Desires of a Baron (27 page)

Chapter Thirty-Two

An hour later

Giles combed his fingers through Lucy’s hair, relishing the way her long, silky strands felt surrounding them. It felt almost as wonderful as having her naked body draped over his. Almost. He snorted. That was a lie. There was no comparison between the two.

He peered down at her from beneath his lowered lashes and watched her slender fingers move in mindless patterns across his chest. Why had he never considered that she might like to see and touch his body? He knew the answer to that and thrust the thought from his mind immediately. He had no call to relive the coldness of his adolescence. He wasn’t a boy in an orphanage any longer. He was a husband. A father.

His chest tightened. Seth wasn’t his child by nature, but he was his son in every other sense of the word. He closed his eyes. Earlier he and Lucy had only spoken of their misunderstanding, not their actual disagreement.

“
Giles?”

His eyes snapped open. “Yes?”

Lucy rolled over to prop herself up on her elbow. “What’s the matter?”

“
Matter?”

“
Every muscle from your neck to your waist just went rigid,” she said as if that explained anything. “What were you thinking about?”

“
This morning.”

“
About Seth?”

He gave her a nod. “I won’t tell him.”

She licked her lips. “Thank—”

A loud commotion at the bottom of the stairs cut her off, followed only a moment later by a discreet scratching at the door.

“Yes?” Giles barked in the general direction of the door.

Millie said something, the only part of which Giles heard was “Lady Norcourt”.

“I’ll be right back,” Lucy said, grabbing the sheet and running for the door. She opened the door just enough to poke her head out, treating Giles to an unobstructed view of her backside.

She closed the door with a soft
click
and held her turned position.

“
Lucy?” When she didn’t respond, he padded over to her. “What’s going on?”

“
We have guests,” she said a slight waver in her voice.

“
Guests?”

She lowered her sheet. “Your mother and Mr. Appleton have come to dinner.”

“They have?” He didn’t know why he was surprised that they’d come. They seemed the sort who had no qualms about last minute dinner invitations.

“
They’re waiting in the drawing room so we’d better hurry.”

Giles cupped her face with his large hands. “Lucy, you’re the baroness and they’ve come without an invitation. You don’t have to see them.” At least that’s how he understood the term “not at home” when making social calls.

“No, I think we should see them. It’s just another misunderstanding. That’s all.”

“
Misunderstanding?”

“
Between me and your mother.” She turned her face and pressed a kiss on the side of his palm. “It’ll be all right.”

While he was relieved that this particular misunderstanding wasn’t any fault of his own, he wondered what had happened between the two that had made her so uneasy.

Stubborn woman that she was, she didn’t feel so inclined to explain anything to him as she donned that simple gown she’d been working on before he’d officially asked her to marry him.

Dinner was awkward. And if Giles thought so, everyone else must have been absolutely miserable.

Except Seth who seemed to have the never-ending appetite of a growing boy and a wish to talk to everyone about anything. It was only due to his mother’s agreement to allow him to eat as much custard as he could manage while the four adults talked in the drawing room that he didn’t follow them in there.

“
I’m sorry,” Lucy whispered to him as they followed their guests to the drawing room.

“
For Seth?”

She nodded. “I’ll talk to him tomorrow.”

Giles pulled them to a stop. “Not to banish him to his room for meals, I hope.” He might have been young, but he remembered that aspect of being nobility well enough.

“
I know he can be a little impolite at times.”

“
He’s an eleven-year-old boy. I think that’s his right.” He smiled at her. “Don’t banish him because of it.”

“
I won’t.” She kissed his cheek. “I love you.”

“
I love you, too.”

“
Good. Just don’t forget that in a minute.”

That would have piqued his curiosity if it wasn’t already.

“Shall we?” she said with a pointed look at the open door to the drawing room.

As instructed, a footman had moved some chairs into the drawing room. Two chairs to be exact. Both of which were being occupied, leaving only the settee available for Giles and Lucy.

Letting his wife get arranged he waited to join her. When he did, his hand automatically sought hers.

If dinner had been uncomfortable, this tension-filled silence that had engulfed them was nothing short of torture.

“Have you given any further consideration to what we talked about last week?” Mr. Appleton asked abruptly.

