“And a new wife would remedy the financial issue and end the whispers.”
“They would,” his mother said with resignation in her voice.
“So we will assume she loves him and he her.After all,” he said and put his cup and saucer down on the table.“There must be more than her money for him to consider a leg shackle.At thirty-three, he’s getting long in the tooth.”
His mother winced.“She’s…passable.”
“Pass—” Putting his napkin to his mouth, he wanted to guffaw.Richard would never even glance at any woman who wasn’t incomparable.Dull, American, uneducated.Lascivious, adulterous, unprincipled.Without thought, he’d take each to his bed if he fancied their faces or forms.But plain or ugly?Neither merited a moment’s fascination for him.
“Ah, let’s go in now!”Called one young lady to her companion and his daughters.
“Here they come,” his mother whispered.“Gird yourself.Your girls have been starved for you and the two ladies can be whirlwinds.”
He began to rise to his feet.
In a rush of giggles, wispy white muslin and exclamations of delight, four beings dashed in front of him.Two jumped up and down.The other two, taller and willowy, stood behind the younger, grinning and wide-eyed as if they’d never seen a man before.In the shadows, stood the girls’ amah, young demure Wu-lai.
“Papa!Papa!”His two chicks barreled into him before he could find his balance.They fell in a heap to the sofa.They were kissing his cheeks, and hugging him as if they’d squeeze the stuffing from him.
“Oh, Papa!”crooned his oldest, Vivienne as she gazed up at him with a grin so like his own.“We’re so glad you’ve come.We’ve had such a good time.”
“We have!”said six-year-old Deirdre with the earnest turquoise eyes resembling her grandmother’s and his own.She smelled of roses, like the red bud in her hand.“You’ll like our new friends.Grandmama likes them.”
He cupped Deirdre’s cheek and then his oldest girl’s.He kissed them on the crowns of their shining strawberry blonde heads.“You must introduce me, then, shouldn’t you?”
“Oh,” said his oldest in serious rebuttable, “we cannot, Papa.Grandmama must introduce you, mustn’t you, Ma’am?”
His mother chuckled.“You can see what good influence I’ve had, Victor, that I’ve managed to teach them rules of etiquette in the two weeks you were in London.”
“Wu-lai does not know rules of the English, Grandmama,” Vivienne said with concern.“We will teach her the right things.I promise.”
Wu-lai, his children’s Chinese nursemaid, had come with them to England.At fifteen, she was the daughter of thecompradorto his factory in the port of Shanghai.Bright, she had learned English quickly in his household school for his servants in the British quarter.When he decided to return to England, he’d asked her if she would like to accompany them.When she agreed, he was overjoyed he’d have help to care for his children on the long trip from China home.
Disentangling himself from his girls, he faced the two young ladies who had laughed and played in the garden.And he was riveted by their appearance.
His mother began her formal introductions.
He registered the formalities of her words.
“Miss Esmerelda Moore, may I present my son, Lord Victor Cole, lately of Shanghai, China.Here to stay in England forever, we do hope.Don’t we, girls?”
His children echoed his mother’s sentiments.
But his head buzzed.
His eyes filled with the vision before him.One young lady, plain and pleasant.
“How do you do, Miss Moore,” he said, bowing slightly.“I am delighted to meet you.”You, with your brown hair and round little face.
“And this is her good friend from New York and Baltimore, the youngest daughter of Killian Hanniford of Hanniford Companies.I think you wrote last year that you’ve heard of his businesses?Yes?May I present Miss Ada Hanniford.”
“Yes, indeed.How do you do, Miss Hanniford.”How do you do?With that open smile, that riot of glistening cinnamon hair and jolly blue eyes, you fare quite well, I’d imagine.A princess among commoners.
Forthright, open, up to the occasion, she beamed at him.American in every frank, refreshing way.She was a froth of confections, plush pink lips, rosy cheeks and spotless ivory complexion.He could imbibe all the sweetness of her and never tire of the sight.Or the desire to taste her perfections.
She dropped a quick curtsey.As she rose, she locked her lovely eyes on his.“I am delighted to meet you, Lord Victor.”
“The delight is mine.”I see why Richard wants every scintillating, voluptuous inch of you…and why he mustn’t have you.
He would take you, use you, despoil you.And rob you of that spontaneity which takes my breath and makes me wonder if I can ever regain it.
