by Rose Gordon
“You should keep that in mind for future game play, Alex.” Mother flashed him a laughing smile before turning her gaze to Caroline. “Caroline, dear, would you like to stay for tea?”
“Can you give us just a moment, Mother?” Alex said quickly, taking hold of Caroline’s elbow.
Mother nodded. “I’ll wait by the door.”
“Caroline, you don’t have to stay,” he said earnestly.
She blinked. “All right. I suppose I should be going home.”
“What I mean is, you can stay if you wish.”
Her brows furrowed. “What’s gotten into you?”
He released a breath. “Caroline, if you stay for tea, my mother is going to invite you to come meet my father.”
“Oh.”
Rubbing his jaw, he blew out another deep breath. “I don’t know what you’ve heard, but he’s not well. It’s not something you can catch from him, mind you. But it’s not something the doctor seems to be able to cure, either.”
She stared at him with those big blue eyes of hers. “Is he really that ill?”
“Yes,” he said hoarsely. “He is. If you’re not comfortable meeting him, don’t be afraid to say so.”
“What do you want, Alex?”
His heart stopped beating momentarily. What did he want? Under normal conditions he’d not be in control of whether she met Father or not. Father had the type of personality that some might find offensive, but he never let that stop him from letting his presence be known—especially around his own house. Now things were different. Father’s illness had made him merely a shell of the man he’d once been. No longer as tall, strong, or imposing. No, now he was weak and vulnerable.
Allowing Caroline to meet him was meaningful. More so than Alex originally thought. He looked at her thoughtfully. He may not know her well, but he trusted her. If she was to be his wife one day soon, she’d need to meet his father anyway. But more than that, Father would like her, and she’d probably like him if she could get past his crude remarks.
“Are you going to be comfortable—”
She placed a finger on his lips to silence him. “I asked what you want, Alex. Don’t answer my question with one of your own.”
He grabbed her wrist and pulled her finger away from his lips. “I want you to be comfortable,” he said, still holding her wrist.
“That’s not what I asked.” She didn’t fight his hold of her wrist.
He sighed. “Caroline—”
She put all the fingers from her other hand on his lips to stop him. “Alex, I asked what you want. Don’t make me ask again.”
He wrapped his fingers around the wrist of her hand which now rested against his lips. “I want you to stay,” he whispered against her fingers. Then, before she could move her hand away, he tightened his grasp on her wrist and pressed a lingering kiss on her gloved fingertips that made her eyes widen and her pretty, pink lips part as a blush colored her cheeks a fetching shade of pink.
Chapter 8
Tea with the baroness went by in a blur. A nervous blur, but a blur all the same. Now it was time to meet the baron.
Uncle Joseph used to speak of Lord Watson, his closest friend, quite often. He’d always remarked upon how sharp the baron was. Much like Alex, the baron was vastly interested in all subjects pertaining to science and had spent most of his youth doing all sorts of unusual experiments.
As excited as she was to meet such a great mind, she was also nervous. Meeting him under different pretenses might make it easier. But to meet him standing next to his son, who happened to be betrothed to her cousin, was a bit unusual. She glanced at Alex, and for the first time in her life she was envious of Olivia. Olivia was extremely fortunate and didn’t even know it. Nor did she care. To Olivia, marriage to Alex was just a means to an end. She’d gain a title from the marriage (at some point) and he’d gain a headache. But that was Olivia’s fate, not hers, she reminded herself once again as they left the drawing room and moved down the hall to where the baron was resting.
The baroness knocked on the door and showed them in. “Edward, we’ve a guest to see you.”
“Good. I need some fresh company,” he said, pushing himself to sit up against his pillows.
