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“I wasn’t arguing.” He shrugged.

“You are making a contrary face.” Laura pinched her cheeks to bring some color to them.

“I have one face, and this is it, wife,” Nathaniel said with another shrug.

Laura twisted on the stool to face him fully, and some of the tightness in her chest eased as she took in his handsome face. It always did now. Her eyes ran over his evening coat and up to his slightly damp hair.

“Iris is not spending an entire evening watching my father pretend to be a human being,” she said emphatically. “She deserves better than that.”

“She does,” Nathaniel agreed, something flickering across his face. “I have no wish to inflict your father on her.”

“Good, then.” Laura stood, smoothing her skirts.

Then she caught sight of Iris hovering in the corridor beyond, clearly having listened to the whole exchange.

“I don’t want to go anyway,” Iris announced, marching in as though she’d been asked to enter. “I imagine that Lord Harwood has a face like boiled ham.”

Laura choked on a laugh and nearly toppled over. “Iris! You are not wrong, but you cannot say things like that!”

“Well, that’s what Uncle Nathaniel said, not me!”

“I’m sure he did not say that.” Laura pressed the back of her hand to her mouth, her shoulders shaking despite herself, and caught Nathaniel’s eye over Iris’s head. He looked equally undone, his jaw tight as he fought back a laugh.

“He absolutely did,” Iris insisted, climbing up onto the stool Laura had just vacated and swinging her legs. “He said it to Uncle Everett when he thought I wasn’t listening, but I’m always listening.”

“That,” Nathaniel said gravely, “is going to become a problem someday.”

“I heard you tell Uncle Everett something else about him too,” Iris added, tapping a finger to her chin. “You said that you would rather muck out the stables than spend an evening at Harwood House, and now I’m going to tell Laura’s papa that at dinner.”

“You aren’t, because you are definitely not going now,” Nathaniel stated flatly, the humor vanishing from his face.

“I might,” she said with a small hmph.

“Iris.”

“I’m only teasing you, Uncle.” Iris hopped down from the stool, clearly pleased with herself, and wrapped her arms around Laura’s skirts. “Give Boiled Ham my regards.”

Laura burst into laughter, unable to help it, and bent to press a kiss to the top of her head. “I will do no such thing. Now, go find Miss Borden before your uncle changes his mind and takes you along just to spite you.”

Iris scampered off, still grinning.

Laura straightened to find Nathaniel watching her with the soft, unguarded look she needed to survive more than oxygen itself.

“Ready?” he asked.

She nodded. “As ready as I will ever be.”

Harwood House had never felt like home to Laura, even though she’d lived there her whole life. It felt even less like home now as she stepped through the familiar brown doors with her husband’s arm around her, a guest rather than a daughter.

At least I have him to lean on now.

The butler took their coats with the stiff formality he’d always shown her, and led her, as he had a thousand times before, into her father’s drawing room. It was swathed in the same heavy burgundy and gilt it had worn since the day she was born.

She stifled a sigh and shook her head.

Some things never change.

Her father rose as they entered, an oily smile on his face.