“Daniel, this is ridiculous,” she sniffed, peering into the bushes in first one direction and then the other. Really, couldn’t the man be serious? The path stretched empty in all directions. “Boys, come out immediately.”
“Boys,” Daniel’s voice countered from somewhere on her right. “You will do nothing of the kind until your mother touches one of us.”
Somewhere to her left someone giggled. Adam, she thought, eyes narrowing. “Very well, then, have it your way.” She set the basket on one of the stone benches that dotted the maze and tiptoed toward the sound. Carefully she peered over the top of the bushes. There was no one there. Frustrated, she sank back onto her feet.
“Nah nah nah,” John teased from her right. She whipped about in time to see him disappearing around a turn in the maze. She lifted her skirts and dashed after him.
For the next few minutes it was pure anarchy in the maze. Children raced around corners and dove into bushes. Daniel actually leapt over one of the lower hedges to avoid her touch. Determined, she pursued him deeper into the maze, his laughter always just ahead of her. Adam escaped by crawling under a stone bench. James ran away so quickly he lost a shoe, and she only paused long enough to scoop it up and slip it in the pocket of her gown. John had the uncanny knack of letting her get within a finger’s breadth before sprinting past her and disappearing again. Her hair came undone from its pins, she trod on the flounce of her gown, and she had never had such a wonderful time in all her life.
She was about to get the jump on John at last when she caught sight of Daniel heading for the center of the maze. Letting her son escape, she edged along the hedge and peered around the corner. Facing away from her, Daniel was bent over the stone bench at the center of the maze to catch his breath, one foot up on the bench. She tiptoed up behind him and placed both hands on his broad back. “I have you!” she shrieked triumphantly.
Daniel grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into his embrace. She was so surprised that she could only gasp out an “oh” and with her mouth in such a perfect position, he kissed her.
It was a quick peck, nothing more. But it caused the strangest sensations in her stomach and all she could do was stare at him. He had the oddest expression on his own face, his gray eyes suddenly dark, and she had the distinct impression that his breathlessness had nothing to do with the game.
“Cynthia,” he managed. “Say something, please.”
She blinked. “Thank you?”
He laughed shakily. “Thank you? Is that for the game or the kiss?”
“Both?” She felt shy suddenly and dropped her gaze. The feel of his arms around her was wonderfully comforting, and she found she had no desire to move. What she did have a desire for, however, was another kiss, and the thought was enough to shock her into silence.
Daniel had no idea how things had gotten to this pass. Here he stood with Cynthia in his arms in the middle of the garden, of all places, the feel of her mouth under his still fresh in his mind. Fresh ... it was overpowering. He found himself staring at those lips, warm, dusted with moisture like dew on the petals of a rose. All he’d have to do was lower his head once again and...
“Awww, she caught him!” Adam cried from the hedge. “Do we have to go to tea now?”
Daniel forced himself to let go of her. Cynthia smoothed down her skirts and stood a little straighter. He had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. Her effort was completely in vain with her hair wild about her shoulders and dust caking the hem of her skirt.
“That’s only fair, Adam,” she told her son with a smile. “I did catch Daniel, and he promised we’d go in when I caught one of you.”
“All right,” Adam sighed. Within minutes, they had rounded up James and John and were headed back to the house with Daniel in the lead. Cynthia picked up her basket and trailed behind. She told herself she was quite glad she had managed to get them to return to the house, but suddenly she had lost all interest in tea, and she couldn’t wait to get some time to herself to think.
NINE
She didn’t get time to herself until after the boys had retired. Daniel seemed disappointed that she didn’t choose to stay up and play chess or billiards with him as had been their wont of late, but today’s kiss in the maze had thoroughly unnerved her and she found it impossible to be alone with him until she knew why.
After she had departed, Daniel sat staring into the fire, thoughts unfocused, or rather refusing to focus on a particular incident. He nodded at Evenson, who came in to check the windows and doors before going to bed. “Is there anything more I can do for you, sir?”
