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to Amelia.
    Feeling somewhat abandoned, Amelia smiled shyly and even a
bit fearfully at the older woman. Before the duchess could speak, however, the
two spinsters rescued her.
    “Your grace,” Miss Sadie said, furling her parasol and
thrusting it at Angus who hovered nearby. He held the frilly thing as if it
would break and looked stonily at anyone who glanced his way. “Are any of your
other children joining us today? Mr. Milborough mentioned, did he not, that
Lord Leakesly is your son?”
    “Yes, he is my son. And no, my other children will not be
joining us today. We did not bring them to Yorkshire for this visit,” Kathryn
explained, a humorous twinkle in her green eyes. Once again her gaze returned
to Amelia and once more an interruption prevented her from addressing her.
    “How old are your other children?” Miss Ann asked, her thin
eyebrows rising until they disappeared beneath the smooth bands of her gray
hair. “How they must be looking forward to this new addition to their family.
At your age, too. They must have thought you finished with childbearing.”
    Amelia gasped softly, her eyes huge. She gazed in shock at
the effrontery of the two sisters. Amazingly, it seemed these old darlings
meant to protect her from possible attack by the Duchess of Lipton, one whose
rank placed her immeasurably higher on the social scale than any of them.
Thaddeus’ cousin. As the youngest son of an Earl, she had not thought them so
unequal in rank. Her own father was the third son of a Viscount. But now? Her
heart sank. His family must be here to object to his association with her—a
pregnant, unmarried woman of barely acceptable rank with no support or
acknowledged connections.
    The duchess’s answers barely registered. Maybe Lady Caxton
said something like nineteen, sixteen, fourteen, twelve, and… But by then
Amelia’s spirits hung so low that she scarcely took any notice. The dream
was such a nice fantasy, she thought wistfully— kind of like a game of
pretend played in the garden. She gazed across the green to where Thaddeus
stood with his cousin and the duke. The sun struck the three men, who laughed
and talked animatedly together, and she thought she’d rarely seen a finer
sight.
     
    “So, I suppose my father sent you?” Thaddeus asked, scowling
good-naturedly. He handed a coin to the lemonade attendant and waved away the
change. He picked up his three glasses and waited while Raven and Justin picked
up their two.
    “Not your father,” Raven admitted. “It was your mother. She
sent an especially long letter to Kathryn last week begging her to come and see
the woman you keep writing about.”
    “I have warned you before,” Justin said, shaking his head at
his cousin while juggling his two glasses. “If you do not want the whole family
knowing your business, keep your business to yourself. Mum’s the word, old
fellow.”
    Thaddeus grinned sheepishly and came near to scuffing his
foot across the ground like a schoolboy making a confession. “I could not help
myself. My feelings overwhelmed my reserve.”
    “She has a bit of the look of her grandmother,” Raven
murmured, glancing over at their table, where his wife spoke animatedly to the
Misses White. Miss Amelia Horton sat composedly looking back at them. “If her
grandmother is Lady Horton?”
    “I believe she is,” Thaddeus replied.
    “How did she get—?”
    Raven’s blunt question caught Thaddeus off-guard and he
stammered his answer. “I…I do not know. She has not made me privy to her
confidences.”
    “Your mother—” Justin began, shaking his head.
    “Will adore her,” Thaddeus finished. His comment secured the
two men’s astonished silence. Before either could open their mouths again, he
added firmly, “As will my sisters. And my father. And my five brothers.”
    Thaddeus frowned when he caught Amelia looking at them, a
faraway expression on her face. “I think she’s upset.”
    “She appears very tranquil to me,” Justin