Page 26 of Joy to the Earl

Sinking onto the chaise beside her and absently rubbing his aching hip, he sighed. “The feeling is mutual. Did you hear what happened here earlier?”

Annie nodded. “My maid heard the story from her cousin, who is an upstairs maid here. There aren’t any secrets in London.”

“Well then. Rosalind Nelson, the lady who was here with me…that is the woman I want to marry. For love, not damned duty or lineage.”

“Why?” said Annie curiously. “I mean, how do you know?”

“Because she is perfect for me in every way. Smart and kind. Loving. A wonderful mother to her little girl. And when we are together we cannot keep our hands…er…”

“Do continue.”

“I think not.”

“Oh, pooh,” she said, pouting. “Why is it that everyone always stops right when a conversation begins to get interesting?”

“To protect your, ah, delicate ears?”

Annie clenched her fists. “Blast! Hell! Damnation! Do I sound so delicate now? Besides, for your information, I’ve been kissed. Twice!”

His lips twitched violently. If they’d had this conversation a month ago, Annie would have been more experienced than him. “I see. So there is someone you wish to wed? Someone you have strong feelings for?”

“Yes,” she said, her whole body drooping. “I’ve found my gentleman equivalent of Lady Nelson. Unfortunately, he does not meet a single one of my father’s requirements. Lord Chisholm is a baron, his title is new, and he dabbles in trade. Oh yes, and most annoyingly, he refuses to ruin me.”

“Hmmm. You know, what we need is a small gathering that both Lady Nelson and Lord Chisholm could attend without suspicion.”

Annie looked at him, a little hope dawning in her eyes. “We?”

“Of course we. The only way to defeat the dragons.”

She giggled. “Terrible! You don’t happen to know someone in trade, do you?”

Jack stilled. Phillip Vale. The man would probably slam the door in his face when he heard the new name of Jack Reynolds, but he had to try.

For Rosalind, he could do nothing less.

Chapter 6

“Mama, Jack has been at work for three sleeps now. When is he coming home? Me and Wellington miss him very much.”

Rosalind cradled Felicity closer and stroked her hair, trying to pretend the question wasn’t shattering her heart for the hundredth time. When she’d come home after the hideous afternoon at Wakefield House, the lie about Jack being at work had slipped from her lips as she fled to her bedchamber to cry her eyes out. But of course her daughter remembered, which made her mother a double fool. Introducing a man into her child’s life, making him more than a fixture, almost a father figure, within a month. Of course it had all gone horribly wrong. And she only had herself to blame.

“Flissy, I need to talk to you about Jack. He…he’s not coming home.”

Her daughter went rigid. “Did he fall from his horse and go to heaven too?”

“No! No, darling, he is fine,” she said quickly, scrambling for some kind of explanation that Felicity would understand. “Jack just has, ah, a new house to live in.”

“Doesn’t…doesn’t he like me anymore? Is that why he won’t come to visit?”

Rosalind’s eyes burned at the tiny-voiced question, and she cleared her throat in an attempt to shift the boulder currently lodged there. “Jack thinks you are magnificent. And Wellington too. But with his new house, he has a special new job and lots of people to look after. So he needs some time to learn how to do that. And make some new friends in London, and spend time with his mama.”

“Jack doesn’t have a mama. He said his mama is in heaven,” said Felicity, leaning back and glaring at her with acute suspicion.

“Well, er—”

“Hello there, Captain Fliss!”

Glancing up, Rosalind almost swooned in relief at the sight of Donald and May standing in the nursery doorway. Even though her daughter had a nursery maid, Rosalind had never liked leaving Felicity without a family member, and her aunt and uncle had offered to visit for the evening while she went to Phillip and Claire’s house for supper. Claire had stopped by yesterday to invite her personally, and the woman had seemed frazzled, almost urgent as she pleaded with Rosalind to join them and discuss a most important matter. Perhaps their last session at Nelson Manor hadn’t quite worked as well as they’d hoped and Phillip needed more reassurance.