Page 35 of Redemption of a Marquess

Chapter Eight

“You are so clever to suggest a walk in the park.” Jeanine turned her face to the sun and slowed her walk alongside Lady Guilford. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the soft warmth that seemed to penetrate her bones. “I believe I was driving poor Miss Stone to distraction looking for something to do. She must be glad for a little time away from me.”

“Walking is very good for the constitution,” Lady Guilford said.

Jeanine opened her eyes in time to avoid a large bump in the path. “My mother often walks the path from our house to town,” she said.

“Where is your town?” Lady Guilford asked.

“Perth.”

A young couple passed them. Lady Guilford acknowledged them with a graceful cant of her head and they responded in kind. “Your mother allowed you to come to Edinburgh alone?” she asked when they’d passed the man and woman.

Jeanine shook her head. “Joshua brought me—well, he and my youngest sister and her husband. I suppose that means Rebecca and her husband are who brought me. Though it was Joshua’s wagon and he drove.”

“Who, pray tell, is Joshua?” asked Lady Guilford.

Jeanine spotted a butterfly hovering over a patch of lush heather, just off the path. “A lad I grew up with,” she said as they approached, and the butterfly flitted away.

Lady Guilford cast her a sideways glance. “It was kind of this childhood friend to bring you all the way to Edinburgh.”

“He is kind that way.”

“I see. Will he take you back home?”

Jeanine looked sharply at her. “I don’t plan to return. Grey promised to help me find an elderly husband.”

Lady Guilford raised brow. “An elderly husband?”

Jeanine nodded. “Aye. I plan to use his money to open a school like Lady Peddington’s.”

Behind them, a creak of wheels approached and a phaeton passed them on a coach path to their left.

“I suppose Joshua doesn’t approve of the idea of you running a ladies’ school,” Lady Guilford said.

Jeanine made a face. “Not in the least. He believes ladies should stay at home to cook, clean, and have their husband’s children.”

“He could not have been happy you preferred Edinburgh to marrying him.”

“He wasn’t at all pleased.” Jeanine caught herself and frowned. “You tricked me. That was unkind of you.”

“Not at all,” Lady Guilford replied. “Is there some reason you would want to keep secret the fact that you have an admirer?”

“Nae,” Jeanine hedged.

Lady Guilford gave her a penetrating stare and waited.

Jeanine relaxed. “It’s just that if I don’t find a gentleman to marry then I will have to return home and marry Joshua. I would be stuck in his cottage all day with a dozen of his children.”

“Perhaps not a dozen,” Lady Guilford said with a half-smile.

“One is too many,” Jeanine said.

Lady Guilford sidestepped a rock. “Do you not want children?”

“They are a great deal of trouble,” Jeanine said. “Do you have children?”

“Nae.”