THE EARL'S PREGNANT BRIDE (16 page)

Fiona sniffed. “Rather rude of her, I must say.”

Brooke shrugged. “Well, I don’t know what to think. I hope she’s all right....”

Fiona made a humphing sound.

Rafe said nothing. Genny didn’t, either. What was there to say?

* * *

The children from the village began arriving with their parents at a few minutes before two. There were twenty of them total, twelve boys and eight girls, ranging in age from eight to ten. A few of the parents stayed on for the party, but most dropped off the youngsters and promised to return at six to collect them.

At two-fifteen, Fiona’s chauffeur arrived with the twins. He dropped them off and left.

It was a warm, sunny day and Brooke had planned on two hours on the waterslide and in the pool first. She’d set up a pair of changing tents—one for the boys, one for the girls—out by the jetty. The children handed their gifts to Frances, who took them to the terrace. Then Brooke and Fiona herded them toward the tents.

Rafe, Genny, Eloise and the few parents who’d stayed pitched in to keep the excited guests corralled. With twenty-three of them running about, you never knew who might fall in the lake or run off into the parkland, never to be seen again.

The water sports went well enough. The twins dominated, as always. They shouted the loudest and pushed the other children aside so they could go down the waterslide first.

Fiona kept telling them to behave themselves and they kept pretending not to hear her. She finally gave them a five-minute time-out. They lasted about ninety seconds. When they got up and ran away from her, Fiona just let them go.

Geoffrey seemed to be holding up pretty well. He avoided Dennis and Dexter. And he got along well with the children from the village. Genny saw him laughing, his head tipped back, the space where his baby teeth were missing showing, as he went down the slide.

They played Marco Polo in the pool and batted various water toys around. Frances and a couple of the women who came in twice a week to clean served cold drinks to anyone who wanted them. That meant there were several trips to the toilets and back. It was hectic, but it seemed to be going nicely, all things considered.

At a little past four, they moved on to paintball on the archery field. It started out well enough, with the children hiding behind boulders and hay bales and jumping out to splatter each other with paint from child-size plastic guns. They were all laughing at first. But the twins quickly became overly aggressive, leaping out and shooting the village girls in the face mask—and some of the boys, as well.

Geoffrey started looking grim during the paintball. There was screaming and some crying. Genny and Eloise took charge of comforting the crying girls, leading them away, getting them out of their vests and headgear, hosing off the paint and then herding them to the girls’ tent to put their on their dry clothes.

As the paintballing progressed, Brooke’s temper started to fray. Apparently, she hadn’t figured out that inviting the Terrible Twins and then handing them guns filled with balls of bright paint probably wasn’t the best brainstorm she’d ever had. She started shouting, “No, now!” and “Careful, now!” and “Dennis, you stop that this instant!”

She and Fiona traded angry words when Brooke demanded that Fiona control the twins and Fiona insisted it wasn’t their fault. “They’ve had nothing but sugared drinks since noon. What do you expect? They need nourishing food.”

Finally, Eloise whipped out her Acme Thunderer Titanic Commemorative Whistle and blew a halt to paintball. They hosed off the children who remained on the field, got them all dry and dressed and moved on to the east side of the terrace, where there were banners and streamers strung about and the sandstone walls of the house had been decorated up to look like an old-time carnival caravan. Frances and her helpers handed out SpongeBob lunch boxes to everyone, adults included.

The food was surprisingly healthy, Genny thought, and gratefully dug in. They had sandwiches and fruit, each with a bag of crisps and a bottle of water. Of course, there were also the candy floss and popcorn machines. Frosted treats and other goodies sat in bowls and on platters, available for the taking.

While they ate, the magician appeared. He pulled things out of a top hat and made animals with balloons. Genny found him a bit lackluster and the children, simultaneously overstimulated and worn-out, quickly lost interest. The twins started throwing things.

By then it was half past five. They’d yet to do the cake and presents. The magician took his final bow. Brooke had blue paint on her white skinny jeans and her Jimmy Choo ballerina flats were splattered with yellow. And she was shouting a lot.

