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Her pretty mouth pinched before she again kissed the boys atop their heads. “Go along now. Do as your father says. You may visit the chicks later.”

After sliding their aunt an apologetic glance, the boys lowered their towheads and, holding hands, marched up the path wending past the orchard like well-trained miniature soldiers.

Sweet little lads.

A wonder they were the product of Andrews’s loins. Chester would’ve expected pointed teeth, clawed-fingered, snarling, horned demons.

“I am waiting, Eglantina! I said explain yourself.”

Wrath rendering Andrews’s contorted features almost comical, he folded his arms and regarded her with the same distaste as one would fresh cow manure on the dining table.

Eden raised her chin and met his angry glare straight on.

Bravo!

If Andrews had thought to subjugate her, he’d failed. Chester wanted to applaud her courage.

And plant Andrews a facer.

However, that was not the way to end this feud. Calmness and reason must triumph. He wasn’t his father or late brother. They were the temperamental ones, given to spewing their ire with no thought or care about whom their foul tempers might harm or the lasting damage their outbursts might cause. He was the one who possessed calm reason as well as a long-suffering temperament.

No, he was the one who displayed cool reason. For the same wrath that tormented his sire and dead brother also rose up within him, but he’d learned to tame the beast. Usually.

But, damn his eyes; he so longed to cork the seething cur standing opposite.

Eden gathered her hair and pulled it over one shoulder to dangle across her chest.

Chester forbade his hungry gaze from resting on the same gentle slopes as the lucky curls.

“Lord Sterling’s horse went lame in Newbury, Simon. Since we’re his closest neighbors, I simply gave him a ride from The Fox and Falcon yesterday. And—”

“Where were you all of last night? Your mother was so frantic when you didn’t return home, she sent word to the big house.” Simon leveled a bitter scowl at the cottage. “Though that she thinks she can prevail upon me to assist her is beyond the pale. I was to have gone to town this morning. Which is why my sons thought they could sneak away to see you, I’ll be bound.”

There was the man Chester remembered. As arrogant as his father and resentful of being inconvenienced by a worried mother and begrudging his sons a visit with their aunt.

A beleaguered frown creased Eden’s brow, and Chester didn’t miss her balling the folds of her cloak in her hand or the pursing of her flawless mouth

“But a note was to be delivered, explaining that I’d fallen into the brook and was at Perygrim Park.” She glanced up at Chester, something close to accusation darkening her regard.

“Did the message not get sent?”

Curse it. Chester ought to have anticipated the duke’s interference. Just the sort of thing his malevolent father would do.

He raised an apologetic brow and rubbed his chin. “I regret to say it’s not impossible that my father may have had his man intercept the missive. I should’ve considered that possibility.”

“Poor Mama. She must’ve been so distraught when I didn’t come home.” Eden swept her hair behind her as she flung an apprehensive glance toward the cottage. “I must reassure her all is well.”

Andrew’s face flushed a ruddy shade, somewhere between radish and cod. Not becoming in the least, especially considering the foppish raspberry colored suit he wore. He rather resembled an oversized, cooked lobster.

“Do you mean to say, you spent the night at Perygrim unchaperoned? With this man in residence? Have you taken complete leave of your senses? Of your scruples, Eglantina?”