He folded his arms over his chest. “Do tell?”
“Matchmaking is all about instinct.” She shrugged and stretched up to kiss his cheek. “Northport broke with Juliette about the time he threatened you with disinheritance, telling Juliette he was setting a bad example. Then you married me, and I thought, if he had any love in his heart for the woman at all, he would need some excuse to seek her out again. So, after reminding him earlier in the season of what a fine woman she was, desirable to other men, too, I asked Scarsdale to make some offhand remark right in front of him about her being back in London, here with us, to see what he would do. He might love her after all. But I didn’t expect him until tonight or tomorrow, at the earliest.”
Drew laughed softly and put his arm about his clever wife. “If you can pull this off, I’d be surprised.”
“It’s up to Juliette now,” she replied with a sigh. “She needs to put him in his place and make sure he knows how lucky he really is just to breathe her same air again.”
He went to the doorway, listening, but then turned back to see his wife slipping away into her study. She had endless meetings now with new friends and old, who came to her constantly for advice about their hopes of making a marriage.
After the scandal, after news of their anvil marriage had been spread about, they had been swamped by well-wishing friends. Aurora accepted everyone’s congratulations at face value. People formerly offended wished them well, too. Aurora liked to believe they saw how much they loved each other.
Drew was certain they came around only to get a closer look at their marriage.
But their marriage had wiped away the stain on Aurora’s reputation, and that was what he’d hoped for most of all. She was popular again, and that pleased him immensely.
As for himself, he kept to a smaller circle than before on purpose. Most often he found himself in the company of Aurora’s friends and family. Berringer, Wharton, Scarsdale and of course Wade.
Many in their closest circle knew some version of the truth about their slow journey to the altar. Drew, however, kept the specific details firmly behind his teeth. Aurora’s painful past, the cause of their scandalous arrangement, would never be his story to tell.
He picked up the day’s mail from the hall table and flicked through the envelopes. All were for his wife.
Drew sighed and went to his wife’s door. He knocked, and she jumped almost out of her chair. Her appointment book fell to the ground.
Drew rushed to pick it up for her. “I didn’t mean to startle you.” He earned a smile for his apology and offered one his own. “Am I disturbing you?”
“Always, but I don’t mind in the least.” She sucked in a breath. “I’m afraid we have much to discuss, my lord, and before my next appointment arrives is as good a time as any.”
He raised a brow. “What will it cost us this time?”
Her lips pursed and she set aside her appointment book. “Oh, many thousands of pounds I suppose, in the end.”
Drew groaned and sank down into the chair before the desk. “Aurora, you are positively vague sometimes, but who is it really for? A male or female friend in need?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
He raised a brow at her reluctance to confess the details. “I probably won’t say no, but I absolutely insist upon knowing where our money is going.”
She winced. “I should be able to tell you in…oh, six or seven months?”
He scowled. “That’s too long to wait.”
She circled the desk, sinking into a chair by his side. She fluttered her lashes at him. “Perhaps as long as seven to eight months. It depends. The timing of the arrival is completely out of my hands.”
He groaned.
His wife was sometimes too careless with her generosity. Early in their marriage, she had expressed a desire to sponsor young ladies who had fallen out of favor, and in that regard, he’d been all for helping the women make a good match.
He understood where Aurora’s deep-seated need to help others came from, and had promised to render assistance in any way he could. That dark place, the painful memories inside Aurora, still shaped so many of her choices and opinions about the chances of happiness for others. She wanted to prove to herself and these strangers that, even if damaged and distrustful, they still deserved a good life—and a love like theirs had become.
He bent to kiss her cheek, reconciling himself to the inevitable expense. “Where are they coming from? Do I need to make any arrangements?”
“Oh, not very far,” she murmured, looking down at her hands in her lap as her smile grew wider.
“All right. I give up. You’re set on testing me again today, I see,” he complained. “I have no objection. You can have as much money as you need.”
“I am teasing you, Drew, not testing you this time. I know you’re here for me in ways no one else ever bothered to be. And I am telling you the truth, too. I don’t know when or how much it will cost, or even what our child will be born as.”
He blinked—and then gasped in shock. “You’re having a babe?”