And so she was at home when he came, in the nursery with her son and the puppy, which was trying to scamper beneath the furniture away from the busy hands of its new master. He was smiling and cheerful and very handsome, and her heart turned over inside her.
“Well,” he said to Zachary as her son rushed across the room to greet him. He ruffled the boy’s hair. “How many puddles so far, Zach?”
“Only two, “ the boy said. “He drinks milk from a saucer. You should see his tongue, sir. It is all pink. Shall I hold his mouth open to show you?”
“Hm,” the viscount said. “Would you like your mouth held open so that someone might view your tongue or your teeth?”
The child laughed. “I am going to teach him to do tricks,” he said.
The viscount looked up at Barbara and grinned. “I suspect it is going to be like having another child in your nursery for a while,” he said.
“May I ring for tea?” she asked.
“I cannot stay,” he said. “I decided to walk home from the village instead of riding in one of the conveyances with everyone else. But I must be back for tea. It seems to be obligatory on this particular day. And there is a ball to get ready for.”
She smiled, disappointed, and glad that this encounter would not be prolonged.
“Zach,” the viscount said, “where is that picture of your papa's horse?”
The boy raced across the room to fetch it, a drawing of a squat black horse whose hooves all rested solidly on the bottom edge of the paper.
“Ah, yes, “ Lord Brandon said, “a cavalry horse if ever I saw one. What was his name?”
“Jet,” Zachary said without hesitation. “He was my papa’s favorite, was he not, Mama?”
She nodded.
And then, almost before she had caught her breath from his arrival, he was taking his leave, handing a parcel he had been carrying to Zachary and smiling as the boy opened a package of sweetmeats.
“I am sure they must be strictly forbidden,” he said. “But remind your mama that this is Valentine’s Day. Let her have one.”
“You did not need to bring him a gift,” she said as she accompanied him down the stairs. “But thank you.”
He stopped to look down at her before leaving the house. “It is almost over,” he said quietly. “A few more hours and it will be February 15. Just an ordinary day, posing no threat at all.”
But this is the fourteenth,she told him only with her eyes.This is Valentine’s Day and you are going to be dancing with Eve this evening to the music of a whole orchestra while I have only my fading memories of Zach and my painful dreams of you.
She said nothing. She thought that perhaps she smiled.
He set light fingertips against one of her cheeks. “Happy Valentine's Day, Barbara,” he said.
She watched him hesitate before bending his head and kissing her lightly on the other cheek.
She smiled again as he turned to leave the house. She said nothing. She could not. She was waging too fierce a battle against tears. She did not believe she had ever felt more lonely in her life.
“Mama.” Zachary’s voice came down the stairs. “He has made a puddle again.”
He,Barbara thought, turning back to the stairs, was going to have to acquire a name soon. Not to mention a few indispensable skills.
The ballroom at Durham Hall was decorated with flowers from the hothouses. And with the bright silks and satins of the ladies’ gowns and the gentlemen’s evening coats and waistcoats. The ballroom was not large. As a result it looked almost as crowded as any London squeeze.
Viscount Brandon was not quite sure just how much the duke and duchess were expecting his offer for their younger daughter. They had been gracious to him and all their guests, and impeccably courteous. And yet at dinner, he noticed, a formal occasion attended by some of the neighboring gentry as well as the house guests, and one at which dinner partners were assigned rather than chosen, he was seated beside Lady Eve and was therefore to lead her into the opening set of the ball as well.
She glowed and looked rather like an angel, he thought, dressed all in white satin and lace, her blond hair styled in countless smooth and shining ringlets. He felt that every gentleman present envied him and expected that he would take full advantage of his position as her favored suitor.
“I do think Valentine’s Day is the most wonderful day of the year, my lord,” she said to him as he led her onto the floor and they waited for the orchestra to begin playing. “Would you not agree?”
He smiled at her and agreed. Her words came from a blissful inexperience of life, he thought. And he wished for her sake that she would always feel the same way about this day.
