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“Can’t wait to hear all about them.” But those slippered feet were getting closer, so Marc released his hold on her and took astepaway.
A moment later, little Emma bounded down the corridor, holding a piece of parchment in her hands. “Mama,” she said, barely audibly around a mouthful of lavender drops, “Lord Havershamwantedto—”
“Emma,” Caroline chastised. “Do not talk with your mouth full.” Then her gaze flashed back to Marc. “I suppose this is yourdoing?”
He tried not to smile, but he couldn’t help it. “I might have made a stop at the Sugar Plum Shoppetoday.”
“You just happened bythere?”
Marc shrugged. “She liked them so much, Caroline.” Then he chanced a glance at Emma. “But they’d last longer if you just had one at a time,mydear.”
The little girl shot him a radiant smile. Then she waved the parchment in the air. “Mypainting!”
“Of the trick riders,” he said. “Oh, do show me.” He lifted his hand out for her picture, but she slid her hand into his instead and began to tow him somewhere down thecorridor.
A moment later, Marc found himself sitting on a settee in the parlor, looking at…well, an awful painting, really. Emma Benton might be a very sweet little girl, but she was not Rembrandt. She wasn’t even Rembrandt’s talentless third cousin. The whole thing was one big mess of watercolors with a brown spot near the bottom that might or might not have been a horse. “Very nice,”helied.
Caroline stopped just inside the threshold, watching them. Marc winkedather.
“And see how she’s standing on his back?” Emma asked, drawing Marc’s attention from Caroline back to her painting, pointing at a globofblue.
He saw nothing of the like, but he nodded anyway. “Oh, I do,” he said squinting at the painting. How awful for the girl not to have any sort of artistic skill at all, especially if she liked topaint.
“Mama.” The little girl glanced up at her mother. “Is Lord Haversham coming with us to Vauxhalltonight?”
Vauxhall? Marc could definitely be talked into Vauxhall and the dark walks and perhaps getting lost with Caroline somewhere alongtheway.
“I don’t—” Carolinebegan.
But Marc quickly said, “I wouldn’tmissit.”
Chapter17
The ferry dockedat the Vauxhall stairs, and Caroline and her daughters disembarked along with a handful of other passengers. She held onto Emma’s hand, though her attention was on Rachel, just in front of them. Caroline almost hadn’t allowed her oldest daughter to attend this excursion, but since Luke would be with them and…if Marc really did join them, Rachel wouldn’t be able to disappear down any darkened walks with both of them present,wouldshe?
Still, Caroline wasn’t certain how she felt about Marc joining their group. After all, the two of them were already being whispered about, even in print. And then there was the matter of her daughters, Emma in particular. She was already looking at the blackguard as though he’d personally hung the moon, the same way she’d once looked at David, even though the two men could not be more different. It was one thing to risk her own heart with this madness, and quite another to risk her daughter’s. Because when things between Marc and Caroline fell apart, as they inevitably would, as all of his entanglements always had, what would happentoEmma?
Caroline and the girls ascended the stairs, and she quickly spotted Luke, Juliet, and their three-year-old son Benton, waiting for them at the main entrance to the pleasuregardens.
“Ben!” Emma squealed and pulled her hand from Caroline’s as she bolted toward her tinycousin.
Rachel glanced back over her shoulder at Caroline and frowned. “I was never like that. I don’t care whatyousay.”
No, Rachel just snuck from the house in the dead of night to chase after dangerous men in masks. Though Caroline didn’t say those words aloud. That afternoon, she and Rachel had argued so long and so loudly over her daughter’s previous night’s escapade, and she didn’t want to rehash the whole thing again, not here, not now, not with a number of witnesses. “You will keep an eye on her and Ben thisevening.”
“Yes,” Rachel muttered under her breath. “Just as much fun as Isuspected.”
But Caroline heard her and was equally certain Rachel meant for her to. “You are fortunate,” she whispered, “that you’re even seeing the light of day. Don’t make me regret mygenerosity.”
Rachel followed in Emma’s wake and warmly greeted her aunt and uncle, while Caroline glanced toward the grove, wondering if Marc was already there. She didn’t see any sign of him, but he did excel at popping up when one leastexpectedhim.
Juliet handed her son over to Emma’s eager arms and started toward Caroline, a concerned expression marring her pretty face. “What exactly did he say to you last night?” she asked softly once she reached her so no one else couldoverhear.
He? Oh, Marc. Of course, everyone thought he’d said something awful and that Caroline had abandoned the Clayworths’ to escape him. That felt like a lifetime ago, honestly. And she didn’t have any desire to lie to her sister-in-law, especially if Juliet planned on murdering Marc for hurting her. There was, after all, no reason for that. At least not yet. “Absolutely nothing,” she confided quietly. “It was all justaruse.”
Juliet took a startled step backward. “Indeed?” Her warm brown eyes rounded in surprise. “I can’t wait to hear all about it. We’ll send Luke off with the children to see the balloon ascent.” Then she linked her arm with Caroline’s and led her toward theothers.
A moment later, Juliet urged her husband to tour the gardens with the children and made him promise to meet them at the supper box before the lamps were lit as dusk wasapproaching.
