Page 63 of Holding Onto Love

She’d just had tea. And she could not imagine what they would talk about. But she was struck by a sudden, overwhelming desire to spend time with Jasper’s people. With ton people. Lord, she was as bad as her father, wanting in where she didn’t belong.

She nodded. “I would like that.”

“Let’s go to Mundy’s,” Georgiana suggested. A different tea shop, thank goodness, but several blocks away. “All day, I’ve been craving their cardamon cakes.” She laid her hand on her abdomen in an absent way that spoke volumes. Vanessa felt an almost unbearable pang, amplified when Reginald placed a fond, protective hand on the small of his wife’s back.

“Mundy’s it is.”

They left the shop and walked down the street. Reginald kept his hand on his wife’s elbow, but there was room to walk three abreast, so Vanessa did not feel too much like a third wheel.

“So,” Reginald said, “you’ve been in Binnings all along?”

“No.”

He looked embarrassed again. “I beg your pardon.” He shook his head. “I won’t say anything to Jasper.”

“Won’t you?”

“No. Crispin wrote that you might contact me should a need arise.” Reginald grinned. She could see, then, the family resemblance. Although Reginald did not possess the fair aristocratic features of his brothers, he had Jasper’s mouth and humor-filled blue eyes. “He threatened me with some unspecified retribution if I revealed your whereabouts.”

“Then I suppose I must trust your word.”

Georgiana smiled wryly. “Reginald is not afraid of Crispin. But he is a man of his word.”

Vanessa said, “I’m not living in Binnings. I live a fair distance away. I wouldn’t have come if I thought I’d run into anyone who might know me.” And now, she would never come back. “You have property here?”

“We don’t,” Reginald said. “Crispin has a cottage that he has let us use. We returned to check on some work being done.”

Good Lord. She couldn’t believe Crispin, of all people, had a hideaway in Binnings.

“We came to steal away for a second honeymoon,” Georgiana corrected him. “Even though it is rather too soon after our first.”

Vanessa almost rolled her eyes at the deep blush that stole over Reginald’s face.

Georgiana went on. “We have a house in Cambridge. Reginald is working for Frederick Bastion on a translation of several Greek manuscripts.” She beamed proudly and Vanessa understood the work must be impressive, even if she didn’t understand why. But Jasper had always spoken so highly of his youngest brother’s intelligence, that it made sense he’d be involved with something scholarly.

They reached the curb in front of Mundy’s. Vanessa raised her skirts a couple of inches and stepped as best she could around a large puddle. Georgiana attempted to follow her, but Reginald put his hands on her waist and swooped her over it. He possessed the Taverston strength, despite being a few inches shorter than his elder brothers.

They entered the tea shop and chose a table. Reginald asked a server to bring tea and cardamon cakes. Just as they were about to sit, Georgiana touched Vanessa’s arm.

“May I see your shoes?”

“My-my shoes?”

When Georgiana nodded, Vanessa raised her hem again.

“Oh! How splendid! How lovely! Reginald, look!” Georgiana raised her eyes to Vanessa’s. “They are boots like Hessians, are they not? Are they comfortable?”

“Yes, very.”

“I do a lot of walking, you see. Around Cambridge. The streets are just as bad as London’s. Oh, and boots like that would be perfect for traipsing about Crispin’s cottage. Did you buy them here?”

Vanessa could not have envisioned it could be so easy. “Not here. But if you are truly interested…” She waited for Georgiana’s enthusiastic head bob. “I can take a tracing of your foot and a string to measure around your calf and have the boots sent to you. It may take a month or so.”

“Would you?” She reached over and clasped Reginald’s arm, turning to look at him. “Do you think I might?”

His expression was melting. “Of course, you may have shoes.” He laughed a little, reddening, then explained. “We have been playing at budgeting and failing miserably. Jasper gave us a landau and two horses, for pity’s sake.”

She flushed also. Hadn’t she been playing at budgeting while sitting on a small fortune gifted to her by the same man?