quote you a little earlier, all you have to be is yourself. Although—’ his mind worked swiftly ‘—I believe it may help my mother to accept her diminished role if you were to ask her advice, from time to time.’
‘Would she give it? I mean, I’ve always thought she hated me.’
‘She may have, possibly, hated your being the catalyst that forced her to send me away,’ he conceded. ‘But...’ he cleared his throat, which suddenly felt very tight as he launched an oblique approach to the most awkward issue that lay between them ‘...she is now of the opinion that, actually, you are a practical choice for me, in at least one respect. You are so full of energy, as a rule, that she is convinced your health will go a long way to counteracting the lack of vigour she claims has dogged the last two generations of earls. She foresees you presenting her with half-a-dozen healthy grandsons.’
‘How silly of her.’
He flinched. ‘Yes, but—’ He was about to explain that he had been trying to spare Georgiana any unpleasantness by not telling his mother that their marriage was to be in name only. In that way, when no children appeared, she would blame him for being unable to father them. His shoulders were broad enough to take the blame.
But while he was collating the appropriate words to explain this, Georgiana had half-turned to him, her eyes sparkling with indignation.
‘No, Edmund. It simply isn’t true, is it? I mean, when you were a boy, you never had any ailments that every other child in the village didn’t have, did you? And...you were never as ill as the rumours would have it, either. When I got in to see you, I was always surprised that you weren’t at death’s door, after what I’d heard. I never saw you delirious with fever, or gasping for breath, or anything like that.’
He blinked. For some reason she now saw him as being full of health and vigour, of being capable of siring half a dozen sons, did she? When she wasn’t prepared to give him the opportunity to do so? When, to begin with, she’d practically accused him of not being a Real Man at all.
‘Which is why I put it the way I did.’
‘Put what how?’
‘When I mentioned the lack of vigour she claims has dogged the last two generations of earls.’
‘Well, your father certainly wasn’t lacking in vigour, either, was he?’
Either? So it was true. She did see him differently, now.
Was that a good thing, or another obstacle he’d have to overcome?
‘My father,’ he said drily, since he couldn’t very well speak about the questions she was raising in his mind, ‘as you seem to be aware, simply preferred being vigorous in any woman’s bed but my mother’s. Which contributed to her almost obsessive devotion to my health.’
‘A case of having all her eggs in one basket?’
‘Very perceptively put.’ But then Georgie always was quick on the uptake. ‘I also discovered, recently, that my father had been urging her to send me to school. I always assumed he took no interest in my welfare, but now I wonder if the reason he made no objection to my eventual removal from Fontenay Court was that he saw my exile to a more moderate climate as a chance for me to escape her...smothering, and experience something more regular, for a youth of my age.’
‘But...surely, as your father, it was his right to decide whether you should go to school, or not?’
‘Ah.’ He wished he hadn’t already polished his spectacles now. He had nothing to do with his hands. ‘As I said, I always assumed he took no interest in my welfare. However, it turns out that my parents struck a sort of bargain. Which was, in short, that so long as I lived, he would leave her alone. She in turn would make no attempt to interfere with his hedonistic lifestyle.’
‘Golly,’ she said, her hold on her parasol slackening to the extent that it almost went overboard. She rescued it just before it struck a horseman heading in the opposite direction. Turned in her seat to make her apologies as the gentleman in question brought his startled mount back under control.
‘It cost her dearly, to send me away,’ he said, once Georgie was paying attention again. ‘For all her faults, I truly believe she was attempting to do her best. For my health. And for your reputation. She was so afraid I was going to turn out like my father. I look so very like him, you see...’
‘Oh, Edmund, no! You are nothing like that.’ She reached out and took his hand. If only they hadn’t been in an open carriage, bowling along in a public park, he’d have seized it and carried it to his lips.
‘The point is,’ he forced himself to say instead, ‘you need have no fear of her reception. When next you meet, she will greet you with open arms. So to speak. The only thing is...’
‘Yes? What?’ She clutched his hand a little tighter.
‘She may well speak to you in terms of...bringing new blood to the line. She is still more than a little obsessed with the lineage. Which is why I thought it only fair to warn you. Because I do not want you to think that I regard you in the light of a—’
‘A brood mare?’
‘Exactly. I mean, nothing of the kind! Georgie, I am not going to demand my conjugal rights immediately, you need have no fear of that.’
She removed her hand from his and placed it, curled up, in her lap. ‘No,’ she said in a small, defeated voice. ‘I don’t fear that.’
Though, for once, he wasn’t at all convinced she was telling the truth.
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