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There was something so peaceful about the warmth of Marc’s breath against her neck as he slept, however, and Caroline couldn’t help butsmile.
“Mama.” Rachel’s voice sounded from the other side of her door, and Caroline’s heartstilled.
Dratitall!
“Marc,” she whispered, extricating herself fromhishold.
He blinked his eyes open in aflash.
She mouthed her daughter’s name to him, and Marc frowned slightly. Then he blew out a silent breath, kissed her quickly, and scrambled from her bed, retrieving his clothing ashewent.
“Mama, are you there?” her daughter calledagain.
“Yes, just a moment,” Caroline returned as she snatched up Marc’s waistcoat and tossed it after him as he disappeared into the dressing room connecting their chambers before he closed it behindhimself.
Heavens, what happened to that robe? There it was, on the far side of the bed, all crumpled in a ball. Caroline quickly slid into the garment, synching it around her waist and started for the door, but her foot tangled in the material and she fell to the floor withathud.
“Ouch!” shecried.
“Mama, are you all right?” Rachel called throughthedoor.
“Yes, I just stumbledisall.”
She pushed back to her feet and hobbled slightly to her door, feeling like a fool. Tripping over her own feet. Once upon a time, she’d beengraceful.
Caroline pulled the door open and said to her daughter, “You caught me napping.” Which was almost the truth. Shehadbeeninbed.
Rachel took in her attire and frowned. “Now you’re wearing hisclothes?”
Caroline released a sigh. It was time, probably past time, to have this conversation with her daughter. So she opened the door wider for Rachel to enter her chambers. “Mrs. Dawson took my clothes to belaundered.”
“So you’re just going to lounge around all day inhisrobe in the meantime?” Rachel asked as she stepped over Caroline’sthreshold.
“Hehas a name,” Caroline said, closing the door behind her daughter. “And I am quite unhappy with your behavior toward him, especially after everything he’s done for us. That behavior ends now,Rachel.”
Her daughter shook her head slightly as a crease marred her brow. “What are you doing with Lord Haversham? You’ve always told me that your name is only as decent as the companyyoukeep.”
Caroline had said that a number of times over the years, but…she couldn’t very well tell her daughter all of Marc’s secrets. They weren’t hers to share. “I would ask that you trust myjudgment.”
“And do youtrustmine?”
“Ofcour—”
“No, you don’t,” Rachel cut her off as she started to pace the length of Caroline’s floor. “Youthink I’m a foolish girl who doesn’t know what I want out of life and who can’t be trusted to make the best decisions formyself.”
“Are we talking about you hieing off in the middle of the night to a dangerous part of Town?” Caroline asked. “Because—”
“Heis my future, Mama,” Rachel said rather passionately as she stopped mid-pace. “I suspected it when I first spotted him last year, but I knew it for certain when he tried to save me from LordHaversham.”
Oh, good heavens! “Rachel.”
“Youalwayswax poetic over the power of true love and finding theonesoul who is your perfect match.” She shook her head. “And I found mine.I did,” she stressed. “And instead of listening to me, instead ofhelpingme, like you help everyone else in the world, you bundle us all up and pack us into a mail coach headed for Godforsaken Yorkshire for who knows how long so I canneverfind him; and all the while you’re wearing Lord Haversham’s robe and I don’t even want to know what else. And it isn’t fair. Not one bit of it,” she ended on a ratherdramaticsob.
Caroline’s mouth fell open slightly and she wasn’t at all certain what to say to that. But she felt sufficiently awful and…terrified. She was perfectly terrified as well. How could Rachel not see how dangerous the path was that she’dchosen?
“In the first place,” she began after collecting a couple thoughts, “your perfect match cannot be someone you’ve never had a conversationwith,and—”
“Papa knew he loved you,” Rachel began a bit softer than she’d been a minute before. “He spotted you across a ballroom and went to Uncle Robert thenextday.”