Caroline followed Alex’s lead and after murmuring a greeting to his father, she joined Alex by the wall. She’d never really been in a sickroom before. Not counting Olivia’s, that is. Her mother had died suddenly with no lingering illness, pain, or suffering. Her aunt and uncle had also had passed quickly. This was the first time she’d actually seen someone who had to truly be suffering, and a strange feeling of pain settled in her chest. She glanced at Alex and lowered her lashes. She didn’t know which of the two men she had greater sorrow for. The baron, who suffered from such horrible illness that was hurting him so, or Alex, who the illness seemed to be hurting just as much, just in a different way.
“Miss Caroline Sinclair,” the baron mused, bringing her from her thoughts.
“My lord?”
“Allow me to apologize on my son’s behalf,” he said, picking up a glass of water off his nightstand. He took a drink and placed it back down. “You might think I’ll apologize he misled you about the Banks family owning a lawn chess set, but I won’t. No, my dear girl, I wholeheartedly apologize for your having to play pall mall with him.”
She took an instant like to him and his undeniably false apology. “Truly, he wasn’t so bad,” she defended playfully.
The baron’s greying eyebrows shot nearly to his hairline and his eyes bulged. “Gel, you must know that mistruths around here highly frowned upon. In this household we’re only allowed one falsehood per year. I’m afraid you’ve just used yours, and now you must be completely honest around here until this day next year.”
She grinned and put her hands on her hips. “Why, Lord Watson, we’ve just met and already you’re calling me a liar.” She clucked her tongue. “I’ll have you know, your son is quite talented at pall mall.”
He snorted. “All right, Regina, order gruel for her dinner.”
“Right away, my lord,” his wife said, winking at Caroline.
“Gruel?”
“It’s what they always used as punishment when we were naughty,” Alex explained. “Trust me, it’s bad. I’m sure you’ve had it at some point. But the gruel that Cook makes is the worst I’ve ever tasted, and that includes all the gruel I ate during my years at Eton.”
Caroline wrinkled her nose. “But I haven’t been naughty,” she protested. “I told the truth. He’s a good player.”
Alex’s father blinked at her. “Pray explain.”
“The reason he couldn’t play well at first was because he was stiff. Really, really stiff,” she explained.
Alex coughed and his cheeks flushed a light red. Lady Watson tapped her husband on the shoulder and shook her head ever-so-slightly, confusing Caroline.
Her husband waved her off. “I imagine it’s hard for a gentleman to play when he’s in such a state,” he mused, grinning like an idiot.
“Exactly. Once he relaxed and his body became less rigid, it was easier for him to swing his mallet.”
“Is that so?” The baron appeared to be choking on his laughter.
Alex sounded like he was choking to death right next to her, but the cause of his choking didn’t appear to be from laughter. “Are you all right?” she asked, truly concerned.
“Just stop talking,” he said with a harsh cough.
She frowned at him.
“Tell me something, gel,” Lord Watson said, gaining her attention.
“Stop, Edward,” his wife said in a warning tone, shaking her head a little. “She’s not used to you and your humor. Don’t embarrass her.”
“I’m not,” Lord Watson told his wife. “I don’t know what you and Alex think we’re talking about, but Caroline and I are just having a friendly discussion about Alex’s stiffness during game play.”
“Exactly,” Caroline agreed.
Alex groaned.
Caroline looked at Alex. What was wrong with him? Was he embarrassed she’d told his parents she’d had to help him swing? Surely not. He played pall mall with a pink mallet to appease his family, for goodness’ sake. Accepting help was no comparison to that.
“What’s wrong?” Caroline whispered to him again.
Alex shook his head. “I’ll explain another time. Just stop talking.”
“Why?” she demanded with a frown.
“Yes, Alex, why?” his father asked, putting the folded up handkerchief he’d just coughed into back on the nightstand.
Alex looked sharply at his father. “Don’t. Caroline was good enough to come see you. Please keep that in that disturbed mind of yours.”
“Right you are, son,” the baron agreed, pursing his lips. “I apologize if I’ve embarrassed you,” he grumbled in Caroline’s direction.
“No apology needed.” Really what would he need to apologize for? Alex and his mother were acting most bizarre.
