A DAY OF DOING
Later that day
By the time Elizabeth and Adeline had returned fromFinding Work for the Wounded, George from Parliament, and David from the Green Street townhouse, it was too late for afternoon tea and already time to dress for dinner.
“When can I expect a tour of your townhouse?” Elizabeth asked of David as they made their way upstairs.
Her oldest son chuckled. “Do you wish to see it before the renovations are complete? Or after?”
“Both,” she replied with a grin. “How is your betrothed? I haven’t had a chance to spend one minute with her since you asked for her hand.”
David paused at the top of the stairs. “Relieved, I think.”
Elizabeth angled her head to one side. “Why do you say that?”
Dipping his head, David considered how to respond. “I think she was convinced no one was going to propose, and now that I have—and that her father seems to be happy about the matter—she wishes to get on with life. Having her own household has made her...” He winced.
“More agreeable?” his mother suggested.
He nodded, remembering how Rose had greeted him that morning at the townhouse, practically running into his arms and kissing him with abandon. Once her lady’s maid and the footmen had left to retrieve more trunks and some small furnishings, she asked if he might make love to her in the master suite. Not about to argue, he did her bidding and helped her redress only moments before the servants returned to the townhouse.
When he’d left late that afternoon, he reminded her that he would be bringing her to the theatre that night and wondered where he might find her.
“Here, of course,” she had said.
David shook off the brief reverie. “It’s not that Rose wasn’t agreeable before, but I did sense her... her annoyance with me, or perhaps it was merely her situation.”
“Her annoyance wasn’t because of you necessarily,” Elizabeth claimed as she made her way down the corridor towards her apartments.
“I was gone three years, two months, and ten days,” he reminded her.
“Yes, you were. You really should have taken that trip years ago.”
“I did.”
“I meant...” She sighed. “It was admirable of you to wait until Lord James was finished at Cambridge so he could join you on your Grand Tour, but you must admit, you should have taken it when you were one-and-twenty so you’d be home when you were three-and-twenty and then you two would be wed before she was on the shelf.”
David scoffed. “She’s not on the shelf, Mother. Besides... I was not of a mind to marry when I was three-and twenty.”
Elizabeth paused at the door to her apartments. “I suppose not.” When she grimaced, David asked what was wrong.
“I’m quite sure there were expectations on Helen’s part as to the rank of the people her children would marry—”
“Rose deserves a duke’s son,” David murmured.
“—However, her father is of a completely different mind. He simply didn’t share that opinion with his children until a few days ago.”
David furrowed his brows. “What’s this?”
His mother placed a hand on his arm. “Ariley likes you. Always has. And Rose...” She sighed. “Rose has adored you your entire life. So it’s all worked out, just a few years later than it might have, is all.” She lowered her voice. “You are seeing to getting a child on her, I hope?”
Suspicious as to why his mother had brought up the issue in the first place, David’s eyes suddenly rounded. “Is this about you having grandchildren?” he asked.
Elizabeth gave him a quelling glance. “And your heirs,” she admitted.
Scoffing, David rolled his eyes and headed for his bedchamber. “I am my father’s son,” he called out, as if that was enough to answer her last question.
Grinning happily, Elizabeth entered the apartment she shared with George and a moment later was in his arms.