“Frances, the cake!” she called, grabbing a very somber-looking Geoffrey by the arm and pushing him down into the chair of honor, which had been done up to look like some kind of circus clown’s throne. “Settle down now, everyone. It’s time to sing Happy Birthday to Geoffrey!”

The children quieted. But only for about a half a minute. They were laughing and whispering together again when Frances finally emerged with a tower of a cake consisting of three figures from the Skylanders: Giants video game, each figure with three flaming birthday candles sprouting from the top of its head.

Dexter shouted something and one of the girls let out a yelp. Eloise hustled over to settle them down. Fiona, Brooke and the other adults started singing Happy Birthday, a few of the children catching on and joining in.

Frances set the cake in front of Geoffrey. Genny didn’t think he’d ever looked so miserable in his life.

“Make a wish, darling!” Brooke shouted. “Make a wish and blow out your candles!”

Geoffrey shut his eyes. Genny could almost
feel
the poor sweetheart counting to ten.

“Geoffrey, come on now!”

He sucked in a big breath.

And someone threw an apple. Apparently, it was Dexter, because Fiona shouted, “Dex, no!”

Too late. The apple flew straight at the throne of honor. It didn’t hit Geoffrey, but it did plow through the cake, mowing down the candles and decapitating the three Skylanders action figures.

* * *

They’d yet to get to the huge pile of presents and were serving the half exploded cake when the parents started arriving to pick up their children.

Brooke ended up just handing out the loot bags and letting them all go. Fiona went home with her sons. Brooke hardly bothered to wave her goodbye.

Nobody realized that Geoffrey had gone off somewhere until all the guests and their parents had left. About then, Brooke decided the family could watch while he opened his gifts.

She shouted for him, “Geoffrey, where are you? Time to open your gifts!” He failed to appear. “Where’s he gone now?” she muttered crossly. “Geoffrey, come here this instant! Geoffrey!”

Eloise said, “He’s probably up in his room....” She went to get him. But when she came back down, she was shaking her head. “He’s not there.”

Brooke started pacing. Never a good sign. “Dear sweet God, what a balls-up. Geoffrey, Geoffrey!” She fled toward the lake, frantically yelling his name.

Rafe said resignedly, “We’d better find him.”

Eloise assigned each of them a different area to search. Genny got the stables and stable yard.

She found him in the second stall, which was empty except for him and the gray kitten he cradled in his thin arms. He was crying softly to himself.

He looked up and saw her peeking over the stall door. “I’m not going back out there.” He sniffed and swiped the tears from his flushed cheeks with the back of his hand.

She opened the door, went in and dropped down beside him onto the bed of hay scattered across the floor. He stared straight ahead and petted the kitten, which purred out its contentment with every stroke of Geoffrey’s paint-spotted hand.

“May I pet him, too?”

“I don’t care.”

Genny scratched the sweet little creature behind its overly large ear. “It’s not such a bad thing, that your mum would put in a lot of time and effort to give a big party for you.”

“I never wanted it.” He stuck out his lower lip. “It was awfuler even than I thought it would be. The slide and the pool weren’t so bad. But the rest of it was crap. And Dennis and Dexter...” He gave a little shudder of disgust. “Some boys are just bad.”

“Let’s hope they grow out of it,” she said. Geoffrey made a doubtful sound. “And look at it this way. Some of it was fun, you said so yourself.”

He seemed to think about that for a bit. And then he asked, “Aunt Genny?”

“Hmm?”

“I’m glad you’re my aunt now. You’re really in our family. I like that very much.”

Suddenly
she
felt like crying. It wasn’t an easy family she’d married into. But they were hers now—all of them: Geoffrey and Eloise, Rafe most of all. And yes, even her impossible, beautiful bitch of a sister-in-law.

She wrapped her arm around Geoffrey’s narrow shoulders. “I’m glad to
be
your aunt.”

He put the kitten down in the hay. It meowed cheerfully and then bounded off through the stall’s open door. “All right, Aunt Genny. Let’s go back now.”

* * *

Genny and Geoffrey returned to the terrace. Eloise and the dogs joined them shortly after and then Rafe came, too. Frances and her helpers were picking up trash and cleaning off the tables.

Brooke appeared last, striding swiftly across the wide swath of lawn leading up to the terrace. At the sight of all them waiting there, Geoffrey among them, she walked even faster.

