117 Eaton Square
Belgravia, London, England
Not long after Fiona’s departure
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“My lady,” Hobbes addressedhis mistress with a characteristic disregard for any other occupant of the room.“You have a caller.”
Eve glanced at the large clock on the mantel, noting the time was well before the noon hour, and back at Hobbes with a raised brow.It was quite unlike her ever-so-proper butler to admit—much less announce—a visitor so unfashionably early.
Whoever it was, the person must stand highly in Hobbes’ favor.Since so few did, Eve’s curiosity was justly caught.“Who is it?”
Though his facial expression never altered from its usual solemnity, the butler’s eyes shined brightly.“It is the Marquis of Aylesbury, my lady, who graces us with his most welcome company.Might I do us all the favor of showing him in?”
Eve looked with some surprise at the other occupants of the room, not only her sister, Kitty, but her sisters-in-law, Coline, Abby, and Moira MacKintosh—the latter two who the marquis had courted both in the past.Not surprisingly, they were smiling in delight, as was she, since Harrison Brudenall was well known for his—as Hobbes put it—most welcome company, and she had not spoken with him long the previous night.
It would be wonderful to have a longer chat and catch up.
Unfortunately, the five ladies were not the only occupants of the room.Nor were they in any state to receive company, as they were all casually garbed in simple skirts and blouses and playing on the parlor floor with their many offspring.Appearances aside, children were not conducive to formal entertaining.Especially when one was expected to host a marquis.
Eve wavered uncertainly, but Hobbes was clearly not to be denied the presence of someone he considered so congenial.“Might I suggest, my lady, that a gentleman once so...acclimatizedto the goings-on of this particular household would hardly be put off by being subjected to such a familial display?”
The other ladies rolled their eyes merrily at that.“Do let him in, Evie,” Moira cajoled, already rising awkwardly to her feet.“I haven’t seen Harry in an age!”
Concurrences were chimed in and Eve nodded her ascent to the butler, who disappeared through the door, leaving the ladies to eagerly await Aylesbury’s vaunted company.
* * *
Aylesbury left hisstepmother’s townhouse in Victoria Square in long, agitated strides, scorning the services of his carriage in favor of walking off the agitation that always clung to him upon passing her doors.
The woman’s senseless chatter would set him on edge even on a normal day.Her evasion of any serious topic of conversation or query—and there were many,many!to be had—picked away at his impatience like a miner doggedly intent on a vein of gold.This morning’s visit had been worse than usual.He could not bear it any longer.His questions, always the same yet so wretchedly unanswered, were seemingly destined to remain so.
It was as if she didn’t even care.
With so little hope left, Aylesbury did not know where to turn.
That his troubled footsteps had led him to the stoop of the Glenrothes townhouse blocks away from Victoria Square, hovered on the edge of his conscious thought somewhere between providence and misfortune.
There were equal enough troubles behind those doors to torment him even more, but more likely, there was a welcoming ear, if not solace, for his worries.Down to the last, the ladies of the MacKintosh clan were diverting, if nothing else.
So, when Hobbes showed him into such an astonishingly domestic scenario, and he was blessed by the smiling faces of five lovely ladies, Aylesbury was promptly and gladly diverted.
“Harry!I’m so sorry we missed you last night.”
Abby Merrill, now MacKintosh, approached with hands outstretched in welcome.Aylesbury took them in his own with a welcome jolt of gladness, pressing a kiss to each of them and then to her cheek.Ah, Abby!He’d once thought to marry this petite, blonde angel many years before.Her beauty and courage had been captivating, and he had briefly believed he loved her.Nevertheless, when her heart turned to another, his had not been broken nor overly bruised.“Abby.”
Nor had the vibrant redhead at her side broken it even fewer years before when she spurned his suit for another of the MacKintosh brothers.“Moira,” he greeted her with a kiss as well, squeezing her proffered hand affectionately.“You are positively blooming.”
“Outwardly, at least,” Moira agreed with a chuckle, running a caressing palm over the gentle swell of her abdomen.“This is our second already.”
Second?Aylesbury thought with some surprise as he stared with unseemly focus on Moira’s belly before lifting his head to survey the gaggle of infants and small children in the room beyond.Had it been so long?Hadshebeen gone so long?
Aylesbury shook away the thought and greeted his hostess, Lady Glenrothes; her sister, the Countess of Haddington; and Mrs.Sean MacKintosh with affection, though an affection more subdued for those ladies he hadn’t once considered taking for his wife.
“Come in, Harry,” Moira waved him further into the room cheerfully.“Come and meet my wee lass!Can I get you something to drink?”
“My apologies for greeting you so...en famille, Lord Aylesbury,” Eve apparently couldn’t resist adding, worried to give offense.
