He heard her gasp. He had been brutal, but he doubted she’d hear plain speaking from her sister. To a lesser extent, perhaps, but Carrie was also innocent of the ways of the world.
When they reached the house, Carrie stood on the driveway with Miss Scotsdale and a lanky young lad. Jeremy.
“Jeremy!” Bella cried, waving so violently she almost unseated herself.
“Steady.” Nicholas reined in and dismounted. When he helped her down, she ran with a sob to throw herself into Carrie’s arms. “Nicholas is cross with me, Carrie, because I visited the wanderer camp. Vano said it was perfectly all right. That I’d be safe. And I was.”
“Thank you for finding her, Nicholas.” Carrie’s gaze met his over her sister’s head. Her eyes were soft and glowed with emotion.
That look pleased him far too much. It went beyond wishing they were on friendly terms. “We’ll talk no more of this episode, Bella. I’m sure you’ll be more sensible in the future.” He needed a hearty slug of brandy. His nerves couldn’t take too much of this. He walked over to Jeremy, who stood waiting, his young face pale, his eyes strained. The boy had brown hair and green eyes but had inherited his father’s features, which caused a pang in Nicholas’s chest. He smiled and held out his hand. “Good to have another male member in the family, Jeremy. It goes a long way to redress the balance.”
He shook Nicholas’s hand with a slight grin. “Good to be here, Lord Pennington.”
“Call me Nicholas. Shall we all go inside? I don’t know about you, but I am famished.”
Bella ran up to her brother and threw her arms around him. “We are dying to hear your news.”
Jeremy unraveled her arms. “I can offer nothing to match yours, Bella. You must tell me about the gypsies. I’ve never met one.”
They trailed into the house behind Carrie and Nicholas.
When Nicholas retreated to his library after luncheon, a knock came at the door.
Carrie entered. She declined to sit, standing with her hands clasped in front of her. “I shan’t disturb you. I’m sure you have wasted enough of your day already.”
“Not at all.” He wished she would stay and talk to him.
“I just wanted to thank you for finding Bella so swiftly.”
“I should have made her understand she was not to wander about the estate alone,” he said, disliking the worry in her eyes.
“As should I,” she said with a rueful expression. “You have my most sincere thanks, Nicholas. We have disrupted your life, I fear.”
“My sister would consider it a decided improvement on the old one.”
“But do you?”
“Yes,” he said, his gaze roaming her face and settling on her mouth. “I do. Very much.”
With a brisk nod, she left the room.
Nicholas stared at the closed door. It wasn’t necessary to embellish the truth. He did enjoy having a family, for that was what he now considered them. Finding Bella safe invigorated him so much, it was as though he’d emerged from fog into the sunlight.
Would he be so content when Carrie was no longer here?
***
Bella threw herself on Carrie’s bed and sniffed. “I didn’t know it was wrong to go there. I thought Vano was a friend of Nicholas’s.”
“Because he told you so?”
Bella shook her head. “Not exactly. But he said Nicholas welcomed his family here every year. When he invited me to his camp to hear the music, I didn’t see any harm in it. I was only going to stay for a few moments, but the way they live fascinated me. How romantic to pack up and travel from one town to the next, selling homewares and reading fortunes. I should like my fortune read.”
“Bella, Nicholas was right to be furious with you.”
She sniffed. “The gypsies were nice to me.”
“You must realize how dangerous it is to put your trust in strangers. Nicholas is quite justified if he restricts your freedom in the future.”
