Chapter 20
“Of all the blind, arrogant, careless men,” Cecily muttered furiously to herself as she stormed upstairs to the new nursery wing. “I cannot believe him! I cannot believe I almost—” She broke off, choking on the words.
She had been willing to give herself to Nathaniel entirely this morning. How could the same man be so sensitive, seductive, and even likable at one moment and then so pig-headed, irresponsible, and vexing the next?
Before she reached the nursery corridor, she heard concerned voices in an urgent meeting. As the rooms came into view, she saw a small group gathered outside one of the doors. Clearly, no one had managed to coax the child out of the room since Nathaniel had given up so easily.
Miss Osborne looked quite ill, her skin sallow and her movements nervous, while two nursemaids leaned against the walls, looking bored and frustrated. Several trays of uneaten food lay on the floor. Patrick was shrugging helplessly as he talked to Mrs. Barnes, and even Mary had joined them.
Presently, Mary was shouting through the door that Lilian was a very ungrateful little girl.
“Mary, please keep your voice down,” Cecily ordered. “It is unlikely to be helpful. Mrs. Barnes, has Lilian been locked in there all morning?”
Mary fell silent and looked embarrassed, while the nursemaids stood straighter.
Everyone looked at Cecily. Well, she was the Duchess of Greyhaven now, regardless of her ambivalent feelings for her husband.
“Yes, Your Grace,” the housekeeper replied. “I’ve been upstairs and downstairs all morning, offering Lady Lilian’s favorite foods, new ribbons, and outings, but she will not come out. We’ve had days like this before, but never so bad.”
“Keys shouldn’t be left in locks around such a young child, especially unsupervised,” Cecily observed sternly, not meaning to scold anyone in particular but noticing that Miss Osborne looked shamefaced at the floor.
“It won’t happen again, Your Grace,” Mrs. Barnes immediately assured her. “But what do we do now? Lord Patrick wants to break the door open.”
Mary gave an unimpressed little snort at that.
“Well, we can’t leave Lilian in there forever, can we?” Patrick immediately took issue with her reaction. “What if she gets sick or hurts herself?”
“Lilian would definitely be hurt if a great big door went flying and hit her,” Mary pointed out. “You never think things through properly, Patrick, do you?”
“Tell me your bright ideas, then,” Patrick challenged.
Cecily hushed both of them and crouched down to peer through the keyhole, before looking down at the bottom of the door and then nodding her head.
“Can someone fetch me a piece of paper and some strong tweezers?” she requested. “Lilian? This is Cecily, your stepmother.”
At Mrs. Barnes’ nod, Maisie scurried off to do Cecily’s bidding.
At first, there was no answer from inside the bedroom, but after a few seconds’ pause, a sullen little voice asked, “What do you want?”
“It’s time for you to come out now,” Cecily replied pleasantly. “There has been enough trouble caused.”
“I do not care what you say. You’re not my mother!” Lilian spat back.
“No, but I’m your stepmother, and you might as well get used to that because we are likely to be spending a great deal of time together,” Cecily told her in a firm and factual tone, knowing that if Nathaniel did return to London soon, this would be even more true.
“I don’t even want you here,” Lilian protested. “Why can’t you go away and leave me alone?”
“Because you’re only seven years old, Lilian. No one will be leaving you alone.”
“Papa will,” the girl replied rebelliously. “He always leaves me.”
Cecily suppressed a sigh, unable to argue on this point. Thankfully, Maisie had returned with the items requested.
“Now, I’m going to teach you something interesting, Lilian. Would you like to learn how to unlock a door from the outside?”
“What do you mean?” Lilian asked, sounding intrigued.
“Well, when my sister Mary was your age, she sometimes used to lock herself in rooms too. I had to get her out so that she wouldn’t get into trouble with our uncle. He would have been very, very angry with her.”
“The nasty man who came to the wedding?” Lilian said artlessly.
“Yes,” Cecily sighed, seeing no point in hiding what was already plain to a child. “Anyway, I’m going to show you how it’s done now, and I want you to pay attention. Are you ready?”
“Yes,” Lilian answered straight away.
Cecily pushed the piece of paper beneath the door until it lay directly under the lock, half on one side and half on the other.
“Can you see the paper?”
“Yes. Is this magic? Like Uncle Patrick does sometimes?”
“It’s better than magic,” Cecily assured her, taking the tweezers and inserting them into the lock. “Watch very carefully, but don’t touch anything.”
