Page 67 of The Earl and His Lady

It could be years before she was ready to accept him as more than her rescuer.

Perhaps she never would return his feelings.

His heart cracked, and with it his hope for the future.

Lucas arrived at the first coaching inn where the horses would be changed. It was the same one he and Virginia had stayed at overnight, then spent the morning walking and gathering wild flowers.

He dismounted, allowing a boy to run up and take the reins from him. The horse would be good for hours yet, going at the easy pace he had set. But he gave the boy extra coins to rub the animal down and see to its food and water.

Lucas didn’t enter the inn. He wasn’t hungry. He had no wish to be near people. He checked with the stable, ensuring the horses would be ready when his carriages arrived. After half an hour, he mounted and was on his way again.

The break from thinking of Virginia helped. He came back to his thoughts with a better mindset. His chest ached, his heart reaching for something it could not obtain.

I cannot remain near Virginia. Not like this. Sick at heart, without respect for her position as a widow.

What was the alternative?

Lucas began to form a plan, and a plausible way to put it in action, and tried to put aside his feelings.

Virginia and her sons must come first. Their feelings, their trust in him to do the right thing, were of paramount importance. The best way to take care of them and protect them would be to leave. At least for a time, to get his emotions back under control.

He’d spent years schooling himself for a public life, never giving away his thoughts and feelings, remaining aloof and above personal attachment. He must use those skills in his personal life as well. It was a lonely way to live, but it was better than pursuing a relationship with a woman who mourned another man. Even if that woman was his wife.

Chapter Twenty-four

When the carriage came to a stop in front of Annesbury Park, Virginia successfully composed her expression into a pleasant one. Louisa, sitting across from her, began gathering their things together in her basket. Keeping up a cheerful pretense with her maid had been difficult, but Virginia in no way indicated that her husband’s decision to travel ahead of them both days, riding King Lud, was a surprise to her.

Lucas obviously had no wish to see her. She had thought he understood her visit to Charles’s grave, but that had been the last conversation between them. The look in his eyes, the emotion in their gray depths, had haunted her the whole day long. But at the inn, she’d been informed he arranged a private dining room for her before going himself to bed, exhausted from the day’s ride.

It was with difficulty that she masked her surprise when it was Lucas who opened the carriage door, still wearing travelling clothes, and extended a hand to help her down.

Virginia met his gaze, searching for some hint as to his emotions, his thoughts, but there was nothing there. No spark of happy light, no smoky anger, nothing. He looked as impassive and unaffected as she had ever seen him.

She opened her mouth, not quite knowing how to greet him, but was saved when a small body hurtled into her legs.

Edward hugged her tightly, his face lifted to look at her and a grin stretching across it.

“Mama, you’re back!”

“I am,” she responded, going down to her knees to return his embrace. She held him close and looked up at Lucas again.

He smiled, but the expression was tight and did not appear in his eyes.

“Mother,” Phillip said, stepping forward from his place next to Lucas. “I missed you.” Edward stepped back and Phillip took his place. Though his embrace was somewhat less exuberant, it was nevertheless affectionate.

“I missed you too, darling.” She kissed his forehead as she stood, then held her hands out to each of them. She raised her eyes briefly to Lucas, and seeing him unchanged, decided she must break the silence between them. “How was your ride, my lord?”

“It was excellent exercise.” His words were even, his tone polite. “And the carriage, my lady?”

“Satisfactory.” She bit her bottom lip. “Lucas, I—”

Edward tugged her forward, pointing at one of the footmen carrying her trunk. “Are my shells in there, Mama? Did you ‘member them?”

Lucas’s smile returned for an instant, but it was there. Very well. She would wait until they were alone to speak to him and try not to worry over it in the meantime.

“Yes, darling. Let’s go inside. Phillip, I remembered your boat, too.”

The boys fairly dragged her forward, and Lucas fell in behind them. Her new mother-in-law stood in the doorway, hands folded primly before her.