“It might stop you flirting with the maids,” Hale said.
“I always flirt with pretty girls,” Fosterson said firmly.“And Withy has already warned me off his.”
“His wife?”Hale said, startled.
“Don’t be an idiot!The pretty maidservant!I have some honour, you know!”
“Ha,” said Hale rudely.His attention had returned to Piers.“What made you choose your wife, Withy?”
Piers had assumed the question would come up at some point and had already elected for honesty and absolutely no detail.“Honour,” he said.“And love.”
They were all silent for a little before Hale said abruptly, “I like her.She suits you.”
“She does,” Piers agreed, and changed the subject.
It was only when he and Hale were alone in the stables, unsaddling their own horses, that Hale seemed to return to the matter somewhat obliquely.
“You don’t mind about Claudia and me, do you?”
Piers blinked.“Of course not.I like Claudia and heartily approve.”
“She wondered if our engagement might upset you.”
Piers frowned.“Why on earth would I be upset?”
“Oh, come on Piers!We were pretty much rivals at one time.”
A lifetime ago.He had almost forgotten.Certainly, the matter had slipped far to the back of his mind.“Boys’ stuff,” he said, although even as the words came out, he wondered if they were true.A few vague memories were inserting themselves into his mind, a little blurred by time, growing unhappiness, and, latterly, the effects of too much alcohol.And other substances.“I suspect it was always you and Claudia.”
Chapter Five
After his odd conversationwith Hale, which had fortunately moved on into something more comfortable, Piers was glad to return to a tranquil scene in the house.Sticking his head around the drawing room door, he found April in conversation with Professor Algernon, who sat beside her on the elegant sofa.Claudia was reading some learned tome while Mrs.Hubble and Meg were engaged in needlework.
April’s gaze went to him at once.She smiled as she always did on seeing him again, a smile of pleasure and welcome that invariably lifted his heart with wonder and banished any fragments of loneliness still trying to haunt him.
“Ah.How was your ride?”asked the professor.
