“No one as special as—” Lucy cut herself off, biting her lip, but it was too late.
Bess’s eyes sharpened on her face.“Lucy.Do not tell me you are still obsessed with that awful highwayman!”
Lucy set her jaw stubbornly but tried to keep her voice light.“All right then, I won’t tell you.”
“Dear Lucy, you know you can tell me anything.”
I used to be able to, Lucy thought with a pang of sadness that she shook off with a determined smile.
She wondered what Bess would say if Lucy confessed that she’d had scandalous affairs—plural!—with men on the Continent, and not one of them had made her feel a tenth of what she felt for The Gentle Rogue.That even when she was in the arms of another man, her thoughts had strayed to the highwayman and the connection she felt with him.
“Don’t worry, Bess.My interest in The Gentle Rogue is purely professional,” she lied.
“Oh yes, yourMidnight Riderstories for theObservator!I have so enjoyed reading them.Your brother is so proud of your writing, you know.”
“He told me.”And hadn’t that been an interesting letter to receive, Lucy mused.She cherished the image of her stern, taciturn, grim-faced brother curled up with one of her outrageously romantic epics.“The Gentle Rogue’s exploits have indirectly made me quite a tidy little sum, I’ll have you know, and my publisher says the public is clamoring for more of my highwayman.I’ve got to figure out how to bring the story to a close, but I’ve been somewhat…blocked.I don’t even know if I want it to have a happy ending, with the highwayman riding off into the sunset with the innkeeper’s daughter, or something tragic that will make all my readers cry.”
“I won’t pretend to understand a writer’s needs and I’ll never know how you come up with all those wonderful ideas for stories.All I’ll say is I hope your fixation with The Gentle Rogue, professional or not, isn’t keeping you from forming an attachment to someone real.Someoneyoucould make a life with.”
Lucy had to swallow hard around a sudden lump in her throat.Bess had always been able to slice straight through to the heart of a matter, with such a deft touch that one didn’t feel the cut until it had already sliced one to ribbons.
Lucy wasn’t a fool.She knew there was no future with someone who insisted on going masked and using a made-up moniker.Someone who only appeared by moonlight, like a dream, which was what he was.A fantasy, come to life.
But how could she explain that The Gentle Rogue had never felt like that to her?When she was with him, it felt more real than any passing flirtation in a ballroom or dalliance with a handsome French aristo ever had.
Lucy knew she couldn’t expect Bess to understand when she hardly understood it herself.
The pain of it stung Lucy into retorting, “Someone like the Duke of Thornecliff?I still can’t believe he is welcome in this house.That you would call that scoundrel a friend!”
To Lucy’s annoyance, Bess gave her an amused look.“I’ve been wondering how your outing went.I suppose I have my answer.And of course you needn’t see any more of Thorne, if he upsets you this much.”
Lucy felt the tips of her ears go hot.“Well.As it happens, I’ve agreed to let him escort me about abitmore.He is still a scoundrel, Bess, but he doesn’t upset me.I am utterly indifferent to him!”
“Mm, yes, I can tell,” Bess murmured, eyes twinkling, but before Lucy could triumphantly reveal her proof of what an unchanged reprobate Thornecliff was, with his bold declaration of his intent to seduce her, there was a knock at Bess’s bedroom door.
It opened to admit a tiny whirlwind in a white ruffled pinafore.
“Mama!”cried Kitty, racing to scramble up onto the bed, which was so high that she needed a discreet boost from Lucy to get her chubby legs all the way up.“I’m done with my nap.”
“I see that.”Bess laughed, opening her arms to her daughter with a radiant delight that caught at Lucy’s throat.Bess cuddled Kitty close to listen to the child’s recitation of a dream that seemed to involve quite a lot of cake.
Lucy wondered if she ought to try to remove the little girl, so that Bess could rest.But Bess looked perfectly content with Kitty in her arms.
They made a sweet picture.Lucy was suddenly and inexplicably homesick, as though all the moments of this child’s life that Lucy had missed thus far were weighing on her heart.
Or perhaps Lucy merely missed her own mother.
Kitty reached the end of her tale and turned to stare at Lucy like a baby owl, all round eyes and solemn expression.“Why do you look sad?”
Lucy’s throat tightened but she gave her niece a smile.“Oh, I was just thinking how much I’ve missed while I was away.You were a baby the last time I was home; you’ve grown so!”
She winced.it was exactly the sort of inane comment she’d always despised from the adults who’d deigned to notice her when her parents threw one of their raucous parties, but Kitty appeared to take it in stride.
“I’m big now.Three and a half.There’s a baby inside Mama,” she announced.“A sister for me.”
“It could be a brother,” Bess reminded her gently.“We don’t know yet.”
“I do know,” Kitty insisted.“It has to be a girl because if it’s a boy, I’ll put him outside in the dustbin.”
