He had failed her in so many things; he knew he could not do so again now. France was a little unsteady. At the beginning of the year, Paris had seen a brief riot. Aspects of the government were shaky. But things were calmer just now than they had been of late. Aldric could make the journey to set his mother’s soul at rest.
“We leave directly for France.” Henri’s declaration pulled Aldric from his own thoughts.
“You are going to France?” he asked.
Henri nodded. “To Paris. My brother is there just now, which means my sister is as well. We have reason to believe she is not particularly happy.” He motioned to himself and his wife, Nicolette. “We wish to see if something can be done about that.”
They were not as close to destitute as they had been nearly two years earlier, but Henri and Nicolette were not comfortably well off by any means. A journey to Paris was not an inexpensive prospect. Undertaking it would stretch their finances near to breaking.
Henri had managed to convince the late duke to grant Aldric the use of Norwood Manor, one of the Hartley holdings, giving him both a home and additional income. That put him in a position to be of help.
“I actually need to go to Paris myself,” Aldric said. “A matter of family business.”
“Is that what is in your letter?” Kes asked. “You’ve read it far too often for it to be something insignificant.”
Aldric was the most observant one in the group, but none of them were dunderheads. He ought to have realized they would notice his distraction.
“Yes,” he said. “A favor my mother asked many years ago. Before you tea-tattlers press for more gossip, that is all I intend to tell you.”
Lucas snapped a jaunty salute. “We always listen to our General.”
“No, you don’t,” Aldric said dryly.
“As fond as I am of Paris, and as fond as Paris is of me”—Digby tossed out an arrogant smile they all knew was mostly feigned—“a building project is underway at Pledwick Manor that I wish to be present for. I fear I will have to abandon you lot and resign myself to Yorkshire instead.”
That launched the Gents into discussions of the various things they were involved in, whose estate ought to host the next gathering, things they wished to do when next in London. Aldric didn’t for a moment think they were truly satisfied with his very brief answer. But they knew his preference for privacy enough to honor it.
Henri moved to sit in the chair nearest Aldric’s. “If you really are for Paris, we could travel together.”
Aldric nodded. “That was going to be my suggestion as well. After all, I don’t know if my brother will allow me the use of the family yacht. The dukeonly permitted it that one time, and I paid dearly for it.” His heartless father had demanded he give his mother’s ring to his nephew as punishment for the favor. “Crofton will be no different. Worse, most likely.”
Lucas dropped into the chair on Aldric’s other side. “I suspect all of London agrees with our evaluation of the newest Duke of Hartley: he is going to be an unendurable pest.”
“I did not at all trust the way he smiled at me during the reading of the duke’s will,” Aldric said. “He is plotting something, and I suspect I am not going to like it.”
“All the more reason to make a sudden journey to France,” Lucas said.
Julia and Nicolette arrived among them in the next moment.
“We have had a wonderful idea,” Julia said. “I have not ever been to Paris, and I’ve wanted to go for ever so long. And, Lucas, you promised to take me but haven’t yet, which should fill you with unendurable guilt. To relieve you of that burden, I think we should journey with Henri, Nicolette, and Aldric.”
Lucas sat up a little straighter, eyeing her with doubt and concern. “It is a long journey. Are you equal to it?”
“My pregnancies are not difficult,” she said. “And once this newest arrival is with us, we will have three children who are four years old and younger. There will be very few journeys after that. This is my opportunity, Lucas, and I mean to seize it.”
Far from dismissing the idea, Lucas was clearly pondering it. “This would mean being away from Philip and Layton. It is too long and complicated a journey to undertake with such young children.”
“Being separated from them will be difficult,” Julia acknowledged, “but if we don’t make this journey now, we will likely not have another opportunity for these adventures until after the children are grown. Mark my words, Lucas, we will be undertaking a great many journeys once they have flown the nest, but I’d like to have a grand adventure now as well.”
“My mother and your father would be ecstatic at having the boys with them for a month or so,” Lucas said.
“And I would get to spend weeks with Julia,” Nicolette said, speaking in French though she likely didn’t realize she’d done so. “We don’t see each other often enough. I do wish we all lived nearer each other.”
“This could be a great deal of fun,” Lucas said. “Of course, the General doesn’t always enjoy fun.”
“I enjoy fun when it is wise and reasonable,” Aldric said.
“Reasonable?” Lucas repeated with a laugh. “You had more fun than any of us that time we maneuvered a cart onto the library roof.”
