“She doted upon Caroline,” he said. “She will surely see Katy as Caroline’s child and will not punish her for also being mine.” He did not mention the fact that she spent very little time with Katy—if what Mrs. Evans had written almost two years ago still held true.
“Lawyers can be the very devil,” Harry said. “Mineused to bore me silly after my father died. He could prose on forever. And it was he who uncovered the truth about my father’s two overlapping marriages. I daresay it needed uncovering, though. Poor Anna, living all those years in an orphanage, not even knowing her proper name. She went by the name of Anna Snow, when in reality she was Lady Anastasia Westcott. We were thunderstruck when we found out, were we not, Abby?”
“We were,” she admitted. “And we behaved badly for a while, Harry, something I will always regret, fornoneof it was Anna’s fault. But we have strayed from the topic of Lieutenant Colonel Bennington and his daughter. Is there any help we can offer beyond moral support? I keep thinking there must be something.”
“I am really not asking for help,” Gil said hastily. “This is my problem to deal with. I am only sorry you have to know anything at all about it. But Beauty discovered you under that willow tree this morning, Miss Westcott, just when I was feeling at my most frustrated after reading the letter from my lawyer. I must, of course, leave the matter in his hands, as I have been doing since my return from St. Helena, and trust that he knows what he is doing. It is not easy for a soldier to trust someone else to do what he yearns to do himself, preferably with his sword or his fists.”
She was frowning, her own plate of food and cup of tea apparently forgotten on the table beside her. “You told me your lawyer claims to be negotiating from a position of strength,” she said, “while the general’s lawyer must be assuring his clients that he is doing exactly the same thing. There must be some way of tipping the scale in your favor, Lieutenant Colonel. There must be a way of making your case to take your daughter into your own care more convincing.”
“Without the fists and the sword?” he asked.
“Forget fists and swords,” she said. “They are not the answer to everything or even to very much. There has to be something else that does not involve violence.”
Why was she so concerned? And why had Harry not ordered him to leave as soon as his story had been told? Perhaps he ought to take matters into his own hands, after all, and pack his bags.
“What you need, Gil,” Harry said, frowning in thought, “is a wife. A mother for your daughter.”
“Unfortunately,” Gil said, “Caroline is dead.”
“Well, of course she is,” Harry said with a dismissive wave of one hand. “If she were not, we would not be having this discussion, would we? You would not even be here. You would be at home with her and your daughter. You need anewwife.”
And somehow as he said it Gil found himself locking eyes with Miss Westcott. Her cheeks turned scarlet under his scrutiny as she looked sharply away and reached for her plate. What the devil? She did not think Harry was suggestingherfor the role, did she? And she did not think he—
“Someone like Abby,” Harry said, his voice cheerful again, totally unaware of the acute discomfort he had just caused his two companions. And he was not finished. “She would be ideal, in fact. She—”
“Harry!”she cried, her voice an agony of sound. “You are embarrassing Lieutenant Colonel Bennington horribly.”
“Am I?” he said, and looked from one to the other of them. “But you look the more embarrassed of the two, Ab. My apologies to you both. That is what comes of thinking aloud. But you must confess a new marriagewouldbe the ideal solution, though not necessarily with Abby. A judge would hardly withhold custody from both a fatherandamother, would he? You need to meet someone, Gil. Soon. Is there anyone among our neighbors who has taken your fancy?”
Gil got to his feet though he had not touched his tea. “Absolutely no one, Harry,” he said firmly. “And even if I had, how flattering would it be to the woman concerned if I asked her to marry me so that I could recover my daughter from the clutches of her evil grandparents? I am taking myself off to my room. I daresay Beauty is ready for another walk, rain or no rain.”
He took the stairs two at a time again.
Beauty, who had been dozing on her pillow beside his bed, was indeed ready for a new adventure. She always was. She scrambled to her feet in her usual ungainly manner, shook herself, and trotted beside him down the stairs and out into the rain.
You need a new wife. Someone like Abby.
Good God!
Oh, devil take Harry and his unbridled tongue.
•••
“Did I embarrass you, Ab?” Harry asked after the door closed behind his friend.
“Of course you did,” Abigail said.
“I was thinking out loud,” he told her.
“Sometimes,” she said, “that is not a good habit to cultivate. Especially in the hearing of people likely to be horridly embarrassed.” She sipped her tea, pulled a face when she discovered it to be cold, and set her cup back on its saucer.
“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” he said. “Actually, Abby, it still does. Having a new wife would almost be bound to help Gil’s cause.”
“Butme?” she said. “Are you out of your mind?”
“Possibly,” he conceded. “I have spent a lot of time out of it during the past few years. Perhaps permanent damage has been done. But whynotyou?”
She stared at him, speechless.
