“Duchess!” Her sister-in-law was always careful to refer to Isolde by her title when in public. “You have returned at the perfect moment. Please join us on a stroll through Hyde Park. Cousin Aubrey wishes to explain the engineering marvels of the Serpentine.”
The pleading in Allie’s silver eyes was nearly comical.You cannot leave Ethan and me to fend for ourselves with theseidioti!
“Is Kendall not at home?” Isolde asked. Tristan was her first priority.
Allie shook her head. “I’m not sure where my brother went, but he is not here.”Come with us, her eyes continued to shout. “Cousin Aubrey’s treatise promises to be fascinating.”
Isolde doubted that his discussion of hydraulic engineering would be scintillating, or even educational given her own studyof the subject, but she could scarcely abandon Allie in her hour of need.
“Of course,” Isolde replied. “I should be delighted.”
Which is how Isolde found herself walking beside Allie across Grosvenor Square and down Brook Street toward Hyde Park.
Ethan, bless him, took on the role of entertaining the Duchess of Andover, walking ahead of Allie and Isolde. As usual, Ethan poured on the charm and soon had the duchess laughing.
“Ethan truly is a national treasure,” Isolde murmured to Allie.
“Indeed, he is.” Allie lifted an eyebrow. “I’m going to tell him you said that.”
“It will go to his head.”
“Absolutely. But it will also make him more likely to run interference like this again. Thank you for joining us, by the way. The duchess refused to accept my demure attempts to avoid this excursion. I think she wished to flirt with Ethan.”
Given the duchess’s bark of laughter, Isolde didn’t doubt it.
“My pleasure,” Isolde replied, taking in a careful, shallow breath and swallowing down the bile climbing her throat.
Now that she knew she was pregnant, everything assaulted her senses—the noise of carriage wheels clattering on the flagstones, the stench of horse manure, the drifting waft of coal smoke.
Isolde pressed a handkerchief to her nose in order to combat it.
When they paused at Park Lane to cross the street into the parkland proper, Allie looked at her with curiosity, gaze dropping to the cloth Isolde religiously breathed through. After a moment of staring, Allie’s eyes went round as saucers.
“I see,” she said in delight, placing a hand on top of the wee swell of her abdomen where her own child grew.
“See what?”
Allie grinned. “Niente. Merely that I am eager to become an aunt and for my child to have a cousin as a playmate.”
She paused, waiting for a confirmation that Isolde did not give. Tristan still deserved to hear the news before his sister, twins or no.
Allie’s chin lifted in understanding. “I take it my twin does not know yet.”
A break in the traffic permitted their party to cross the street, tiptoeing around manure. Reaching the opposite side, they stepped onto the wide gravel path and strolled into the park. The dimming of noise and the fresh air through the trees eased Isolde’s stomach, allowing her to drop the handkerchief.
“I haven’t spoken to Tristan yet.” Isolde shook her head. “I only realized this morning after he had left for the day.”
Allie leaned in as if to say more, but Lady Lavinia’s strident voice reached them. “Whatever seriousness are you two discussing?”
The woman had paused on the pavement several paces ahead.
“Nothing of import, Lady Lavinia,” Allie called sweetly.
Ethan, the Duchess of Andover, and Cousin Aubrey glanced their way but continued to stroll ahead.
Lady Lavinia, however, waited for Isolde and Allie to catch up to her and then glued herself to Isolde’s side as they walked.
“Well, if it is nothing of import, then pray tell,” Lady Lavinia taunted.