“Can you explain women to me, Evenson?” Daniel asked.
Evenson sighed. “If I could do that, sir, I would no longer be your butler. I’d be the richest man in England.”
“In the world,” Daniel amended.
“Just so, sir. Good night.”
Daniel nodded again as he left. He continued to sit in front of the fire, watching the red coals dimming one by one to black. Around him the room grew still and cool. He had spent many such nights before Cynthia and the boys had come into his life, but the memories were far from pleasant. His life was richer and better with them in it. He had thought he was content with his lot. But after the kiss this afternoon, he knew he could never be.
He had fallen in love with Cynthia.
He shook his head. How could he have been such a fool? He had wanted to win her heart, but somehow he had never considered that he might lose his own. He’d thought the poets mad, but now he knew they were no madder than he. The frog was hopelessly in love with the beautiful, clever, wonderful mother of his sons. If she had felt for Nathan half of what he was feeling for her, he suddenly understood how she could run away and leave everything behind.
Most likely it had been creeping up on him all summer long, only he had just noticed it this afternoon when she had run up behind him. He really hadn’t been intending to kiss her, but with her mouth so delectably close he hadn’t had much choice. And the taste of her and the feel of her had been so sweet. He closed his eyes just thinking about it. God, how could he ever be in the same room with her again without wanting to hold her that way once more?
He leaned back on his elbows. He couldn’t face her without saying something, that much was clear. But what was he to say? “My dear Cynthia, I know I made a bargain when I married you, but I’ve changed my mind. I want ours to be a true marriage. You will report to my bed this evening.” He shook his head. That would hardly do. Yet he balked at the idea of simply telling her he loved her. Surely she would just smile politely and tell him to go to blazes.
“They’re all right about you, my lad,” he sighed. “How much of a man can you be if you can’t even tell the woman you love that you love her?”
Upstairs the woman he loved was having a similar conversation with herself. It was equally plain to her that she had fallen in love with Daniel, although she couldn’t remember when it had happened. She looked at herself in the mirror of the dressing table and a slow smile spread across her face. In love! She had never thought to feel this way again. A blush was spreading with the smile. She was in love with her darling, gentle, sweet-natured husband. But was he in love with her?
The smile and blush faded as quickly as they had come. True, he had kissed her, and he seemed to have been as affected by it as she had. And she had realized some time since that his awkwardness around her was a sign that her presence meant more to him than he wanted it to. But did that truly mean that his heart was engaged? Men did not necessarily love where they lusted, she had heard. Should she trust him with her heart when she did not know his?
But how could she face him without blurting out her feelings? And what was she to say? “Daniel, I know I asked you for a marriage of convenience but would you mind if I shared your bed?” The blush returned in full force. She would sound like a veritable wanton!
And yet she had to do something. They had been rather cozy together this summer, but everything wa
s changed with the kiss. She could try to ignore it, but she feared it would only fester. The best thing for all would be to tell him the truth, that she was hopelessly in love with him and wanted to make theirs a true marriage. Knowing her Daniel, if he felt otherwise, he would be very gentle about telling her so.
She resolved to speak to him as soon as the boys were off to the vicarage school that next morning, then spent so sleepless a night worrying about his answer that she arrived at the breakfast table late and feeling haggard. She took some comfort in the fact that Daniel did not look as if he had slept well, either. There were bags under his stormy gray eyes and his hand stirring the honey into his tea shook on the spoon. The boys did not seem to have noticed the difference; they sat eating and laughing as they usually did.
“We are going to the pond to fish this morning,” John announced, cramming a piece of toast in his mouth and speaking around the wad. “Wanna come, Mr. Daniel?”
Daniel managed a smile. “I’d love to, but isn’t Mr. Wellfordhouse expecting you at the vicarage?”
John avoided his eyes. “I’m sure he’d understand if we took a day off.”
“Fishing!” Adam exclaimed, waving the spoon from his porridge in the air. “I’m gonna catch a whale!”
