Page 47 of A Winter Scandal

“I know. I can’t help but think he had some reason to think so. Of course, clearly she did come to Chesley if she is the one who left Matthew in the church. But how did he know?”

“He did not seem to know about Matthew,” Thea pointed out. “He looked quite astonished when you pointed out the baby.”

“True.” Gabriel nodded, frowning. “I wish now I had asked him a few things before I hit him. But at the time it just made me so bloody furious to see him standing there, demanding to see Jocelyn, after everything he’d done.”

He pushed open a door to reveal another room. This one had a low set of shelves along one wall, as well as a short table with four small chairs. Doors on either side of the room led into three smaller rooms, all empty.

“Ah, I think we’ve found it.” Gabriel wandered around, peeking into the other small rooms. He picked up one of the books from a shelf and glanced through it before replacing it.

“Yes, it looks like a nursery.”

“Rather far from the rest of the rooms,” Gabriel commented.

“Mm. That’s rather the point, isn’t it? So the adults aren’t awakened by nighttime crying, and the children are not kept up by the adults staying awake hours later.”

“I suppose so. Of course, the nursemaid is here to see to them. Still …” Again he frowned, leaning back against the low bookcase, his legs stretched out, bracing him against the floor.

Thea smiled and nodded. “I know. It seems to me that one would worry with the baby being so far away. I have kept Matthew’s basket beside my bed. I am afraid he will cry and I won’t hear him.”

“Perhaps I should have him in a room in the same wing.” He paused. “But you’re right—we might wake him up late at night. Babies turn everything upside down, don’t they?”

“Yes, I suppose they do.”

Gabriel was silent for a long moment, staring out at the floor in front of them. Finally he said, “We were very good friends, you know.”

Thea glanced over at him, surprised at the sudden switch in topic. “You and Lord Rawdon?”

He nodded, crossing his arms in front of him. “I met him at Eton. He was … not well liked.”

“I’m shocked,” Thea said drily.

Gabriel smiled faintly. “His family has a reputation.”

“What sort of reputation?”

He shrugged. “They’re very proud, even arrogant. One of those old Northern families that were accustomed to ruling their lands almost absolutely. They came over with William the Conqueror, but it’s said that even farther back there’s ancient Norse blood in them. Rawdon’s father is a harsh old bas—um, man. And they say his grandfather was even worse.”

“They don’t sound pleasant.”

“No. That’s why others tended to stay away from him.”

“But not you?”

Gabriel shrugged. “I got into a mill one afternoon. There were three of them and one of me, and Rawdon came to my aid.” Gabriel grinned faintly, thinking of it. “He throws a sweet right hook. Can’t say we beat them exactly, but in the end they were the ones who ran.”

“So you became friends.”

“It was the first time I had really talked to him. And, well, we just got along, it seemed. I introduced him to the others. Ian and Myles and Alan and I had been friends since we were lads. There was another, Gerald Lacey, but he’s married now so we don’t see so much of him.”

“Marriage doesn’t seem to stop my cousin from joining you.”

“No. Ian is not, um, uxorious.”

“Mm.”

“Rawdon was my friend for fifteen years. It has been odd the last year. Have you ever felt like that? Remembering all the years you were close as kin to someone, maybe closer, yet despising them now.”

“I’m sorry.” Thea stepped closer to him, reaching out her hand impulsively and taking his. She covered it with her other hand, holding it warmly between hers as she looked up into his eyes. “I have not ever felt it. I can only imagine how awful it must be.”