“How is Lady Torrington this morning?” his mother asked, surprising him with her concern for Bess’s welfare.
“She is doing well. Perhaps you would like to visit with her?”
He continued to hope his mother would extend an olive branch to Bess. And he continued to be disappointed by her refusal.
“Yes,” she agreed suddenly, shocking him. “I do think I shall. Will you see that the cat eats the rest of her breakfast? I don’t want her to follow me about complaining all day.”
He tried to stifle his grin and failed. “Of course, Mama.”
She inclined her head, every bit the regal viscountess she had always been. “Thank you, Torrington. Her meow is quite vexing, you know. It makes me bilious.”
Angel’s meows weren’t the only thing that made his mother bilious, but Torrie refrained from saying so as she took her august leave of the breakfast room, leaving him alone with the cat.
“Just you and I, Lady Razor Claws,” he said to Angel, who was watching him with a keen emerald stare. “What shall we have for breakfast?”
* * *
“Come,”Elizabeth called at the tap on her chamber door, supposing it was her lady’s maid returning with a tray of tea.
She was desperately ungainly these days with her lying in fast approaching, and resting in the morning instead of making her way downstairs helped her aching feet and back immensely.
When the door opened, however, it revealed not Culpepper, but the dowager.
Elizabeth instantly shifted in the mound of pillows Torrie had thoughtfully arranged for her before leaving to find Angel. Good heavens, what was his mother doing at her chamber door? She had no doubt she looked a fright, wearing nothing but a dressing gown, her hair unbound and falling in a wild tangle down her back.
“Good morning,” the dowager offered quietly, along with a tentative smile as she hesitated at the threshold. “May I come in?”
“Of course.” She struggled to pull her body into a more upright position. “Good morning.”
Although the dowager had gradually become less frosty with her over the course of the last few months, Elizabeth still didn’t know where she stood with her husband’s mother. Her presence in her chamber this morning was unexpected. Almost troubling.
“I hope that nothing is amiss,” she added, thinking of her missing companion and fretting. “Have you seen Angel? Torrie went to look for her, but he hasn’t returned.”
The dowager crossed the chamber, looking elegant as always, her dark hair beneath her customary cap. “The feline is making herself at home in the breakfast room. You needn’t worry on that scamp’s account.”
Elizabeth detected the note of fondness in the other woman’s voice, despite the manner in which she spoke about Angel, and couldn’t suppress her smile. “That is a great relief to me. I feared she had made her way into the kitchens and escaped again.”
Angel had indeed been intrepid enough on several occasions to find her way into the mews. But fortunately, some clever groomsmen had always been about to catch her and return her to safety.
“May I sit?” the dowager asked, gesturing toward a chair near the bed.
“Of course. Would you care for me to join you?” Although hauling herself from bed was no easy feat, she would happily do so if the dowager wished it.
After all, she would have to find her way to her feet eventually, even if the prospect alone made her weary.
“Remain where you are, my dear,” the dowager said, seating herself primly. “I remember what it is like to be in your slippers. Torrington was a dreadfully large babe, and I spent weeks of my confinement in bed, too tired and ill to move.”
Elizabeth had been plagued with only a small bout of sickness early in her pregnancy, and the rest—aside from her tremendous belly—had been blessedly smooth. She was grateful for that, and grateful too for the child who would soon arrive.
“I’m fortunate that I haven’t been ill,” she said, still wondering at the reason for her mother-in-law’s unexpected visit.
“Your disposition is too sunny for it, I suspect,” the dowager said, and Elizabeth couldn’t tell if she was paying her a compliment or an insult.
“I suppose that perhaps it is,” she agreed politely.
“You’re wondering why I’ve come.”
The dowager’s pronouncement took her by surprise.
