“It’s not really suffering. I love them all.” She sat back when he grimaced. “What is it? He came back, didn’t he? Are we to be fined?”
“No,” he said quietly. “He brought a record of the last deed of sale. To prove to me his office’s assessment. And I apologized. And invited him to my birthday party along with his wife and five children.” He slapped his hand to the settee. “I’ve no idea how old they are, but I worry for their safety with the St. Clair girls in residence.”
He scoured his face with both hands before fixing her with his straight gaze. “I always believed Farendon was stolen from me. That my father gave Farendon to your father as a sort of bribery against my prosecution. But it seems—no it is correct—that your father paid twice the value for Farendon, and my father took the money. Happily.
“You said as much once. And I never read past the first lines of the document when Oliver showed it to me.” He looked over her shoulder and into the distance. "The day I left for the colonies.”
She hugged him tightly before resting her cheek on his shoulder.
After a time, she asked softly, “Does it matter so much to you?”
A short laugh shook him. “I feel not so magnanimous, I suppose.”
Georgiana shot up. “Magnanimous? Have you been lording this over me? This entire time?”
“Maybe,” he said lightly, grinning and sweeping his arms around her. One hand ventured lower to squeeze her buttocks, a part of her anatomy especially valued by her husband.
“Oh, you poor thing.”
“Indeed.” He frowned, fighting a smile. “I am. Very low.”
“Hmmm.” She trailed a finger down his chest to a button on his fall where his anatomy was already rising against the setback to his pride. “What if I were to assist you in regaining the benevolent opinion you have of yourself?”
His hand still holding her bottom, he deftly plucked the buttons of her fall with the other. “Such as?”
“Taking pity on an exhausted mother. Showing her how much you love her and cherish her body.”
He cocked a brow. “Mind you, I am so low it might take hours.”
“I don’t doubt it,” she replied with a shiver.
And then Georgiana locked the study door and allowed her love to mend his dented esteem with children shouting abovestairs, Oliver arguing, the July sun shining through the drapery, and horses galloping over the pastures.
THE END
