Chapter 6

… The truth of it is—I love the children. I don't know how else to say it. I love Stanhope's brother and sister. I want the three of them to be a family. Why does love have such a way of leading one into trouble? (And don't think I don't mean you!)

—from Selina to Faiza, again

He lured Freddie with the picnic basket and Lu with the promise of more Selina Ravenscroft.

"Are there cream cakes?" Freddie asked, trying unsuccessfully to peek into the basket.

"I have no idea," Peter said. "But there's a cake house in the Park if you're unsatisfied by my cook's offering."

"I still don't understand why I couldn't bring my rapier," Lu said sulkily.

"Because it doesn't go with your dress."

She scowled up at him. "Then I should have worn breeches."

"When we get to Rowland House, we'll ask Lady Selina how she dressed when her fencing master attended her."

Lu sat back, accepting the suggestion with unexpected equanimity.

They all jumped down when the carriage reached Rowland House—Lu disdaining the hand he offered her, of course—and crowded up under the white portico at the front of the residence.

Freddie was blinking at the honey-colored brick and gridded Palladian windows with no little amazement. "This is someone's house?" he said. "Not a church?"

Lu rolled her eyes. "It's just a house, Freddie."

"Can we go inside? I want to see what it looks like inside."

"I suspect we can," Peter told him.

Rowland's liveried butler was at the door then, and his sober expression cracked into a hint of a smile when he saw the children with Peter.

"Your Grace," he said. "And how may I introduce your companions?"

Peter gave his siblings' names as they entered the house, but before the butler could retreat to find Selina, she was coming around the corner, dressed in blue and flanked by members of her family.

"Oh," she said as she glanced down at the children, and then she looked back up at him, tawny eyes bright with amusement. "I see we've both brought company. We're going to need another carriage."

Had he not mentioned that he was bringing his siblings? Perhaps he hadn't.

Peter presented Lu and Freddie to Selina's terrifying dragon of an aunt, Lady Judith, and her longtime companion, Thomasin Dandridge. Thomasin was a small, round woman with a cloud of sandy ringlets that bobbed about her face like cheerful springs.

"My darlings," she said, bending to take in the children more closely. "What a delightful surprise you are! I would be so pleased if you would accompany me in the carriage. Will you do me the honor?" And she held out her arms for the children to escort her like a plump little queen.

Freddie and Lu exchanged puzzled looks but agreed.

"Are you Lady Selina's mama?" asked Freddie as Thomasin allowed them to pull her out of doors.

"I'm not her mama," said Thomasin, smiling down at them. "Lady Selina's mama died when Selina was only six. But I love her just as well as any mama ever loved a daughter."

As they followed Thomasin and his siblings, Peter watched Selina's face soften with pleasure. "No child was ever more petted," she said on a laugh.

"That superlative," said Lady Judith drily, "might apply to you or Will equally."

Selina's expression grew momentarily shuttered, and Peter thought about Will Ravenscroft, her twin. Peter knew they had been close, had seen them share a quip or an embrace half a dozen times his first few months in England. But then Will's wife and son had died in childbirth, and Will had bought a commission and sailed to the Continent to lose himself in war and violence.

"You must miss him," he said to Selina, and her eyes flickered up to his in surprise.

"I do," she said. Her voice was a little rough. "Every day."

"Do you hear from him often?"

One corner of her mouth lifted. "As often as the post can deliver. Sometimes we get four or five or ten letters at a time, all the regiment's mail coming to us at once. But come," she said, and she reached out to take his arm. "We should follow our families."

"I'm not sure Miss Dandridge is prepared for my sister."

"Don't let Thomasin fool you," said Selina. "She's tougher than she looks."

"Is she ready with a rapier, then? Because the promise of swordplay is really the only way I got Lu into the carriage this morning."

Lady Judith made a sound of amusement as they caught up to Thomasin and the children. "You might be surprised to know that Miss Dandridge was the one who supported Lady Selina's desire to train in fencing with her brother. For my part, I was entirely against it."

"It's true," said Selina. "Thomasin convinced Nicholas to let me learn to fence with Will. And Thomasin taught me to play all sorts of card games ladies aren't expected to know."

"I drew the line at pugilism," said Thomasin cheerfully.

"What's pugilism?" asked Freddie.

