That wasn’t the part that worried her the most. What if the bride her brother chose, a bride above reproach and not bathed in scandal, rejected Eliza from their lives and from their children’s lives? Once a lady, the daughter of a duke, now married to a bastard and ex-pirate. No one would forget. No one would forgive.
Perhaps it would be better if she never returned? It wasn’t the first time she’d thought about it. What difference would there be to her husband if she remained in America? Perhaps he could buy her a small cottage, or the American equivalent, and she could do what he did? Start again in a place where no one cared where you came from or what titles you did or didn’t have?
A little excitement crept its way in as she closed her eyes and considered the opportunities that awaited. Only a few more days and Darius’s ship would be ready to set sail. They would be safe; the children would be safe. Sarah would have escaped the clutches of her evil father. Eliza didn’t pretend for one moment that theirs would be an easy journey or that there wouldn’t be troubles along the way. After all, they would only have a few months in America and then Nathanial would need to return to take the title.
But could he return without her? Did he really need her to help him or had it been that Eliza needed to be needed so she had something to do, something to look forward to in her future? It was a possibility that a different type of future beckoned. Her chest swelled with her breath. She would speak to Darius about it on their journey and gauge his reaction.
Darius risked it all for them with little return. She still had to wonder why. He’d kept telling her he was no knight but his actions to date had been honourable and just. He was leaving the country without his fortune, without his father’s portion of a debt and only half of her own father’s. It took a good man indeed to forgive those kinds of notes and simply walk away.
Who would have thought the pirate in the equation could have turned out to be the gentleman after all? She chuckled to herself but then a scuff of a boot near her head made her snap her eyes open and look up.
“Oh, Ethan, you scared me.”
Her little brother looked troubled as he stared down at her, his head on an angle so he could see her face. “What are you doing?”
She smiled to show she was perfectly fine before answering, “Sarah and I are dreaming of spring.”
“But you’re lying on the floor. Ladies don’t lie down on the floor.”
She wanted to correct him and tell him she was no longer a lady but it was difficult for him to understand. She rolled out from beneath the tree, scooped up the baby and got to her feet. “You’re right, little brother, ladies do not lie about on the floor. I just wanted to make sure all of the decorations were perfectly in the right places.”
His one raised brow told her he thought she’d lost her mind but then he nodded and seemed to accept her ridiculous explanation. The truth was she enjoyed the smell of the pine, the peacefulness of the canopy of branches with only the call of the birds to pierce the silence. The pine forest was her favourite place to wile away the hours and usually took her worries away but with a fresh layer of snow falling overnight, Eliza wouldn’t dare step foot into the plantation let alone lie down out there.
“Why aren’t you with the girls?” Eliza asked him.
“They won’t stop talking about Sarah and how cute she is. Why would they think she is so cute when all she does is cry? It hurts my ears!”
“You cried like that when you were a baby, Ethan.”
“I bet I wasn’t as loud as her.”
Eliza suppressed a laugh. “You were much worse.”
His little green eyes went wide. “I was worse? How’d you put up with me?”
This time Eliza did laugh. “You had your good times when you didn’t cry, just like Sarah. When you smiled and giggled, it made all the cries seem not so bad.”
“I never giggled,” he said indignantly, his tiny fists on his hips. “I am a man and men don’t giggle.”
Trying hard to school her features, Eliza nodded, attempted to appear very serious. “Of course, my apologies. Men indeed do not giggle.”
“Do you think one day I will be as big as Darius? Or Marcus?”
“Do you really want to be that big?” Eliza asked as though the men were mythical giants and not mere mortals.
Ethan nodded until she thought he might hurt his neck. “They are strong and can lift just about anything. Plus, they get to do whatever they want whenever they want to do it. When will I be an adult?”
She was saved further replies or attempts at hiding her bemusement when Darius walked into the room. “Being an adult does not make you a man,” he told Ethan. “Coming of age has nothing to do with any of it.”
“It doesn’t?”
Her heart nearly broke at the tone and the adoration on her little brother’s face. He hung on every word as though Darius was indeed a god.
“Your actions make you a man. Your honour helps too.”
Ethan
