The Gentleman and the Thief (The Dread Penny Society #2) - Sarah M. Eden Page 0,16

so unfeeling as that? “I could never laugh at your tears.”

“A gentleman through and through, I see.”

His declaration was far more than the empty platitudes of social obligation. If only he were in a position to tell her as much.

He tucked her arm through his, another thing she likely thought was done strictly out of good manners. They stepped out of the school, and he handed her up into his brother’s waiting carriage.

“My brother lives near Belgrave Square,” he said, taking the rear-facing seat across from her. “The drive won’t be overly long, but neither will it be mere moments.”

“I know the area,” she said. “I grew up in Pimlico.”

Pimlico? The residents of that corner of London could be rather flush. And even those who weren’t drowning in money were well-off. She had spoken how her family had once been part of Society, but he’d been under the impression theirs had been a tentative hold. He’d wager the Newports had money—or did at one point. There was a mystery there. He never could resist a mystery.

“My brother’s home was our family’s London home when we were children. If only we’d lived a bit further south, you and I might have known one another.”

“I would have liked that,” she said. “I had no brothers or sisters, and I was a little older than your niece when our family acquired the house I grew up in, so we hadn’t any established connections. I had very few friends as a child.”

“You must have been lonely.” His heart ached for the little girl she’d once been.

“Terribly at times.” Her fleeting smile was sweet but heavy. “Tell me about Eloise. I will be a better teacher if I know a little about my student.”

Hollis accepted the change of topic. He shared insights with her about his eager and precocious niece. He also warned Ana that, should Addison leave the nursery and make an appearance, the little boy had a tendency to be standoffish.

“Does he share that trait with either of his parents?” she asked.

“His mother is a little timid, which can give the inaccurate impression of haughtiness.” Cora was a fine person, but not everyone was permitted to see that about her. “My brother is . . .” How did he explain this without being disloyal? “He can be aloof, but you mustn’t take that as a personal slight.”

“He’ll not be unkind, will he?”

He’d better not be. “No.”

She wrapped her fingers more firmly around her small satchel containing her music. “I don’t wish to disappoint them.” Her eyes met his. “Or, goodness, you.”

He leaned forward, hoping his easy demeanor and quiet smile would reassure her. “I haven’t the least worry on that score.”

“I will enjoy being inside a home again,” she said, “especially one so near to where I grew up. Thurloe is a lovely place, and I’m not unhappy there, but I miss the feeling of home and family.”

Home and family. Hollis longed for those things as well. His rented rooms weren’t exactly all the crack, but they’d not have put any sticklers to the blush. Considering his penniless, prospectless situation upon first arriving in Town, he wasn’t ungrateful. But he lived alone. The Dreadfuls were something like a family, but it wasn’t the same, likely because his place among them felt so trivial and unnecessary.

The carriage stopped directly in front of Randolph’s house. Ana’s shoulders squared, though Hollis could see her hands shaking as she took up her satchel.

“Courage, Miss Newport,” he whispered. “You are equal to this.”

The smile she bestowed on him would, he felt certain, make regular appearances in his thoughts and dreams.

The butler—newly installed after Randolph’s marriage, their childhood butler having long ago quit his post for not being paid by their father—opened the door.

“Good afternoon, Parker,” Hollis greeted. He pressed his gloved palm to Ana’s back and nudged her inside. “Would you send word to the nursery that Miss Eloise’s music instructor has arrived?”

“Very good, sir.”

While the man went to deliver the message, Hollis accompanied his lovely companion to the music room. The space was less sparse and depressing than it had been during the years Hollis had lived there. Father had sold nearly all their belongings, but Randolph had managed to acquire some replacements.

Ana moved directly to the pianoforte. She set her satchel on the floor beside it and plunked a few of the keys. It was a smaller and more humble instrument than most houses in this area could boast. It was, no doubt, all his brother