Page 41 of The Earl and His Lady

“My pleasure, Cousin Edward,” Christine said, dipping a playful curtsy.

Lucas winked and Edward straightened with a grin.

Phillip came nearer and dismounted, slowly but smoothly and all on his own. He kept the reins in hand. “Should we take the horses in today, Cousin Christine?”

“Please do. The grooms will help you.”

Edward puffed his little chest out when she handed him the reins to the pony. He followed after the more confident Phillip, looking over his shoulder once, shooting a grin at Lucas.

Lucas waved and watched them go, their shapes a contrast to the animals they led. Despite both boys having small mounts, they looked hardly old enough to be in the saddle. Perhaps they truly had a natural talent. At Edward’s age, Lucas thought he’d been lucky to be a passenger in a dogcart.

“Look at him, Thomas,” Christine’s voice said from his side, stage-whispering. “He’s besotted with those children.”

Gilbert clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “Can you blame him? You’re just as wild about them.”

Lucas settled his hands on his hips and regarded his friends with amusement. “I am entirely devoted to them, I’ll admit it. They’re good lads. But I must ask your professional opinion about something, Mrs. Gilbert.”

“Please, do call me Christine. We’re related by marriage, after all.” She grinned and went to the paddock gate, obviously not as willing to climb through rails as Lucas had been. “What can we help you with, my lord?”

“Lucas will do.” He followed her and held the gate open, the two of them walking around to where Thomas had remained. “I’m thinking of getting the boys a pony, having it live at Annesbury Park. And a dogcart. Then when you have a foal available that might suit Phillip, I’d like to add one of those to my stables, too.”

Thomas and Christine shared a look that made Lucas’s heart give an envious thump. The regard the two had for one another was obvious, even in the smallest glances. He missed that ability, the closeness it required, to share a look with a person and simply know all they thought and felt on a matter.

“It isn’t a terrible idea,” Thomas answered, reaching for his wife’s hand as he spoke. “So long as they still come here for lessons, I think Christine will agree with me.”

Christine bumped her husband with her shoulder. “I cannot lose my pupils this early on. Though I’m certain your stable master might make a suitable instructor, I enjoy my time with them too much to give them up.” She narrowed her eyes at Lucas. “You aren’t trying to steal away my cousins, are you?”

He raised his hands in a calming gesture. “Never, Cousin Christine. They will meet you for lessons so long as you and their mother deem them necessary. But practicing at Annesbury Park, learning to handle a dogcart, that can only be good for them. Yes?”

Her eyes narrowed further. “Yes,” she said, drawing out the word’s single syllable. “I suppose so. Very well. Where do you think you will get your pony? We only have the one and I cannot give her up. I’m too fond of Honey.”

Lucas nearly asked what honey had to do with anything when he realized it must be the pony’s name. He cleared his throat rather than chuckle. “I hoped one of you would know where I might find one.”

Thomas thought for a moment, then began to offer names of men in the area he thought might part with a pony. It did not take Edward and Phillip long to rejoin them, however, and Lucas swiftly changed the subject when he saw the boys approaching.

“It’s meant to be a surprise,” he said under his breath.

Christine’s eyes glittered approvingly and Thomas grinned too.

“When can we come back?” Phillip asked, tugging his coat sleeves down. It looked like the boy had gone through a recent growth spurt, given the way his wrists stuck out of the jacket.

“Next Monday or Tuesday,” Christine answered. “If the weather cooperates.”

The boys bowed their thanks again and Lucas led them to the gig waiting to take them back to Annesbury Park. After they were both settled, their usual chatter began. Lucas enjoyed listening to them as they took the path homeward, their serious talk amusing him.

“Did you see me dismount, Phillip?” Edward asked, his voice going higher in his excitement. “I nearly did it alone.”

“I saw. Well done, Edward.”

They would continue in this vein for some time, talking of what they did right, bemoaning what they had gotten wrong or forgotten to do. But it was obvious in every word they said how much they looked forward to their time in the saddle.

When they hit a lull in the conversation, nearly home, Lucas cleared his throat. “I’ve been thinking, perhaps you boys would like to go on a picnic some afternoon, by the lake?”

He’d been thinking of taking them for some time. Nearly since he met them. But the business of life kept him too occupied. Since his conversation with Thomas, he realized he ought to do more to show the boys that he cared about them, wanted to be part of their life. He had hoped taking them to and from their lessons would begin that feeling of harmony between them. Most men would have sent a groom to cart his stepsons from one place to another.

“I like picnics.” Edward’s eyes were aglow with happiness and he tucked his hands under his legs. “Let’s go, Phillip. Say yes, Phillip.”

Phillip considered the question, and when Lucas saw the frown on his face forming he turned his full attention back to the road. He still wasn’t sure where he stood with the child-baron. The boy took himself very seriously. Lucas often wondered if that had always been in his nature or if it had become part of his personality after his father’s death.