Page 131 of A Duchess for his Family

“I did. Though I am uncertain whether I have arrived at Rivermere or some lawless establishment where children are supplied biscuits before supper.”

Marjorie pointed immediately at Benedict. “He brought them.”

Nathaniel looked scandalized. “Benedict?”

Benedict sighed.

Nathaniel came farther inside. “The same Benedict who once informed me that eating sugared cake at five o’clock demonstrated moral weakness?”

“I said no such thing.”

“You implied it.”

Marjorie gasped. “Sophia says he does do that.”

Benedict looked at her. Marjorie smiled. Nathaniel accepted a biscuit.

“You see? Her Grace and I are united by scholarship.”

“You were not offered one.”

“I assumed generosity had spread.”

“It has limits.”

Nathaniel took a bite. “Excellent. I feared you had suffered a complete transformation.”

The girls pulled him toward the fortress. Nathaniel inspected it with far more seriousness than the structure deserved.

“This western wall is vulnerable.”

Marjorie crouched beside him. “I said so!”

Amelia frowned. “It is a cushion.”

“All the more reason.”

They spent the next several minutes redesigning Admiral’s defenses. Benedict remained on the rug. He watched Nathaniel deliberately place a cushion incorrectly so Marjorie could accuse him of incompetence. He watched Amelia laugh until she had to set down her biscuit. Warmth filled the room.

For one brief, painful moment, Benedict could almost imagine Sophia in the empty place beside him. She would sit with her skirts folded beneath her. She would object to Nathaniel encouraging Marjorie. She would secretly encourage Marjorie herself. She would meet Benedict’s eyes across the children’s heads and smile.

His chest tightened.

Amelia’s voice interrupted the thought. “When is Sophia coming home?”

Something in Benedict went still. Amelia looked at him. So did Marjorie. Benedict glanced toward Nathaniel. Nathaniel’s expression had lost its amusement. He offered no rescue.

Traitor.

Benedict looked back at Amelia. “I don’t know.”

Her face fell slightly. “But she is coming home?”

“Yes.” The answer came immediately. Whatever else happened, Sophia would return.

Wouldn’t she?

A sudden coldness moved through him. Her note said a few days. He had treated those words as certainty, perhaps because considering otherwise was intolerable.