The Secret Love of a Gentleman (45 page)

“But I have heard Kilbride’s first wife was a beauty.”

“You are insane, Rob.”

“I’ve never seen her, but I have heard she is outstanding.”

“I remember the rumours about her when we were at school. How the hell did you win her?”

“The most notorious beauty in London when we were at school”

“She is still a beauty,” Rob had informed them, with a smile.

And now he was here to officially ask for her hand in marriage, when the marriage was already arranged.

He handed his reins off to the groom and then slipped down unsteadily. He still could not jump, it jarred his bad leg if he did.

He walked about the curricle, and held Caro’s hand as she climbed down.

Behind him the door opened.

“Caro, Rob…” It was Drew himself, with George in his arms.

“Aun’ie Caro! Uncle Bobbie!” George’s arms stretched out. Caro covered the distance to him quickly and took George from his father, hugging him tightly. His arms wrapped about her neck and he hugged her too.

In a year, their child would be in her arms.

George turned and held his arms out to Rob.

“I am still not healed, George. I may hold you but if I hold you I cannot walk, my legs are still not up to carrying two.”

“Come here, rascal.” Drew took George back from Caro.

“Where is Mary?” Caro asked

“Feeding, she will be down in a moment. But, more importantly, why are you here?” He looked from Caro to Rob. “Together…”

“I wish to speak to you alone, if I may?”

“That all sounds very formal, Rob.” Drew put George down. “George, take Auntie Caro up to the nursery to show her your new soldiers.”

George grinned and gripped Caro’s hand, then began pulling her away.

Rob felt a fool. It was far too late for this conversation, but it was the right thing to do.

Drew gave him a nod and lifted a hand, encouraging Rob to go in. “The library…” He suggested when they entered the hall.

“Will Uncle Bobbie play later?” George asked Caro as they climbed the stairs.

“I’m sure he will,” Caro answered.

Rob’s heart played the beat of drum as he turned to the library, thinking of their child again.

Drew shut the door behind them. Rob turned to face him. He’d thought Drew his friend, but in town he’d advised Caro to dispose of Rob and his youthful affection.

“What is it?”

“I’m here to ask you for your agreement to me marrying Caro.”

Drew’s eyebrows shot up. “Where has this come from?”

“I know you know we were together in the summer. Caro has told me what you said. You were wrong. I can support her and I wish to do so. I had John’s allowance, but now I also have the tenancy.”

“I know you can support her, that was never my complaint.” Drew leant his buttocks back against the table and gripped its rim. “But you are one and twenty, it is young to settle—”

“Yes, but that is my choice, and her choice.” Rob felt as though his heart was in his throat, choking him. It would be important to Caro that Drew understood.

Drew sighed. “I’m aware that Caro has an attachment to you. I know her feelings, but there is an age difference, and I would not see her hurt. What if, in a year or two, you change your mind about the direction you have chosen for your life?”

“I will not. I have never been fickle. I do not intend to become so.”

“Are you certain this is what you want?”

“It is what we
want.”

“Then why not wait for a year or two, as I advised Caro? You would then know for certain and there would be no risk.”

“Why can you not believe that I know my own heart and mind now?”

Drew sighed out a breath and gripped the back of his neck with both hands, but then he laughed as his hands fell. “Very well. Probably because I am thinking of myself and my own family and I am not used to the understanding and the depth of feeling within yours.”

“I am marrying Caro, Drew. With respect, I am merely asking in order to be polite. You cannot actually say no to me.”

Drew laughed again. “And so you have my blessing. I know you can make her happy and keep her happy.”

Rob nodded.
I will keep her happy.
It was a mental oath

Drew straightened. “We had better go up to the drawing room. Mary will hate to be the last to know your news.”

“I’m afraid she is. Caro has spent the night in town at John’s. He and Kate and Mama and Papa know. The announcement will be in the paper tomorrow. The wedding will be at St George’s, Tuesday, four weeks hence.”

“There is no time for me to adjust to the idea, then, and Mary shall hate you for not having told her your plans first. Especially when it is my sister you have chosen.”

Rob smiled.

