She really shouldn’t have doubted it. Before she’d married Aaron, Phoebe had spent her time skulking about London’s less reputable neighborhoods, and Clio knew she still had some contacts from those days. Also, the staff all adored Phoebe. The carriage driver would have told her everything immediately.
Aaron was … well, a man of his stature and military career, and could never be said topout. But he was looking rather dejected at Clio’s lack of enthusiasm. Apparently, in another life, Aaron had been a dreadful matchmaker.
“You’re the only one in the family who isn’t married,” he said gently, as though this was news to Clio. “And, of course, we will never force you to do something you don’t want, and you will always have us, always. But …”
Clio tried not to sigh. It wasn’t kind, not when he was being so earnest.
“Won’t you feel as though you are missing out?” he inquired delicately. “On … love? And children?”
She struggled to paste on a cheerful smile, one that obscured the pang that she felt when he said such a thing.
“There are plenty of people in the extended family who aren’t married,” she reminded him. “Like Ezra. And Daphne. And the triplets.”
Aaron gave her a skeptical look. “Daphne is out this Season,” he argued. “And the triplets are, what, ten years old?”
Clio bobbled her head in acceptance of this point. It hadn’t exactly been her strongest argument.
“And,” Aaron said, pressing his advantage. Not for nothing had he been an accomplished military commander. “Do you really want to compare yourself toEzra?”
Their cousin Ezra was like a black cat, one who was mysterious even to his own family. Clio was admittedly a bit impressed by his ability to constantly keep everyone guessing, but she did not necessarily want to share his chaotic way of living.
But she also didn’t want to marry just anyone, just because Society or her brother thought that it was time, or because they worried that she would later regret it if she didn’t.
After all, she’d knownfarmore people who regretted marrying hastily than those who regretted remaining unwed, especially in the case of women.
Which meant that it didn’t actually matter that much if Clio felt a twinge of interest when Aaron asked her to think of herself as married with children, with the kind of happy life that so many of her kinsfolk enjoyed.
It wasn’t the kind of thing you could force.
“Well, there isn’t any real rush, is there?” she asked airily. “Nothing that will be utterly ruined—” Oh, she regrettedthatchoice of words immediately. “—by a few weeks spent enjoying the sunshine in France.”
“Yes, but …” Aaron looked to his wife for support, but Phoebe wore a carefully placid look. “You just got back.”
“I don’t know,” Phoebe said mildly. “The trip does sound nice.”
Aaron grew instantly suspicious.Instantly. Clio didn’t know what Aaron had been up to this past year while she’d been abroad, but it had made him irksomely canny when it came to understanding his wife’s subtle signals.
“What is going on here?” he demanded. His gentle confusion had grown harsher, though he did not seem to understand any better. Now, however, he was annoyed about it. “What are the two of you up to?Howare the two of you up to anything? Cliojust arrived!”
The sound of a polite, quiet throat-clearing came from the door, drawing attention to the butler, who was standing there in that distinctly English-butler sort of way. Clio hadn’t seenthatin a while. Staff on the Continent were rather more expressive … but then again, your average rock was more expressive than most English butlers.
“I apologize for interrupting, Your Graces, Lady Clio,” he said impassively. “But Your Grace—” This part was only directed at Aaron. “—I wanted to assure you that the damaged carriage has been hauled back to the mews and is being attended to. The grooms are not confident that it can be salvaged, however.”
“The … damaged carriage,” Aaron echoed. He looked at Clio, who wore a mask of impassivity that even the butler might haveenvied, and then at Phoebe, who was staring at the ceiling like she’d never seen it before.
Huh. So perhaps Aaron’s skills at detecting lies hadn’t improved in the past year; perhaps Phoebe had just become very bad at hiding her thoughts.
Marriage was sostrange. It should have made Clio fear the entire institution, but …
Aaron pressed his lips together tightly enough that they went white around the edges from the pressure. He gave the butler a nod of dual acknowledgment and dismissal, then turned on the two women in the room.
“I think,” he said carefully, but with that bar of military steel in his spine that had long cowed England’s enemies, “that it is time that you tell me everything.
Hector looked up at the London house.
HisLondon house, officially speaking, though he didn’t feel any kind of connection to it. He hadn’t been here for … decades.
But then again, he hadn’t been to any of the places that were technically his home in decades. And the one place where he had spent his time was likely lost to him forever.
