by Amelia Grey
Louisa gasped. “Wait!” She rushed out of the drawing room behind him and stopped him by grabbing hold of his arm. “Wait, please, Your Grace. Tell me what do you mean ‘follow them’?”
“As in staying at a distance behind them in my carriage and keeping an eye on them and making sure they stay in the park in full view of anyone who may be there.”
“You think he might—that she might—?”
“I’m not thinking anything in particular, Miss Prim. Do you or do you not want to go with me?”
“Yes, of course I want to go,” she said. “Wait right there. Don’t move a muscle. I’ll get my bonnet and wrap from the back door.”
“I want to go.”
Louisa whirled and saw Bonnie quietly coming down the stairs. “No—I mean this is not a good time for you to go, Bonnie.” Louisa hurried to the back door and grabbed her things. She had made her way to the front of the house just as Bonnie arrived at the bottom of the stairs. The girl’s head hung down, resting her chin on her chest.
“I don’t see why I can’t go.” She pouted. “Gwen has gone for a ride in the park, and now you’re going for a ride. It’s not fair that I don’t get to go for one, too.”
Louisa’s heart squeezed, and Bonnie knew it because she added, “I wouldn’t touch anything and break it.”
Louisa looked at the duke for help. “She’s young and doesn’t understand why she can’t go.”
“All right, Miss Bonnie,” he said in an exasperated tone. “Go get your bonnet and coat, but be quick about it. We’ll wait for you outside by the carriage.”
“Yippee!” She squealed and dashed up the stairs.
“Careful, don’t fall,” Louisa called to Bonnie’s fast-disappearing back. She turned to the duke and said, “Thank you.”
“Please,” he said in a low voice. “I didn’t do it because I wanted to. I was afraid she’d start crying like Miss Sybil if I said no. Besides, what can she hurt in an open carriage?”
The duke helped place the cape on Louisa’s shoulders, and they hurried out to the carriage with Louisa putting her bonnet on. He helped her to step onto the floor, and after she’d seated herself, she saw not only Bonnie, but Sybil and Lillian running out of the house, too.
“Oh, no,” Louisa said. “This is not good.”
“What?” the duke said as he turned and looked behind him. He frowned. “I should have known she would do that, shouldn’t I?”
“I didn’t think about it either.”
“Can I go?” Sybil asked.
“I want to go, too,” Lillian added.
“The carriage seat is really only made for two,” the duke explained. “We can squeeze in Miss Bonnie because she’s so little, but there is nowhere for the rest of you to sit. I’m sorry, girls.”
“That’s not a problem,” Lillian said. “I can sit where Bonnie was going to sit and hold her, and Louisa can hold Sybil, right, Sister?”
“Yes!” Bonnie and Sybil screamed together, and jumped up and down.
“I suppose we could try to make it work,” Louisa said, beginning to fear the duke would leave them all at home and follow Gwen by himself as he’d threatened.
“All right, young ladies, you win,” the duke said in an annoyed tone. “Go get your bonnets and coats and be quick about it.”
Sybil and Bonnie shrieked, and Lillian said, “We already have them with us!” They pulled their bonnets and wraps from where they were holding them behind their backs.
The duke pointed his finger at each one of them. “And one more thing, girls. No more squealing, all right?”
All three of the girls looked up innocently at him as if they had no idea what he was talking about, but they nodded silently.
“Come on, Miss Lillian, you first. Sit on the other side of your sister.” He handed her up to the chaise, and she settled between Louisa and the arm of the seat. He then handed Bonnie onto the carriage, and lastly he said, “All right, up you go, Miss Sybil,” and handed her to Louisa.
The duke then lifted his leg to climb onto the carriage, and Saint barked and wagged his tail furiously. Louisa hadn’t even noticed when the dog followed them out.
“No,” he said to Saint. “Stay.”
“Why can’t he come?” Bonnie said. “I can hold him.”
“No,” Bray said. “You can’t hold him, because Lillian is holding you.”
