“So do I,” she said, noting without guilt that half the morning was gone already, yet they were still sitting at the table in their dressing gowns. “I want to spend an hour or so with Araminta before she leaves her cousins’ house to return to Kent. I will go now since you have something else to do.”
He got to his feet and bent over her to kiss her—such a simple but lovely gesture of affection.
“You are going to call on your mother?” she asked. “You do not want me to come too?”
“No,” he said. “This is best done alone.”
Coward that she was, she was glad he did not want her company. She must call upon her mother-in-law, of course, before they left London, as they intended to do within a few days. They needed to go as soon as possible to Roxingley in order to make it ready for the onslaught of summer guests they had invited. Colin had not been there in eight years, and even then he had gone just briefly for his father’s funeral. She had never been there. Very possibly there would be much to do. Indeed, if the drawing room at the house on Curzon Street was anything to judge by, there very probably would be much to do in order to make Roxingleytheirs—hers and Colin’s. But she looked forward to the challenge immensely.
Except for the looming problem of what exactly they were going to do about Lady Hodges—no, theDowagerLady Hodges if she chose to move back to Roxingley in the summer. Colin had mentioned the possibility of building a dower house, but that would take time.
They left the hotel and traveled together in Colin’s carriage to the house where Araminta Scott was staying. He came briefly inside with her to pay his respects to Araminta and then continued on his way to his mother’s house. He would send the carriage back for her convenience, he told her.
“Oh, Lizzie,” her friend said with a deliberately exaggerated sigh as the door closed behind him, “he is really quite delicious. Where may I find someone just like him, if you please?”
“He is one of a kind,” Elizabeth said, laughing, “and he is mine. Now tell me what you plan to do with your life now you have had some time to give the matter some thought.”
Araminta Scott was a year younger than she. But she had never married, mainly, Elizabeth was convinced, because her father had been determined to keep her at home to serve him. Now her friend was free to live a bit. Perhaps to live a lot.
They settled into a comfortable conversation.
•••
Colin had not outright lied to Elizabeth, though he had not corrected her misconception either. It was not his mother upon whom he was calling. It was someone else. He hoped the man was at home. He would simply have to come back some other time if he was not. It was time he had answers.
Lord Ede was at home, as it happened, though it took him almost half an hour to come to the small visitors’ salon off the main hall where Colin had been asked to wait.
Lord Ede entered the room and waited until his butler had closed the door behind him. He was tall and immaculately dressed. His silver hair gave him a distinguished look, though his handsome features had been somewhat ravaged by time and hard living. He stood a little way inside the door, a slightly mocking smile playing about his lips, one eyebrow partially raised as he regarded his visitor.
“Well, my boy,” he said softly, “this is an unexpected pleasure. I trust you left Lady Hodges in good spirits this morning?”
“AmI?” Colin asked him. “AmI your boy?”
“Dear me,” Lord Ede murmured, and both eyebrows went up to give him a look of arrogance. “Whatever gave you that idea?”
“And Wren?” Colin said. “Is she yours?”
Lord Ede took his time about withdrawing an elaborately enameled snuffbox from his pocket and flicking it open with his thumb. He examined the contents.
“Might I ask what has put such an extraordinary idea into your head?” he asked.
“Mother always called Wren’s birthmark a judgment on herself,” Colin said. “My father sent Wren away and made sure she was dead to the family. He sent me away to school when I was eleven and to Oxford after that. He did not do the same for Justin, yet Justin was the eldest son. I was always Mother’s favorite.”
Lord Ede closed the snuffbox without availing himself of its contents. He looked at Colin for a few moments with lazy eyes.
“Perhaps, my boy,” he said, “you should be having this discussion with your mother.”
“I am having it with you,” Colin said.
The half smile played about Lord Ede’s lips again. “A discussion has to be a two-way thing,” he said.
“You will not answer my questions, then?” Colin asked him. “But you will not deny that you are my father?”
“Ah,” Lord Ede said, “but I will not confirm it either. Your evidence is quite flimsy. Your father did not disown either you or Rowena. Perhaps he sent her away for her own good. If that was so, then he did well by her. Perhaps he sent you to school because you asked it of him and he wished to please his younger son. You were a beautiful, good-natured child, and the youngest, a natural to be a mother’s favorite. Your evidence is very flimsy indeed—my boy.”
“If youareour father,” Colin said, “then I believe it is time you did the honorable thing. You could not do so at the time because your wife was still alive and presenting you with children. And Mother’s husband was still alive.”
Lord Ede regarded him with almost open amusement. “You believe,” he said softly. “Go on believing, my boy. It is your cheerfulness and optimism and the added streak of honor and stubbornness that have always endeared you to your mother. And to me—as her particular friend.”
