The Problem with Seduction - By Emma Locke Page 0,98
For some reason she couldn’t quite identify, she felt benevolent today. And terribly, terribly guilty.
“He’s so big.” Mrs. Finn cooed at him. Delight transformed her face when he cooed back at her. What unfairness existed in the world that her husband could beget children she would never see?
After a time, they moved as an assembly to sit on the bench, passing a comfortable, if strange, hour cozed in the obscurity of the small park. Then, as the hour grew late and the pathways clustered with people, they tacitly rose and went their separate ways. There was no plan to see each other again, but Elizabeth felt deep in her bones that this was not the last time she’d encounter Mrs. Finn here.
After the past hour, she didn’t expect to be surprised again. But when they turned around a tree and crossed the pathway to evade an oncoming carriage, Elizabeth was heralded a second time. As strange as it had been to be waved down by her former lover’s wife, the society matron rushing toward her took the cake. With her bright blue eyes and slight frown between her eyes, it could only be Lady Montborne.
Con’s mother.
This time, walking away wasn’t an option. She could never be so rude to his beloved mother. Conversing with the marchioness was equally out of the question, at least from the point of view of propriety. But the marchioness seemed not the least concerned with what was proper. She hurried to Elizabeth, leaving her footman to trail her, and clapped her hands together at the sight of Oliver. “Imagine meeting you here!” she said with a warm smile. “Con has been absolutely awful when it comes to bringing Oliver to visit. When I saw you from across the way, I knew it was my good fortune to have found him myself.” She tore her eyes away from the baby to address Elizabeth. “Tell me, you don’t have anywhere to be now, do you?” She didn’t pause long enough to let Elizabeth answer. “You must drop in for tea. I insist. Con is—” she waved her hand errantly “—out, wherever these sons of mine go when they want to escape their mother’s pleas for attention. But I thrill at the opportunity to speak frankly with you, and to see my grandson again. Please, do come, and your nurse, too.”
Mrs. Dalton bobbed a curtsey in response. Elizabeth could only gape. “My lady, I hardly think it’s proper—”
“Pooh. If I concerned myself with that, I wouldn’t be on speaking terms with any of my boys. But if you care, then let’s be off before we draw attention.” She raised her brows. “Hmm?”
Elizabeth smiled despite her misgivings. But what would Con have to say about this? She wouldn’t be accused of inserting herself into his family life.
“I won’t tell him,” Lady Montborne offered, accurately interpreting Elizabeth’s reservation. “We’ll adjourn to my sitting room and close the door.”
As with Mrs. Finn, it seemed cruel to deny this woman time with a child she felt connected to. And Elizabeth was curious. What was Con’s life like at home? How did he get on with his mother? Who was the man she’d given her heart to?
Thus continued what would surely be the strangest afternoon of her life. An hour with her former protector’s wife and an hour taking tea with her current lover’s mother. There was one thing to be said for following Society’s rules, and that was that it would be deucedly difficult to be in such a muddle if she followed their dictates like she was supposed to.
Then again, her afternoon wouldn’t have been nearly as interesting.
For the first time in a long time, Con knew exactly what he needed to do to put his financial affairs in order. He spent the morning interviewing solicitors. While he couldn’t afford one today, he felt confident enough in the canal’s imminent success to begin thinking about the future. And while he was feeling rather pleased with himself for identifying the canal project in the first place, and having the sense to invest in it (even if he ought to have pulled out when it almost buckled several years ago), he wasn’t so cocky as to think he had discovered a hitherto unknown talent for investments.
He meant to be successful this time around, and to do that, he must have his own advisor.
Not because he didn’t trust Elizabeth’s—he was past Montborne’s ominous warning—but because he wanted to be his own man. Only then