When they climbed the stairs Drew asked Rob more about the estate he was leasing.

“The mansion that accompanies it is quite large. Caro will be comfortable there, I’m sure.”

Drew nodded as they walked into the drawing room. “I’ll send a maid up and ask Caro to bring George back down. I’m sure Mary will come down as soon as she is able.”

When the maid arrived, Drew turned. “We will have tea and cake, Molly, and would you ask Lady Caroline to come down from the nursery, and George may come too. We have something to celebrate.”

“If I leave Caro here, would you and Mary bring her to town in a fortnight, so she will have time to buy everything she needs for the wedding?”

“Of course. I will write to John in the morning. I take it he is there.”

“He is, as are Mama and Papa.” Rob did not mention why.

“Uncle Bobbie!” George’s cry rang out, as he turned the corner and ran into the room, and then straight into Rob’s legs, to hug him.

Pain seared up Rob’s leg. “Ah, George. Be a little careful. You scoundrel.”

“He’s missed you,” Caro said, looking at Rob with worry in her eyes.

“Let me sit down, then, and I will hold you.” Rob took his hat off.

“Give it to me,” Caro took it. “I will take it to the footman, and let me take your coat.”

She had noticed how difficult Rob was finding things. It made him embarrassed.

“Now you may sit down and play with me, George.”

“On the floor.”

“On the sofa. I cannot get up and down from the floor yet. Give me a couple of months.”

A footman was at the door and Caro passed over Rob’s things, then turned back. Rob looked up at her.

“I have two of his new soldiers in my pocket. I brought them down for him to show you, so you do not have to climb two flights of stairs.” She held them out and came to give them to him, as George pressed a hand on Rob’s bad leg.

“Ow, George, be gentle with me.” He held out his hand for the soldiers as George climbed up onto his good leg.

“Uncle Bobbie had a big tumble, George, he hurt himself very badly, so you must be careful.”

George nodded, looking at Rob. “Where does it hurt?”

“On this leg here, and this hand.” Rob lifted his right hand. George gripped it and kissed it.

“There, it’s all better now.”

“Thank you.” The words slipped from Rob’s lips on a whisper while something shot straight through his heart, like a bullet. Damn, he would have his own son or daughter.

He looked up at Caro, but his gaze paused on her stomach before lifting to her face.

They would have a son or daughter.

Her eyes glittered with moisture before she turned away. “I shall pour.” She would be doing that in his home, as his wife.

He looked at George’s soldiers. “They are rather smart. Their scarlet jackets are very grand.”

“Papa bought them.”

Rob looked up at Drew. “Good old Papa.”

“They are firing their guns,” George said.

“Yes.”

“Robbie!” Mary swept into the room as excited as her son, “and Caro, and you came together, how wonderful.”

“They have some news,” Drew stated.

“We do,” Rob answered, and he would have stood, but he had George on his lap. “We are engaged.”

Mary looked at Caro, her mouth open. She’d truly not seen that this was likely. “You are happy?”

There was a pause before Caro answered, and she looked as though she thought about the answer, then she breathed, “Yes.” It was as though she had just discovered it.

Rob laughed. “I hope you are. If you are not, I will be sad.”

Caro looked at him. “I am.”

“And you, Rob?”

“More than happy.” His lips parted, with a smile. He was, truly—just a little in shock. “We are to be married in four weeks.” He looked at Caro. “I asked Drew to bring you back to town in a fortnight. You may stay at John’s and I will stay at my uncle’s. My rooms will have been let. Then you will have chance to purchase a dress and other things for the wedding and some clothes and things for our journey north.”

She shook her head as though she would spend nothing.

“Caro, I have plenty of money, you will purchase what you wish.” He looked at Mary. “Ensure she has everything she needs.”

Mary nodded, beaming. She was not worried about his age at least.

“Will you stay for luncheon? We have not eaten yet.”

“Yes, if you are happy to, Caro?”

She nodded. “May I take Iris?”

“Of course.” Mary passed her over, then turned to the footman hovering near the door. “Would you tell cook we have two guests?”

