if she believed that by keeping herself busy and by avoiding any private conversation with Duncan, the world could be kept from exploding into a billion pieces.
He in the meantime had become cold and distant, almost arrogant in manner – except when he was with Toby. He slept in a bedchamber next to the suite they had shared for a week.
There was no more courtship or romance.
Or marital relations.
Margaret's love for Toby, recent though it was, became something of an agony. He was careless, and carefree, in his affection for her much of the time, but sometimes he made her heart ache more than ever. One morning, for example, she was sitting on the riverbank while Toby darted about, playing some solitary game in which he did not need her participation. After a while he came skipping toward her, a posy of daisies and buttercups and clover clutched in one hand. 'For you, Aunt Meg,' he said, thrusting them at her and pecking her cheek with puckered lips.
And he went skipping off back to play before she could thank him properly.
There was something else that weighed heavily on her mind. She had been married for almost a month, and she had not had her courses since her wedding. She was three days late. /Only/ three days, it was true. But she was usually very regular indeed.
She did not know if she hoped or dreaded that her lateness had some significance.
And then, in the middle of an afternoon eight days after her quarrel with Duncan, Margaret was coming up from the flower garden, her arms laden with flowers that she had cut for the drawing room. Duncan, she could see, was walking up from the stables with Toby, who was holding his hand and prattling on about something. They had been out riding.
Margaret turned to go into the house without waiting for them.
She turned, though, when her foot was still on the bottom step, and looked down the driveway. Duncan too had stopped and was doing the same.
A horse and horseman were approaching, though the man was still too far distant to identify.
And then more horses appeared behind him – four of them pulling an elegant traveling carriage, which Margaret recognized despite the distance.
It was Elliott's.
Elliott and Vanessa were coming here? And Stephen? She recognized the horseman suddenly. 'Look, Aunt Meg,' Toby cried, flying up beside her, his arm pointing. 'Some people are coming. Who can they be? Papa says it is no one from near here.' 'My brother,' she said, smiling. 'And my sister and brother-in-law, I believe.' Oh, she /hoped/ Nessie was in that carriage. And the children too. She ignored the absurd urge to race down the driveway toward them. She stood clutching her flowers instead and glanced briefly at Duncan when he came to stand beside her. 'It is Stephen,' she said, unnecessarily, as he was close enough to recognize. 'And Elliott's carriage.' 'Stephen,' she cried as his horse's hooves clattered onto the terrace.
She set the flowers down on a step and held up her arms to him, smiling and tearing up at the same time.
He dismounted in one fluid motion and wrapped her in his arms. He held her tightly and wordlessly. 'Meg,' he murmured as he released her, and they both stepped aside to allow the carriage to come up and stop at the foot of the steps.
And then in no time at all Margaret was hugging her sister joyfully and turning to hug Elliott too.
And only gradually noticing something.
Nobody was smiling. Nobody was talking either except to say her name.
Something was wrong.
Kate! One of the children. The children were not with Nessie and Elliott. They never went anywhere without the children.
Margaret stepped back and looked fearfully from one to the other of them. She could feel the color draining from her face. 'We had to come as fast as we could to warn you,' Stephen said, looking from her to Duncan. 'Tur – ' 'Stephen!' Vanessa said sharply. 'The child!' 'Oh,' Margaret said, looking down at Toby, who was clinging to one of Duncan's legs, half hidden behind it. Oh, of course. She had not told them about him. Although Duncan had reluctantly agreed to let their neighbors know who he was, he had not wanted the rest of the world to know – including their families. 'This is Tobias,' she said, smiling at him. 'Toby. He is … He is Duncan's son.' 'Hello, Toby,' Vanessa said, smiling at him. 'I am very pleased to meet you.' Toby stayed half hidden. 'I think,' Duncan said, his hand on the child's head, 'we had better step into the house. Maggie will take you all up to the drawing room while rooms are being prepared for you. I will join you after I have settled Toby in the nursery.' He looked grim.
They all looked grim.
Margaret gathered up her flowers again and led the way up the steps. She handed them to a footman in the hall and led the way up to the drawing room. And incredibly, when they were there, they all conversed politely for ten minutes, until Duncan came to join them. Margaret asked about the children and Vanessa answered. Margaret asked about the journey and Elliott answered. She asked about Stephen's plans for the summer and he answered.
Just as if they were not all perfectly well aware that disaster loomed.
It was not about Kate, Margaret realized, or about any of the children.
They would have told her immediately.
She was pouring the tea when Duncan came into the drawing room and the door closed quietly behind him.
Margaret set down the teapot though she still had one more cup to pour.
Nobody got up to hand around the cups that had already been poured. 'We came to warn you,' Stephen said after a few moments of silence. 'Fortunately we three were still in London, though Monty and Kate had already gone back to the country. Word is going around, Sheringford, that you are harboring a child here.' 'My son is living with me here, yes,' Duncan said, advancing a little farther into the room, though he did not sit down. None of the men were sitting, in fact. Elliott was standing by the sideboard, Stephen by the window. 'Maggie knew about him before we married and refused to allow him to be hidden away somewhere.' 'I love him,' Margaret said, 'as if he were my own.' There was a slight buzzing in her ears. 'Oh, Meg,' Vanessa said in a rush, 'it is being said that Toby is not Duncan's child but Randolph Turner's. And indeed he seems to be the right age, and he does have the look of Mr. Turner.' 'Laura was blond and delicate,' Duncan said, his voice curiously flat. 'I never knew her,' Vanessa said. 'But of course you are right. You would not have run off with another man's son. I know you would not, Duncan. But – ' 'But Turner himself believes that the child is his,' Elliott said, one hand playing with the brandy decanter though he did not pour himself a glass. 'So does Mrs. Pennethorne. Norman Pennethorne is beside himself with fury. It is being said that they are all coming here, Sheringford.
To take the child away.' 'Toby is mine,' Duncan said. 'No one is taking him anywhere.' 'Perhaps he /is/ yours, Sheringford,' Stephen said. 'I would not call you a liar, and I cannot think why you would want to keep the child if indeed he were not yours. Not now that the mother is dead, anyway.' 'Oh, Stephen,' Vanessa cried, 'you know nothing about parental feelings.
Just you wait.' 'That is all beside the point, Vanessa,' Elliott said. 'The point is that the child, whoever his father actually is, was born to Turner's wife – within nine months of her elopement with Sheringford. The boy is legally his. No court of law in England would rule against him.' 'No one,' Duncan said again, 'is taking Toby away from this house. I invite anyone to try.' Margaret sat mute, her hands cupped in her lap.
It had happened, then. It was happening. She had no decision to make. It had been taken out of her hands. Toby was going to be taken away from them. As was only right.
She thought for a moment that she was going to faint. Or vomit.
She understood something suddenly – something that perhaps her mind had deliberately blocked during the past week. She understood those elusive flashes of recognition she had felt sometimes when looking at Toby. It had not been a likeness to Duncan she had been seeing, but a likeness to Randolph Turner. /His father/.
Her question was answered now. There could be no more doubt.
Toby was a legitimate child. He was the only son – and heir – of a wealthy, prominent member of the /ton/. Who had very possibly never beaten his wife in his life. Who had possibly loved her and been cruelly cuckolded.
