Page 14 of No Ordinary Lady

“Who’s this?” Daniel asked as he winked at the young woman when she finally lifted her gaze to him again.

“A nursemaid for Mrs. Nolan,” Mother informed him crisply. “Lord Scarsdale, this is Miss Christine Willis, the maid I promoted to tend my mother as her companion.”

Daniel excused the unnecessary maid for his grandmother as he moved to approach the older woman. He bent down to hug his tiny granny and then dropped a loud smacking kiss on her upturned cheek as he whispered, “We’ll find her a better position later. Darling, how are you?”

“All the better for seeing you, my dear boy,” she said, raising a hand to his face and touching his stubbled cheek softly. “You look like you need a drink, Danny.”

He didn’t but nodded. “I’ll fetch us one,” he promised, heading for the sideboard.

Mother disapproved of drinking before luncheon, but Granny imbibed freely any time of the day or night. Daniel could hardly keep up with her but usually kept a glass in hand to keep her company and dilute the impact of Mother’s scowls.

He was sorry mother and daughter did not get along better, if they ever had. “Mother, would you care for a glass of something, too?”

“Of course not.”

He shrugged. When he turned around, Mother was sitting stiffly and glaring at him, with Granny sitting beside her, smiling.

He passed Granny her drink and sat back down, dangling his glass from his fingers. “Is there anything that requires my immediate attention now that I’m home?”

“I would have said so immediately if there was,” Mother quipped.

“The door to my chambers is sticking,” Granny murmured, casting mother a searching look. “I should hate to be locked in by mistake again.”

“I would not like that to happen, either,” he promised, wondering what had been going on to make Granny believe she’d been deliberately locked in her room. “I’ll have the carpenter look this very afternoon.”

“Such a good boy,” Granny murmured approvingly, and he smiled, glad to be of service to someone. It wasn’t often that he was given anything to do around here.

“Now, what brings you home?” Granny asked because Mother had fallen silent and watchful.

“I missed you,” he said honestly, and encompassed his mother in his glance, too, though he wasn’t sure she would believe him. They may not see eye to eye on much these days, but Mother had given birth to him and deserved his respect. He just never managed to show it in a way Mama ever seemed to approve of.

As a boy, a simple gesture of affection, placing wildflowers in her bedchamber, had earned him a severe reprimand for sneaking out of the house and making a mess of petals that the servants had to clean up later. Impulsiveness never seemed to win Mother over as a boy, so he’d stopped making much of an effort to surprise her.

“Well, I am glad to hear it, but I’m more interested in what sent you running from London so early in the season,” Granny asked. “It must have been serious to bring you back to this dull place.”

“Marriage,” he confessed.

“Yes, I’d heard your friends had made several scandalous matches,” Mother murmured in a disapproving tone. “I’m glad to know you’ve ended your association with them.”

“My good friends all made matches for the right reasons in recent seasons. They fell in love, Mother,” he corrected. “Something I’m sure no one in this family will do again.”

Mother frowned at him then, but it was Granny who spoke up. “There’s still time, Danny, my boy,” she promised. “You’ll find someone to steal your heart soon.”

He smiled at her optimism, but shook his head. “I doubt that. I’ve looked around long enough, and it’s time to be sensible about certain things. If I cannot have love, then I’ll settle for the next best thing.”

Mother sucked in a sharp breath.

Granny frowned now. “Daniel, say nothing rash that you’ll only regret later.”

“It’s not rash at all, but it is time to make an acceptable match,” he murmured, agitated that his bachelor days had now finally and officially ended.

In London, it had been easier to reconcile his decision to settle down and have a child of his own. Now that he was at home in the countryside, admitting it to those who thought they knew him best, doubts assailed him. He yearned for the excitement of London again, where he could put off his fate a little longer.

But that wild, carefree life was over. He didn’t want to live alone anymore. His friends were married and soon to have their own children to inherit their titles. They were far too busy to come out and play with him anymore.

That was what he had to do. He would not be like his father and become an old man, too old to play, when his child arrived in his nursery. It was a miracle the late lord Scarsdale had lived to see Daniel reach even his tenth birthday, he’d been so sick.

And when Papa had passed, everything had changed for the worst. The laughter he’d assumed would always be his had vanished, only returning when Granny landed on their doorstep less than a year later with all her worldly possessions and never left.