“I ain’t saying it to compliment her. It’s more a warning. You’d do well t’ keep her away from where the school is, Lord Everdene. That area’s a hotbed o’ discontent right now.” He drummed work worn fingers on the pamphlets. “Sometimes it only takes one spark to set the world on fire.”
The back of Lucien’s neck prickled. “Is that a threat, O’Malley? Do you know something you’re not telling me?”
“Like I said…Just givin’ fair warnin’. Been caught in the middle of a donnybrook already, hasn’t she? I’m not one for striking out at women, but there are plenty who don’t give a damn. Be a shame if a kind lady like yours got caught in the flames.”
CHAPTER 31
She was with child.
Grace pressed her hands to her stomach, joy, trepidation, and fierce protectiveness warring inside her as the carriage rolled through the streets toward Raven’s Court. It almost didn’t seem real, as if during the few hours since Lucien had set out for Pinchbeck’s factory that morning she had tumbled into some strange new world, off balance and stunned though she should not be.
The signs had been there. The missed courses, tender breasts, the faint sense of nausea that never quite settled. Had she resisted seeing the changes in her body because she worried about what effect a babe might have on this new closeness she and Lucien shared? Now that she knew, truly knew, there was no avoiding whatever was to come. She wished, more than anything, for a chance to confide in her mother, glean some of her hard-earned wisdom. She had never felt her absence so keenly.
The coach lurched over a break in the cobblestones and Grace braced herself against the tufted leather seat. What would Lucien think when she told him of the impending child?
When they’d wed, he had made it clear he planned to keep distance from Grace and his child once an heir was born. At the time she had feared that resolve was due to his own preferences. Now she knew him better, those wounded places left by his own father, the earl corrosive, controlling, oft times cruel. She sensed Lucien’s fear that he might hurt a child the way he had been hurt. What if Lucien held to that original belief?
The coach shuddered to a halt, and she waited for a footman to hand her down, wanting desperately to rush upstairs, retire to the room where she and Lucien had shared so much passion. Be alone to think of how to tell him he was going to be a father.
As she entered the townhouse, Smythe, the butler hastened up to her, wringing his hands.
“Thank goodness you’re home. You have guests. They arrived an hour ago.”
What in heaven’s name had distressed him so much? Whoever had arrived threw the household into a tempest worthy of her brothers. Even if it was the queen herself, Grace would not be able to play the serene hostess.
“I fear I am indisposed. Please give them my regrets.”
“Er, I am afraid that will be difficult. It is Captain and Mrs. Harcourt and the viscount’s sisters, Lady Cassandra and Lady Jane. I placed them in the parlor.”
So that was the root of his dismay. Had news of the discord in the Harcourt family reached the servants here? Heaven knew, household staffs seemed to have a line of communication faster than the palace itself.
She might have been glad to welcome family under different circumstances. But now? What had brought them to her doorstep with no warning? Had something gone wrong back home?
Discarding her bonnet and cloak, she pasted on a smile and swept into the parlor.
The four Harcourts were gathered around a tea table, partaking of the feast of teacakes and finger sandwiches provided.
They swiveled to face the door as she entered, Pen a trifle sheepish, Jane’s lashes dipping shyly, and Cassandra with a sphynx-like gaze.
Grace swept toward them. “Look at you all here! What a surprise!”
Simon rose, favoring Grace with a wide grin. “Did you not receive the message we sent ahead?”
“N—no. I am afraid not. But of course I am glad to see you!” she fibbed. She could hardly tell Lucien her news with guests here. In fact, she had to wonder what he would say when he came home to find his family. “I trust all is right in the country?”
“Right as rain,” Simon said. “A colleague of Pen’s has just finished a building and she has come to London to see it. Since you did not wait for us to return to Everdene Hall after you wed, Cassandra insisted we must offer our congratulations to you and Lucien as well.”
Something in the way he phrased it made Grace uneasy. Cassandra had made no secret of her resentment toward Lucien. That glaze-eyed anger when she’d wounded him with the sword.
Cassandra gave a catlike smile. “It was very inconsiderate of you to deprive us of a wedding.”
There was nothing for it, but to tell the truth. “My stepmother was making me quite miserable with the preparations for a large society wedding. Lucien wanted to spare me further vexation.”
Jane gave a delicate shudder. “No wonder you eloped. I would not want to be in front of so many people, either.”
“Lucien being considerate,” Cassandra said. “How…astonishing.”
“That is love, for you,” Simon replied, a look in his eye that made Grace think he was trying to smooth things over with bluff humor.
