Page 24 of A Husband for Esyllt
“Jane has arrived,” Connor told her, letting go of her elbow. He watched as she stiffened, then he hesitated, not knowing how to word his request. Perhaps he should have waited a bit before organizing the encounter, or gone about it in a different way. But it was too late now. Jane and Matthew were on their way to meet them. He had to speak now. “Please, be kind to her.”
Kind! Esyllt barely refrained a scoff of outrage. Her husband was asking her to be kind to the woman he had dared bring under her roof! He really had some gall.
She had gone to the chapel that morning, hoping to find the calm she needed to bring some order to her thoughts. The past weeks had been hard on her, and she could not quite understand why. Why was she so upset about the distance that had settled between her and Connor? Wasn’t it better for them to live separate lives? After all, that was what she had wanted. At the time of their wedding she would have liked nothing more than to be assured she wouldn’t have to endure her English husband’s presence for more than a few days at a time. Now the idea that they were to live as strangers bothered her, and she did not like it.
Her time of reflection had done little to appease the whirring in her mind and she had barely come out of the chapel than Connor had come to demand she be kind to his mistress. It was as if he was determined to make her hate him when she had resisted the urge to do so for months. And he might finally have succeeded.
“I will do what I—” she started, only to be interrupted by the opening of the door behind her.
“Father,thereyou are! I was looking at the puppies and then you were gone!”
A dark-haired little girl bounded into the room and threw herself into Connor’s arms. He caught her in mid-air and proceeded to cover her face with kisses. Esyllt watched in amazement as the child dissolved into a fit of giggles under the onslaught. She had never seen a man do such a thing before. None of the men she knew would have gathered their child into such an embrace, never mind in front of witnesses. The look in his eyes when he looked at his daughter was another surprise.
There was so much emotion there, as if the little girl was his whole world. All traces of doubt, anger and calculation had vanished, to be replaced by pure happiness and love. Her heart gave a jolt of delight. Connor Hunter was capable of loving as fiercely as she was. Up until then she had not been certain of it. She was now—and it made all the difference.
He placed the little girl back onto her feet and looked straight at her. There was an unusual earnestness in his green eyes, as if he was urging her to heed his earliest request to be kind.
“Jane, this my—” He cleared his throat. “This is Lady Sheridan.”
Esyllt could tell he was uncomfortable with calling her his wife. Of course, Jane’s mother had been his wife once. With a measure of shock, she realized that she had never wondered if he had been married before. Because it had never been mentioned, even when she had told him about her previous marriage, she had assumed he had not. Evidently, she’d been wrong.
As to him having a daughter, it was the last thing she had expected.
Yes, because he had never alluded to it, even when they had discussed Siân’s whereabouts. It would have been the perfect moment to mention he had a daughter too, if he’d thought it a good idea for her to know. But he had not.
Why not? Why had he kept the existence of this child a secret? Because she was illegitimate?Hadhe been married to Jane’s mother?
So many questions... Her head was fair swimming with them.
She looked at the little girl more closely. Jane looked remarkably like Connor, which was to say she was a stunningly beautiful child. She had his dark hair and green eyes but her features, so stern and masculine in Connor, were softened in the heart-shaped face tiled up to her.
“My lady.” Jane dropped a wobbly curtsey. “I am very glad to make your acquaintance. Uncle Matthew told me everything about you on the way here.”
“Did he really?” Esyllt did her best not to snort. What had Matthew been telling his niece? Beware of the Welsh, in all probability.
“He did. But he never said you were so beautiful!”
The little girl’s words were so guileless, she looked so awestruck and adorable that Esyllt could not help a laugh. She instantly knew that she and her stepdaughter would get on well.
“I would be surprised if he had,” she answered warmly. “I do not think your uncle Matthew has had time to notice my supposed beauty. He’s been very busy since his arrival at Castell Esgyrn.” Too busy being prejudiced.
“It doesn’t take long to see that you are beautiful!” Jane sounded almost affronted at the idea. “Father, you agree with me, don’t you? You think her ladyship is beautiful?”
“Yes, I do.” Connor gave a cough.
As angry as she had been only a moment ago, Esyllt was now enjoying herself immensely. She had dreaded meeting a woman who would act as mistress of the place by day and play the whore to her husband by night, and instead she was meeting a sweet child who was ready to love her.
“I’m very happy to welcome you here, Jane, and I know someone who will be even happier to have you here at Castell Esgyrn. I have a daughter who is seven years old, just like you must be,” she said, judging that both girls would be of an age.
Green eyes lit up with excitement. “You do? But Uncle Matthew and Father never told me about that, either!” she said, scowling in the two men’s direction. Esyllt wondered about that. Connor, at least, knew about Siân’s existence. Why had he kept it a secret from his own daughter? “Where is she? When can I meet her?”
“She is in her chamber at the moment, practicing her letters with her tutor.”
Jane’s face fell at that. “Oh. Maybe I should wait to go to her, then.”
Esyllt barely repressed a laugh. Her stepdaughter, like every child she knew, was not a lover of lessons. “Mayhap she can be excused for once. I think she would prefer to meet a new friend than write a series of perfect Ws.” Her daughter would be ecstatic at Jane’s arrival at Castell Esgyrn, that was certain.
“It is the most difficult letter for me too.” The little girl grimaced in commiseration.
