Page 18 of Black and Silver

Lawrence drew in a breath, impressed and a little intimidated by Lady Minerva’s certainty.

“Would you….” He started, then second-guessed himself, biting his lip. When Lady Minerva stared at him, he tried again with, “Do you think you could….” That didn’t materialize into the question he wanted to ask either.

“Is there something I could do for you?” Lady Minerva prompted him.

Once again, he’d reached a point where there was nothing for it but to blurt everything out.

“When we are shown into the house and introduced to Lord Otho and Lady Jessica, do you think you could, that is, would it be alright for me to tell them that we are together?”

A slow smile of understanding spread across Lady Minerva’s face. “You wish to show them that you are worthy after all, and that someone wants you, even if she did not.”

“Yes,” Lawrence said, puffing the single word out on a breath.

Lady Minerva leaned toward him just as the carriage lurched to a stop and rested a hand on his knee. The motion of the carriage meant her hand slipped a bit too far up his thigh.

“Of course you can tell them we’re together,” she said with a wicked smile that had Lawrence’s breeches tightening. “I will follow along with whatever ruse you wish to perpetrate.”

Lawrence met her smile with one of his own, relieved, and also a bit giddy that he had found a friend as willing to get into mischief as he was.

He did not, however, anticipate the sort of mischief that blurted out of him less than five minutes later, once they’d stepped down from the carriage and been shown by the butler into one of the house’s magnificent parlors.

“Lord Lawrence.” Lady Jessica entered the room dressed in the sort of day gown that one generally only wore when they were staying at home for the day and not expecting visitors, a look of shock in her eyes. “What a charming surprise to find you here today.”

“I am terribly sorry that I did not write to inform you of our imminent arrival,” Lawrence said, bowing like a gentleman and taking Jessica’s hand once she came close enough to offer it.

And then the mischief happened.

“It is just that my wife and I were passing through on our way to Wales, and she has grown so fatigued, being in the delicate condition she is in, that as soon as I realized we were close to a friend’s estate, I assured her we would stop so that she could rest for a bit.”

The parlor went completely silent in the wake of his pronouncement.

Jessica pulled her hand away from his, her mouth opened as the smile she’d worn transformed into a look of shock.

But that shock was not nearly as pronounced as the look of stunned giddiness that Lady Minerva wore when Lawrence peeked, wincing, at her.

Lady Minerva looked as though she might dissolve into hysterics, but whether the good kind or the bad, Lawrence could not tell. A flush painted her cheeks, and her eyes were wide with surprise.

“Oh, dear,” Jessica said, shaking herself a little as she remembered her manners. “What a miserable condition to travel in, and with all the rain we’ve been having. Please do have a seat, Lady—”

“Minerva,” Lady Minerva answered in a strained voice as Jessica hurried over to her side, like she might faint at any moment.

“Lady Minerva,” Jessica said, ushering Lady Minerva to one of the settees and helping her to sit. “Of course you can stay here and rest a while. Do you require tea? Cakes? Something heartier to fortify you?”

“Tea would be lovely,” Lady Minerva said.

And then the blessed woman pressed a hand to her stomach and added, “It is early days still, as you can see, but I have been so queasy, and tea helps.”

“Yes, I remember with my children,” Jessica said, fawning over Lady Minerva, as if the two of them were suddenly bosom friends. “From my first marriage, of course. They are both grown and married themselves now. Lord Otho and I have not been blessed with children, but I can imagine that if we were, I would wish for the kindness of old friends while traveling as well.”

Lawrence was utterly gobsmacked by the way the scene had begun to play out. It must have been the magic of women. Whenone of them found themselves in a spot of trouble, it was as if an army of them were waiting to rush to their assistance.

Jessica glanced to him as she stood and made her way to the door, as if to fetch a maid. “You are more than welcome to break your journey here for a night or two, Lawrence—er, Lord Lawrence. I will go and find Lord Otho to inform him we have company, and I will have the housekeeper prepare a room for the two of you.”

“Thank you, Lady Jessica,” Lawrence said somberly, crossing so that he could sit by Lady Minerva’s side, like any doting husband with an expecting wife would. “You are most kind.”

Jessica gave him one last, almost incredulous look before shaking her head and rushing out of the room.

A few moments of bubbling silence passed between Lawrence and Lady Minerva before Lady Minerva pivoted toward him, arched one eyebrow, and said, “Your wife?”

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