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people, living in a hard world, but there are no better folk in all creation. I’m sure Rage would agree.”
         Lucinda stared at her hands, folded in her lap. She had not asked much about Nicholas’s time away from their family. She knew of the toll it had taken on her husband and his family, of course. She had even heard a few of his stories when he came to visit Anthony. But she hadn’t wanted to picture the kind of life he must have led.
         Now she couldn’t help but picture Ronan, a teenaged Ronan, on the dirty, dangerous streets of the worst parts of London. How lucky he had been to find someone who would take care of him, rather than exploit him. Someone who had accepted him and molded him into the man he had become.
         “Why all the questions about my friend, Lucinda?” Nicholas asked with a laugh before he drained his teacup in one gulp and reminded her that sometimes he was not as tamed as perhaps he pretended to be. “You aren’t thinking of joining up with the underground and learning to fight, are you? Perhaps have Rage teach you a thing or two?”
         Lucinda froze and slowly lifted her gaze to her brother-in-law. She knew that look and the sparkle in his eyes well. He was teasing her, he had no idea of how conflicted she truly was about Ronan. But he had struck awfully close to a very raw nerve. A secret she wanted to protect, at any cost.
         “Goodness, Nicholas, don’t torment her,” Jane smiled. “Rage is very handsome and perhaps she is just curious about him.”
         Again, Lucinda recognized the gentle teasing of her sister-in-law, but she still found herself holding her breath as she awaited Nicholas’s response to that statement. To her surprise, he tilted his head back and let out a long, low laugh.
         “I doubt Lucinda has an interest of that kind in my friend.”
         She tensed. And what did that mean? That Nicholas didn’t think Ronan was good enough for her… or that she was not the kind of woman who could hold his friend’s interest? Either way, the laughter offended her more than it should.
         She stared at him evenly. “It has been two years since I was widowed,” she said softly. “I would be lying if I said I didn’t wonder how you would feel were I to develop an interest in…” She trailed off and then took a coward’s route. “…a man?”
         Nicholas’s laughter faded at her question and there was a sudden tension lacing the room. Something that had not hung between them since she had confronted him about his bad behavior over a year before.
         He drew in a long breath. “I hope you didn’t think I was implying that you should never have an interest in a man again.”
         She pursed her lips to keep herself from blurting out, Only not in Ronan?
         He continued without knowing her treacherous thoughts, “You were a good and faithful wife to my brother and he loved you with all his heart. I didn’t understand how much until I met Jane.” He reached out and briefly touched his wife’s hand.
         Lucinda turned her face. Her emotions on that subject were so complicated. On any subject that had to do with the heart, it seemed.
         “I know that could my brother tell us his wishes, he would tell you that he didn’t want you to spend your life alone.” He sighed. “If you were to find a man to marry, it would probably be difficult for me at first, but I would give you my blessing if you asked for it.”
         Lucinda flinched. Marry again. That wasn’t exactly what Ronan had implied when he told her he wanted her. That when he returned to the shire, she could have whatever she liked if she wanted it. He had offered to be her lover, not her husband. And she doubted Nicholas would be as accepting of that idea, even if she had the nerve to confess it.
         Before either she or Nicholas could continue on the awkward subject, the door to the parlor opened and