Actually, he had. Mr. Appleton had been right.
He
wanted to be the one to pass on his legacy to his heir. And to Seth. Obviously the title would have to pass on to his oldest son with Lucy, but Seth was his son, too, and shouldn’t be forgotten. “Yes.”

“
And?”

“
I’d like to try.”

A smile so wide that his eyes crinkled split the older man’s face. “I’ll start working on it immediately.”

“Thank you.”

“
Have you thought any more about anything else I said that day?”

Giles wasn’t sure what the man was alluding to. Mr. Appleton had told him many things that day. “Which part?”

“The part I shouldn’t have told you.”

“
The part about Simon not knowing how to carry his sums, either?”

At that, Mr. Appleton chuckled. “Yes, it’s best to keep that secret contained to this house, but there’s a reason for that.”

“Because nobody can properly explain it?”

“
No. I don’t think that’s what it is.” He fidgeted with his snowy white cravat. “I think I told you I had the same trouble.”

“
Yes.”

“
And that I loved your mother for quite some time and...er...helped her in a way that defies convention.”

“
Yes.”

“
Do you remember anything else?”

“
Yes,” he said, his throat hoarse with raw emotion. Mr. Appleton had mentioned having another son. An older one who’d received his inheritance from another. Giles couldn’t have forgotten that admission with anything less than brain fever. But that’s as far as it went. He didn’t dare try to draw connections between any of the secrets Mr. Appleton had entrusted him with or his growing curiosity as to why the man was helping him, lest he draw the wrong conclusion and be made a fool.

“
Can I trust you with another secret that cannot leave this house?”

Giles’ heart pounded in his chest. “Yes.”

“I convinced your mother to defy convention one other time.” He reached over and took his wife’s hand in his, much the same way Giles held Lucy’s hand. “I knew the moment I met her that I had to marry her. Unfortunately, she’d been married by proxy to Norcourt. That did nothing to deter me and I did everything short of abducting her to spend time with her.

“
When not wooing her, I studied the law to find some means for her to escape her marriage. There wasn’t any. So when she told me that Norcourt was returning from abroad within the fortnight, we agreed to one night together then to go our separate ways.”

“
What are you saying?” Giles choked around the lump in his throat.

“
I’m not saying anything is absolute,” Mr. Appleton said carefully. “But you were born only eight and a half months after your mother’s wedding to Lord Norcourt.”

“
Thank you.”

“
For what? Being the reason you were mistreated and separated from your mother?” Mr. Appleton burst out unevenly.

“
No. For telling me the truth.”

“
He’s always wanted to tell you, Giles,” his mother said softly. “I thought it was best for everyone if it was never actually spoken of. Once again I was wrong and beg your forgiveness. I didn’t want you to be hurt or to ruin any friendship that might have formed between the two of you. I’ve accepted that you might never forgive me. I didn’t want to ruin this relationship, too.”

He’d softened marginally toward his mother over the past few weeks, but her final words made every wall he’d erected around his heart toward her turn to dust. “What changed?”

“Lucy.”

“
Lucy?”

“
She came to see me at the library today,” Mother said. “She mentioned that she thought it might be important to tell you the truth.” She dried her eyes and cast him a watery smile. “She asked if the two of you could come to dinner sometime later in the week, but when I mentioned it to Walter, well, as you can see he didn’t want to wait.”

Giles turned to his wife, unsure what to say.

“You were right this morning,” she said softly.

“
I was?”

She laughed. “Don’t act so surprised.”

“I am surprised. I’m never right.”

“
You were this time. I just didn’t—” she frowned— “no
couldn’t
realize it at first.”

“
What changed your mind?”

She used her free hand to gesture to the room. “This.” She cleared her throat. “While I’d like to accept everyone’s thanks, I can’t. It wasn’t me who realized this needed to be said, or at least acknowledged. Lady Belgrave pointed it out to me.”

“Isabelle?” everyone asked in unison.

Lucy nodded. “I hope none of you are angry with me for talking to her about it.” She angled her body so she was looking only at Giles. “When I went to see her today instead of helping me find ways to convince you to agree with me, she made me realize how important the very same thing was to you.”

“Does that mean?” He hoped she could share the rest of this particular thought so he wouldn’t have to embarrass her by putting voice to it.

She squeezed his hands in response, and whispered, “Yes, I’ll tell him when he asks.”

Heedless to the fact that his mother—and father—were in the room watching them, Giles lifted Lucy’s left hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “Thank you.”

