Page 35 of Secrets of the Marriage Bed
He’d been glad to share it. Surprisingly glad, since he rarely ever shared anything with anyone any more.
Perhaps he’d made the right choice to bring her here. She’d trusted him enough to let him kiss her in a tree.
Some instinct he couldn’t name urged him to do the same. To trust her, despite knowing full well what sort of reaction she’d have to his past and what he’d done. Since he despised himself for what had happened, he could hardly expect her to feel differently. Not that he cared what she thought of him. What he could not do was give her the power to cause his son harm.
* * *
Julia gained the ground and not for a moment did she feel unsafe. For the first time in a very long time.
‘I assume we are headed straight home?’ she said when they rode into the lane.
His gaze was fixed ahead. Two riders were approaching from the other direction. A man with a boy on a dun-coloured pony. Alistair cursed softly as the pair slowed from a trot to a walk.
Julia had the feeling that if there had been any way for Alistair to avoid them, like a break in the hedge, he would have gladly taken it. The other man seemed equally uncomfortable. She half expected him to turn his horse and gallop off. Manners apparently overcame instinct because they came to a halt facing each other in the middle of the lane. ‘Duke,’ the other fellow said in gentlemanly, if stiff tones.
His face a frozen mask, Alistair moved forward, angling his horse between her and the newcomers. ‘Julia, allow me to present my half-brother, Lord Luke Crawford.’ His tone held so much ice she would not have been surprised to see a frosty puff of air issuing from his lips. ‘Luke, meet my wife.’
His half-brother, and the heir he had mentioned. The son of Alistair’s hated stepmother. They certainly looked nothing alike. Lord Luke was as dark as Alistair was fair, built on leaner lines, his dark eyes set deep, his cheekbones standing out to the point of gauntness. If she had thought her husband stern, this man was positively austere. Joyless.
Lord Luke certainly looked no happier than her husband at this chance encounter. He was another family member who had not been invited to their celebratory ball. ‘Estranged’ was the word Alistair had used.
Nevertheless, Lord Luke offered her a fleeting smile that held a charm all of its own. ‘It is good to meet you at last, Your Grace.’
‘May I say likewise.’ She held out her hand and he leaned across Thor’s neck to touch her fingers. Barely.
He gestured the lad forward. He was a blond boy of about eight or nine. ‘May I introduce my oldest son, Jeffrey? Unfortunately his brother could not come with us today.’
The boy cast them both a shy smile. ‘Good day, Your Graces.’ He bowed, clearly carefully schooled in his manners.
Alistair was staring at the boy as if he’d like to eat him for dinner. A muscle flickered in his jaw. ‘Jeffrey, how do you fare?’ He glanced at his brother and back to the boy. ‘He’s grown a great deal since I saw him last.’
He sounded strangely bitter.
‘Papa says I am going to be as tall as he is,’ Jeffrey said.
If anything Alistair’s face became grimmer. ‘You will outgrow that pony soon.’
He was right. The stirrups were well past the pony’s belly.
‘He’ll do for now,’ Lord Luke said stiffly. ‘Jeffrey is perfectly satisfied with Rascal.’
It was a warning not to interfere as best Julia could tell from Alistair’s glare.
The silence stretched between them.
Lord Luke ran a swift glance over Julia and a brief flash of amusement entered his dark eyes. ‘Showing your bride the orchard, were you, Your Grace?’
Alistair glared. ‘What of it?’
Lord Luke’s eyes were a little too knowing as he stared back at his brother, before turning to Julia. ‘It was a favourite haunt of ours as boys. Many a mischief has taken place in that orchard. Did my brother happen to show you the view, Your Grace?
In the tree, he meant. Julia felt her face heat, as if she’d been doing something more wicked than simply kissing. Yet oddly enough she had the feeling Lord Luke was not being unkind, but rather enjoying being part of the joke.
Alistair, on the other hand, looked disgruntled at his brother’s teasing. Clearly, he was not particularly fond of his sibling. She assumed Luke was his only sibling. Did he have others lurking in unopened cupboards? That question she would save for later.
‘A fort, Papa?’ Jeffrey said, clearly having taken in only that part of the conversation. He sounded intrigued and hopeful all at once.
His father glanced at him, his gaze slightly guilty. ‘I doubt there is much left of it after all this time.’
