A Passion for Pleasure(102)

“Andrew, it’s brilliant! It’s like watching a spinning rainbow. On fire, no less. I’ve never seen anything like it. Do it again, would you?”

Andrew rotated the wheel faster, creating another fireworks display. Then he and Sebastian showed Clara how the mechanism was constructed, with Andrew pointing out the various parts and Sebastian explaining how they worked.

“I’m astonished. I love it.” Clara squeezed Andrew’s shoulder and started to lean in to embrace him. Then a shadow of wariness crossed her features, and she straightened. “Thank you for showing it to me.”

Andrew nudged the frame away from the fire. Clara slipped her hand into Sebastian’s.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “If it weren’t for you…”

Some of Sebastian’s tension faded with the trailing off of her voice. He tightened his hand on hers, then went to help Andrew situate the frame near the wall.

“Shall we try our balloon races before lunch?” he asked, glancing out the window. “No rain appears forthcoming.”

Andrew nodded. He looked at his mother. Clara twisted a fold of her skirt.

“Will you accompany us?” Sebastian asked.

“I’d be delighted.” She kept her attention on her son, her wariness fading beneath a growing hope. “I can ask Mrs. Danvers to pack us a picnic.”

Andrew smiled.





Chapter Twenty-One




Clara shaded her eyes from the glare of the sun as she watched a carriage make its way up the drive. Sebastian had arranged for transportation to the train station at four o’clock, but it was too early for the vehicle to arrive. Apprehension flared in her chest at the realization that someone was invading their temporary sanctuary. She let the curtain fall back across the window and hurried from the room.

“Mrs. Danvers, have you seen Mr. Hall anywhere?” Clara stopped the housekeeper en route to the kitchen.

“I believe he’s still out with Master Andrew, Mrs. Hall.”

Clara headed toward the drawing room. Sebastian’s voice resonated from the doors opening to the garden as he and Andrew entered. Their clothes were streaked with dirt, their hair messy from the wind. The area around Clara’s heart tightened at the sight of them, at the reminder that her husband and son had developed a strong rapport in less than two days.

“If you apply an extra coat of linseed oil, the seams are even stronger,” Sebastian told Andrew in the moment before they looked up and saw her standing there.

Andrew stopped. Sebastian frowned.

“Clara?”

She swallowed past the tightness in her throat and gestured to the foyer. “There’s…someone’s arrived. I don’t know who it is.”

Sebastian’s frown deepened. He said something to Andrew that Clara didn’t hear, and went to the foyer. He wrenched open the door and descended the steps.

Clara followed, putting out a hand to keep Andrew behind her as the boy approached her side. The horses stamped and shuffled as the groom vaulted from the bench to open the door.

Shock froze Clara’s blood to ice as her father stepped down from the carriage, followed by the stern, unyielding figure of the Earl of Rushton. Instinctively, Clara stepped backward, her hand closing around Andrew’s shoulder. Panic clawed at her.

“Sebastian.” Rushton strode forward, his sharp gaze flickering from Clara to his son. “We’ve come to reclaim the boy.”

A black pit seemed to open beneath Clara’s feet. She felt herself falling, falling, spiraling into a darkness that had no beginning or end.

Tension and anger stiffened Sebastian’s shoulders. He slanted a glare at Fairfax. “I will not allow Andrew to be removed from his mother or placed in an institution.”

“You have no say in the matter,” Fairfax snapped, his lean figure rigid with determination. “You have committed a hanging offense by abducting that boy from my custody, and rest assured I will see you charged unless you return him to me.”

Clara felt Andrew start to shake. Her throat closed over. She hugged him to her side as the panic clawed harder.

Run. The command beat into her blood again, but this time she had nowhere to go. This time there was no escape.

“Lord Rushton, please.” She tightened her grip on Andrew and focused on the earl, willing him to find some degree of sympathy for their plight. “I want only to be with my son. Lord Fairfax will not allow me anywhere near him, and I—”