After they’d eaten, Rob and Caro dressed for the cold again, and he held her hand as she climbed up into the curricle. Then they waved their goodbye, with arrangements made for Drew to collect Caro in ten days.

When they arrived in Maidstone, Caro directed him to the inn where he could leave his curricle, and then they walked from there.

She gripped his arm and it made movement more difficult, but he ignored that, the feel of her fingers was a balm that outweighed it.

He’d not realised how small her cottage was. It was no more than a hall and room wide, and two rooms in depth. It was a terrace and whitewashed on the outside, while inside it was dark and full of shadows cast by the limited light that came from small squat, square windows.

He took off his hat and ducked beneath the lintel, and then apologised to her housekeeper for keeping Caro in town and frightening the poor women when Caro had not returned.

What surprised him most, though, was Caro’s ease in the place. As soon as she walked through the door she seemed brighter and lighter in spirit. “Will you have more tea with me, do you think you can stomach it?”

He laughed, “I will have tea with you, whether I am able to drink it or not, solely for the luxury of sitting with you to do so in your own home.”

She looked at her housekeeper. “Tea, then, Beth.”

“May I take Beth to Yorkshire with us? We have become close. I would like her about me.”

“If she is up to managing a small household of servants rather than a cottage, she may have the post of housekeeper there. I have not appointed one.”

“I will ask her when you have gone.”

Caro sat down on the edge of the chair opposite his, looking eager.

“You have been happy here, haven’t you?”

“I feel free here. I am not at all dependent on Drew; my income is from the jewellery I brought from my marriage.”

Inferior.
When she’d said it of him, she’d said it of herself too. Why had he not remembered that?

He’d thought she’d rejected him for his inferiority, but that was ridiculous. She was happy in a tiny working man’s cottage.

He’d been an ass. Why had he not seen through what she was really afraid of? His youth represented insecurity. She had been unsure of his constancy. She’d said Kilbride had adored her and then his love had died. The evidence from her life was a good reason for her to be wary.

“I’m glad for you.”

“I knew you would be.” She was smiling broadly. “The day I moved in I longed to be able to tell you because I felt proud, and I knew you would understand and be proud of me.”

“I am. But will you regret having to leave?”

Her hand touched her stomach. “No. I would rather be with you. This was only a place for me to live until… I hoped you would come back to me.”

“You need never have hoped for it. I did not wish to leave you.”

“I’ll chase up our tea,” she stood, but he caught her wrist as she walked past.

“Caro.”

She leaned down and kissed his lips, perhaps understanding the longing that must have shown in his eyes. He turned in the seat and gripped the back of her head, holding her mouth to his for a moment more, then let her go.

She smiled, then turned away.

Chapter 41

Mister Robert Marlow, the Grandson of the 8th Duke of Pembroke and the 10th Earl of Barrington, announces his engagement to Lady Caroline Framlington.

Rob sat in his club reading the announcement and hoped Kilbride had read it.

He’d seen nothing of Kilbride since rising from his sick bed, but this felt like revenge, and if the man crawled out from the woodwork now Rob was not going to back away or hide.

It should not bother him, but the fact that Caro had a history of years with Kilbride itched beneath Rob’s skin. He wished he could erase that part of her life. It rankled.

Yet we have a child
.

Every time he thought of the child, his heart missed a beat.

“Rob!” Tarquin called him.

Rob looked up to see his most foolish friend pulling up an imaginary noose at the side of his neck.

Rob laughed. “You will be jealous.”

“I am jealous.” He stated, “I have heard a dozen more rumours about the quality of her beauty, and the perfection of her skin.”

“I do not wish you to admire it.”

Tarquin laughed.

“The deed is done, then,” Roger sat down next to Rob.

“It is.” There was no going back and he did not wish to.

~

When his father’s hand settled on his shoulder, Rob looked up. “They’ve arrived.”

Rob’s thoughts had been drifting—he’d not heard them. He rose, his heart racing with excitement. He smiled. He’d longed to see her. If he could bloody run down the stairs he would, instead he gripped the banister and limped heavily down them, but a little faster than he’d walked down them a week ago. Every week he made small progressions in his health.