“What kind?”
“The kind one eats.”
Aaron frowned. “Th-that is n-not an answer.”
The housekeeper lowered her gaze before her smile became visible.
Rowan looked down at his son. “It is the only answer you require.”
Aaron hovered nearer the table, eyes moving over the lists as if he might decipher wedding preparations from the columns alone. “Will there be m-music?”
“Yes.”
“And Lady Emmeline?”
That made something in his chest tighten.
“Yes,” Rowan said more quietly.
Aaron seemed satisfied by that for exactly one second.
“Will A-Aunt Juliet be there too?”
Everything in Rowan went still.
He kept his expression level, though the question landed with the familiar force of a wound touched at the wrong moment. Aaron looked up at him, eyes wide open.
“No,” Rowan said.
Aaron’s face changed at once, the brightness dimming. “Why not?”
“She is not ready to come home yet.”
The boy’s fingers tightened around the wooden horse. “I m-miss her.”
Rowan’s jaw shifted at that sense of never finding the right thing to say to his son. He wanted, with sudden violence, for Juliet to walk through the door and end this particular grief. He didn’t want to see that look on the child’s face.
Instead, he said, “Tell Mrs. Gresham whether you prefer sugared almonds or iced biscuits.”
Aaron blinked, caught off guard by the change.
The housekeeper,bless her, stepped in at once. “For the wedding breakfast, Lord Aaron.”
That was enough to pull the boy after the new thought, though some shadow of Juliet still remained in his eyes as he began, with grave seriousness, to explain that almonds were acceptable but biscuits could be shaped like horses.
The butler appeared in the doorway before Rowan could fully surrender to the relief of the diversion.
“A note for Your Grace.”
Rowan took it without much thought at first. Then he saw the hand.
Juliet.
His fingers tightened instantly and he broke the seal.
Brother,
I hear you are to be married. Accept my congratulations. I have heard only good things about Lady Emmeline. I am sorry I cannot be there to see it. I do not wish to cast any shadow over your happiness by appearing before I am ready. Tell Aaron I miss him. Tell him I think of him often.
