Page 126 of The Belle of Belgrave Square

“You needn’t worry. I’d never presume to criticize the children’s mother to them. It’s obvious they revere her. I know you cared for her, too. You must have done to have been with her for so many years.”

Bloody hell. How did they get on this subject?

There was nothing Jasper could say that wouldn’t make him out a villain. If he told the truth, that he’d never cared for Dolly at all, he sounded like a cad. And if he lied and said he had, he’d sound as though he was betraying his feelings for his wife. Either way, Julia would be hurt.

“Must we be forever talking about the past?” he asked with a scowl.

“I can’t simply pretend you didn’t have a life before.”

No, indeed. How could she with the children in residence and Dolly buried at the bottom of the garden? Every corner Julia turned on the estate held a reminder of the sordid history of the infamous Captain Blunt. And Jasper could do nothing about it.

The only solution was to go forward.

“I’m more concerned with the life I have now,” he said. “We should be talking about the future.”

“Very well.” She cast him a guarded glance. “What about it?”

In that moment, he could have told her anything. Spoken about his feelings or about what he hoped for their marriage. But the time wasn’t right. Not when they’d just been discussing his relationship with Dolly.

“I’ve been, ah, thinking of the tenants’ cottages,” he said instead.

“The tenants’ cottages?”

“They require a great deal of work. New roofs to start. I thought we might begin with them once we have your fifty thousand pounds in hand.”

She lifted her skirts out of the way as they left the dirt path to cross the grass. “You haven’t mentioned my money since the day we arrived here.”

He grimaced. “I’ve thought of it enough,” he admitted. “It’s tempting to want to improve everything at once. But we must be strategic. After the tenants’ cottages are repaired, we can take people on to look after the fields and the livestock. They’ll bring us an income, eventually. As for the house, we must have builders in to assess the rot, and to repair the roof. Once that’s completed—”

“You keep speaking of us and we. As if you wish my opinion on the matter.”

“I do,” he said solemnly. “It’s your home now. I want you to be happy here.”

The swell of her bosom brushed his arm as she walked at his side. “I think I can be.”

His pulse quickened. It was his private dream. That she’d find contentment here with him. That she wouldn’t come to regret their marriage. “Can you, sweet?”

Her cheeks took on a familiar rosy glow. The same diffuse watercolor blush that appeared whenever they spoke of intimate matters. “I believe so,” she said. “I’m still anxious about things more than I’d like, but it’s nothing to how I felt in town.”

“What things?” he asked.

“Disappointing the children. Disappointing you.”

He uttered a husky laugh. “You couldn’t if you tried.”

She gave him a speaking glance. “I know that isn’t true. If it was, you wouldn’t leave our bed with such haste every morning.”

His gaze shot to hers.

What the devil?

Did she truly believe he was leaving her at break of dawn every day because he was disappointed in her in some way? The idea was so ludicrous—so ridiculously far from the truth—he’d have laughed if he wasn’t so stunned.

They were but a few yards from the outbuilding, still unable to see it clearly from around the corner of the house. Only a few seconds of privacy remained.

“Julia,” he began. “I—”

The shrill whinny of a horse cut through his words.