Ashley laughed again. “An inhuman climate,” he said. “Inhuman for Englishmen, anyway. Wealth—I must almost rival even you in riches, Luke. The desire to move on to the next chapter of my life. Homesickness.”
“And the desire to settle your family in their homeland?” Luke said.
“Ah.” Ashley laughed once more. “And that too.” He pushed away his heaped plate, the food scarcely touched, and got restlessly to his feet. “And your family has expanded since I was last here, Luke. I must see your sons today. And Joy. And Doris’s two are in the nursery here as well? Egad, but we have been a prolific family. Mother must be ecstatic.”
“’Tis never the way of our mother to show any emotion to excess,” Luke said. “But she is fond of each one of us. And her grandchildren too. She will be pleased to see young Thomas at last. We all will. Speaking of which—”
But the door opened at that moment and Anna came inside. She smiled warmly at her husband, who got to his feet and smiled back, and hugged Ashley and kissed him on both cheeks.
“Ashley,” she said, “I feared I had dreamed you up during the night. But you are really here. Dreadfully thin though. I fear the voyage was too much for you. Is that your plate? Do sit and eat.”
“Every mouthful, Ash,” Luke said, his lips quirking with amusement. “Anna’s wrath is dreadful to behold when one of her children refuses to be coddled. I have the notion that you are to be one of her children during the coming days and weeks. Until she has fattened you up.”
“What nonsense you speak,” Anna said, smiling sunnily at her husband. “But Ashley,if youare this worn and thin, what must Al—”
“I have been drawing good English air into my lungs this morning at least, Anna,” Ashley said. “I have been riding—galloping Sultan, actually, and incurring Luke’s wrath in the process. And walking. I found Emmy and Powell at the falls, quarreling.”
Anna bit her lip and looked at Luke.
He raised his eyebrows. “Emily and Powell?” he said.“Quarreling?”
“I saw her just now before I came downstairs,” Anna said. “She went early to the falls, Luke. To paint.”
“Ah.” Luke sighed and looked pained. “She was able to remain inside her cage, singing, for five days, was she, but had to break loose on the sixth? I suppose, Ash, she was not dressed demurely for the eyes of a lover and executing a picturesque water sketch?”
Ashley grinned.
“No,” Luke said. “I thought not. Well, my dear.” He leaned forward sufficiently to pat Anna’s hand. “I suppose he had to find out sooner or later that there are two quite distinct sides to our dear Emily. Better sooner than later. And they were quarreling. How can Emilyquarrel,pray? Ash?”
“She can lift her chin in the air and refuse to look at the one who has the advantage of a voice,” Ashley said. “She can refuse to acknowledge his very existence.”
“Dear me.” Luke drummed his fingers on the table.
“Emmy does not have to marry anyone,” Anna said fiercely. “She can remain here for the rest of her life if she wishes, dressed in her favorite rags and painting her strange paintings. I will love her no matter what.”
“No one, my dear,” Luke said with raised eyebrows, “is arguing with you. Ah.”
He got to his feet again as the door opened to admit a seeming flood of late breakfasters. He bowed over his mother’s hand, kissed Doris’s cheek, bowed to Lady Sterne, and acknowledged Lord Quinn and the Earl of Weims with a nod. There was a great deal of noise and bustle as the ladies hugged and kissed Ashley and the gentlemen shook his hand.
“I expected,” the dowager Duchess of Harndon said when they were all settled at the table, “that you would be on your way to town by now, Lucas. Lady Ashley and her son must be anxiously awaiting their removal here.”
“You are quite right to scold me, madam,” Luke said. “Blame a late night and a teething infant, if you will. Or blame Ashley, who has been elusive this morning and who did not tell me last night at which hotel in London I might find my sister-in-law and my nephew. But I shall be on my way within the hour.”
“I would go too,” Anna said with a warm smile for Ashley, “if ’twere not for Harry. There are a maid and a nurse, are there not, Ashley? Even so, will Alice and Thomas be well enough to travel as early as tomorrow? You certainly would not be well enough. I hope you have no notion of accompanying Luke.”
“No,” Ashley said, smiling about the table. “And there is no need for Luke to go either.”
There was a chorus of protest, but he held up both hands. He chuckled.
“There is something I neglected to mention last evening,” he said. “It seemed somehow unbecoming to the occasion.”
“Oh,” Anna said, her hands clasped to her bosom. “Alice isill.OrThomas.Oh, Ashley, are they having the proper care? How could you bear to leave them?”
“Hush, my love.” Luke covered her hand with his and kept it there.
“I traveled to England alone,” Ashley said. He was laughing. “I did not bring my wife or my son with me.”
“Egad,” Lord Quinn said, “then you will be going back soon after all, lad.”
