Page 5 of The Secret Love of a Gentleman
‘Shall I tell her to stop henpecking and let you fledge?’ Drew joked.
‘Papa spoke to her. He knows I cannot live on his estate, there is nothing for me to do there.’
‘Of course you cannot, if you wish to sow wild oats?’ Drew said.
‘That is not my style anyway,’ Robbie answered.
At Robbie’s age, Drew had been wild, playing with danger, fighting everyone and everything.
Drew’s lips parted in a smile. ‘So your brother told me.’
‘Harry?’ Rob asked.
‘Harry,’ Drew confirmed.
They both laughed for a moment, as George climbed over his father, too restless to sit.
Caro did not understand what was funny.
When she first came here, and saw Robbie, he had been a jolly eighteen-year-old youth. As a man he seemed more serious than most men his age. His male cousins, of a similar age, showed no interest in the children, they kept to their own group. Robbie never stood with them. However, Harry, Mary’s second-in-age brother did. He must be nineteen. Obviously, from Drew’s and Rob’s laughter, Rob found his brother amusing for some reason.
‘Well, you may tell Harry to mind his own business, not mine,’ Rob said with a smile.
‘But younger brothers are born to be a thorn in the side. Mary and I are working on one for George solely for that purpose.’
‘I have never been a thorn in John’s.’
‘You have never had a chance, he wins any fight with one of his domineering glances. He has a way of making a man feel as small as a mouse.’
‘I ignore those looks,’ Rob said.
‘I do not risk those looks. I never give him cause to deploy that look on me,’ Drew joked, and another laugh was shared.
George clambered over his father’s shoulder and tumbled down.
Robbie leaned forward, reaching out a hand to slow George’s fall.
Instinctively, Caro leaned away from Robbie.
Robbie did not move back, he crawled forward and tickled George’s tummy.
George giggled. ‘No, Uncle Bobbie! No!’
When Robbie stopped tickling him, George crawled to Caro, escaping, still giggling. Robbie’s gaze, and Drew’s, followed George.
A blush burned in Caro’s cheeks, as the rhythm of her heartbeat gathered pace. She pulled George onto her lap and hugged him, perhaps a little too tightly, but it helped relieve her nerves.
‘I am sorry I did not see you yesterday, Caroline,’ Robbie said.
He was being polite, nothing else, but her senses recoiled. He must know she had avoided him.
‘Caro,’ Drew prompted, when she did not answer – as though she were a child to be corrected.
Her gaze lifted to Robbie’s eyes. They were blue, but a darker, greyer blue than Mary’s.
Caro had not been this close to him to notice the colour before.
He smiled a smile that made him seem approachable. But even though he behaved with good manners, her nerves still screamed at the idea of being too close to him.
