Bexley-Smythe Quintet 02 - Rhyme and Reason by Catherine Gayle Page B

could swear it was the echo of his heart beating in anxiety.
    Miss Emery delicately cleared her throat, and both Thomas and Lady Matilda turned expectantly to her. “Not long before you arrived, Mr. Goddard, Lady Matilda and I were discussing a letter she’d received in the post this morning. Her brother-in-law, Lord Montague, wrote to inform her of the arrival of his heir.”
    Lady Matilda visibly relaxed. Her shoulders dropped, and her lips parted slightly to let a pent-up breath escape.
    “Congratulations on the newest member of your family,” Thomas said. Thank goodness Miss Emery was present to help steer their conversation. He was sure he would stumble and make a fool of himself otherwise. “Is this your first niece or nephew?”
    She nodded. “Only my sister Georgie, Lady Montague, has married at this point. Freddie and I are both still unwed, and Edie is not yet out of the schoolroom. Although, I daresay she’ll have beaux beating down Mama’s door once she has her come out. ”
    Thomas laughed at the thought, imagining a younger version of Lady Matilda. “I would imagine your brother Lord Stalbridge must be overwhelmed at the thought of three sisters out at once—and having to decide which suitors he should allow, and which he should not.” Like Hammond.
    “Edie won’t be out for a couple more years. Perhaps by then Freddie and I will have married and Mama need only worry about Edie.”
    Mama , she’d said, not her brother. That was an interesting turn of the conversation, and not in a direction he was comfortable with. Why had she so quickly deflected their discussion away from her brother?
    “And Stalbridge has not married either?” Thomas asked. “Is he not keen to fill his nursery? He’ll need to provide an heir at some point, especially since it seems he has only sisters and not brothers.”
    Lizzie came through the doors carrying a tea tray, this time successfully delivering the implements without nearly spilling it all, and Lady Matilda instantly set to work pouring three cups. Her lips were set in a straight line, pressed tightly together, and her shoulders drew up again.
    So Stalbridge is not a comfortable topic of discussion , he thought to himself as the maid left the drawing room as silently as she’d come. A redirection was in order again.
    Thomas took the cup she handed him and sipped from it. “My sister Abby only recently informed us all she is with child as well.”
    “I’m sure His Grace is well pleased with the news,” Lady Matilda said stiffly.
    A strange desire to reveal the blemishes within his family struck him. Would she be more willing to reveal the less-than-perfect bits of her own life then? “I wouldn’t know,” he said cautiously. “Danby has only known of our existence for a brief time.”
    The teacup in her hand clattered down to its saucer. “Oh,” she said, her mouth holding that perfect O shape for a moment. “I didn’t…”
    Miss Emery silently took the teacup and saucer away from Lady Matilda and then slipped back to her end of the sofa, not saying a word.
    “You didn’t know anything about me or my family,” Thomas finished for her. “As I don’t know anything about you or yours.” He met her eyes and held his gaze there, trapped in the intensity of her stare. “My father was illegitimate.”
    She never so much as blinked. “But they told me you… I assumed you were the younger son of a younger son, something of that nature.”
    “I’m not.” He sipped again.
    She seemed merely curious, not appalled. Better to press on and get it all out than lose his nerve. After all, if they did marry as he wished, then she would have to know it all eventually. These weren’t the sorts of secrets a man could keep from his wife.
    “My grandmother’s family turned her out when she wouldn’t reveal who had fathered a child on h er. She found employment as a maid of all work. My father worked his way up to become the butler for Lord Pritchard’s