As yet, they had not attended any society events as a couple, and Evelyn had a feeling he was letting time pass after the rumors that had forced them to marry, not wanting to give anyone further reason to speak about them.
She would rather face all of the people head-on, show them that there was nothing further to speak of — but then, he had made it clear that he was the one who was in charge, whose opinion mattered.
“Your grace?”
Evelyn looked up from her work to find her maid standing in the doorway of her bedroom, where she often hid away from all the new demands on her time, with her puzzles.
“Yes?” she said, hoping, for a beat, that perhaps Asher wanted to see her, to spend time with her.
She had continued her visits every morning to The British Institution, but, as of yet, Asher had not joined her as he had promised.
“The dowager duchess would like to take luncheon with you.”
Oh, joy. There were many things that Evelyn would rather do than have luncheon with her mother-in-law. Running over hot coals being one of them.
“I would be happy to,” she said with a forced smile. “Thank you, Diana.”
Evelyn sighed, summoning all of her strength.
She was going to need it.
14
“Lloyd? Do you know where my wife is?” Asher asked as he walked in the door. He’d had a particularly trying morning, meeting with the earl whose land bordered his in Sheffield.
Now, indescribably, all he wanted was to see Evelyn.
He still had to come up with an excuse as towhyhe needed to see her, but he would think of something.
“She is having luncheon with the dowager duchess,” Lloyd said, his expression as unyielding as ever.
“I see,” Asher said, pausing with a wince. That couldn’t be good. “I shall wait until she is finished, then,” he said, but still, he couldn’t fight the draw that took him toward the front parlor, where his mother always took her light mid-day meal.
While she had said time and again that this was Evelyn’s house now, he knew that his mother was still holding onto as much control as she could manage.
He paused in the doorway, debating whether or not to interrupt as he heard his mother’s voice.
“We must continue to keep up an ordered household,” she was saying. “No matter what happens, if we keep order, then all will continue to run efficiently, and we will not be questioned.”
Asher had to battle the protective instinct that flared within him, the one that urged him to jump in and tell his mother to leave Evelyn be.
He forced himself to wait, to see if she could handle this without him.
“Questioned by whom?” Evelyn asked, her voice full of innocence, but he smiled to himself, knowing that, in her own way, she wasn’t backing down from his mother’s not-so-subtle hints.
“Why, society. Those in our own circles and those we oversee,” she said.
“But why do their opinions matter so much?” Evelyn responded.
“Because if we show any cracks, they will find their way in and make those cracks so pronounced that they will no longer trust us to do what we need to do.”
“Which is?”
“Look after everything.”
There was a pause in the conversation.
“I have heard,” Evelyn finally said slowly, carefully,” that it is easier to look after others if one first looks after herself.”