"Boxing," Selina said. "I really wanted to learn to box. Still do, in point of fact."

Lu looked as though she might collapse to the cobblestones in shock.

"I had another carriage brought 'round," said Thomasin. "Are we waiting for Lydia, or is she meeting us at the Park?"

"She'll meet us there," said Selina. "She and Nora went ahead this morning." She peered at Peter as he helped Lady Judith up into the Stanhope carriage. "I hope you don't mind. I've taken the liberty of preparing some topics of interest you might converse upon with Lydia and the others."

Apparently all the Ravenscrofts knew about his impending… What to call it? Duchess hunt? Courtship in triplicate?

"I look forward to hearing your suggestions."

And so, in the carriage, she plied him with recommendations. Lydia Hope-Wallace, it seemed, had a considerable interest in political machinations. "I've no idea what she's talking about half the time," Selina said. "But if you talk to her about the work that interests you in the Lords, she'll know precisely what you're referring to and will have suggestions about how you might achieve your goals."

He had to admit, Lydia Hope-Wallace did sound like a very useful duchess.

"She seems a bit diffident," he said, hoping that wasn't a wildly inappropriate thing to say.

"Oh," said Selina, and her mobile mouth turned down. "Well. Yes. Well, no, actually, not at all. Not once she gets to know you. You simply need to make her feel comfortable with you."

"Er," said Peter. "All right." He wondered if Selina had any suggestions for that , but none seemed forthcoming.

"Miss Duggleby," Selina said, "is also quite clever. She is fascinated by antiquities."

"By antiquities?" he repeated.

"Yes. Etruscan art. Roman coins, classical sculpture." Her gaze sharpened on him. "You don't approve of Elgin's acquisition of the Parthenon marbles, do you? If so, better keep it to yourself."

"I… er. No. I can't say that I do."

Good Lord, he needed a study guide for the interests of his matrimonial prospects. Why on earth had Selina not prepared a textual aid for all of this?

"And Lady Georgiana? What topics do you suggest I discuss with her ladyship?"

Selina nibbled her lower lip consideringly. Peter tried not to think about it.

"Perhaps the weather?"

The weather ? Well, at least he wouldn't need a crib sheet for that.

"In truth," said Selina, "you might want to just talk to Lady Georgiana."

"Pardon?"

"Just… talk. Avoid, um, asking her things."

For some reason, this advice struck him as the most alarming of all. He chanced a glance over at the silver-haired Lady Judith, who was looking distinctly amused. Peter didn't think that boded well.

Once the carriages stopped, they reunited with Thomasin and his siblings. Freddie was tucked under Thomasin's arm, dreamy and a bit sticky-faced.

"Sweetmeats," murmured Selina. "Thomasin is always prepared with sweetmeats."

Even Lu looked rather taken with the woman. She flitted in between Selina and Thomasin, asking questions about card games and fencing.

"Have you ever seen a boxing match?" she asked Selina.

Selina looked around surreptitiously, and then leaned down to whisper something in Lu's ear. Lu's face lit up, and she dashed off to catch up to Thomasin again, who was now walking beside Lady Judith. Lady Judith's hand rested at the small of Thomasin's back.

"If I could persuade Lu to like me half as well as she likes you," Peter told Selina as they followed a handful of footmen to the banks of the Serpentine, "I'd have the children living with me by next week."

Selina's lips quirked. "Give her time. She's twelve, yes?"

Peter assented.

"It's a difficult age. I never was more angry at my brothers than I was at twelve."

"What did they do?"

She smiled at him, and she was tall enough that she barely had to tilt her head back to meet his eyes. The afternoon sun made her a study in monochrome shades of gold: gilded ivory skin, the rich honey of her hair, her amber eyes clear and luminous like… whiskey, perhaps? Rum. Something bright and intoxicating.

"They were men," she said. "They did whatever they pleased, while I had no control over anything in my life, I thought. Will had gone to Eton, while I was stuck at home with my governess. My fencing master wouldn't come back after Will left. I was too big for my pony, but Nicholas thought me too small for the bay gelding I really wanted." She gave a little self-conscious laugh. "Petty things, I know. But I wanted to be in charge of my own life, and instead it seemed as though I had charge of nothing at all."

"Do you still feel that way?" He liked listening to her. He liked how carefully she thought things through.

