Page 85 of The Earl Takes All
“Seemed the best way to keep the children calm.”
She wondered how many lords would have given two figs if the children were rambunctious. But then how many lords would have stayed with a recent widow and cared for her?
She bid her time until they were sitting at the same table they’d sat at before, strawberry tarts and cups of tea in front of them. Before sending Johnny on his way, Edward had loaded him up with meat pies and enough various pastries to give the entire family a bellyache. “How did you come to know Mrs.Lark?” Julia asked.
He shrugged. “Johnny was in here, trying to purchase a meat pie for his dying mum. He didn’t have enough money so I bought them, escorted him home, and discovered his mother was indeed ill.”
“You remained to take care of them.”
“Her husband had recently died. People are suspicious about death. Some believe it lingers, searching for another victim.”
“But you don’t?”
“There’s not a good deal that I fear. Losing my parents when I was so young caused me to become a bit reckless. Then, of course, living at Havisham where we were told that a ghost would snatch us up at night if we went outside made us all rather intrepid. You can only live in fear for so long before you say to hell with it.”
“A method to the marquess’s madness?”
“Possibly. I hadn’t considered that, but yes, I suppose it’s quite possible.”
Sipping her tea, she considered his earlier actions. “Offering Mrs.Lark a place at Evermore was very generous.”
“We can well afford to be generous.”
It touched her that he included her in that statement, that he made her feel as though she had been generous as well when she had in fact had nothing at all to do with it.
“I’m thinking you should publish your stories,” she said.
“Only if you’re willing to include your watercolors.”
She laughed, pleased and embarrassed by the notion. “They’re not that good.”
“They’re very good. They bring my words to life. I wished I’d had them with me when I was recounting my tales to Johnny and his sisters.”
She shook her head. “I never meant to share them with anyone other than my child.”
Placing his elbows on the table, he leaned forward. “Why would you limit them to bringing only one child joy when they could bring happiness to so many?”
“You never struck me as someone who cared so much about children.” Yet, she’d seen it in the attention he gave Allie and the camaraderie he’d developed with a young lad who had no qualms whatsoever in climbing over a lord of the realm.
He grinned. “It’s a fault of having never grown up.”
But he had grown up. She’d seen that as well. He was a caring landowner. He took care of people. He possessed a kindness that he’d kept hidden from her; yet it had been there all along when he tried to ensure that Albert never became aware of his feelings for Julia. When he’d allowed himself to be disparaged and disliked in order to protect her and Albert.
“We would have to give the story a name,” she told him.
“The Adventurous Friends of Havisham Hall.”
She laughed. “We should probably disguise it a bit more.”
“We’ll think on it, then.”
It was as though they were planning a future. Whether or not they decided to spend their life together, they would have the stories, the books to connect them. They would have something that they had created together. But she doubted it would be enough to sustain her.
She needed more.
As they rode back toward Evermore, the words echoed with the plodding of her horse’s hooves. She needed more. Needed more.
She needed the wind in her face, the freedom, the danger, the chase. Before he could caution her against it, she yelled, “I’ll race you to the top of the distant rise,” and prompted her horse into a sprint.