“I didn’t think so.” Lord Watson shot his wife and son a smug look. “Joseph once told me you had quite a fascination with science, Caroline. Do you still?”
“Yes, my lord,” she said, relaxing a bit now that the tension seemed to have left the room. “In fact, I’ve just become the newest member of the Society of Biological Matters.”
“Is that so?” Lord Watson nodded approvingly. “I’m glad to hear that. There’s always been a lack of ladies on the membership roster.”
“That might have something to do with their being denied membership,” Caroline said as nicely as she could. She’d never fully accepted being denied membership due to her sex.
“Pardon me?” the baron asked, not unkindly.
Caroline bit her lip. “Please forget I said anything.” She should have kept her mouth closed about this.
The baron looked at Alex, who was shifting his weight from foot to foot. “Do you know what she’s talking about, son?”
“I might.” Alex cleared his throat. “Caroline here is helping me campaign to increase the membership in general. Our main focus will be on recruiting ladies.”
“While I’m glad to hear that as well, I’d like to know who was ever denied membership and when.”
Alex sighed. “Caroline was. Three, no, four years ago.”
“Why?” his father demanded, his sharp eyes darting back and forth between Alex and Caroline.
“On the basis of my sex,” Caroline answered quietly. “But it is of no consequence now. Alex has recently granted me membership. All has been forgiven.”
Lord Watson crossed his thin arms. “While it’s nice you’ve forgiven the dimwit who denied you membership, I have not. Your uncle was one of my closest friends. He often bragged to me about how smart his niece was and even told me that if she were allowed to attend Eton and Cambridge she might unseat either Alex or me from the awards we’d earned.” He shook his head. “He was very adamant about it. Did he know you were turned out?”
“I don’t know,” she murmured. To be honest she didn’t care about that just now. She was positively thrilled Uncle Joseph had thought her to be intelligent. What’s more, he’d bragged about it! Generally speaking, academics were not usually encouraged for young ladies, especially those which required use of one’s brain beyond knowing which colors coordinated well with one another.
The baron made a harrumphing sound. “I may be an old man now, but I have every intention of letting the rapscallion who was the president at the time know how I feel about him denying you for such a senseless reason. Grab me my quill and paper, Regina.”
“What’s he doing?” Caroline whispered to Alex.
“Don’t worry about it.” He placed one searing hand on the small of her back and the other on her forearm then pointed her in the direction of a settee positioned by the window across the room. “Let’s have a seat.” He applied pressure with his fingers and she shivered at the tingly sensations he was unknowingly sending through her body at this simple, yet possessive gesture.
Caroline picked up a stray gold colored pillow from the settee and moved it out of the way before sitting down gingerly and arranging her skirts in a way that kept them nice, but still gave Alex room to sit next to her. Then with all the grace of an elephant on ice skates, Alex plopped down next to her and rested his arm along the back of the settee.
“Does he know it was you?”
“No,” Alex whispered. “Don’t worry though. I’ll tell him when the time’s right.”
She glanced over to Alex’s father. He was scribbling just as fast as his shaky hand could move across the paper. In a chair next to him, his wife sat, trying to read the letter over his shoulder.
Caroline sighed. “I didn’t mean to cause any trouble.”
“You didn’t. He thinks you’ve been greatly wronged—which you have—and it makes him feel better about everything if he does this.”
Caroline stared down at her cuticles and listened as Lord Watson’s quill scratched across the paper. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have stayed,” she mumbled.
“Nonsense.” Alex put his hand on her shoulder and pulled her closer to him. “This is just how my father is. Whether you had stayed or not, he would have still made the same jokes about my lack of being able to play pall mall, and he still would have been upset had he found out about your being denied membership.”
“But he never would have found out,” she pointed out.
Alex poked his lower lip out in the most overdone, mock frown imaginable and raised one shoulder. “It doesn’t matter. I’m glad he did, actually. It makes him feel important to be defending you. You should take it as a compliment.”
“I’m flattered,” she said dryly.
