Ewan jerked out a nod, and Matthew was shocked to see the tears sparkle in his cousin’s eyes. He moved on him, catching his arm with both his hands. “You know we will all love, protect and spoil this baby no matter what. He or she will never know a lack of acceptance. A lack of family.”
Ewan swallowed hard and patted Matthew’s hand before he walked back to the notebook. “I know. I still worry. Charlotte sees it. She comforts me, too. Sometimes, though, I can’t help but fear for the future.”
“You don’t regret your decision to take this life with my sister, do you?” Baldwin asked, his tone suddenly sharper.
Ewan jolted and he scraped out in all capitals, “NEVER!” He drew a few long breaths as if to calm himself and then he wrote. “The baby comes in a few weeks. Diana will be helping Charlotte with the birth. And then we’ll see.”
Matthew nodded. Diana was their friend Lucas’s wife, and a talented healer. “Yes, we’ll see. In the end, that is all any of us get, you know. Tragedy can strike in an instant to any of us. Don’t go looking for it if you can avoid it.”
“Your mother said as much to me when I was still tangled up over a future with Charlotte.” Ewan smiled.
Matthew returned the expression. “Well, she is, as you know, always correct.”
“Is that whyyou’reso troubled? Angelica?”
Baldwin arched a brow. “I’ve some thoughts on that subject.”
“Thoughts,” Matthew repeated. “Really?”
Baldwin shot Ewan a look. “I’ve heard he’s been spending time at the Donville Masquerade with Robert.”
Matthew’s eyes went wide. “Who told you that?”
“Hugh said the three of you went there when you all snuck out of James and Emma’s party. But thatyou’vekept going back.” Baldwin folded his arms. “Are you denying it?”
“No,” Matthew said. “Why should I?”
To his surprise, Ewan slapped his arm hard. “Good. It’s time to come back to your life, Matthew. We’ve all longed to see you do so.”
“So is itguiltthat makes you look so ragged?” Baldwin asked.
Matthew sighed. In truth, he wasn’t opposed to talking to the two of them about his troubles. Though both would be shocked, they cared for him and would not judge. And he needed an opinion on the matter that wasn’t from Robert and his skewed view on life and passion.
“There is a…lady,” he said.
Both men drew back, and their shock was clear. “A lady?” Baldwin repeated.
“A woman,” Matthew corrected. “She sometimes seems like a lady, though she implied she might be a servant or that she comes from trade. I met her that first night I went with Hugh and Robert. I’ve gone back because of her.”
Ewan drew a long breath and began to write. “Not that I’ve had much experience with such things, but even I’ve heard of the Donville Masquerade. Is it as wicked as described?”
Matthew pursed his lips as images of naked bodies, roaming hands, arching backs filled his mind. Images of his swan, writhing above him as she cried out her pleasure. It put his body on edge as he ground out, “Yes.”
“Does that mean she’s your lover?”
Matthew shifted at the question in black and white before him. He’d never been one to brag about his conquests, not that he’d had any in what felt like a lifetime.
“Yes.”
“Good God,” Baldwin breathed. “That is not what I expected. I thought you were just leaning on the wall, cursing Robert for his interference.”
“It started that way,” Matthew said, running a hand through his hair to expel some of the restless energy this topic created low in his belly. “He dragged me there, and you know how hard it is to resist him. But I didn’t intend forthis.”
“How did it start?” Ewan wrote.
Matthew shut his eyes. He could picture that first night so perfectly. “She was being harassed,” he said. “I couldn’t let that stand. I stepped in, we talked, I was shocked by this instant connection.”
Baldwin smiled softly. “I know a bit about that.”