Cynthia smiled at him and motioned him to put the spoon down, which he did with a contrite look.
“I do not believe Mr. Daniel’s pond carries whales,” James interjected. “Sturgeon would be the best one could hope for, I would imagine.”
“Minnows, more likely,” Cynthia told him. “But I quite agree with Daniel. Fishing will have to wait. You need to go to school.”
John set down his spoon and frowned at her. “Mother, there is more to life than school. Isn’t that so, Mr. Daniel?”
“A great deal more, John,” Daniel nodded. “However, you won’t be in much of a position to enjoy it if you don’t have a decent education. I know the pond is calling, but it will be here tomorrow and the day after that. Today you need to go to school.”
John glanced between the two of them. “Is something wrong?”
Cynthia could feel a blush heating her cheek and hastily looked away from the knowing blue eyes. “No, John.”
“Everything is fine, John,” Daniel agreed, although his voice sounded a little shaky to Cynthia. “And I’d be delighted to take you to the pond this afternoon when you return from the vicarage.”
John slumped in his chair and poked at his porridge. “Oh, very well.”
Daniel nodded. “I’ll look forward to it, then. I hope you understand about the vicarage school, John. You more than any of the others need to be attending, because it will prepare you to go to Eton.”
“Eton!” Cynthia gasped. “Oh, Daniel, how wonderful!”
He beamed at her. “It’s the least I could do.”
“What’s eatin’?” Adam demanded. “I want to go, too.”
“And so you shall, my lad,” Daniel nodded. “First John, then James, then you. And after that, Oxford or Cambridge if you like.”
John was frowning again. “I don’t know those places. Are they near Barnsley?”
“No, they’re much farther than that,” Daniel explained. “They’re fine schools, John, where you’ll meet lots of fellows just like you. Your Uncle Jonathan attended Eton. So did the Duke of Wellington. I always wished I could. These are places you’ll be proud to say you were graduated from.”
John paled and rose from his chair. “You’re sending me away?”
“Daniel is sending you to school, love,” Cynthia said soothingly, reaching out a hand. John shrugged it away. “John, it’s more than I’d ever hoped for you.”
“You want me gone, too?” John cried. James stared at them all, and Adam trembled in his chair.
“John,” Daniel said firmly, hoping to make the boy see reason before the whole lot of them started crying, “no one wants you gone.”
“Perhaps this isn’t the time to talk about this,” Cynthia put in, seeing her oldest son shake with suppressed emotion.
“Why, because you don’t want me to talk?” John demanded.
The boy was obviously beyond logic. “John,” Daniel said quietly. “I think that’s enough.”
John turned on him, eyes wild, and Daniel had to fight not to flinch away from the betrayal staring back at him. “I know why you’re doing this!” the boy shouted at him, blinking away hot tears. “You want to spend more time with her! You like her better than you like us! Well, she wouldn’t even be here if I hadn’t told her to. I did everything! I told the ladies in the village she wanted a husband so those awful men would call. I got you to go over there when you didn’t even want to. I got her to marry you. She doesn’t even like you. She thinks you’re fat and stupid!”
“John!” Cynthia gasped, hands flying to her mouth.
The constriction by his heart that the boys’ concerns usually caused was gone and Daniel felt only pain inside him. He had been right all along. It didn’t matter how princely he behaved or how lordly he looked. To Cynthia, he would always be a frog. It would have been easy to give up and go back to his quiet life before they had arrived, a life with small chance of hurt and even smaller chance of love. He straightened under John’s glare. He refused to give up on them.
He rose and went to kneel beside the boy to put himself at John’s eye level. John’s small chin stuck out and his fists were balled at his sides. His thin chest heaved as he gulped back sobs. “John,” Daniel said carefully, “this isn’t about how I feel about your mother. My idea of you going away to school is entirely about my love for you. When I married your mother, I gladly took on the responsibility of raising you and your brothers. I take that responsibility very seriously. It is my duty to help you grow up to be a gentleman you’ll be proud of. A good education is a requirement for such a gentleman.”