“I can hold him, I’m bigger,” Sybil offered.
“You always say you’re bigger,” Bonnie complained.
“That’s because I am,” Sybil argued.
“Girls, that’s enough,” Louisa said, trying to hold on to what little patience she had. “Saint stays. If you are not happy with that, both of you can stay, too.”
The girls didn’t say anything else. “Look, Your Grace,” Louisa said. “Mrs. Woolwythe is standing in the doorway. Take him to her.”
Without wasting any time, the duke scooped up Saint, strode to the front door, and deposited him into the housekeeper’s arms. He then returned to the chaise, jumped up to the seat, and squeezed in beside Louisa. She immediately felt the warmth of his leg. As he picked up the ribbons, his arm lightly brushed against her breast and sent shooting tendrils of desire rushing throughout her body.
The duke heaved a heavy sigh and asked, “Is everyone seated and holding on to something or someone?”
“Yes!” Sybil shouted a toe-curling screech right into the duke’s ear.
Louisa saw him flinch. Suddenly she couldn’t see this ride in the park ending on a good note.
Chapter 19
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
Sprinkle cool patience.
—Hamlet, act 3, scene 4
The girls talked nonstop as the chaise rumbled along the streets. They pointed at horses, other carriages, the occasional mule and cart, and various shops. Bray was beginning to think they’d never been on an open carriage ride before. He had never seen anything like it. Everything they passed excited them, and they wanted to make sure everyone else saw it, too.
There was a comfortable chill to the sunny spring air, and the sky was a fair shade of blue. It was a perfect afternoon for a ride in the park with a beautiful young lady fitted close to his side—and three highly strung youngsters stuffed into a too-small carriage with them as well.
Miss Sybil was like a squirming worm baking in the hot sun on a muddy riverbank. She couldn’t sit still on Miss Prim’s lap. Miss Sybil was constantly jumping up to point at something, and Miss Prim would pull her back down. If she stepped on the toe of his shiny boot once, she had done it ten times. And he had no idea why she couldn’t keep her hands still. She knocked his hat off while pointing to a milk wagon loaded with containers, and twice she’d elbowed him while turning to talk to her sisters. She even placed her hand on his knee a time or two, not that at her age she understood how inappropriate the gesture was.
Miss Lillian was having trouble containing Miss Bonnie’s excitement, too. He could never have dreamed that little girls wriggled so much.
The only good thing about the lively jaunt was that Miss Prim fit snugly against him, though there was no chance at conversation between them. He felt the warmth of her inviting body. That helped soothe his impatience concerning the constant chatter and movement of the girls.
The mild weather had brought out an enormous number of people to Hyde Park for the afternoon. Bray maneuvered the horses in line behind a fancy, black-lacquered barouche trimmed in gold that was queuing at the east entrance to the park.
“Is there a princess in that coach, Your Grace?” Miss Bonnie asked.
“Probably not,” Bray answered.
“May I hold the ribbons?” Miss Sybil asked him, and immediately reached for the strips of leather.
Bray quickly shifted them to the hand out of her reach before saying, “The horses are much too skittish for a young lady like yourself to handle. I should keep control of them.”
“I’m strong. Louisa said I was strong.”
Obviously Miss Sybil liked to touch things. “No doubt you are, but you will keep your hands to yourself, and I will keep control of the horses.”
“I’m hungry and thirsty,” the youngest girl said.
“Now, Bonnie,” Miss Prim said. “You can’t start complaining. You wanted to come, knowing there was no time to pack a basket.”
“What’s that for?” Miss Sybil asked, pointing to the horses’ riggings.
Frustration caused Bray to grit his teeth, and he inhaled another deep breath, wishing for quiet. “That’s what holds the horses to the carriage,” he said in a voice much calmer than he was feeling at the moment.
“What’s that for?” she asked, pointing to the riggings again.
“That’s enough questions, Sybil,” Miss Prim said kindly. “And please sit still.”
