Page 17 of The Earl Takes All
“Restless. Julia is having breakfast in bed.”
“So is Minerva. That is what ladies do.”
As he went to the sideboard, he almost asked if that was true of all ladies. His associations with women usually didn’t offer the luxury of lingering until breakfast. He wondered what else he didn’t know about them.
He almost took the chair beside Ashe before remembering that his place was now at the head of the table. He’d avoided this moment, taking meals in his room. He could feel Ashe and Locke studying him, wondered if they could sense the battle with which he was grappling. He had to take that chair as though he had sat in it the entirety of his adult life. Avoiding their gazes, setting down his plate, he dragged the chair back and dropped into it, once again hit with the devastation of loss. Would he ever sit here and not feel like a usurper?It’s only temporary until the heir is born.
As casually as possible, he began slicing the ham. “What else do ladies do?”
“Keep us gents waiting,” Ashe said, as though unaware of the emotions rioting through Edward, as though accustomed to Edward sitting at the head of the table.
“Drive us to madness,” Locke said at the same time.
Grinning, Edward shifted his gaze between his friends. “We obviously all view women differently.”
And the servants had ears, even if they were supposed to keep their mouths shut. He wished he could send the butler and footman from the room. Instead, he sipped his tea and refrained from adding more sugar.
“I know the extent of your grief is immeasurable,” Locke said quietly. “If you like, I could stay a couple of days to help you get the estate’s affairs in order after your long sojourn.”
“That’s kind of you, but unnecessary. I feel up to the task of meeting with the steward later this morning.” On more than one occasion when visiting, Edward had sat in the library and observed Albert handling his estates. While impatient, ready to be off carousing, surely he’d retained a bit of knowledge.
“Well, if you find yourself in need of assistance, don’t hesitate to ask,” Locke insisted.
“Afraid I can’t offer you the same consideration,” Ashe said. “I find managing estates to be a bit more formidable than Locke does.”
“It gets easier over time. It also helps if you grew up there. While I’m sorry you didn’t get to live on your estates until you reached your majority, I am grateful you were both about Havisham to stop my life from being so lonely.” With a slight grin, he looked at Edward. “Do you remember when your brother found a way for us to get up on the roof?”
They’d only been at Havisham for a few days. “We were planning to run off. He was hoping to get a glimpse of Evermore so we’d know in which direction to go.”
“It was my first real adventure. I was terrified I was going to slide off.”
“You wouldn’t have gone far. We were all joined with a rope tied about our waists.”
“All that ensured was that we would all slide off together.”
“Which was the point,” Ashe said. “If one of us went, we all went.”
“That is not how my brother explained it to me.”
Ashe shrugged. “But that was the truth of it. We became fast friends so quickly. Remarkable, really.”
They had become more than friends. Nearly brothers.
“Do you remember when the Gypsies came through?” Locke asked. “Your brother wanted us to leave with them.”
“He fell in love with one of the girls,” Edward admitted. “She let him kiss her. He worried for the longest time that he’d gotten her with child.”
“From a kiss?” Ashe asked.
Edward grinned. “We were ten. What did we know? He finally gathered up enough courage to ask the marquess.”
Locke’s eyes widened. “That’s the reason he took us to a tenant’s farm to watch a pair of horses breeding?”
Edward chuckled. “I suspect so, yes. I remember all the questions we had afterward. Not that we dared ask him.”
“He would have done better taking us to a brothel,” Ashe said.
“We were lads. They’d have not let us through the door. Besides, I have such lovely memories of time spent with the farmer’s daughter years later.”
