“I don’t think so, darling.”
He obviously wasn’t going to be granted a vote in such matters, anyhow. He waved her off. “Do what you must.”
His mother nodded in satisfaction, but his sister sent him a scowl as they both rose, smoothed their skirts and turned to leave.
“Don’t work too hard.” His mother said over her shoulder with a wink before following Priscilla out of the room.
His response was a dry chuckle.
The door closed and in the ensuing silence, Gabriel stared down at the account books unseeing.
He’d have to set time aside for Victoria. Not that he minded entertaining, but he’d grown rather comfortable in his routine.
It would be good to spend some time with his intended. Aside from the drive Gabriel had taken her on and one outing to the theatre, he had seen very little of her last summer.
He shuffled his paper into a stack and turned to stare out the window. When he’d last undertaken to get to know a woman better, he’d uncovered the delights of Olivia. Literally. And God, but what a delight she had been. He only wished…
Gabriel glanced down at the paper in front of him.
Olivia.He’d scrawled her name at the top, as though she was secretly dancing around inside of his brain. Balling the paper up and tossing it across the room, he chastised himself for not moving on already. If he wasn’t careful, he’d find himself writing sonnets about her. And likely they’d not be very good ones.
Or even fit for genteel readers, for that matter.
Because despite the months that had passed, his hands itched to touch her, his memory strained to recall the exact shade of her eyes, and his heart ached just to be with her. Other parts of his anatomy strained at the thought of her as well.
* * *
“You will come,won’t you, Olivia?”
Olivia had known Louella was up to something this morning when she’d arrived bearing extra cakes from the kitchen at Ashton Acres.
“Crawford assures me the estate is lovely. And the drive will only take half a day.”
Olivia hated it when Louella asked for anything—her younger sister being the one person in the world she could not say no to.
But this…
Louella was not done yet. “Her Grace insists she nor her daughters can attend, as their year of mourning isn’t up.” It was well known to Olivia that Crawford had insisted he nor his wife would mourn a man he’d hated. “Since Cameron has been so busy at the mine, he’s suggested that I take the opportunity to attend and meet some of his family’s acquaintances. He would attend with me but…” Louella grimaced. She need not explain anything to Olivia in regard to the demands of that horrid hole in the ground. “I think he feels guilty for neglecting me, even though I assure him that I understand. I told him I’d ask you to make the journey with me. There will be a good deal of people that I’ve not met before, and I… Oh, Livvy. I just really want for you to come as well.”
But this wasLady Kingsley’shouse party.
Gabriel’smother.
“I have not been invited.”
“Lady Kingsley’s invitation included all of my sister-in-laws as well as the dowager and even the children. I doubt she’ll have any problem if I bring my sister along.”
Olivia raised one skeptical brow.
And then Louella sighed. “You’ve not quite been yourself, Livvy, ever since last spring. I think it would do you a wonder of good to get out of Misty Brooke for a few weeks.”
Misty Brookehadgrown tiresome. Although several months had passed since the cave-in, many of the locals refused to relinquish the notion that Olivia had had something to do with it. This made it difficult for her to move about town as comfortably as she had before. Most of them simply stayed out of her way. Some refused to meet her eyes—which was no new thing for Olivia—but there had been a few who’d dared to make unseemly comments.
Never when she was with Louella or His Grace, or even any of his sisters. Only when Olivia was alone.
“Could not Lady Lillian attend with you? I can stay at Ashton Acres… to assist with the children.” It was her best excuse. Olivia could not, would never, tell Louella about all that had transpired between her and Lord Kingsley. Even now, her behavior with Gabriel seemed shocking.
“Her Grace insists all her daughters adhere to the full year. As to the other, Mrs. Habersham has them well under control. And she has two nurses to help her already. Please, Olivia?” Louella batted her eyes and pouted prettily. “Puuleeez?”
