Page 59 of Long Live the Baron
Brendan had wantedto join Lily in her bed the night before. He had stayed downstairs to control the urge because he doubted he would be well received. The memory of their one night together still haunted his thoughts, taunting him with what could be. He wanted to spend time with her, grow to know her better, and make love to his wife.
Which was why he was now walking down a quiet Mayfair street. If he had breakfasted with her, he knew it was only a matter of time before he broke down and begged her to stay at his side.
Brendan had never realized how lonely he had become since his mother had died thirteen years earlier. They had been close, his mother and Annabel and he. Richard had become a close friend at Eton and helped assuage the loss of his parent, but then the baron had sent him to Cambridge and separated him from his closest friend. Until, on the day he had come of age, his uncle had banished him from Baydon Hall and estranged him from his sister.
Since then, Brendan had lived in London, with his friends for company. He had been surrounded by people but had come home to no one. When he and Annabel had come back together, when she had married Halmesbury, it had been a relief to finally reconnect and know he had family again. Observing the closeness of his sister and her husband, along with the arrival of their son, Jasper, Brendan had been reminded what it was to be part of a tight family unit.
The night of his wedding, when he had held Lily in his arms and listened to her snoring gently in her sleep, he had experienced a moment of pure bliss. This was what it would be like for them, he had thought. They could be partners. He could trust the woman in his arms, because she had the heart of a lion beating in her small chest and would follow her conscience.
The summer light should have uplifted his spirits. The lush green trees in the square whispered in the morning light, and he had never seen the sky bluer than it was above him. Birds chirping in the branches overhead were idyllic, but Brendan just felt terrible.
Stopping by the large iron gates that led into the fenced-off square, he stared at the riot of colorful flowers within, but he saw nothing. His new wife was leaving, and he did not know when he would see her again. After what he had put her through, he had no right to any expectations of her.
Will she be gone when I return home?
The very idea of that was a weight pulling him back into the tedious ennui he had finally escaped when he had wed Lily on Sunday morning.
* * *
Lily was waitingin the little drawing room down the hall, while first John stood guard at the door.
Soon she would be leaving. But she refused to think about it, resolutely reading through the news sheets that had been brought in. Turning the page, a print dropped out and slowly drifted through the air to fall on the floor. Putting the sheets aside, Lily leaned down to grasp it just as Wesley entered with a tea tray.
“Wesley! You read my mind.”
The footman’s face creased into a smile. “I wanted to serve you tea before you left, milady. I …” He stopped, and Lily concluded he had been trying to say his goodbyes but must have decided it was too forward to speak of the future.
She grinned. “You brew excellent tea. When the new housekeeper begins work at the end of the week, you shall have to ensure she knows how to do it correctly for when I return.”
“Thank you, milady.”
He moved forward to place the tray on the table near her. Lily sat back in the settee, holding the print she had retrieved from the floor. Glancing down at it, she chuckled out loud. It was a caricature of the lords wearing their striped trunk hose for the coronation. The illustrator had drawn a gaggle of spindly legs, with the bulbous breeches ballooning around their hips.
Wesley stopped in confusion, evidently not sure if she had lost her mind.
“It is the coronation attire,” she offered, holding the print up for him to see. “My family was highly amused when my father came downstairs dressed like this on the day of the coronation. Lord Saunton maintains it was an elaborate prank by the King to make them all look like fools.”
Wesley tilted his head to view the image, suppressing a smile of his own. “It was difficult not to react when I saw the baron.”
Inside her chest, Lily’s heart stopped mid-beat, and her lungs lost the capacity to expand, but she carefully prevented any flicker of change on her face.
When I saw the baron?
She chuckled once more, an attempt to cover her reaction as she glanced toward the door to see if John was still there.
“Quite ridiculous!” Lily rose to her feet, preparing to dart toward the door while she watched Wesley from the corner of her eye. The footman stood frozen, staring at the illustration in her hand, time slowing down as Lily realized he knew he had made a mistake.
Stepping in the direction of the door, she saw Wesley darting forward to intercept her.
“JO—”
It was too late. He had grabbed her around the waist, pulling her against his body as his free arm wrapped around her throat and he lifted her off her feet. Wesley was strong. Lily could feel the steel in his muscles as he held her against him.
First John had spun at her shout of alarm, rushing into the small drawing room.
“STOP!”
Wesley’s command cracked like a musket, firing through the gloom, and first John stopped dead in his tracks. “I will snap her neck like a twig if you come any closer.”
