Page 62 of The Thief
She smiled sincerely and headed to the table to sit down.
When Alastair looked her way from the buffet, he shrugged quickly, understanding how she felt about having her parents around.
A few short moments later, his parents came through the doors, the flush of love on his mother’s face.
“Good morning, Mother, Father. I hope you slept well,” Alastair greeted them as he sat down at the head of the table.
Antoinette just smiled brightly and replied, “Good morning, my darling.”
Beauregard smiled slyly at his son and Alastair rolled his eyes at him.
“Get some breakfast, my dear; we need to get going this morning since we were so slow to rise,” he whispered in her ear.
“There was nothing slow about it,” she whispered back to him, causing him to flush and the entire table to look anywhere but at them.
“Mother, Father, please get some food before it gets cold,” Alastair said.
“Don’t worry, darling. We will,” Antoinette giggled.
Scarlett could not help but giggle at Alastair and how uncomfortable he looked at his parents’ display of affection. She looked back down at her food when he caught her staring at him.
Once his parents were seated, the conversation at the table flowed freely, the previous awkwardness gone.
“Lord Kensington, where do you reside these days?” Antoinette asked.
“Graham, please. We live on Ciomodors Garden at our estate. I would say it is about two or three miles from the castle.”
“How interesting. Do you go to the castle regularly?” Beau asked.
“We do not. We prefer to stay at our home,” Babette replied.
“We do not enjoy politics as my sister and brother-in-law do,” Graham said, looking over at Beau.
“Ah. We do not enjoy politics either. We were asked to come to court on many occasions, but we preferred to stay home instead. Court can sometimes be very overwhelming,” Antoinette said, looking slightly overwhelmed.
“We were expected to be there for a long time before Art finally relented and let us have our peace. That is one thing I am thankful for: that Art is not king anymore,” Graham replied.
“I don’t believe he thinks that way,” Alastair whispered.
“You are absolutely right,” Scarlett whispered back.
She was seated on his right and his father was seated on his left next to his mother, with her father and her mother beside her.
Graham heard them whispering and nudged Scarlett, bringing a flush to her face.
“You are right, of course,” he whispered, winking at her.
Scarlett visibly sighed.
“What did she say, dear?” Babette inquired.
“Something delightful about the breakfast food, my dear,” Graham said, turning to smile at his wife.
“All right. Well, what were we saying?”
She went back to their conversation about the latest gossip on Ciomodors Garden. Alastair sighed and relaxed, grateful that their parents were getting along. He had known some parents of couples who could not get along at all, and that had worried him. He was sure though that they would be all right now.
An hour later they were all finished with their breakfast and ready to see the market, her parents especially excited to see if they could find some trinkets that they could bring back to the staff at their home.