“But why must I go away?” John sniffed, dashing the tears away with the back of his hand. “Why can’t I stay here and get an education?”
Daniel could feel all three boys waiting for his answer. He tried not to look at Cynthia. “You can get a good start at an education with Reverend Wellfordhouse,” he explained. “Perhaps that will be all you want or need. But very likely you’ll want to go on to learn more, whether at Eton or Harrow or some other good school. We have over a year before we have to make that decision. And rest assured, we will consult you on the matter. Now, do you think you can apologize to your mother for your behavior and get yourselves off to school?”
The boy nodded, sniffing away the last of his tears. He threw himself into Cynthia’s arms for a hug. Adam and James scooted out of their seats, eyes wide, and followed John from the room. Like it or not, Daniel knew that left him to face Cynthia.
“I think perhaps I’d better see that they make it to school,” he murmured, hurrying after them and hating himself for being so craven. He promised himself he would come back that afternoon, as soon as he could figure out a way to start rebuilding their relationship.
Cynthia watched him slink from the room and sank back against her chair in defeat.
TEN
Sometime later, Cynthia stopped her pacing about the library and peered out the window hoping to catch a glimpse of the returning Daniel. After her sleepless night and John’s outburst that morning, her nerves were on edge and she wanted only to get her declaration over and done with. Especially after John’s damning statement, she couldn’t let Daniel think she so despised him.
But Daniel didn’t come home that morning. Nor did he arrive in time for luncheon, although she had a distraught Monsieur Henri delay the meal twice. In fact, she did not see him again until she had descended for dinner and found him and the three boys boasting about their fishing of that afternoon. By then she was ready to scream.
For once, Daniel was content to avoid Cynthia. While the boys were at school, he had found a way to tell Cynthia he loved her. He waited anxiously through dinner, but she made no mention of the package he had left on her mantel, and he
realized with a sinking heart that she hadn’t found it yet. He let the boys stay up later than usual, hoping that she would retire to her room, but she seemed intent on confronting him. At last he took the boys up to bed and slipped into his own chamber. He managed to change into nightclothes, but he found it impossible to sleep and perched on his bed, listening for her footfall in the corridor.
Cynthia couldn’t understand Daniel’s attitude. He had to know she wanted to talk to him, yet he let the boys stay up later than usual and insisted on taking them up to bed himself. She paced the withdrawing room, waiting for his return, and was just about to go up after him when Evenson came through on his rounds to close up the house. He was plainly surprised to see her, but made to bow himself out. “Evenson,” she demanded, “where is my husband?”
“I believe Mr. Lewiston retired for bed some time ago, madame,” Evenson replied. “Shall I wake him for you?”
“No,” Cynthia sighed, feeling every bit as dejected as John had that morning. “I might as well retire, too, then. Good night, Evenson.”
She didn’t wait to hear him respond.
Upstairs, she dismissed the young lady Daniel had hired to serve as her lady’s maid, and began taking down her hair herself. She had combed out her tresses and put on her white cambric nightgown before she saw the box on the fireplace mantel.
“And don’t think a present will get you out of discussing this, my man,” she muttered to herself as she took down the box and carried it to the bed. Still, Daniel’s presents had always been wonderful, and she hurriedly pulled the lid off the oblong box. Inside lay a half dozen white sticks of candy, each thicker than her thumb.
She shook her head. “Where on earth did he find rock here in Wenwood?” she wondered aloud. That had been one of her few joys in living in Bristol, the rock candy made by the town’s leading confectionery. She vaguely remembered telling Daniel something about it when he had first called. Grabbing one of the sticks, she took a long lick and let the sweet taste roll down her throat. Hope filled her with each swallow. Perhaps there was a chance for them if he was still willing to buy her such a present. She had taken perhaps three such licks when she noticed that the end of the stick had red marks on it. Looking closer, she saw that the marks formed letters, letters that read, “I love you.”
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