Thankfully, the shape and size of the key allowed her to turn it slightly with the metal pincers so that its teeth were perpendicular to the lock, making it slide out easily.
Gently pushing it from her side with the tweezers, she heard a satisfying thunk as the key dropped to the floor. Pulling the paper back toward her, she was relieved to find the key flat enough to pass through the gap under the door.
“You got the key!” Lilian called out excitedly from inside the room. “You did it!”
“Yes, I did,” Cecily answered, rising to her feet and inserting the key in the lock. “Now, for my second trick…”
She unlocked the door and turned the handle, opening it softly to find Lilian standing entranced. She was smiling, but her eyes were red from crying, and her messy hair and clothes could have rivaled her father’s.
“Well done!” Patrick praised, evidently impressed.
Mrs. Barnes, Miss Osborne, and the maids all made sounds of relief and congratulation.
“I had forgotten you could do that, Cecily,” Mary remarked. “How long ago it was!”
“Yes, you were once a very trying child, indeed,” Cecily answered with good humor, while holding out her hand to Lilian.
Hesitantly, the child took one step forward and then another, before putting her hand in Cecily’s.
“Will you show me again?” Lilian asked. “I want to know more about getting out of locked rooms.”
“Only if you promise solemnly never to lock yourself in like that again,” Cecily replied sternly but with a smile that elicited a nod. “Good. I have heard that Winslows never break their promises, so I will trust you. Now, let’s wash our faces and freshen up together before luncheon.”
* * *
“Don’t you agree, Nathaniel?”
“Hmmm, as you say, Patrick,” Nathaniel muttered, sipping on the cool lemonade the two men were having in the upper garden in lieu of tea that afternoon.
“I just told you that the best-dressed men of the ton were wearing cheese for pocket handkerchiefs this Season.” Patrick chuckled. “You haven’t been listening to a word I’ve said, have you?”
Nathaniel laughed and shook his head. “You have me, Patrick. My mind seems to be elsewhere at the moment.”
“Oh, I can see exactly where your mind is, Brother,” Patrick returned with a grin, following Nathaniel’s gaze.
Lower down the gardens but easily within sight from the terrace where the brothers sat, Cecily was riding in Lilian’s little pony carriage.
The child held the reins and drove confidently, completing circles, turns, and other maneuvers, much to the delight of her stepmother and the applause of Mary and Miss Osborne, who formed the wider audience.
“Lilian drives well,” Nathaniel said. “I was right to get her that carriage this year, even though everyone said she was too young.”
“You weren’t only looking at Lilian,” Patrick observed. “You’ve barely taken your eyes off Cecily since we came outside. I’m beginning to think this marriage was a love match all along rather than one of your eccentric fancies.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Nathaniel scoffed. “I came out here to watch Lilian, and I’m happy to see her so happy. Yes, my mind did wander, quite naturally. Cecily is very comely, and I am a lucky man to have married her, but let’s not get carried away.”
His eyes were drawn back to the lower field by fresh peals of laughter and childish giggles.
Now dismounted from the carriage, Cecily was chasing Lilian around the field.
Likely, she had not dressed that morning with such exertion in mind, and Nathaniel could not help but notice the bouncing of her ample bosom beneath the thin muslin of her dress.
He shifted uncomfortably in his chair as an unwelcome twinge of lust made itself known. Regardless of the loveliness of his wife’s breasts, there was no immediate prospect of peppering them with kisses after their argument.
“Yes, let’s not get carried away.” Patrick laughed. “Look at you! You can’t keep your eyes off her. I’ve never seen you like this with a woman before.”
“There’s nothing to see,” Nathaniel insisted with a scowl. “Can’t I even have a drink and look around my own garden without my motivations being pulled apart by my brother?”
“If you say so,” Patrick answered with infuriating airiness and a knowing smile.
Why did Nathaniel find his brother’s needling so particularly aggravating right now?
Normally, he would let Patrick’s nonsense wash over him with the rest of life’s trivia.
He wasn’t prepared to waste time and energy caring about such meaningless babbling.
Still, he could not deny that today Patrick was touching a very raw nerve.
Maybe he was a little carried away by Cecily. Was that it?
The shutters of his mind crashed down to block out the very thought.
No, he was drawn to his new wife physically and found her good company. That was all. He had never been drawn to anyone on a more intimate basis than this, and never intended to be.
