“Well, yes. Can you help?”
“I did not leave my wife and children for nothing. Take me to the safe house and I will do my best to figure out what this message contains.”
“Excellent. Thank you, my friend.” They finished their ale, put on their hats, and donned their coats.
“Tell me, is this ward of yours pretty?” his friend asked once they were on the road.
“Yes, Lucinda is very beautiful.”
“Dangerously so, I’m guessing.”
“I am not answering that. You can make up your own mind on how dangerous she is.”
“Oh, I shall. Have no fear of that,” he said. “Dangerous is the best kind, you know.”
“Well, you married one, so I guess you would know,” Tony replied as they continued their way down the road. “How is Lisbeth?”
“Infuriating. Delightful. Everything I dreamed she would be. Still gets me up every night.”
Tony shot him a shocked grin.
“To check the children of course. Even though we have a nanny. Little humans need an awful lot of checking it appears.”
“You are not bored with married life?”
“Bored? I have never been busier. Between the land steward reminding me of my duties to the tenants and the tenants complaining about the land steward I am always entertained. Then there is the local vicar, who insists on praying for my souland likes to beat me at chess. Of course, there is Henry, our newest child who I spend hours just looking at because I swear he is growing before my eyes. And last but not least there are the insatiable needs of my loving wife. I am quite run through.”
“Oh, I believe you.”
“Tell me about your pretty ward.”
“She is infuriating,” Tony said.
“Tick.”
“Delightful.”
“Tick.”
“And I want to make her happy, for she has had a wretched upbringing.”
“I am going to ask you the same question you once asked me,” Bellamy said, a huge grin on his face. “You are not smitten with her, are you? Of course, I already know the answer.”
“I fear I am more than smitten.”
“This is serious. It also accounts for why you look so… miserable.”
“It’s the rule.”
“The rule?”
“The rule of the Ring.”
“Oh,thatrule.”
“I’m not like you, Bellamy. I didn’t inherit a title. I don’t have estates to look after. I have nothing but who I am and I’m… concerned I will not amount to anything without it.”
“Hmm, that is a dilemma. Surely your brother could give you one of his many properties.”
