She’d had it newly embossed, the lettering framed with gold. The old ones, she’d said, were out of fashion. Trust my wife to know.
I lifted the card and flipped it over.
The library, she’d written.
Smiling, I tugged on my banyan and slippers and stole from the room, careful not to make a sound as I closed the door to my chamber behind me. We hadn’t been alone in a week, not since her family had descended upon us—Wood, Amelia, little Penelope and Frederick—plus Maggie’s family and Gabriel as well. They came like clockwork. Every summer since the morning, not long after our declarations in Georgiana’s hay barn, when I’d taken her in front of the vicar. The day I’d made her mine in every way.
I crept around the corner, stilled just inside the doorway, and watched her stitching something by the fire with a book balanced in her lap and my grandmother’s ring on her finger. This library was different from ours in London. More open, double in size, with a table and chairs under the wide windows and several oil paintings of fox hunting and landscapes. My eyes, however, hung on Georgiana as she drew her bottom lip between her teeth and grinned down at the page.
“Dare I ask?” I raised a brow and sauntered over.
She jolted. “Lucas! You frightened me.” Guilty as ever. Valancourt, or worse—Captain Wentworth.
I perched on the arm of her chair. “What’s this?”
She lifted her embroidery proudly. “Albert wanted a lion on his blanket. I am obliging him.”
Ah. I could see the oranges, yellows, and browns taking shape beneath her fingers. At freshly three years of age, Albert lived and breathed lions of late. He wanted to know their habits, diets, how and why they roared. We’d pulled every book from the library that mentioned them in the slightest to try to appease him.
“Stole it straight from his chubby little fingers, did you?”
Georgiana nodded, covered a yawn, and set her bundle aside. “Did you see my new calling card?”
I leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “I had hoped it was an invitation to a more private space,” I admitted. Then again, we’d formed Eloise right here on a blanket in front of the hearth.
I should’ve closed the door behind me.
Georgiana followed my gaze and smirked. “Did you tell Gabriel what I said?”
“No more gifts larger than the size of his fist, yes.” I tugged my wife to standing then took her seat and settled her on my lap. “He was not pleased. Said something about the new heir needing to enjoy his childhood while he can.”
“That stuffed lion he brought is twice the size of Albert, Lucas! How will we ever fit it in the carriage?”
Not to mention the wooden horse taking up a whole corner of the nursery. And the little bow and arrow set. The perfectly sized foil and glove. The pony in the stables she did not yet know about. I winced.
Gabriel had come into quite a lot of money since his railroad venture had taken off. “He means well,” I told Georgiana. “He loves Albert.”
“He needs to give someone else his love for a time.” She wrapped her arms around my neck and leaned her cheek against my chest. I inhaled apple blossoms and sweetness.
“The house is quiet ... everyone has gone to bed ...” I mused. I shifted her higher in my lap until her nose brushed mine.
Her eyes warmed. “Good evening, Your Grace.”
“Your Grace.” I leaned in, and—
“I said ifyouwonall three rounds.” Gabriel stalked into the room. “There! He is here. Ask him yourself.”
In came Wood, smirking, then Thomas, who quietly beamed with humor. I wouldn’t mind seeing them if I hadn’t just spent the last three hours with them at White’s.
And if I hadn’t come home with particular plans for this beautiful woman on my lap.
“Georgiana.” Wood smiled at his sister. “Forgive us,but your husband must remind his cousin of the bargain he made.”
“Wood goes three rounds at the tables, and Gabriel rewards him with a view of that letter in his pocket that he’s had tucked away all week,” I said. “Now, all three of you get out.”
Wood held out his hand to Gabriel expectantly. “I’d like my view, now, please.”
Georgiana leaned her head against mine. “Peter, leave him be. Let him have his secrets.”
