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His throat worked on a swallow. “Why are you unable to play the pianoforte?”
“My father is Baron Humphrey. You might not know him as my parents hardly come to town. His modest estate and lands were impoverished and affording a grand pianoforte was simply not possible.” Lucinda cleared her throat, wondering at her ease with talking with this man. “My very first husband was…he was kind and bought me one as a gift, but somehow I never took the time to learn.”
“Do you want to learn?”
“I do not long to, though there are times my friends play, and I yearn to join them.”
He made a wry sound and gently circled her back with his hand. The caresses cascaded more heat through her limbs.
“Who was your first husband?”
“Viscount Landen.”
He stiffened. “Landen? What age did you marry him?”
“I was eighteen.”
“Hell.”
She laughed. “It was not so bad. I had no dowry, and my parents could not afford a season. It was quite by accident we met when I dropped a book on his foot. He was older…by twenty-three years, but he wasn’t decrepit. That is why I was so shocked when he died only a year later.”
“You mourned him,” he said softly.
“I did,” she said, turning her cheek against his chest. “We were friends. He was very kind and considerate of me. Though I did not fall into passionate love with him, I loved and respected him. I suspected he knew of his illness but chose not to speak of it. He also left me an unentailed estate that was set up so that it belongs only to me even if I remarried. He taught me many things about land and financial management. I have used that knowledge to help myself and several friends invest our monies to earn tidy sums.”
“A good man,” he said warmly. “Come, let’s go inside.”
Her heart jerking she followed him, mildly amused when he led her into the music room and to the bench positioned before the pianoforte. They sat together and he ran his fingers over the keys.
“This is a Bach sonata,” he murmured.
It was beautiful and she held her breath as he played. She smiled when he took one of her hands and rested it atop his.
“Feel the music as we play,” he said with a smile.
Lucinda’s breath hitched, a sense of awe filling her being when his hands started to glide over the keyboard. Alexander had a gift, and the room came alive with the sound of music. She could not say how long they stayed like that, but she eventually lowered her hand from his, and rested her head against his shoulder.
He played and played, the music seeping into her soul. Sleep beckoned her and she closed her eyes and drifted away. She stirred, feeling that she was held in someone’s arms, and that they walked with her.
Alexander.
It felt good and safe being held so securely against his chest as he clasped her weight with easy strength and mounted the stairs. She must have drifted off again, for the next thing she knew was the feel of the mattress at her back. Lucinda sighed and turned into the pillow, allowing the sleep to drag her down in its comforting arms.
The very next day, Lucinda continued on their journey to her mother and father’s modest estate. Rosamond wailed her discontent, but Lucinda was unmoved. Lucinda and Rosamond was set to reach Fammington Manor in the late afternoon, after setting off later than intended because Rosamond had wanted to spend as much time with Oscar as possible.
This had meant that when the luggage had been loaded into their carriage Rosamond was nowhere to be found, so after searching for the missing couple, Lucinda had sat down for luncheon with the family and Oscar and Rosamond had appeared when their stomachs sought nourishment. Lucinda saw no point in scolding her young cousin but had not let her out of her sight until they boarded the coach, waving goodbye to Alexander and his relatives.
“Please, cousin, may we—”
“Our carriage is repaired, and we have no reason to remain at Hawthorne Hall.”
“The earl extended an invitation to remain as long as we wanted, cousin!”
“And does that mean we should accept?”
Tears shimmered in Rosamond’s eyes and Lucinda bit back her impatience. “Why are you acting so out of sorts?”
She gripped her fingers tightly and looked outside the carriage windows at the rolling countryside. “I merely found Oscar to be very good-natured and amiable. I would…I wanted to get to know him better.”
