He had also assumed she was still in love with him, as he was with her. Well, she might very well be, but if she had to leave her daughters in order to marry him, courting her was going to be much more difficult than he had originally thought. And he didn’t have forever. After all, neither of them was getting any younger, and he still had to produce an heir.
Somehow, some way, he must convince Pae to spend the rest of her life with him.
Chapter Two
Later that evening, Patience found a chair next to her old friend and mentor, Almeria Bellamny. “Why did you not tell me Wolverton would be here? He was not on the guest list.”
“Neither was my husband.” Her answer was typically cryptic.
“But you knew.”
“Yes, I was aware that he planned to join George.” She focused her obsidian gaze on Patience. “What I did not know was whether you still cared for him. You have never mentioned him.”
Rather she did not allow herself to think of Richard. What good would it have done? She had her daughters and must be happy with them. Remarriage, even to a man she had loved, was out of the question. “I have no feelings for him.”
One black brow rose. “You may attempt to lie to yourself, my dear, but do not try to lie to me.”
“I do not wish to have any reaction at all to him.” She let out a puff of air that made the feather hanging down along her cheek flutter. “One would think that after all this time I would not feel anything at all.”
“Perhaps if your marriage had been better . . .” Almeria let the sentence hang in the air between them.
She was the only one who knew how devastated Patience had been at her husband’s lack of affection. Matt had some idea, but she would never have confided in him about his own father. “He was extremely charming.” And her husband had been a skilled lover. If he had not been so considerate of her in that way, she might not have fancied herself in love with him. “If only he could have got over his first wife’s death.”
Almeria’s lips pinched together. “I tried to tell your mother that Vivers men mate for life. Even if he wanted to, he could never stop loving Elizabeth, and marrying you off to him was no good.” Almeria gave a fatalistic shrug. “But she was too thrilled about the match to listen.”
“Thrilled indeed.” Patience remembered well the raptures her mother had been in when the offer of marriage had come. “Had I known, I would not have had hopes that we could fall in love.” If Wolverton had not left her to go traveling around the world, if he hadn’t broken his promise to come home before she had her come out, she never would have wed old Lord Worthington. Yet he had not arrived until the offer had been made and accepted, the settlement agreements signed, and the wedding was just a few days away. “There is no point in crying over spilt milk. I had Matt and the children to keep me company. He was more of a father to the girls than his own father was.”
And still was. He had always been there for them. The only unfortunate part of it all was that it meant she would never know true love in a marriage. She had not missed it as much before he had wed Grace. Yet having to live in the same house with the couple who were so obviously in love, and to see what she had missed, it was becoming increasingly difficult to be sanguine. And now there was Merton and Dotty. Since the rift between both branches of the Vivers family had been healed, there would be frequent visits between them and Worthington and Grace. Nevertheless, there was nothing for it, and she could not truly blame him for wishing to honor his father’s wishes. Patience sighed.
“You could have an affair,” Almeria said casually.
Patience opened her mouth, then snapped it shut. How her friend could make the most outrageous statements in such a matter-of-fact tone, she had no idea. “I beg your pardon?”
“You heard me. As long as you are discreet, no harm will come of it.”
Except that she had absolutely no idea how she would explain her absences to her stepson and Grace, not to mention her daughters. If they even noticed. Not once since Patience had moved into Stanwood House with the girls had any of them needed her in the middle of the night. There must be something about sleeping on a floor with six other children that was comforting.
Still, an affair was not the answer. At least she did not think it was.
Before she could respond to Almeria’s suggestion, Worthington pulled up a chair and sat in it. “Was Lord Wolverton bothering you?”
Patience resisted the urge to pleat her skirts. “No, why do you ask?”
“I think I’ve known you long enough to recognize when you are upset.”
“Well, you are out.” She winced at the sharpness in her voice. “I simply did not expect to see him here.”
“Then you know him?” Matt’s intent focus made her feel like a deer being hunted.
“I knew him growing up.” Not a total lie, yet not the entire truth. “But he left to travel before I came out. I did not realize he had returned.”
“Harrumph. Let me know if I should put a flea in his ear.”
“I assure you, I am perfectly capable of telling a gentleman that I do not wish his company.” She raised one brow in what she hoped was an intimidating manner. “I do not require looking after. Your time is better spent chaperoning the girls.”
“If you’re sure?”
“I am.”
