Page 53

“So am I,” said Jerome quietly. “How is Emily?” he added, asking after Deo’s wife. “I don’t think I’ve seen her since the wedding.”

“No.” Deo flushed. “She’s been feeling a little poorly. We discovered just recently she’s in the family way.” The grin on his face couldn’t be suppressed.

“Congratulations, old fellow,” said Jerome, grasping his hand and patting him on the back. “That is wonderful news. Have you told Emrys? He’ll be over the moon for you. You know Annis is due any day now.”

“I haven’t seen Emrys or Robert to tell them. I was going to wait until I had you all together, but—couldn’t keep it to myself,” he said in a burst of unaccustomed loquaciousness. “I’m terrified, you know,” he added with a rueful look. “I’ve not a clue how to be a father. Except I don’t want to be like my own father. Em is being wonderfully calm and practical about it. Lord, I adore that woman!” His freckled face flushed, and his eyes got misty.

Jerome felt a sympathetic rush of similar emotion when he thought of Ava in a like situation, and his own trepidation around fatherhood. Bad fathers left their sons with two options: be like them or be the opposite. But is it possible to choose to be the opposite, or is the badness bred in the bone?

*

Jerome was a little late to his rendezvous with Ava and her sisters-in-law in Hyde Park and arrived at the entrance to find the ladies accompanied by the Earl of Lannister. He checked a few feet away at the sight of the earl, who was taking on the guise of a nemesis in his mind. Had the man been invited to accompany them, or had he happened upon them by chance? Jerome had no way of knowing and, since he couldn’t create a scene in Hyde Park at its busiest hour, he swallowed his ire and approached the group with a smile pinned to his lips.

Ava, as if sensing his presence, turned her head and smiled at him. He took her arm and greeted the other ladies with warmth and Lannister with stiff politeness.

The earl, damn him, smiled sardonically and bowed in his direction. The man knew he was annoyed and was enjoying it!

“Well, now we have our full complement,” said Lannister, indicating that he had been invited. “Shall we promenade, ladies?” he asked, offering an arm each to the duchess and her sister, leaving Jerome to escort his wife, as was proper. Had Ava invited him deliberately to this walk, knowing Lannister would be here? And if she had, what did that mean?

The park was full to bursting on Rotten Row at this time of the day, and they chose a less congested path for their walk to the reservoir, past the Chesterfield Gate, through the avenue of trees that grew in pairs either side of the road. Jerome was reminded of his drunken foray into Hyde Park via the Grosvenor Gate farther to the north of this same avenue of trees, the night that he learned of Ava’s supposed engagement to Haldane. He looked down at her, covering her hand with his in a tight little squeeze, so thankful his life had not taken the trajectory he had believed it would that night.

She turned her bonneted head up to his and smiled, and he lost himself in the soothing tenderness of her smile and the glow of warmth in her eyes. She was as glad to see him as he was to see her. Why had he been so insane as to think a marriage of convenience was all he could aspire to? All the troubles of his parents’ marriage seemed a faint memory at this moment, when his love for Ava colored every thought and feeling that he had.

The walk passed in a pleasant blur for him as their party circled the reservoir and returned to the entrance, where he and Ava parted company with the others, taking a hackney carriage to their house in Hanover Square.

With the carriage door shut, he drew her into his arms for a kiss. “I missed you today,” he said softly, dropping tender kisses on her mouth and then deepening one for a thorough kiss that left them both a bit breathless. He tugged her bonnet strings and discarded it along with his hat.

“I’ve never known you so careless of your clothes as you are lately,” she laughed, responding to his kisses.

“They get in the way,” he growled, tugging her into his lap.

“I think I like possessive you,” she said, stroking his jaw.

“Is that what you think this is?”

“Isn’t it? Every time you see Rey, you go all feudal. I thought you were going to snarl at him at first, but you didn’t.”

Jerome’s heart kicked at her use of Lannister’s name. “Did you know he was going to be there when you invited me?”

She pushed a lock of his hair off his forehead, meeting his eyes steadily. “Yes, I did. Because I didn’t want you to hear about it afterward and think I was hiding something from you for one thing, and—”

“Who invited him?”

“He happened to be present when Sarah proposed the walk a few days ago and was naturally included. He and Sarah are friends, too, you know.”

He eased her off his lap as the carriage slowed, turning into Hanover Square. “That is a matter for Robert to deal with,” he said tightly. “I would be obliged if you would refrain from seeking his company in the future.”

She gaped at him, snatched up her bonnet, and climbed out of the carriage before he could open the door for her. He collected his own hat and followed her into the house. She headed straight for the stairs and her own room. Since they were promised to Letty for dinner prior to a visit to the theater, that wasn’t unreasonable. They both needed to dress, but he wasn’t fooled that his request had been received well.

He reached her dressing room and entered without knocking. She had tossed her bonnet on a chair and was in the act of removing her pelisse.

“Did you hear what I said?” he asked, carefully.

“I did.” She kept her back to him as she moved to the mirror on the dresser and started removing pins from her hair.

“Well?”

She rounded on him then, fists clenched. It was last night all over again. “Rey is my friend! I haven’t asked you to give up your female friends! The countess, Daphne Holbrook, and whoever else you might count as a friend. Why should I give up someone who has been nothing but kind to me since my debut? Rey is no threat to you. You’re being ridiculous! Worse than Robert! Even he has conceded Rey is not as black as he is painted.”