"He did. And you know how Abigail is about Kenneth getting what he wants."
He barked a laugh. "I do not envy any lady Kenneth wants to woo, Abigail will be certain she will be no good for him even if she were a princess."
"And quite right for a sister to feel that way," Louisa said, smiling a little. "Come now, my lord, surely your work can spare you for a little game."
"Perhaps for half an hour." He paused then, eyes running up and down her figure and eyebrow rising in interest. "Well, my lady. I had heard that you ordered some unusual pieces but I did not expect this."
"It's comfortable!" Louisa said, blushing furiously. "I like them!"
"As do I," he said, voice low. "They are certainly charming. You should have half a dozen at least."
"One pair will suit me fine for now." Why did he have such power to confuse her and make her feel so overwhelmed? "The children are waiting."
"Lead the way, sweet wife," he said with one of his smiles, the ones that were sharp and full of meaning. Louisa rolled her eyes at him, but she felt the way he looked at her -sawher - the way no one else ever had and a little coil of pleasure warmed in her heart as she returned back to the nursery with her husband behind her.
"Uncle Cedric," Abigail said in the tone of a woman who has had it up to here with the foolishness of man. "We know that you know how to play the game, stop pretending."
"Is this not how one hides, my dear?" Cedric asked, in as serious a voice as he could manage from beneath the sheet he was standing under in the middle of the room. "I do apologize, I have never been taught the skill of hiding. Unlike Kenneth, who I believe may have been trained by a master in the art."
"Uncle Cedric I can see you," Abigail said, and he was certain that he heard a foot stomp. "Please play properly!"
Kenneth was too busy laughing to complain, having been in the middle of explaining the theory behind the game when Cedric had asked, 'Does one hide like this?' and whipped the sheet over his head.
"Very well, Abigail," Cedric said, laughing as well as he took the sheet off himself. "You have my word I will do better when we start playing properly. Now who is to be seeker first?"
"I am," Kenneth said, jumping up and down. This surprised Cedric a little as usually Kenneth felt like being 'it' or the 'blindman' was stressful and a way to fail at the game. Perhaps the little lad was beginning to realize that none of them would laugh at him if he did not succeed immediately. "I'm going to find you, Uncle Cedric! And everyone else too!"
The governess, Miss Lyle, had easily agreed to play and was waiting for the game to begin, a small smile on her narrow, serious face. Louisa was also smiling, the way she did when she desperately wanted to laugh but was worried that the children might feel laughed at. Cedric could not help but look at her, dressed casually in a satin blouse and a pair of breeches that had clearly been tailored for her and her hair tied at the nape of her neck like some queen from an era where woman needed to ride and fight for themselves.
"You have to count all the way," Abigail was telling Kenneth. "If you miss one then it doesn't count. All the way up."
"I can do it!" he said. "Go hide and I'll find you first. Then we can find Lady Aunt Louisa and she'll help us find Uncle!"
"I certainly will," Louisa called.
"Treachery," Cedric called back with no heat.
She smiled at him as though she were an angel in whose mouth butter would not melt and he laughed again. Kenneth covered his eyes to start counting and Abigail rushed from the room, followed by the ladies. Cedric considered the room itself but there was nowhere in the Nursery for a man of his stature to hide so he slipped out of the door and made his way down the hall.
While it certainly did not matter in the least if her was found or when he was found he didn't want Kenneth to feel like it was being made too easy for him so he had to pick exactly the right place. Perhaps it was thoughts of his wife that drew him towards the library, thinking of the small room just off the reading nooks where old books were often stored to be assessed before it was decided if they were to be gotten rid of. He slipped inside in a moment and closed the little door behind him, not noticing until a moment too late that the space was already occupied.
"Cedric!"
"Damn it all, Louisa! What are you doing here?"
"This is my hiding place! Find your own, sir!"
Ready or not, here I come!
"I can hardly find somewhere else now," Cedric said crossly. "We will have to wait the game out."
They were silent for a moment, and he tried not to think about how close they were to each other, or how the light from the small lamp she had thought to bring in with her illuminated her face as though it was a painting from the Renaissance. In fact he was not even going to look at her. He would look at the door. It was uninteresting, after all. Boring. Just wood.
"I am tired of this," Louisa said sharply. "I am going to have it out with you sir. Why have you been avoiding me?"
It was so completely what he was doing in that moment that Cedric was taken by surprise and turned to look at her once again. "What do you mean avoiding you? I have not! I have been simply busy."
"You have! We were just beginning to make it all work, you have been warming up with the children and we have been beginning to find a way of working as a family and then you stopped coming to say goodnight to them, you stopped coming to meals and you stopped accepting any of my invitations! I know when I am being avoided, Cedric Pembroke and you have been avoiding me! Why? Why have you been doing this? I thought we were friends at least, what can I have done to upset you so?"
