Love and Other Surprises by Emily Larkin

Author:Emily Larkin [Larkin, Emily]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780995142855
Publisher: Emily Larkin

Chapter Twenty-One

Isabella spent the rest of Thursday afternoon at the pianoforte, laboring over Beethoven’s Sonata no. 14. There was no beauty in the music. The soft lamenting first movement, the stormy third, sounded equally flat and lifeless, the notes sliding from beneath her fingertips with one dull clunk after another, the hammers and strings making noise, not music.

Finally she gave up. She bowed her head, resting her forehead on the pianoforte, and closed her eyes. What am I to do?

A knock on the door jerked her upright. Rufus woke abruptly, scrambling to his feet, shedding the two kittens who’d been dozing on his flank.

“Yes?”

“The Duke of Middlebury,” her butler said.

“Julian?” She stood as abruptly as Rufus. “Here?”

“I took the liberty of showing him to the library, ma’am.”

“Thank you, Hoban,” She hurried to the door. The butler stood back to let her pass. “Fetch up a bottle of the best claret, please.”

Julian was standing by the window in the library, just as Nicholas had done. He turned at her entrance and came towards her, blond and tall, thickening slightly now that he’d reached forty, and engulfed her in a hug.

Isabella clung to him. I am not going to cry.

Julian released her. He looked down at her, smiling. “I’d thought you’d be in Hyde Park, showing off that phaeton of yours.”

“Not today.” Nor yesterday either, not after that shattering interview with Major Reynolds.

She pushed thought of Major Reynolds away. “Come,” she said, taking her brother’s hand and drawing him to the sofa. “Tell me how Marianne and the children are.”

Julian sat down beside her, sinking back into the cushions, stretching his legs out with a sigh. “They’re well.” He looked towards the door as it opened. At the sight of the butler bearing a tray with a bottle and two glasses, he straightened slightly. “Claret?”

“Of course.”

Julian examined the bottle and poured with careful reverence.

“I didn’t know you were coming to town,” Isabella said, as her brother took a first, savoring sip. His eyebrows rose in silent appreciation of the claret. “How long will you be here?”

“Just tonight,” Julian said, lowering his glass. “I’ve put up at Grillon’s.”

“Grillon’s? But you can stay here—” Abruptly she remembered that she had no cook. And that she had a secret guest upstairs.

“You’ll be out anyway, if I know you. What is it tonight?” His voice held a teasing note. “A masked ball? The opera?”

“Nothing,” Isabella said, looking down at the glass in her hand. “I’m rather tired. I shall be staying in tonight.”

Julian said nothing. She glanced up to find his eyes on her face.

Isabella forced a smile. “Are you here on business?”

“No,” he said. “I came to town because of you.”

“Me,” she said blankly. “Oh, the letter I sent you!” Hope rose sharply in her breast. Here was a solution for Harriet. “You have a vacant living?”

Her brother shook his head.

“Oh.” Isabella tried not to show her disappointment. She bit her lip and looked at the wineglass again.

Julian laid his arm along the back of the sofa.

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