Chuckling, Alex used his fingertips to massage her shoulder.
“All right,” Lord Watson said tersely after he was done. “I’m going to read this out loud. Tell me what you think.” He handed the quill back to Lady Watson and she quietly put it away. “’Dear,’” he looked up at Alex, “Who is the imbecile I’m writing to anyway?”
Alex waved his hand dismissively. “Just read the letter to us, then I’ll tell you how to address it.”
“Fine. My hand is paining me anyway. All right. Here goes. ‘Dear Mr. Imbecile.’” His eyes shot up to Alex. “Perhaps I should leave it like that. What do you think?”
“If you wish,” Alex said, scratching under his chin with the index finger of his free hand. “Would you just read that thing, already?”
The baron twisted his lips in the worst mock sneer Caroline had ever seen. “’Dear Mr. Imbecile, It has recently been brought to my attention you denied a young lady membership into the Society of Biological Matters based on her lack of a male appendage. While it grieves me that it took me so long to learn of this travesty, I wish to bring it to your attention that had I been president of the Society at the time, I would have denied your application due to your lack of a brain. This young lady has more intelligence in her little finger than you do in your whole body. I think you realized she was of higher intelligence than you and dismissed her because of it, which is a cowardly thing to do, making you not worthy of said male appendage which she lacked. Due to your cowardliness and despicable past behavior, I request you withdraw your membership post haste. The Society was created to allow a place where people could come to discuss matters of biology, not inflate a self-important idiot’s brain-box by denying membership to those of a higher function. Yours, Edward Banks, Baron Watson’.”
Hand clamped tightly over her mouth so not to give into the urge to laugh, Caroline peeked over at Alex. He had a thin smile on his lips, as did his mother.
“You don’t need to send that,” Caroline forced herself to say, fanning her flaming face and trying diligently to keep her lips closed and her laughter contained.
“Nonsense.” The baron took the quill and ink from his wife’s hands. “I’m sending it today. Alex can post it just as soon as I write this pompous coward’s name down. Now what is
his name?” He turned his pale blue eyes to Alex.
“It’s rather difficult to spell. Perhaps I should spell it aloud for you so there’s not a mistake.”
The baron sent his son an annoyed look. “Well, get on with it,” he said tightly. “I want this franked and sent with today’s post.”
Alex nodded. He then spelled out every letter of his full name, pausing for nearly ten seconds between each letter and space.
“Was that it?” the baron asked agitatedly. “I thought I was going to pass away several times when you kept pausing. Really, son, the man’s name doesn’t sound so difficult. Long, perhaps, but I didn’t find anything unusual. Except the ‘X’. But that’s not so unusual, even your name has an ‘X’ in it.” He frowned and his eyes shot to his paper. His lips moved as he read the words he’d just written. His eyes snapped back to Alex. “It was you?”
“That’s right, Father, I’m the self-important, cowardly imbecile who rejected Caroline due to her sex.”
Caroline’s heart squeezed. She wanted to reach over to touch him in some way to help reassure him. But she couldn’t be so affectionate with a gentleman she hardly knew. It wasn’t done. Instead, she kept her hands in her lap and flashed him a weak smile.
“Why would you do that?” Alex’s father snapped.
Alex ground his teeth. “I’m not at liberty to say.”
“Why the blazes not?” Lord Watson demanded hotly. His face grew dark red and he had to reach for his handkerchief again to cover his mouth and nose while he hacked.
Alex waited for his father’s coughing to subside before he answered. “I was asked not to,” he said simply.
“By whom?” Lord Watson took the words straight from Caroline’s mouth. Who could possibly have wanted her to not be allowed to join?
Alex shook his head. “I really don’t wish to discuss this. I’ve apologized to Caroline already and I’ll do so again, but I don’t want to make this worse.”
“Make it worse?” his father echoed. “How could you possibly do that?”
“Trust me, I could.”
“I don’t believe it.” The older man crossed his arms. “Did her uncle know about this?”