Bray gave Miss Prim a hint of a smile. He didn’t know how she stayed so calm when he was going crazy. Somehow she must have known he was near the end of his patience with all the noise, jumping around, and questions. He would much rather shoot himself in the foot than be on a chaise with three excitable girls ever again.
The traffic eased, and they soon rode past the entrance. Bray guided the horses out of the queue of slower carriages and onto the deeply rutted pathway that wound around the perimeter of the grassy openness of the park. Not a fourth of a mile down, Bray looked up and saw Lord Sanburne and Mr. Mercer on horseback and riding straight toward him.
He swore silently.
Much to his consternation, they somehow recognized him among all the bonnets and the two parasols. They moved their mounts to the side and waited. Lord Sanburne would expect him to stop and chat, as it was the polite thing to do, but Bray wasn’t in the mood to be polite today. When the carriage approached, the men took off their hats, getting ready to greet Miss Prim and her sisters, but Bray surprised them. He didn’t slow the horses. He gave the stunned gentlemen a brief nod as he passed and kept right on going.
A little farther into the park, he looked at Miss Prim and said, “It’s crowded this afternoon. Do you think you will recognize them from a distance if you see them?”
“I’m certain I’ll know Gwen’s parasol without us having to get too close. I helped her choose what to wear today.”
“Are we trying to find Gwen?” Miss Lillian asked.
Bray and Miss Prim looked at each other, realizing at the same time their mistake in mentioning the reason for the ride.
“Well, you never know,” Miss Prim said to her sister. “We might see her, since we’re both out for a ride today.”
“I want to see her, too,” Miss Bonnie echoed before Miss Prim once again had to calm the girls.
Sanburne and Mercer weren’t the only fellows they passed as they rode the grounds of the park and looked for the curricle with Miss Gwen and Mr. Standish in it. They received waves from other children in the park, a few laughs from three rakes on horseback, and an occasional surprised stare because of the overloaded chaise. Bray could handle the many gawkers. They didn’t bother him, but if only the girls would stop talking for a little while and let him have silence.
Bray felt another stab of impatience, and his hands tightened on the reins. He was wishing like hell he’d told the girls an emphatic no when they asked to come—when off to his left, he saw Seaton and his family spreading a blanket for a picnic.
He pulled hard to the left and guided the horses over to where Seaton was standing by his carriage.
“You remember meeting Miss Prim last night?”
Surprise shone in the old man’s eyes. “Yes, of course I do,” he said, and took off his hat to greet her.
Bray then introduced the other girls, and Seaton spoke to them them warmly in turn before Bray set the brake and said to Miss Prim, “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”
Bray jumped down, and he and Seaton walked a few feet away from the carriages.
With a twinkle in his eyes, Seaton said, “After knowing you for more than ten years, you still manage to amaze me.”
“Sometimes I amaze myself,” Bray mumbled. As in why in the hell had he agreed to allow the younger girls to come with them today?
“Last night you danced with almost every young lady at the ball but Miss Prim, and now here you are today with her and all her sisters in the park. In a carriage that’s much too small for the group of you, I might add, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
Oh, I’ve noticed all right, Bray thought, but said, “Well, not all her sisters.”
“What?”
“Never mind.”
“Tell me, how did you manage to slight her last night and then end up in the park with her today?”
“I have no idea,” Bray grumbled, and realized how true that statement was. “All I know is that I don’t have your experience or patience with children, Seaton. You don’t seem nearly so tense as I feel right now, and it looks as if you have more children with you than I do.”
“I’ve been blessed with a lot of grandchildren in my old age.” Seaton smiled, but to Bray it looked more like a grin that said, You deserve exactly what you are getting.
“You do look uncommonly rattled, Your Grace.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Bray said, and rubbed his temple. “So are you just spending the afternoon in the park?”
“Yes, there’s a puppet show that will be starting in about half an hour over there where they are setting up that tent. My wife and I thought the grandchildren would enjoy it.”