A hot flush stained her cheeks and her mouth was a thin line. She marched right up to Geoffrey. “What is the matter with you? You’ll be the death of me. Where have you been?”

“Mum, I...went to the stables, that’s all. For a minute.”

“The stables!” She threw up her arms. “Oh, you are the most ungrateful little... Oh, I just...” She glanced hotly up from her son—and locked gazes with Genny, who had made a big mistake and stood directly behind him. She braced her fists on her hips. “And I’ll just bet that
you
were the one who found him.”

Genny stood tall. “Well, yes. Yes, I was.”

“What did I tell you last time he ran off? If you know where he is, you’re to come and tell
me.
”

Rafe said, “She didn’t know. We each took an area. Gen got the stables. It’s hardly a plot against you, Brooke.”

Brooke’s face flamed hotter. “Oh, what is the matter with you? You’re always defending her. And she’s just...well, you know what she is.”

“Brooke,” Genny said carefully, levelly. “Don’t do this. Dial it down.”

Brooke fisted her hands at her sides, tipped her head back and let out a screech of pure fury. “I will not dial it down. Not when you’re trying to steal my son from me.”

“Brooke, dear...” Eloise tried to catch her hand.

Brooke jerked away and went right on. “You were born with so much. You had it all. But you just weren’t satisfied. You had to have more. Do you think you’re fooling anyone? Well, guess again. You’re not. We all know what you did.”

Rafe said, “Brooke. Stop.”

Brooke did no such thing. “All your scheming to get Edward to marry you went nowhere. So with him barely cold in the ground, you fell into bed with Rafe and got yourself pregnant to guarantee you’d get Hartmore after all.”

“Brooke!” Eloise gasped.

“That’s enough, Brooke!” Rafe shouted.

Brooke whirled and opened her mouth to shout right back at him.

But Geoffrey shouted first. “Mum, you leave Aunt Genny alone! She’s a good person and she loves us all very much and I only wish that
she
was my mum!”

“Oh, dear God...” Genny didn’t know she would say it aloud until the anguished words fell from her lips. She clapped her hand over her mouth.

And Brooke? She let out a loud, wounded cry. And then she did what she always did when one of her tantrums spiraled out of her control. She burst into tears and ran for the house.

Eloise turned and went after her, the dogs at her heels.

Frances and her crew went on staunchly cleaning up, trying their hardest to pretend that none of this was happening.

Geoffrey stood still for a moment, his small body vibrating with fury. And then he took off running, back toward the stairs that led down to the parkland.

Genny would have followed him.

But Rafe caught her arm. “Are you all right?”

She wasn’t, not really. But she nodded anyway. And then she looked down at his hand on her arm. “Let me go. I need to see that Geoffrey’s—”

“Gen.” He caught her chin and tipped it up so she met his eyes.

“Don’t,” she cried. “Let me go...”

“Gen. Listen.”

She shut her eyes, sucked in a slow breath. “Yes. What?”

Quietly, he told her, “I’ll go. I’ll talk to him. It’s better if I go.”

She wanted to jerk away, to demand again that he release her, to insist that she would do it, go to Geoffrey. That she
needed
to do it, that Geoffrey needed
her
now.

But she didn’t jerk away. Because she knew he was right. The fight drained out of her, leaving her shoulders drooping, her arm limp in his grip.

She loved Geoffrey with a deep, unconditional, very motherly sort of love.

But she
wasn’t
his mother.

And in this delicate moment, for her to take his mother’s place and go to him when Rafe could do it just as well as she could...

That would be wrong.

She said in a flat voice of reluctant surrender, “I think he’ll just go to the stables again.” She wanted to burst into tears and run off wailing. Did that make her as bad as Brooke?

Probably.

He took her by the shoulders. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

And she made herself nod. “Yes. I’m all right. Go talk to him. He needs you now.”

“Gen, I...”

If he kept looking at her like that, she really would start crying. “You’re wasting time. Go. Go now.”

At last, he released her. She stood numbly watching as he went the way the way that Geoffrey had gone, to the stairs and down to the rolling expanse of lawn.

Frances stepped up and asked if the crew should take the gifts inside.