Page 26 of The Earl and His Lady

Virginia twisted her wedding band around her finger and then looked down at it. It was the band Charles had given her. Lucas had asked, when they arranged their wedding, if she would like to keep it or wished for another. At the time, she said she would keep the one she had, though she took it off for him to place on her finger when the vicar came to that moment in the ceremony.

She paused in her step and sat on the couch facing the door.

Had that hurt his feelings? Why had she not considered it before? Had she slighted him when she kept the ring from her first husband?

He hadn’t batted an eye and the service had gone on, with him providing a ring for her to slip on his finger. Was it new or from his previous marriage?

With Mr. Gerard Macon at her doorstep, now was not the time to become flustered over the issue. She took in a deep breath and prepared for her brother-in-law to enter the room.

The door opened and she nearly jumped to her feet, but it was Lucas who stepped inside and shut it hastily behind him. He came striding across the deep green carpet of the formal parlor, reaching his hands out to her.

Reflexively, she raised her hands to his. The warmth of his grasp surprised her, as did the gentle way he brought her hands together to hold them securely.

“Virginia, you’ve turned white as wool. That will never do.” He gently squeezed her hands and some of his warmth went up into her arms, then into her cheeks as a blush. “That’s better. I have instructed Grisham to take his time showing Mr. Macon to this room. One of the benefits of an elderly butler is he can make a tortoise’s pace look believable.” He grinned at her, the boyish expression looking at home on his handsome face.

“I didn’t wish to disturb you—” she started to explain but stopped speaking as he shook his head.

“You are my wife, Virginia. Your concerns are mine. I did say yesterday that we would inform Mr. Macon of all that has transpired, though one would hope he has realized by now you are under the protection of someone with influence.”

He moved to stand by her side, retaining one of her hands in his, for which she was grateful. The contact kept her anchored and allowed her to feel his strength. Lucas wasn’t an idle nobleman. She had felt it in the grasp of his hands, seen it in the way he carried himself, in the square set of his shoulders. She needed his strength at her side for what she guessed would occur.

Gerard Macon was an unpleasant man.

The doors to the sitting room opened and Gresham stepped inside, bowing slowly and formally. “My lord and my lady,” he said with great slowness, voice ringing with more pomp than Virginia had heard from him thus far. “May I present Mr. Charles Macon, brother to the late Baron of Heatherton.”

Virginia glanced at her husband in time to see him smooth away a smile of amusement. Clearly, Gresham knew his job well.

Mr. Macon entered, coming into the room the way a thundercloud rolled across a landscape, bringing darkness and a scowl with him. Virginia’s heart picked up speed and she stood straighter.

Lucas gave her hand a final squeeze before releasing her and tucking his hands behind his back. Lucas’s normally pleasant expression was gone, replaced by the cool and formal mask of a peer of the realm. She tried to follow his lead.

Mr. Macon bowed first and Lucas barely returned the gesture. Virginia’s curtsy was given in equal measure to the earl’s.

“I have heard a great deal about you, Mr. Macon,” Lucas said before the other man could open his mouth. The statement sounded neither positive nor censuring. “What brings you to our part of the country?”

If Gerard Macon had only smiled once in a while, instead of making out that the whole world was against him, he would’ve resembled her late husband more. He had black hair, deep brown eyes, and a squared jaw. He might’ve even been considered handsome if she did not know the selfish tendencies of his heart.

“I have come to speak to my sister-in-law.” He drew himself to his full height, which was still short of Lucas’s by a few inches. “On family business.”

“Excellent. Please, take a seat.” Then Lucas looked down at her and gestured to the couch behind them. “My lady.” And he sat with her.

Mr. Macon’s eyes narrowed. “I am afraid it is private business, my lord.”

“Family business, private business, both would involve me. Your sister-in-law, as you must’ve gathered by now, is my wife. If you wish to speak to her, do so now. Otherwise, you may take your leave.” He said each word with complete authority, though his posture remained relaxed, as though he hadn’t a care whether Gerard Macon spoke or not. He angled his body in Virginia’s direction and smiled at her.

Virginia took a measure of courage from that smile. “What can I do for you, Mr. Macon?” She felt no need to be less formal in addressing him. She had rarely seen him when her husband was alive. Now that the family connection between them had been distanced, she felt no need to pretend any sort of familiarity with him.

Looking from her to the earl, Mr. Macon drew up taller in his seat. “I would like an explanation as to why a woman who has been a widow for a matter of weeks suddenly remarries. Have you no respect for my brother’s memory?”

The question came nearer to hurting her than anything else he might’ve said. She had expected him to first speak on the matter of guardianship to her sons. Had he guessed the best way to wound her would be through her betrayal of Charles? It did hurt, knowing in the eyes of many her act would seem disrespectful when nothing could be further from the truth.

“I found it necessary,” she said slowly, “to take my life into my hands and forgo the guidance of society in this matter.” Virginia drew herself up, calling on a lifetime of training for putting people in their place, firmly beneath her. “I think you must understand why, though I feel no need to discuss my personal business with you on this matter.”

“Charles is barely cold in his grave and you’ve already taken a new husband,” Mr. Macon said, some heat in his words. “It is heartless.”

“Have a care, Mr. Macon,” Lucas said, his voice low, almost subdued. “Regardless of your relationship with Lady Calvert, she is my wife now, and I will not tolerate anyone speaking to her in an insulting manner.”

Mr. Macon glared at the earl and then back to her. “You sent no word of your decision to remarry,” he said next, bitterness in his voice. “I was informed of the matter by strangers not half an hour ago.”