“
Perhaps I’ll have to go see Isabelle tomorrow and offer her my thanks, as well,” Mother mused a moment later after Giles and Lucy had turned back to join their conversation. She twisted her lips and puckered her brow as if she were in deep contemplation. “She might even be able to offer me a suggestion or two on how to get Giles and Simon on friendly terms.”

“
She just might be willing to help if only to spare herself from having to spend the day embroidering something,” Lucy murmured, then took an uncomfortable swallow. “But if you’d like my suggestion, I think it might help the most to have a candid conversation with Simon similar to this one.”

Silence fell over the room for a moment or two, broken only when Giles’ mother released a deep, uneven breath and said, “You’re likely, no you
are
right and that’s just what we’ll have to do as soon as we get home.”

When they were gone and Lucy and Giles were alone again, Giles pulled her into his arms and pressed his forehead to hers. “Thank you,” he whispered, cupping her face with his large hands.

“You’re welcome. Hopefully, after they go home and offer some explanations to Simon things will improve for everyone’s relationship.”

He hoped so, too. It would actually be rather nice to have a brother, or at least another friend. In the meantime, however, he’d much rather show his wife, and closest friend, just how much she meant to him now and always would.

Epilogue

August 1818

Devon

“
We don’t have to go today, if you don’t wish to,” Lucy said to Giles when he walked up behind where she was looking at herself in the mirror of the guest bedchamber they shared at Briar Creek.

“
And disappoint Simon by missing his wedding?” Giles asked. “I think not.”

Lucy laughed and bent to retrieve her shawl. “All right, then we’d best be going.”

“Wait.”

She stilled. “Yes?”

“If you’re not comfortable, we won’t go.”

“
Me?”

Giles pushed a lock of her fallen hair behind her ear. “Did Mother tell you who was presiding?”

“Yes, Paul, Sam’s brother.” Lucy waited for unease to overcome her. It didn’t. That’s all Paul was to her: Sam’s brother. Not the boy who’d been her playmate and had defended her when his brother was being beastly. Not the brother whose intentions had been genuine when they’d gotten older. Not the man who’d offered to support her and Seth out of invisible chains of morality or duty. He was just Paul, the younger son of a viscount who’d chosen the life of a vicar.

“
Does Seth know?”

“
That I bear a strong resemblance to the minister?” Seth asked candidly, coming into their room.

Giles choked on his surprise.

“But he’s not really my uncle,” Seth continued.

“
Not legally, no,” Lucy agreed carefully. She’d had to be careful in how she explained their connection to Paul and Liberty and that he could never refer to them publicly as anything other than Mr. and Mrs. Grimes. To the world, they were not a relation.

“
I know. But not in any other way, either. Not like Uncle Simon.”

Lucy smiled at her son. Seth and Simon must have had an exceptional two days together when Seth stayed with the Appletons after the wedding because there hadn’t been a single week that had gone by since then when Simon hadn’t come by to fulfill his role as “favorite uncle”, bearing candy or other trinkets and playing cards or taking him somewhere. Presumably not to the Statue Museum, she thought wryly. Of course, when Simon came, he took a few minutes to seek out Giles. When asked, Giles always shrugged and said they didn’t talk about anything of consequence, but to her, that was of the most consequence: at least they were speaking.

“Just like Lord Bonnington,” Seth said suddenly, pulling Lucy from her thoughts. “He’s not really my father.”

A stillness fell over the room.

“Not like you are,” he continued, looking at Giles. He idly rubbed his fingers together at his sides and took a hard swallow. “Giles, c-can I— That is...er...”

Lucy’s heart pounded on her son’s behalf. She knew what he wanted to ask. He’d confided his secret in her last night when she’d told him the identity of his father. What she didn’t tell him was Giles had confided the same wish some time ago, but didn’t want to ask Seth and have him agree because of obligation or for his mother’s benefit. He wanted it to be genuine.

“...would it be all right with you if I—” he fidgeted and balled his hands into fists.

“
Called me Papa?” Giles ventured, a question, and perhaps his heart, in his tone.

“
Yes, sir. But only if—”

“
I wouldn’t have it any other way, son,” Giles cut in with a face-splitting grin that made Lucy’s heart swell with love for the two people she loved the most in this world.

For the next six months anyway—then there’d be a third...