Page 31

After Lenora nodded to Dottie to indicate she and the captain were going to walk the Serpentine’s path as they had in previous days, he said, “You must permit me to teach you to skate.”

Lenora’s heart quickened at the idea of his arm around her waist as he held her upright. The thought warmed her from the inside out before another less pleasant one turned her heart cold.

“I don’t think that likely, Jason. Landry says you are to sail soon.”

His jaw went taut for two paces, but then he crooked an eyebrow. “I haven’t decided yet whether to accept the commission. I’m reluctant to leave my grandmother, especially after her bout of ill health. She’s all alone except for me.”

“It’s obvious you care for her very much.”

“I do, though I’ve only known her a short while—not quite a year and a half.”

Lenora understood exactly what he meant. She adored Landry and Celestia, and she’d only known them for two years. “I first met Landry two years ago.”

“He said as much to me.”

When he’d warned Jason away from Lenora?

Was it because Landry couldn’t stand the idea of losing her so soon after he’d finally found her?

Jason smiled down into her eyes, and Lenora’s stomach flopped over itself. This man was coming to mean too much to her. She was terrified to explore the burgeoning emotion.

A dour thought impaled her contentment.

After his grandmother died, would Jason ever return to England?

What need was there for him to?

Lenora could never live a continent away from her family. How had Mrs. Steele endured the isolation, especially in a new country?

“Besides, a letter arrived from my mother yesterday.” Jason skimmed his gaze over the park festooned in white. “For the first time in nearly three decades, she’s returning to England to visit her mother. She plans on staying until spring. This will be her first Christmas with her mother since she was twenty years old.”

Lenora oughtn’t to ask. It wasn’t any of her business. And still, her obstinate tongue formed the words. “What kept her away so long?”

Jason’s intense gaze probed hers before he broke the connection. Indicating a nearby bench, he urged her toward it. “It’s a long tale, I fear.” He brushed the snow off the bench. “Have a seat, and I’ll try to abbreviate the story.”

Lenora sat and didn’t object when he sat far too close for propriety’s sake. His thigh brushed hers, but it was so cold that she welcomed the heat. In fact, she leaned into his beckoning warmth and murmured, “Tell me what you will.”

Jason spoke in low tones for several minutes, and Lenora listened. At times anger or compassion made his voice rise or fall. “I think my mother has been afraid to return, even after her father died. She’s been away more years than she lived with her parents, and she and her mother might’ve become strangers.”

Landry had been a stranger to Lenora, but now he was the dearest brother.

“Regardless, I believe my mother now wishes to see her mother before Grandmother leaves this world,” Jason said.

“It’s such a sad story of stubbornness and unforgiveness.” Lenora peeked up at him, liking the lazy smile arcing his mouth. “Nonetheless, I’m glad you sought out your grandmother. She’s truly a dear.”

He chuckled, the sound rumbling around his broad chest and heating her insides like mulled cider sipped before a blazing hearth. “She’s a stubborn old bird but possesses a brilliant wit and a heart big enough to hold the ocean.”

“Hmm, she sounds like my mother.” Lenora kicked at a pebble atop the snow. “Not my birth mother. I never knew her. But my adopted mother has never made me feel anything less than her own child.”

He slipped his arm around her shoulders, drawing Lenora even nearer. She truly ought to protest, but it was so cozy, and it seemed completely fitting.

“How is it you didn’t meet your brother until two years ago?”

Lenora breathed out a long, controlled breath, recalling the day an investigator had knocked upon their cottage door and announced she was the sister of an earl. “It is also a sad story but with a happy ending. At least, partially happy.”

Lenora told him how Landry’s father—an unkind and unforgiving man—had learned that his wife had taken a lover after years of abuse. Lenora was the result of their affair. The old earl killed Lenora’s father and then took her from the countess when Lenora was mere hours old. He’d never told his wife where he’d sent the child.

“On her deathbed, my mother told Landry of my existence and begged him to find me. He searched nonstop for eight years.”