“I’m not so sure,” young Connor exclaimed. “Papa’s getting on in years.”
“I’mwhat!” Connor growled at his son.
Young Connor grinned. “Gotcha!” He laughed heartily and playfully poked his father, something no other duke would have accepted from a son, because few of high rank had such open and easy relations with their children.
Connor took it all in stride and ruffled the boy’s hair. “I’ll take you on after I defeat Aubrey, you smug whelp.”
“My bet’s on Papa,” Alex declared.
Connor ruffled his youngest son’s hair, too. “At least one of my boys appreciates me.”
“I appreciate you too,” Priscilla said, and pushed aside her brothers to hug him.
Connor bent to hug her back. “Thank you, my sweetheart.”
Yes, Eden thought, that little girl was the only female who would ever claim his heart. Well, he loved his mother, too. But he was not going to give his heart to any other woman. The sooner Eden accepted it, the sooner she might fall out of love with him.
Perhaps this was what made Lord Aubrey’s deception all the worse, this knowledge that no man wanted her. Not a young man. Not an older man.
No man.
Connor ultimately won the arm-wrestling competition, but these two were very closely matched in strength.
Teatime had long since come and gone by the time all the guests scrambled into the carriages and returned to Lynton Grange. Eden hopped into Connor’s carriage with Priscilla, while Lord Aubrey and the boys rode in the carriage behind theirs, along with Lord Aubrey’s mother and sister.
Eden did her best to pretend all was well, but she was not certain she had fooled Connor, because he kept glancing her way and frowning. She breathed a sigh of relief when his magnificent manor house came into view. The house was enormous, yet the stone façade was as warm as the gold stone of the Cotswolds, and the door was an inviting sea blue framed in white trim. Bright red flowers abounded along the courtyard’s borders, adding to the charm of his home. She ran inside, ignored her mother as she approached and began unloading yet another complaint—something about shoe buckles—and hurried upstairs to her bedchamber. “No time to talk now, Mama.”
“But Eden, this is urgent! I am bereft! I haven’t a suitable pair of slippers to wear to—”
“Then go barefoot, Mama!”
“Eden!”
She dashed into her room, shut the door, and then leaned against it while letting out a sob. Her entire body was shaking from the strain of having to hide her anguish. She did not care about her mother’s shoes or her wardrobe, all of which were perfectly fine.
How could she care about these trivial complaints while her heart was tearing in half? Nor was her wrenching sorrow about Lord Aubrey, as nice as he had seemed. He was handsome and titled and everything she should love, but she was not in love with him. That he had so convincingly lied to her was the painfulpart. For one bright moment, he had given her hope that not all men considered her an unwanted object collecting dust on a shelf.
But that little glimmer was quickly extinguished. She was nothing but an aging spinster, and this was how everyone viewed her.
How everyoneusedher.
Connor himself had only wanted her as a governess for his children. She recalled his shock when she had made the mistaken assumption he was asking her to be his wife, when all he wanted was to have her care for his children during the house party.
Her tears were for Connor and the impossibility of his ever loving her.
It felt as though the entire world was laughing at her.
Yes, quite the jest.
One man who was pretending to adore her for the sake of his sister’s schemes to trap a duke into marriage. And said Silver Duke remained firmly determined never to marry.
Add two incompetent parents. A dozen missed opportunities for happiness. And here she was.
Closer to thirty years of age than twenty, and doomed to a loneliness that would only deepen as time wore on.
She set aside the little glass dog that really was a nice gift, even if the viscount who gave it to her was a bounder, threw herself onto her bed, and cried in despair for a heart—herheart—that would never know love.
Chapter Eleven
