Page 95 of The Earl Takes All
Nodding, she released his hand. “Don’t forget that you’re deaf in your right ear.”
“Few will take note of that. Albert was self-conscious about his loss of hearing. Only those closest to him knew he had difficulty hearing.”
She smiled with a memory. It was becoming easier to think of him without the pang of sorrow. “I’d forgotten about that. He told me just before he asked me to marry him—as though his inability to hear in one ear would dampen my love for him.”
“I liked to tease him about it.”
“No! You were not that cruel.”
He nodded. “When we were in a group of people, I could tell when he didn’t hear the comments because he would just nod and smile, so I would make some ludicrous retort as though it was in answer to something someone said, and Albert would respond in kind until we had those around us thinking we’d lost our minds.”
“That sounds awful.”
“It was funny, but you had to be there to appreciate it. He’d always laugh afterward. ‘You got me again, Edward,’ he’d say. Then I’d discover he filled my scotch glass with some bitter brew of tea that had me spitting it out. God, I so enjoyed the tricks we played on each other.”
“I’m glad we can talk about him now, so openly.”
“I’m glad to see you smiling. We can carry on now, I think.”
She realized he’d used his tale about Albert to distract her, to put her at ease. With a gentle flick of her riding crop, she prodded her horse forward into the park and the mash of people who thought it was incredibly important to make an appearance this time of day. Tomorrow she would begin making morning calls, and ladies would make them on her.
For now, she simply focused on how much she enjoyed the company of the man riding beside her. “Will you be going to the club tonight?”
“No. I doubt I’ll ever go to the club again.”
With a teasing smile, she looked askance and skeptically at him. “That would raise suspicions. A gentleman not going to his club. That’s rather expected.”
“Not of a man who is madly in love with his wife.”
She did feel like his wife, in manner, deed, and commitment. “You make me blush.”
“I intend to make every inch of you blush later.”
“Your mind always travels to the bedchamber.”
“Who said anything about a bedchamber? I was thinking on the desk in the library.”
“Grey!” She didn’t know if she’d ever become accustomed to calling him that.
“Or perhaps in the garden among the roses.” He was smiling wickedly. She could clearly see herself stretched out on the verdant grass, him raised above her, the stars a backdrop behind him while she—
“Lord and Lady Greyling.”
At the sound of the deep voice, she very nearly squeaked like a frightened mouse and jerked on the reins. She managed to bring the mare up short without causing her to shy away from the couple, on matching black horses, who had drawn even with them. The Duke and Duchess of Avendale. He, dark and foreboding; she, fair, but with a shrewdness in her eyes that indicated not much escaped her notice. The one thing that Julia took comfort in was the knowledge that Rosalind Buckland, a commoner by birth, had only recently entered the ranks of the nobility and didn’t know her or the Earl of Greyling well enough to discern if anything about them was different. They were the perfect couple for easing her back into social situations.
“Your Graces,” Edward said.
“Our condolences on your loss,” the duke said, and Julia wondered how far into the Season they would have to go before people stopped offering condolences. Not that she didn’t appreciate them, but they made her feel uncomfortable, as they believed Edward was dead. Their sympathies were more for the earl on the death of his brother because they didn’t realize she had lost a husband.
“We appreciate your sentiments,” Edward said.
“We also hear that congratulations are in order,” the duchess said, smiling kindly at Julia.
“Yes, the countess gave birth to a beautiful daughter just before Christmas,” Edward offered, and she was conscious of the fact that in this instance he was careful not to refer to her as his wife. At the time, another had been her husband. “She greatly resembles her mother.”
“I can see shades of her father in her,” Julia assured them. “Especially as she is beginning to move about more. I believe she’s going to be quite the adventuress.”
“Traveling the world?” the duke asked.
