***
Colin must have read extracts from eight hundred pages through the night. The room about his feet was littered with papers, and his eyes were raw from reading by candlelight.
Feeling for his friend, he had sent Edward home in the early hours of the morning, but he had been unable to rest himself.
The frustrating part of his recent search was that he had found little evidence of anything new. His father’s dealings were certainly strange; there was no denying that, but he was yet to see the name of any third party, not even Wentworth was mentioned often. He wanted to find contrary information proving that Lady Wentworth’s father was innocent but had so far come up short.
He stood, stretching his back and hearing the click of his shoulders from sitting hunched over his desk for so many hours. The room was a mess, piles of paper everywhere and he decided that after a full night’s work, the best thing he could do was make it look slightly more presentable.
Edward had done a wonderful job of stacking everything into sections, and Colin began the laborious task of bundling and tying together everything he had already examined. It took a good hour to get everything in order, and the desk was still piled high with papers, but at least the rest of the room did not appear as though a herd of wild horses had trampled through it.
He was grateful he had taken the time to work through the mess, for his mother soon entered the room, looking as elegant as ever, her sharp eyes surveying the papers strewn about with concern.
“Whatever are you doing?” she asked suspiciously.
“I am looking through old documents, Mama. I need to find the name of a man father was working with and I have been unable to do so.” Colin considered asking his mother if hisfather had ever mentioned the third party to her, but he was too worried that it would lead to his mother prying into what he was doing, and he did not wish her to find out the truth before he had come to his own conclusions.
“My goodness, it is a disaster in here,” she said reproachfully. “Look at all the plates you have stacked. Did you work in here all night? Why have the servants not been in to light the fire?”
“I asked not to be disturbed, Mother, and they have respected that. I shall go and dress directly and the maids can come and see to things.”
She sighed heavily and stepped over several documents as she moved further into the room.
“Have you slept? You look exhausted. Are you sure all is well?”
“Quite well, Mama. And I have slept, but not a great deal; I shall rest today.”
“Be sure that you do. Your face is positively gray. Shall I call the physician for a draft?”
“Please stop fussing, Mother, I am quite well. Why did you need to see me?”
She pursed her lips disapprovingly but continued all the same. “We have been invited to the Earl of Kenthurst’s picnic tomorrow at Richmond Park. I came to ask if you will attend?”
Colin scanned the work on his desk and everything he had yet to look through but knew that he was duty-bound to attend such things, especially if his mother wished to go. He could always tell if she was keen to answer an invitation in the affirmative because she would make a point of reminding him, he needed to respond.
“Yes, I shall attend.”
“Excellent.”
She clasped her hands in front of her, looking very pleased with herself and Colin rubbed his eyes, the weight of a full night’s work lowering over his shoulders.
He was surprised when he opened them to find his mother had moved around the desk and was standing before him, examining him with some concern.
“Are you sure you are well? You look very ill.”
“Nothing some rest won’t cure; do not trouble yourself, Mama.”
He froze as her hand came up and brushed his hair out of his eyes in an affectionate gesture that was so rare it caught his breath. Her hand cupped his jaw briefly, her eyes searching and sad.
“Do not work yourself too hard,” she whispered before whisking from the room as though she had never been there.
Colin stared after her, a warmth in his chest that had not been there before. He touched his jaw where his mother’s hand had been and felt the lingering warmth of it for a long time after she was gone.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The following day was a perfect day for a picnic, and Charlotte found herself in Richmond Park, surrounded by members of the ton.
In normal circumstances she would have rejoiced to be in nature again. The park stretched for miles in either direction, the long grassy banks rising into the forests and woods around them on all sides. An occasional deer could be glimpsed through the trees, and the sandy lanes that crisscrossed the park were a beautiful contrast to the dark greens of the ground beneath them.
