Page 118 of A Very Bellamy Christmas

Chapter 24

Selina

Lady Selina Shaftsbury studied her youngest sister from beneath her lashes. Katie was eating breakfast—or at least playing with her food—and repeatedly glancing at the huge longcase clock in the corner that ticked as loudly as a hammer pounding an anvil.

Indecision twisted her sister’s beautiful face as she glanced at the clock and then looked out the window. The world was blanketed in blinding white snow, a delightful surprise that had been waiting for them when they’d awoken that morning.

Katie’s lips twisted in an odd smile and then she turned her attention back to her breakfast and shoved her eggs to the other side of her plate.

Something was amiss with her youngest sister; she was not the same girl she’d been ten months ago.

Still, Selina was hardly the same, either, so perhaps the changes in Katie were not necessarily bad.

A large warm hand covered hers and Selina turned to the reason for her own transformation. Caius was smiling at her in a way that always made her feel like he could see her, even though she knew her husband scarcely saw more than dark shapes.

“Yes, my lord?” she asked him pertly, employing a tone and form of address that would surely remind him of last night, when she had purposely been naughty.

His wicked grin told her their minds were running as closely as two adjoining plots of land. “I have decided that I will go with you, Selina.”

Her eyes widened in pleased surprise and she leaned closer—close enough that the others at the table—could not hear her words. “Thank you, Caius.”

“You realize, of course, that you will have to make sure I don’t end up arse over teakettle in a snow drift, hmm?”

“I would never allow that to happen,” she said, her exaggerated tone suggesting the exact opposite of her words.

He gave a bark of laughter that drew every eye at the table. “Minx. I have a few things I must go through with Wilson, first,” he said, referring to the clever young man who served as part secretary, part companion, and part friend. “And then I will meet you in the great hall.” He leaned toward her and, with the unerring ability he sometimes exhibited when it came to kissing, planted a peck on her cheek.

Selina gestured for the footman to accompany her husband as Caius got to his feet. “If you will all excuse me,” he said to the table at large.

“Will you join us today, sir?” Doddy piped up.

Caius smiled in Doddy’s general direction. “I wouldn’t miss it.” He turned to Selina. “I will see you soon, darling.”

Once he’d gone, Selina’s siblings all turned her way.

“Darling,” Katie repeated, smirking.

Doddy made exaggerated kissing noises.

“Hush,” Selina murmured. Her face, she knew, would be bright pink.

Phoebe grinned widely and Aurelia gave Selina such a lovely, affectionate smile that it made her eyes prickle.

She dropped her gaze to her plate before she began blubbering with happiness. Being around her siblings—and their new families—was utterly delightful. She had not realized how much she’d missed her siblings until seeing their dear faces again.

And then Selina remembered their mother, whom she had not visited in days, and grimaced.

First the countess had been laid low with a migraine and now, according to Katie, she had a cold.

Selina laid aside her napkin before looking up. “I will go and check on mother.”

“I’ve already been to her chambers,” Katie said. “She asked not to be disturbed.”

Selina exchanged glances with Phoebe—who had always borne the brunt of her mother’s myriad illnesses over the years—and her younger sister gave a slight shrug, her joyful expression of a moment earlier gone, a look of resignation taking its place.

“If she does not want to be disturbed, I would not go,” Phoebe said.

Selina nodded, guilt following on the heels of relief, and promised herself that she would visit her mother tomorrow. The day after, at the latest.