and she might well be desperate to get away from me too.”
Oak took Vera’s hand, his grip warm. “Come to London with me and bring the children. Use the trip as an excuse to send Forester and Miss Diggory packing. Sycamore has offered you free lodgings at one of his houses—he believes real estate is a sound investment, given how London is growing—and yet, he can’t rent the better properties this time of year.”
“I don’t care for London, Oak. You know that.” Though Vera had been hoping he’d renew his request.
He kissed her knuckles. “Polite society is long gone from Town, and soon what few families remain will head for the grouse moors and house parties. You’ll be safe, and I’ll be on hand to escort you and Catherine to the shops, if that’s where you’d like to go. She and Alexander should see the museums, too, and have an ice at Gunter’s.”
Every child should have that experience on a pleasant summer day. “Gunter’s is well worth a visit. I went there myself more than once.”
“And you prefer vanilla ices,” Oak said.
“How do you know that?”
“Because vanilla is exotic and rich and suits you. It’s my favorite as well.”
He painted a different picture of London than Vera had seen, one devoid of dinner parties that ran too late, free of half-drunken men leering at her as if she were a streetwalker.
“Richard Longacre has been after me to come to London for years. I don’t think he’ll cease importuning me until I make the journey.”
Oak leaned his head back against the cushions and closed his eyes. “Is he sweet on you?”
Vera’s first inclination was to laugh, but Oak saw what others missed. “I don’t know. He and Dirk had a friendship punctuated by frequent loud quarrels. Longacre was some relation to Anna, and I gather that was a source of unspoken tension. I never pried, lest I find myself in the midst of an explosion of temper.”
“Longacre sent me to you, and he sent you Miss Diggory and Forester. He writes to you fairly often, and I expect he’s mentioned his plans to you any time he’ll be traveling in the area.”
Vera thought back to various polite letters, seeing a pattern she hadn’t noticed before. “He does. He travels through Winchester when he’s bound for Lyme Regis. Was I supposed to invite him to the Hall for a visit?”
“Not as long as you were in mourning, you weren’t.”
“I’ve been out of first mourning for two years.”
“So come to London with me. Bring the children. We’ll see the sights and rid you of the staff that isn’t working out. You can interview replacements from the London agencies in person and be on hand to negotiate prices for your paintings.”
The reasons to go were piling up, obscuring the reasons Vera never wanted to set foot in Town again. Oak was too polite to note that she was unlikely to have free lodgings and a well-placed escort ever again. Longacre had offered to serve as host, but he hadn’t offered particulars, and he wasn’t an earl’s well-connected son. Then too, the children should see the capital, and a trip would make sacking Jeremy and Tamsin much easier.
“For me to travel to London with you will solve nothing, Oak. I will still have to part from you, and I still dread that day.”
He kissed her temple. “As do I, but I will treasure the memory of sharing a vanilla ice with you beneath the maples at Gunter’s.” He rose and began blowing out candles. “May I light you to your room?”
He always found a way to ask permission to join her at the end of the day, however obliquely.
“You may.”
They walked through the darkened house arm in arm, and Vera’s sense of heartache crested higher. She wanted more nights like this, quiet conversation, affection, a sweet loving to end the evening, and the peace of shared slumber after that.
Maybe London wasn’t so bad after all, and maybe it had changed in the years since she’d been utterly miserable there.
Oak was tucking the last of the nudes behind its mundane disguise when somebody thumped loudly on his studio door.
“Mr. Dorning, you have to let me in!” Alexander shouted that demand.
Oak unlatched the door, and Alexander barreled into the room. “You must make Mama take us with her. You must. Catherine and me both. Please.”
Oak closed the door. “Alexander, what is this about?”
“I will not stay here with Mr. Forester. He’ll beat me and make me go