“Never!” he muttered aloud, yet again looking back at Cecily, whose figure was outlined by the bright sunlight and gusting wind.
“What was that, Nathaniel?” Patrick asked. “Never what? If you’re still trying to deny that you are—”
“Oh, why don’t you focus on sorting out your own life, Patrick?” Nathaniel snapped. “You surely have enough problems without imagining more for me.”
“Problems? I wouldn’t say that at all,” Patrick huffed, satisfyingly forced into the defensive.
“Really? No aim, no purpose, no profession.” Nathaniel ticked off his brother’s shortcomings on his fingers. “No wife.”
“If you had been listening to me rather than mooning over Cecily, you would have heard that I’ve been looking into joining the army.”
“The army!” Nathaniel exclaimed, setting down his glass on the table with a clink and finally giving his brother his full attention. “What on earth!”
“It’s a very respectable profession for a gentleman,” Patrick responded in an indignant tone, seeming to interpret Nathaniel’s astonishment as disapproval.
“With all that’s happening in the Continent, there are many commissions on offer too.
I’ve spoken to several of my acquaintances with relatives in the senior ranks of good regiments, and they’re prepared to put in a word for me. ”
“Excellent,” Nathaniel told him with a laugh and a nod. “A fine profession for you. Before you ask, I am prepared to buy your commission if you can convince the army to take you.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that. I hope it will be the last time I have to ask you for help. Once I’m an officer, I intend to make my own fortune.”
While a short speech, it was not one Nathaniel had ever expected to hear from Patrick’s mouth.
“I have an appointment in London with a senior officer later this week,” Patrick added. “That was what I was trying to tell you earlier.”
“You really are serious, aren’t you, Patrick?” Nathaniel commented, still smiling.
“More serious than I’ve ever been in my life.”
“I never thought I’d see this day. But what has brought on such a change of heart? You’ve always been excellent on horseback, and you’re a good shot, but the idea of uniform has never seemed to your taste before. Working for a living, in fact, was far from your agenda.”
At this line of questioning, an evasive expression came over Patrick’s face.
“Maybe I’ve just never talked about it.” He shrugged. “I don’t tell you everything, Nathaniel. You wouldn’t understand.”
Nathaniel regarded his brother meditatively, then laughed again as another realization dawned on him.
Of course, the reason Patrick kept pressing him about his supposed feelings for Cecily was that he himself was still in love with Mary.
He was joining the army in the hope of winning her heart back.
Everything now made sense.
“On the contrary, Patrick. I understand completely,” Nathaniel asserted. “You plan to join the cavalry, win honors and fortune, and thereby also win the heart and hand of Mary.”
“You do talk nonsense, Nathaniel,” Patrick muttered, flushing bright red. “I’m joining the army for me, not for her. She’s the most infuriating woman I’ve ever met.”
“Then why do you often follow her about?” Nathaniel challenged, now highly entertained by his brother’s mild discomfort.
“It would be easy never to see young Mary at all in a house the size of Greyhaven Park, and yet I find you two arguing and sniping at one another in some corner or stairwell every day.”
“I’m not following her!” Patrick protested immediately and very unconvincingly. “It’s just that… I don’t see why I should make an effort to avoid her when I live here too.”
“You don’t have to live here,” Nathaniel pointed out affably. “She does. Although I don’t mind at all if you wish to. Lilian likes having you around, or at least she likes the sweetmeats you always seem to be carrying.”
Patrick wasn’t really listening now. He was still determined to defend himself against the completely correct assertion that he often followed Mary around.
“Well, I cannot avoid Mary without avoiding Cecily, and even Lilian today, can I?” he argued. “They’re so often together.”
“You could eat your meals with Lilian in the nursery,” Nathaniel teased. “Then you wouldn’t have to stare at Mary across the dinner table.”
“Oh, go and boil your head,” Patrick grumbled, now reverting to childhood language.
“I’m sorry,” Nathaniel chuckled. “I was only getting a little of my own back, Patrick. I really am pleased with your decision to join the army, and will pay for the commission on the spot when you have it.”
Picking up his glass again, he raised it to his brother.
“To you, Patrick!” he toasted. “I’m not used to feeling proud of my younger brother. It’s a very strange feeling, indeed.”
Mollified, Patrick smiled back and raised his own glass. “To you, too, Nathaniel!” he echoed. “May you get everything you don’t know that you want!”
Laughing at his brother’s nonsense, Nathaniel clinked his glass against Patrick’s.