felt as if he were looking through a window and spying something so personal he should not see it.
Pembroke looked up and smiled. ‘You have not met my son yet, have you?’ He freed his fingers, held the child’s waist, tossed him in the air and caught him, the child squealing. Then settled the boy’s bottom on one forearm while protecting him from toppling with the other arm.
Drew felt as discombobulated as he had in Pembroke’s drawing room in London.
‘Katherine is lying down too. She is also expecting. Paul likes crawling on the short grass in the formal gardens, so I am taking him outside. Or rather he likes the endless space where there is nothing to make me say no. Are you going outside?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then we can keep each other company.’
Drew nodded. He followed Pembroke downstairs, while Pembroke crooned at the boy.
He tried to imagine himself with a child, but he could not.
When they reached the hall Pembroke ordered lemonade and cake to be served in the garden. They did not go out the front, but to the back, to the terrace, where the building gave some shade from the sun’s rays.
Pembroke descended a flight of steps and put the child down on what Drew imagined was a croquet lawn, because it was perfectly flat, and scythed to half an inch in depth.
Watching the boy speed off on his hands and knees, Pembroke set his hands on his hips. ‘It takes some time adjusting to fatherhood but it is magnificent. I shall never cease to wonder at the miracle of how a woman’s body can create a child.’
Pembroke glanced at Drew. His expression said he understood that Drew was out of his depth and treading water hard, trying not to sink.
‘You may practise getting to know children with my son, if you wish, or dive into the deep when your own arrives.’
