His Lordship's True Lady (True Gentlemen #4)(97)

Oscar remained in his seat. “But I’ve already spent twenty pounds. Celebrating my upcoming nuptials with the fellows.”

“Do hush,” Worth said, “before you become more pathetic than you already are. I’ll see you out. Now.”

Leggett shoved Oscar on the shoulder. “Come along, boy, and prepare to meet your new mama-in-law.”

Worth escorted them from the room.

Hessian pulled out his grandfather’s watch, but it was no good—no damned good at all. He tossed the watch in the air and caught it. He was still laughing uproariously when Worth returned with Lily, a tray of glasses, and a bottle of champagne.

*



“I’m told the bride was radiant,” Lily said, though Lady Rosecroft had actually used the word gloating. Walter Leggett’s bride had been gloating and resplendent in a new gown edged in cloth of gold.

“One hopes the groom was overwhelmed by his good fortune,” Hessian replied, joining Lily on the park bench. “A pity Oscar could not attend.”

Oscar, in a gesture that Lily had found oddly hopeful, had returned twenty-nine pounds to her, with a promissory note for the remaining forty-nine pounds. He’d taken ship for Stockholm, where a friend had found him a clerk’s position in a counting house.

“The real pity is that Daisy wants nothing to do with her aunt,” Lily said. “Could this day be any more gorgeous?”

Hessian was looking gorgeous, all dapper and lordly, though he’d forgotten to wear his pocket watch.

“In point of fact, yes, this day could be more gorgeous.”

Spring was at her finest, the sunshine benevolent, the park’s trees in full leaf, birds flitting about in the greenery overhead. Daisy and Bronwyn were casting corn to the ducks. Worth and Jacaranda, Andromeda at their side, occupied a bench in the shade, the baby cradled in Worth’s arms.

“I don’t see how this day could be improved upon,” Lily said. “Your family is with you, my situation has been resolved, and all is well.” Except all was not quite well. Annie and her husband had returned to Scotland the week before, and Lily already missed her sister, already watched the post for letters from the north.

And biding as Lady Rosecroft’s guest was no sort of plan for Lily’s future.

“It’s about family that I wanted to speak with you.” Hessian’s gaze was on Daisy, who was trying to lure the ducks within petting range. Bronwyn’s corn had long since been snapped up, while Daisy was parceling hers out to ducks brave enough to come near.

“You disagree with my decision to approach my father,” Lily said. “I think he has a right to know the truth.” Soon, not yet.

Worth, as Lily’s man of business, waited for her direction regarding Mama’s estate, half of which Walter had been unable to touch. Annie, who’d never known material want, insisted that Lily decide what was to be done with any money and with the Fergusons.

“As it happens,” Hessian said, “I agree with you where His Grace of Clarendon is concerned. Rosecroft’s papa has a passing acquaintance with your father. He reports that Clarendon is an amiable, pragmatic fellow, liked and respected by all who know him. When the time is right, I’m sure he’ll welcome you on any terms you choose.”

Daisy crouched before the boldest duck, and Lily wanted to tell her to step back. Ducks could pinch awfully and were amazingly fast where food was concerned.

“She’ll be fine,” Hessian said. “She has my affinity for animals.”

Something in his voice made Lily regard him more closely. “You miss Cumberland. You and Daisy are both longing for the north.”

Hessian dug his fingers into his watch pocket. “I keep forgetting I gave the dratted watch to Worth. I do miss home, and Daisy is torn between wanting to see her brothers and loving her new friends. A father hardly knows what to do.”

The rest of the beautiful spring day faded, leaving one very dear man beside Lily on the bench. “Daisy is your daughter?”

He nodded. “Her mama was desperate for more children, and I was handy. It’s all in her ladyship’s diary. Both her guilt for having prevailed upon me—though I hardly resisted—and the great joy she took in being Daisy’s mama. Now the joy is mine, though I wish…”

Daisy laid down a bit of corn, and as the duck nibbled its treat, she touched gentle fingers to the top of its head.

“Were you in love with her mother, Hessian?” Would he always be in love with a memory? Was that why he’d not proposed to Lily again?

“I was not,” he said. “I was lonely, she was determined, and then I was having relations with another man’s wife. I am ashamed of that, but I could never be ashamed of Daisy. I want you to know that. I want to be as forthcoming about my past as you’ve been about yours. You deserve to know the man I am, not the man I want you to think I am.”

Lily took his hand, for parsing out Hessian’s philosophical flights was always easier when she touched him.

“Lord Evers gave you guardianship of all of his children. I’d say your transgression, if a transgression it was, has been forgiven. We make mistakes, Hessian, we choose poorly sometimes. With time and love, we come right. I hope my father sees it thus when I explain why I agreed to Uncle Walter’s scheme. If Papa chooses to be judgmental, then I’ll have some pointed questions for him about my conception.”