"Sometimes," she said. "But, no, not really. I've taken my life in my own hands these last years."

"Sounds dangerous," he said, and he meant it as a jest, but her eyes sharpened a bit as she looked at him.

"Perhaps," she said. "Perhaps it is."

They'd reached the picnic area that the footmen had arranged, and Freddie and Thomasin were unloading wrapped foods and corked wine bottles and lemonades. They set out crystal and silver and small porcelain plates—dukes and their relations, it seemed, did not eat cold chicken with their hands.

Actually, as he surveyed the children, it seemed perhaps that they did. Lu's busy fingers were separating chicken from bone, and Freddie held a joint of the cold meat to his mouth.

"Er," he said. "Lu. Freddie."

They glanced up at him, and he wasn't exactly sure what to say. Best not to act like barbarians in front of these important people ? Good Christ, surely they were old enough that he didn't need to teach them table manners, weren't they? He had no blasted idea what he was doing.

Thomasin cleared her throat and gave a rather studious nod toward the silver and linens beside them. "Just in case you find that you need them, my darlings."

Freddie went red to his ears, and he grabbed up a fork so quickly that he dropped it again. It clattered off his plate of chicken and came to rest on Lady Judith's neatly spread indigo sarcenet skirt.

"Oh," he said. "So sorry. Let me just—"

He grabbed for the fork, but it had somehow become entangled in the embroidered fabric, and when he picked it up, Lady Judith's skirt lifted with it. They were all treated to a flash of white petticoat.

Freddie dropped the fork as if burned. "Oh monkey," he said miserably. "That's gone wrong."

"Thank you, Master Nash," said Lady Judith blandly. "I was hoping for an additional utensil. Allow me to secure you one of your own."

But Lu was already there, handing a fork to Freddie and glaring up at Lady Judith like an angry terrier. "Don't tease him," she said. "Leave him alone."

"Lu," Peter started to say, but now she too had flushed deeply, and she fixed her gaze furiously on her own lap. Her small bare fingers were in fists at her sides.

Selina laid a hand on his arm, and her expression was gentle when he turned his head.

Give her time , Selina had said.

But how much time did they have?

He had to get this right.

They ate their picnic, Lu and Freddie in disconsolate silence. Even Peter felt not quite up to the task of polite conversation, and when Thomasin asked the children if they fancied a walk with her to the cake house, he hated that their escape felt like relief.

"I'm sorry," he said when they were out of earshot. "About Freddie and Lu."

He hated this. He hated apologizing as though there were something wrong with them, when really there had been something wrong with their goddamned father who had abandoned them. With Peter, who didn't know how to raise them now.

But to his surprise, Lady Judith was regarding him with a hint of a smile. "I like a spirited child," she said. "I trust you won't let anyone break her."

Peter didn't trust that about himself at all. These Ravenscrofts—with their sturdy confidence, their obvious affection for one another—were outside his realm of experience. When he thought about family, he thought about fear and grief—his father who had gone and his brother who had died. He had no frame of reference for what it could be like to bring up a child like Lu and protect her from the harsh realities of their world.

But he wanted to. He wanted better for her than to wake up each morning gripped by the unpredictability of her future. He wanted to be steady and certain. And he did not know if he could do it.

Selina watched Peter watching his siblings as they scampered off with Thomasin. His face was almost impassive, but she could see the tension in the set of his shoulders. The faint flush at his cheekbones.

When Lu had taken Aunt Judith to task, Selina had felt a rush of tenderness so powerful that she'd wanted to cry.

It was her family that she saw when she looked at them, she realized. She saw her brother Nicholas in Peter—so determined to do what was right. She saw her twin's sweetness in Freddie, and in Lu, brimming with stubborn pride, she saw herself.

She'd felt that same protective ferocity toward her own little brother. Will, seven minutes younger, and now impossibly far out of her reach.

He'd fractured apart when Katherine and the baby had died, and Selina hadn't been able to fix it. He'd purchased a commission six months later and sailed, hard-eyed, away from her. Away from all of them. She wrote him every single day, and perhaps it was madness—perhaps he hated getting dozens of letters from her at a time—but he'd never complained.

He also hadn't come home.

And perhaps this was more madness, seeing them in Freddie and Lu, but she didn't care. They could be a family, Peter and his siblings, and she would help Peter make it so.