Loving Lieutenant Lancaster by Sarah M. Eden

Author:Sarah M. Eden [Eden, Sarah M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: lds, past, navy, Regency, clean, orphan, Romance, history
Publisher: Covenant Communications, Inc.
Published: 2018-04-29T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Oliver was not yet his usual interactive self. Neither was Caroline. Both sat with Linus on the back terrace of Lampton Park, Oliver in his arms and Caroline resting against his side. The fever that had laid the children low had run its course. They were well enough, though still weary.

Linus had offered them a change of scenery and, in so doing, had given himself an excuse to leave the house. Persephone had taken to eying him with a little too much curiosity, and she was not the only one. Dr. Scorseby had come to check on Arabella and the children and had been pointedly cold toward Linus. When Linus had referenced Arabella in a conversation with the dowager, interested looks had been exchanged all around the room. He’d needed an escape.

“Lampton Park is very beautiful.” He spoke as much to himself as either of the children.

“The Meadows is beautifuler,” Caroline said. “We have a ceiling of trees. And there is a place on the river where all the leaves are. And the nursery is magic.”

Though she was more sedate than Artemis had ever been, her colorful and eager imagination was forever putting him in mind of his sister as she’d been in those long-ago years before he’d left home.

“That sounds wonderful,” he said.

“I like the Castle,” Oliver weakly declared. He was hardly keeping his eyes open.

“Of course you do,” Linus said. “The Castle has a gibbet, you know, and you and your father are very fond of gibbets.”

“Don’t tell Mama.” Oliver rested his head more fully against Linus’s shoulder.

“What is a gibbet?” Caroline asked.

Lud, he was not good at choosing appropriate topics for children. “A gibbet is something that very grumpy dukes keep on their grounds as a way of reminding people who visit that they are very grumpy dukes.”

“I do not think the duke is grumpy.”

Linus had only just recovered from hearing Lord Lampton disagree with the universally accepted assessment of Adam’s character. Now here was another member of the Jonquil family who seemed to have seen through his exterior. “You don’t?”

“I think he is sad.” She adjusted her position, placing herself more comfortably against him, her little legs bent beside her. Linus shifted Oliver to one arm and rested his now free one around her shoulders. “When he was in the nursery holding Olive, he looked sad.”

“He was probably sad because his son was ill. That makes fathers sad.”

She seemed to think on that a moment. “My papa was sad that Henry and I were ill. Mama was more sad.”

Linus leaned back a little, settling in more cozily on the wicker settee. “I would wager they were both equally sad; it was simply easier to see that your mother was. That is often the case with mothers and fathers.”

“But the duchess didn’t look as sad as the duke,” Caroline said.

He laughed lightly. “The duke and duchess are the exception to a great many rules.”

“Were you sad that we were ill, Minus?” She had begun calling

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