“Something else to remember,” she advised with a nod. “But the boys learning how to go on in public? Actually, I enjoy them quite a lot. I feel I am performing a service for my sisters, who will benefit from their dance partners gaining a little polish. It is something you will allow, of course, knowing how innocent the interactions are.”
“It is?”
“Of course. Every married woman must have hercicisbeos.”
“May I at least grumble a bit, glare at one or two, just so they know I’m paying attention?”
Blast him, his easy smile stirred a brew of delight in her chest. She could quite well come to love this kind of banter.
“Only three grumbles per ball,” she insisted. “More if it is to help me discourage one of the encroaching. Or the reeking.”
“Now that,” he said with a grave nod of his head, “would be my pleasure. After all, if you dance with one of them, you might bring that olfactory insult home with you. And that I will not allow.”
They were both grinning now. “Oh, good. I will enjoy having a co-conspirator. The other kings aren’t nearly as understanding.”
He gave her a bow. “It will be my honor.”
“You smell quite lovely, by the way,” she murmured, leaning a bit closer.
That incited another risen eyebrow. “I do my humble best. I also quite appreciate the sense of a summer garden you carry with you. Very...evocative.”
“Why, thank you. My friend Anastasia helps me make up the scent especially for me.” She sighed a bit. “She says it reflects who I wish to be rather than what I am.”
“You wish to be gorse?”
“I wish to be free to wander the woods back home, or possibly the moors, the headlands.”
“To walk?”
“Or ride. Just the time and freedom to lose myself in a spring day without dragging all the family challenges along with me.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.” She closed her eyes and sighed. “Alone.”
Although suddenly she thought she might not mind the company of a certain ex-soldier. Holding her hand, laughing with her as they watched rabbits skip away and red squirrels chide them from the plane trees. She had never once felt the need for company, not even her cousins. It frightened her that her dreams might be changing without her permission.
“Well,” he said, “You are in luck. From what I understand, at least three of my estates have quite a bit of land to tromp over. Two are on coasts. Coleford Abbey itself is near Gloucester. Painswick Park, I’m afraid, is more inland.”
“Oh, blast,” she retorted, sitting up straight as she remembered the ball from the other night. “I forgot. Do you really have an estate in Wales? Will we truly be forced torusticate there and challenge the ghosts for sleeping space while you’re away?”
“Llanthony Court,” he said with a nod. “Sadly, though. No ghosts. At least, none who have importuned me. And no. We can save that pleasure for later. “
But that brought up another rather urgent question. “I haven’t even thought,” she admitted. “Wheredoyou expect us to reside while you’re away?”
He did her the kindness of considering that a moment. “Until we can face the estates together to determine what needs to be done—which I’m afraid is undoubtedly a lot—why don’t you stay in London and concentrate on bringing some life into the townhouse? We’ll make the grand tour when I get back.”
She nodded. “We can at least rid the place of that horrid, musty, leaky roof smell that follows one from room to room.”
He scowled. “Noticed that, did you? I tried to have Mrs. Chalmers bring in fresh and dried flowers, but that is again like?—”
“Perfume on an unwashed body.”
Wincing, he nodded. “It has put me completely off my feed.” His sudden grin was rueful. “Except for cinnamon buns, I’m afraid. Many more of those and I won’t fit my uniform.”
“They are quite tasty.”
For a long moment there was no sound but the unhurried clop of the horses, no movement but the slow stroke of Grey’s thumb against the seat back. Georgie didn’t feel that hum, now. It was worse. She felt a welling in her chest, as if emotion had volume and weight, filling her, unsettling her, threatening her balance.
