He stood with Emily for a long time while the inner noise and turmoil gradually ceased their clamor and he became part of the beauty of the night with her. Part of the beauty of being.
“Let us go back inside,” he said to her at last with a sigh, tipping her head back with a hand beneath her chin so that she would see his lips.
“Yes,” she said.
He knew that she was consenting to a night of love. No frenzied reaching for comfort by either of them for the rest of the night. Merely a mutual giving and taking. A night of love, even if tomorrow brought denial and a harsher reality.
•••
Asbad fortune would have it, Roderick Cunningham was wandering in the garden early in the morning and saw them returning, even though they had headed for the side door rather than the front entrance.
Ashley, who had an arm about Emily’s waist, felt her tense and shrink against him. But it was impossible to cover up the truth. He tightened his arm reassuringly, kissed her swiftly on the lips, and opened the door for her.
“All will be well,” he said quietly to her before she turned and disappeared up the stairs. “There is nothing to worry about.”
Poor Emmy. He would have saved her from the embarrassment and humiliation if he could have. She would not realize, of course, that Rod was the soul of discretion. Ashley turned to look rather ruefully at his friend, who was smiling back at him.
“If there had been a tree to duck behind, Ash,” he said, “I would have discreetly availed myself of its services. I trust you have had a good night’s... sleep?”
Rod did not understand. “She had need of me,” Ashley said more curtly than he had intended. “I do not know what happened yesterday. She does not frighten easily.Somethinghappened. We are not involved in any sordid affair.”
Major Cunningham looked instantly contrite. “I never for one moment thought you were, Ash,” he said. “She appears to be a sweet lady. ’Tis too bad she suffers from such an affliction. She has been unable to explain what it was that happened?”
“Not unable,” Ashley said. “Unwilling. I mean to wring some answers from someone else today, though. It will mean deserting you for an hour or two this morning, Rod. I trust you can amuse yourself?” He grinned. “But help my brother and sister-in-law keep an eye on Emmy, if you will be so good.”
“’Twill be my pleasure,” the major said. “She is relaxing on the eye, Ash. Perhaps she will confide in me, a virtual stranger. Does she have any means of communicating?”
“She can write,” Ashley said.
“If I were you,” his friend said, looking him up and down, “I would follow Lady Emily through that door, Ash.Imight believe that those clothes are suited to a morning ride, but I am remarkably gullible.”
Ashley slapped him on the shoulder and laughed. “Right,” he said. “My brother is decidedly not.”
He let himself in through the side door, looked about to make sure there was no one in sight, and ran up the stairs.
•••
TheDuke of Harndon was reclining comfortably on a nursery chair, watching his wife suckle his youngest son. He had been there for only a few minutes.
“All is well,” he said. “They have returned.”
“All is well!” She looked up and met his keen gray eyes. “Were we foolish, Luke, to agree to bring her here?”
“As I remember it, my dear,” he said, raising his eyebrows, “Emily was invited to come here and accepted and we were invited and accepted. We did not bring her as we brought Joy and George, James and Harry.”
“Oh, Luke,” she said, “you know what I mean.”
“I do.” He rested his elbows on the arms of the chair and steepled his fingers. “But it has come to my notice, madam, that Emily is not one of our children. Or a child at all, in fact. And that Ashley is no longer a boy in need of my guidance and discipline. They are adults, both of them.”
“But—,” she began.
“We cannot bear the burdens of other adults on our own shoulders, my dear, much as we love them. I cannot escape from the conviction that Theo somehow maneuvered this—with his lady as an eager accomplice. And I cannot help wondering if they have not been wise. There is something between those two, Anna, something they must work out between them. Happily, ’tis to be hoped.”
“Oh, Luke,” she said. “If only—”
“But we can do nothing,” he said firmly. “Our son is going to grow fat if you continue to so indulge him.”
She smiled fondly down at Lord Harry, who was sucking lustily. “You have said that of each child,” she said. “But none of them are fat.”
