Cedric huffed. "Perhaps you're embarrassed? Waiting for your husband to save you like that."
"I am not!" Louisa retorted. The two stared at each other, and Louisa felt the tension crackle in the air between them. She didn't know what to say. He had saved her and been scared for her, and now he was back to teasing her. He was standing in front of her, dripping with river water, shirt practically translucent, and he wasteasing her. What on earth could one say in such a ludicrous situation?
The silence stretched until Cedric smirked again, holding out his hand to help her stand. "Come along. Perhaps we should all go back to the house and change out of these wet clothes?"
Louisa couldn't possibly tell him about her sudden desire for him to never change out of his wet clothes. So she said nothing at all as she followed him back up to the house.
"Nice to have you back in the land of the living, Pembroke!" Theodore slapped his shoulder heartily. A chorus of agreement followed from the group and Cedric rolled his eyes.
The way they're all carrying on, you'd think I had spent the past few weeks on my mortal deathbed instead of on a honeymoon, he thought dryly. He tried to pay attention to the chatter around him, but he couldn't stop his mind from straying back to Louisa. He hoped she was all right after her ordeal. She had insisted that he keep to his plans, swore that she was perfectly content to sit in the library swaddled in blankets and with a steaming pot of strong tea. The children had finallysettled, though he noticed they didn't let Louisa out of their sight for the rest of the afternoon.
He was pulled back into the conversation by the calling of his name followed by raucous laughter. One fellow leaned forward, leering slightly. "Come on then, man. Out with it. How - er -enjoyablewould you say the honeymoon was?"
Some of the men jeered, but on either side of him Gabriel and Theodore stiffened. "Watch your tongue, sir," Theodore warned. "She's my wife's younger sister, you know."
Cedric waved his hand soothingly. "It's fine. Douglas here should know that I'm not one for lurid details." More jeers followed, this time directed at Douglas, who scowled. Cedric went on. "I'll have you know that our honeymoon has been perfectly pleasant. Thank you."
Theodore looked mollified even as some of their friends protested at only receiving"perfectly pleasant"as an answer. Gabriel waved another bottle of wine to their table and leaned in close to Cedric. "How is Louisa though? She's settled in well at St Vincent?"
Cedric thought for a moment before answering. Had she settled in well? It seemed like it, to him at least. Mrs. Brooks had informed him that she was performing a lady's duties with more and more confidence, and the children adored her. He had become used to seeing her each day and had found himself looking forward to the times when their eyes met, when he teased her and she flushed scarlet or, even better, when she bitback with fire in her eyes. Did that count as settling in? He felt sure it was not what Gabriel wanted to hear anyway.
"Yes, I think so. She seems to have no complaints really. I find I am getting quite used to her presence, in fact I am even enjoying it."
Theodore grinned. "Hark at that. England's finest rogue has settled down at last. Who would have thought you'd become such a devoted husband so soon?"
Cedric heaved a long suffering sigh, causing Gabriel to chuckle and clap him on the shoulder. "Come now Pembroke, you act as though it's a bad thing to care for your wife. I know it wasn't exactly an…orthodox start to a marriage but if nothing else you seem to have learned some patience." His eyes twinkled as he seemed to be struck by a thought. "You know, that'll land you in good stead once you become a father."
Theodore chuckled but Cedric's veins suddenly flooded with ice. He pulled away from Gabriel's touch abruptly. "I will not be a father."
Their laughter died at his expression. Theordore tilted his head in confusion. "Well, sure, not yet. But give it some time Pembroke, you've only just gotten married."
"No. I will never become a father. Not ever." Cedric hadn't realized his hand was shaking until he pressed it to his lips in agitation."
His two friends glanced at each other, concerned. Gabriel broke the tense silence first. "But- whyever not?"
Cedric shook his head sharply. "Because I have other priorities. I do not need more children, least of all my own. I have quite enough to be concerned with."
Cedric hoped that was the end of the matter, and took a long drink from his glass. But as he lowered it, he saw realization dawn in Gabriel's eyes. "Oh.Ohhh, I understand. You feel guilty, don't you? That's what this whole decision is about."
Damned man had always been the most perceptive of us. I should never have started this.
Cedric stood abruptly, jolting the table and causing the rest of the group, who had long since grown bored of teasing Cedric and moved onto their own more interesting topics, to quieten and look up in alarm. Gabriel held his hands up in a truce, but Cedric couldn't accept it. Not now. Now, he had to get out of there.
"This is not something I wish to discuss, Dunmore." He turned and walked away, ignoring Theodore calling his name and the murmurs of "the devil is the matter with the man?" As he stepped out into the rain and called on the doorman to fetch his carriage, Cedric turned his face up to the sky. He wouldn't discuss it. He wouldn't think about it. He knew his duties and what he had to do. And he didn't need anybody else giving their opinions on matters they knew nothing about, no matter how close a friend they were.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
"Go on then Dorcas, get the rugs out the back and make sure that you and the other girls give them a good beating. I don't want either the young master or young miss to be coughing or sneezing from the dust, do you? No, I didn't think so. And send word to cook that I will be down later to discuss the matter of the side of beef that we've been wanting to use for a while now. I won't be bringing to her ladyship no more accounts of new meat being purchased just because a couple of the girls like to take a bit of beef home to their families on the weekends. She worked out fast enough that there was something wrong happening and I know exactly what's causing it. Not under my nose, thank you. Off you go, lass, and be quick. Master will be home sooner or later and you know he likes to have things bustling.
"Yes, Mrs. Brooks," Dorcas said quickly, her tousled mousy hair sticking out of her cap in such a way that Mrs. Brooks, calamity to sloth, ruler of the below the stairs, wanted to reach out and fix it for her.
The girl sped off and for a moment there was peace. She had plenty to do, what with helping a new Lady of the House find her feet and keeping track of all that she might want seen to. And there was the children of course, poor mites. How they managed to always be such wan little ghosts andalso alwaysbe under her feet when she needed them not to be she just didn't know.
Oh and the wailing in the night, the first time she had been certain that it was a ghost. Perhaps the spirit of the dead Earl bewailing the fate of his youngest son, though she'd most feared that it might be the old Countess, the mother of his lordship's father. She had been around long enough to meet the old crone, bent and rheumy with eyes so gone blind that they were white and even as a slip of a girl working as the new Countess's lady's maid, Eugenia Brooks had found the old woman terrifying.
She had been prone to roaming the halls in the night, blind fingers reaching ahead of her and white hair down her back like a cloak. If one were to meet her during her nightly roaming she would shriek and rush towards one, screaming about robbers even though one were a perfectly respectable maidservant.
Shooting awake in the middle of the night to that first long shriek from Kenneth had been like being swept back to her young 20 year old self, barely able to stand after escaping the clutches of a crazed old woman.
