Page 83 of The Secret Love of a Gentleman
‘Rob!’ His mother stood up, quickly crossed the room and embraced him, her arms wrapping about his neck. He held her in return.
‘Rob.’ His father stood too.
He had not seen them since the beginning of the summer.
When his mother let him go, his father hugged him too and patted Rob’s back.
They were a large family, but he had never doubted he was loved. He had complained about his large family to Caro, but that had been crass. He could not compare his upbringing to Caro’s and Drew’s; Rob had wanted for nothing.
He sighed, recognising that it was a little absurd that he saw his friends as allies but his family as a nuisance. He should look for the positives in all his connections. If he could convert them to his philanthropist views, their influence would help him win more allies in the House of Commons.
‘How are you getting along, son?’
‘Very well, Papa.’
‘He is doing what young men do, when they finally have their freedom – enjoying himself and staying away from us,’ John said.
Rob gave his brother a tight-lipped smile.
‘John said you were coming,’ his mother said. ‘I am glad you arrived early because the girls will want to see you, Rob. They are eating in the nursery as we are going out after dinner. Will you go up?’
‘I shall go now.’ He hoped Caro would be there.
He bowed his head towards them all before he left the room.
He jogged up the stairs to the nursery floor.
A lively conversation spilled from the room, even though the door was closed. His younger brothers were boarding at school, so it was only the girls, and the pitch was always higher.
He knocked on the door. ‘Enter,’ Kate’s quieter tone called.
When he walked in, he was confronted with a melee. Paul and David were climbing over a pile of laughing girls, while Kate held her daughter, Hestia, and Caro, Iris, at a safe distance from the mayhem. He shared a brief smile with Caro.
‘Robbie!’ Jemima, his youngest sister, ran at him and clasped her arms about his waist in a bear hug.
‘Robbie!’ Georgiana, the next in age, hugged him from the other side.
Jenny rolled onto her back on the floor beside Helen, grinning up at him. They were sixteen and seventeen. ‘Hello,’ Jenny said as she hauled Paul onto her lap and sat up.
‘Hello.’ Helen sat up too. She could have had her come out this summer, but she chose to wait until she could share the experience with Jenny.
‘How are you, poppet?’ Rob tussled Jemima’s hair.
‘Hungry,’ she answered, lifting her arms to say,pick me up. ‘Have you seen the babies?’
He caught her up beneath her arms and lifted her to his hip. She was getting too big for this, but she was the baby of his family, so they all treated her as such.
Jemima’s long arms encircled his neck, and her long legs dangled.
‘Where is George?’
‘Asleep, he is exhausted,’ Caro said quietly as Iris was also asleep in her arms. ‘Drew and Mary took him to the park this afternoon with your mother and father.’
‘You may see him tomorrow,’ Kate stated. ‘We have brought the picnic forward as your parents are here now and the weather was so warm and sunny for autumn today, we hope it will be good tomorrow. Are you able to join us? We are driving out to Windsor, to the meadows by the Thames.’
He nodded, wondering what his friends might say when he was busy for another day. ‘I have nothing planned I cannot cancel.’
Jemima played with his fringe, brushing it back from his forehead, and then watching it fall down again. It did not bother him. He was used to being petted by his sisters.
