“Sit,” she directed, and he obeyed, sitting next to her.“What happened?”
He opened his mouth to give a gruff retort but then found he could not make a sound.He closed his mouth again.
“Have you quarreled with Monty?”
His mother’s face was placid.She had been beautiful as a younger woman and she was beautiful now as an older woman, her blond hair half faded to white, her light blue eyes giving her kindness an imperious air.
He had never told her about his latest quarrel with Monty.No, he realized, she was referencing the times in boyhood and as a young man when they had fought over trifles.It had always soured his mood.
“Or Trem?Or the duke?”
He shook his head and swallowed.
“Is it Miss Salisbury then?”
He nodded, feeling faintly humiliated that he was so transparent.
“Oh, my darling.I am sure it is not as hopeless as it seems at present.I did like her.Although I suppose I would like anyone who touched your heart.”
“What do you mean?”he said, finally managing words.
“Well, I could tell by the way you looked at her that night at the opera that she was different.And then you disappeared altogether.I had so hoped—well, I hoped you had finally found love.”
“I did,” he said, unable to meet her eye.“But it all—” He completed the sentence by raising his hand and then letting it fall.
“Ah, I see.Well, perhaps, all is not lost.”
He wanted to believe his mother.But her words did nothing to lessen the ice that had settled around his heart.
“She has returned to Somerset.To be with her family there.”
“Well then, perhaps, my darling, you will have to go to Somerset.”
“She doesn’t want me there.”
“Have you talked of marriage?I know you are a traditionalist when it comes to these matters but, really, Thomas, if it is a matter of love—”
“Iam a traditionalist?Mother, you are one of the patronesses of Almack’s.”
She sighed.“ThatI cannot deny.And I admit, in my younger years, I took comfort in adhering to the rules.Perhaps I made you too worried of breaking them.”
He scoffed.“I have hardly been an angel.”
“Oh, I know.You are aRank Rake, darling.And now the last one standing.But even when you or your friends were at your wildest, you were always the one who strayed the least far from convention.”
“I never wanted to worry you.Overly.”
“I know, my love.And now I’ve gone and done something that has worried you.”
He grunted.“So you’re still marrying Gresham, then?”
“Yes, my darling.”
“Has the gossip been terrible?”
She sighed.“Well, they haven’t been kind.I am not sure how much longer I will be a patronessatAlmack’s.But I had hardly enjoyed the work for years.So it is not a loss.”
“I suppose you really love Gresham.”It was odd to him that his mother might be possessed by something like the passion he felt for Beatrice.But it had to be something similar to drive her to take this step.