Bray’s breath hitched as an idea came to him. “Do you think she would mind if Miss Prim’s sisters watched the puppet show with you and your family?”
Seaton’s eyes narrowed, studying over his answer before saying, “No, I don’t think she would, and we have plenty of food for them to share our picnic.”
“Good,” Bray said abruptly, and clapped him on the shoulder before he could change his mind. “Go tell her. I’ll bring the girls over. And, Seaton, I owe you.”
“I’ll collect one day.”
“I have no doubt.”
Bray waved to his friend, and walked back to the carriage in much brighter spirits than when he’d left.
“How would you young ladies like to see a puppet show?” he asked.
“Yes!” they all screamed at once.
“Well, it just so happens this is your lucky day to be in the park. There’s going to be one in about half an hour.”
The sisters squealed, clapped, and jumped up and down again.
“Careful, girls, you’ll scare the horses,” Bray said. “Come, Miss Sybil, you get down first. You can play and have refreshments with the Seatons and their grandchildren and then watch the puppet show with them while Miss Prim and I ride for a little longer.”
Bray reached for Miss Bonnie and helped her down, too, but when he reached for Miss Lillian, she remained sulking in the seat, her arms tightly pressed to her chest.
“I don’t want to stay with them,” Miss Lillian said. “I don’t know them. I want to go with you.”
It surprised Bray that she objected.
“I don’t care if I don’t know them,” Miss Sybil said. “I want to see the show.”
“Me, too,” Miss Bonnie piped in.
“Lillian,” Louisa said, but Bray touched her arm, and when she looked at him, he indicated for her to let him handle this.
“You are the oldest, Miss Lillian. The younger girls want to see the puppets. You must stay with them and be responsible much in the same way Miss Prim has always been responsible for you.”
Her bottom lip quivered. “I don’t want to. There are boys. I’ve never played with boys before.”
“Then this will be a good learning experience for you. You’ll manage just fine. Come on and let me help you down. Keep remembering you are the oldest and act like it.”
She still didn’t move.
Bray struggled to hold on to his temper. Miss Lillian sniffed and looked as if she might start crying at any moment, and Bray felt as
if he might start yelling at any moment. But he bit down on his tongue and refrained.
Staying firm, he asked, “How many times do you think your sister has done things for you she’d rather not do?”
Miss Lillian remained quiet, so he said again, “How many?”
“Often, Your Grace,” she finally mumbled.
“That’s right. Has she ever complained and said she didn’t want to play a children’s game with you and your sisters, or sit by your beside when you were sick?”
Miss Lillian raised her head and shook it. Tears collected in her eyes.
Louisa started to speak again, and he gave her a warning look. She returned it.
“That’s right, Miss Lillian, and neither should you.”
“I don’t want to stay,” she said, and the first tear rolled down her cheek.
Bray reached into the chaise, took her by the upper arms, gently lifted her out, and stood her on her feet. He heard Louisa gasp, but he didn’t even look at her as he continued talking to Miss Lillian.
“Now, as for the young boys, they scream and yell and run around as wildly as you and your sisters do. I have no fear that if they step out of line with any of you, you have the fortitude to snap them right back in their place with a few choice words. Now, come along so we can go meet the Seaton family.”
Miss Lillian looked at Louisa and sniffled. “Where are you going?” she asked her sister.
“Nowhere but here in the park,” she said, taking her sister’s hand and gently squeezing it. “I promise we are not going to leave you here with the Seatons for very long. We will be back for you very shortly.”
“Come along,” Bray said again. “I’ll introduce all of them to you. If you try, you might even enjoy yourself.”
Less than ten minutes later, the girls were settled and Bray and Miss Prim were walking back to the carriage.
“Don’t you think you were a little harsh on Lillian?” Miss Prim asked as soon as they were a few steps away from the girls.
“No,” he said, thinking no more commentary was needed.
“I thought you were,” she countered. “You were almost rough with her when you lifted her out of the carriage.”
