***
“Ives brought a visitor,” Lance said. “A woman.”
“You will meet her at dinner.” Ives intended to move the topic aside for now.
“What woman?” Gareth asked.
“Just a woman,” Ives said. “A friend who needed a respite from town.”
Gareth waited, curious. He looked at Lance. He looked back at Ives. “I have never heard of you bringing one of your mistresses here.”
“She is not my mistress.”
“That hardly kills my curiosity. Rather the opposite. Why is she not down here now, so I can get a good look at her? I hope you did not tell her we would mind her presence when we arrived,” Gareth said.
“She chose to remain above. You will meet her at dinner, but I do not think she intends to make herself a part of our group too often.”
“Why not? Is she inappropriate in some way?”
“I would never bring an inappropriate person to Merrywood.”
“So why—”
“He does not want to talk about it now,” Eva said with exasperation. “Do you, Ives? Men are worse than women, I am convinced.Iknow not to pry. At least not yet.”
“Thank you, Eva. Your return is all that matters now, not curiosity about a visitor, curiosity that will be satisfied in a few hours when you meet her. We want to hear about your journey. Was it all you had hoped?”
Eva was a sweet, sensible, gentry-born woman. Ives liked her, even if he still found it remarkable that Gareth had married her. Gareth had cut a notorious swath through the wives of the peerage before meeting Eva, and anyone could be excused for finding theirs a peculiar match. And a love match at that.
Eva had seen the better man in Gareth, he supposed.She might be the only person who really knew his bastard brother, aside from the duke’s mistress who had given Gareth life.
“It was glorious. Far better than I dreamt. I have dozens of paintings, and books of sketches,” Eva said. “The month in Florence studying with Signore Rosselli, going into the Tuscan hills—I will remember it forever.”
“It was too bad, then, that you had to cut your time abroad short,” Lance said.
“It was for the best reason.” Her hand instinctively moved to rest on the swell under her breast.
“Ah. Of course. I did not realize that was the reason,” Lance said. “I trust you are in good health? Nothing is amiss, I hope.”
“She is in fine health. We merely thought it best to wait out the last months here in England,” Gareth said. “You really are ignorant of such things, aren’t you?”
“I have no understanding whatsoever of the condition.”
Eva laughed. “I will soon become a little clumsy. It would not be a good idea to take sea voyages in that state, if it can be avoided. I did not mind coming back. I wanted to see my sister, and all of you, of course.” She stood. “Now, I will rest until dinner. That is another feature of the condition, Aylesbury. Women like me need a lot of rest.”
No sooner had she left than Lance stood, went to the desk, and removed some papers. “Gareth, I want you to know that the last of the paintings were removed a week ago. Here are the receipts we had them sign.”
Lance referred to an investigation Gareth had embarked on in the spring involving a large cache of stolen paintings. He had become involved at Ives’s request, only to end up far more entangled than anyone wanted.
“Took him long enough,” Gareth said while he examined the receipts.
“Thanks to Ives, your name was kept out of it to the end. As were all the names of any other members of the family. As expected, when those gentlemen were told all their treasures had been found safe and undamaged, no one cared too much how the paintings happened to end up in a cottage down the road, or where they had resided during the intervening years since their disappearance.”
Gareth looked over at Ives. “It is finished, then.”
“Yes, finally, it is finished,” Ives said.
***
