Page 67 of Aurelia

“I told Miss Burton that this reptile bore a surprising resemblance to Mr. Bucket—you remember him, don’t you, father?”

Roland smirked at his son’s use of the word father, which he usually only used when they were alone. He wondered if Guustin was trying to remind Miss Burton, or Roland, of the great age difference between them.

“The housemaster at your school?” Roland asked, strolling toward the two. “The one you drove half mad?” he added, unable to suppress his smile at the memory of the man in question. “Let me see,” he said, deliberately placing himself between them. “Which one did you mea—” He laughed when he saw the bulging-eyed, thick-lipped reptile in question, which was floating in a stoppered jar filled with clear preservative. “The resemblance is… uncanny.”

“Perhaps you might name the creature after him—if it is a new discovery?”

“Deforme magnum senes ingratum dispositio,” Roland suggested and then lifted his eyebrow at Miss Burton. “Can you translate?”

“Er… hideous big-headed monster with an unpleasant disposition?”

Roland and Guustin laughed. “I think she has a better grasp of Latin than I have,” Guustin said.

“That would not be difficult,” Roland said dryly. He turned to Miss Burton. “Arthur just showed me all the work you completed while I’ve been gone.”

There was a subtle tightening of the muscles in her face, making Roland believe that Miss Burton was more accustomed to criticism than praise. For some reason, that made him think about Celsa. Roland shoved down the odd twinge of guilt that accompanied the thought and smiled at the woman in front of him. “Your work is excellent and the speed with which you’ve produced it surpasses my expectations.”

“Oh, that is—that is a relief,” she said, her normally serious features breaking into a smile.

“I received word from the publisher and he is delighted with what I’ve sent to him. When he finishes the first prints from the plates he is having made I shall make sure to show them to you.”

“I would like that, my lord.” Her lips parted slightly as she stared up at him, her eyes warm and… soft. And then she stiffened and her gaze shuttered as she took a step back, and Roland knew she was remembering the last time they had been together—that day on the beach.

“I just came down to have a quick look at the new specimens. I will say good night to you both. My lord, Captain Walker.” She bowed her head and turned to leave.

Roland strode toward the door to open it for her. “Goodnight, Miss Burton,” he murmured, amused when she scurried away without looking up at him. He closed the door and turned to find his son waiting for him, smiling faintly.

“You find something entertaining, Guustin?”

“Nothing. Father.”

But it wasn’t nothing, and Roland could see it by the familiar look in Guustin’s eyes—not familiar because he had seen it on his son’s face in the past, but because it was a look he had seen on his own face a long, long time ago. It was the look of a young man who was already more than halfway smitten. And Guustin had only known the woman half a day.

Viewed in a prudential light, a match between Miss Burton—an artist with no family to protect or support her—and Guustin Walker, a ship’s captain and favored, if baseborn, son of an earl, was an excellent match for her.

But then Guustin didn’t know what Roland had discovered about the prim and proper Miss Burton when he had been in London for almost a month.

Roland smiled at his son. “Have you time for a game of chess before you go to your mother’s house?”

Guustin’s green eyes glittered. “I always have time to thrash you.”

Roland laughed and the tension that had invisibly gathered between them dissipated. He was glad; he loved his son and did not want anything to come between them. It did not surprise him that Guustin was immediately attracted to Miss Burton.

Sooner, rather than later, Roland would have to inform Guustin of exactly how matters stood between Miss Burton and himself.

Roland smiled. He would tell Guustin the truth right after he told the woman herself.

***

Aurelia was delighted when she received a message from Miss Clifford the following morning asking if she wanted to meet that afternoon at the tiny teashop in the village of Crewe.

Over the past six weeks they had visited each other three times, today would be the fourth. Aurelia had not realized just how much she missed her sisters until befriending Miss Clifford, or Larissa as she now called her.

In any event, Aurelia was too keyed up to do any decent work that morning so she was glad to have a reason to leave the castle for a few hours.

“I heard his lordship returned just yesterday. He was away a long time, wasn’t he?” Larissa asked after they’d settled in the shop’s tiny bay window and had given their order to the waitress.

“Six weeks.” And one day.