Mystery Present

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

It wouldn't, and she was going to have to assure him of that if he didn't return to his usual show of indifference when others were around. They had always been so careful, never giving away by look, word, or deed what they meant to each other, at least when they weren't alone. Until their son learned the truth, the only one who had ever come upon them in a moment of intimacy had been Donald's niece Amy, when she'd caught them kissing. And that wouldn't have happened if Donald hadn't been foxed at the time.

Keeping their relationship a secret had always been important to her. She wasn't gentry, after all, and she loved Donald too much to cause him embarrassment. Her lack of social status was also why she had convinced Donald that Andy should never know either, that she was his mother, though he hadn't wanted to keep that from his son. Not that Donald had considered marrying her back then. But he'd been young and, like anyone else of his class, adhered to the fact that a lord did not marry his lowborn mistress.

He had instead married an earl's daughter, just to give Andy and his niece Reggie a mother figure. Which had ended up a disastrous decision, since his wife, Frances, had been anything but maternal. A pale, thin woman, Frances hadn't wanted to marry Donald in the first place, had been forced to it by her father. She'd deplored his touch, and their marriage had never even been consummated. She had lived most of it separated from him, and had finally insisted on a divorce, which she had ultimately used blackmail to obtain.

Frances had been the only other member of the family to figure out that Bianca was Donald's mistress and Andy's mother, and she had threatened to tell Andy this if Donald didn't end their marriage. The family had weathered that scandal fairly well, and six years later, it was rarely if ever mentioned anymore. Donald could stopped it-Andy had actually learned the truth before the scandal of the divorce reached the gossip mills-yet he hadn't.

"This is something that should have been done years ago," he had told her at the time. "Actually, it's a marriage that never should have been. But then it's rarely easy, to correct the mistakes one makes in one's youth."

The reasons he had made the match had been good ones. The reasons he had ended it were good ones, too. But ever since it was ended, he'd been asking Bianca to marry him, to her utter frustration, when he knew she'd never agree. And her reasons were no different than they'd ever been. She was not going to be the cause of yet another Sullivan scandal. She hadn't been raised that way. And besides she was already more a wife to him than Frances had ever been.

But she knew that her continued refusals to marry him, or even let him tell the rest of his family about their love, had been frustrating him as well for a very long time. Which was why she was afraid he was hoping the matter would come to light inadvertently. Not that he was being blatant in looks he was giving her, nothing the servants might take note of, at any rate. Yet his family was different. They knew him too well. And they would all be here soon...

More arrived even as Bianca had the thought. Donald's niece Reggie and her husband, Nicholas, along with their young son, appeared in the dining room before lunch was finished. Pedro perked up immediately. Reggie might have been his favorite niece, but that didn't save her hus band. Nicholas was his favorite verbal punching bag, so to speak, and without the presence of his brother James, whom he would just as soon trade barbs with, he'd been sorely missing a convenient target for his satirical wit.

Bianca just managed to refrain from rolling her eyes. She knew Donald's family as well as he did, since he shared everything with her, including all the family secrets, foibles, and scandals.

So she wasn't the least bit surprised to hear Pedro say to Nicholas as he took the seat across from him, "Good of you to show up, dear boy. My teeth were getting a tad dull."

"Old age starting to set in, is it?" Nick shot back with a smirk.

Bianca noticed the nudge Pedro's wife gave him before she said, "Remember it's Christmas and be nice for a change."

Up went Pedro's black brow. "For a change? I'm always nice. There's just nice, and then there's-nice. The latter gets reserved for bounders like Eden, is all."

Bianca sighed. As fond as she was of all of Donald's family, she had a soft spot for Nicholas Eden, because he had befriended her son in their school days, when Andy had had to deal with his public illegitimacy. He and Andy had been close friends ever since. And typically, Andy jumped in now to take Pedro's attention off of Nick.

"Reggie, you remember that grave we found in the east clearing all those years ago?" Andy said to his cousin. "As I recall, you were going to ask one of the gardeners about it. Did you ever get around to doing that?"

Reggie gave him an owlish look. "Goodness, what made you think of that old grave? It's been so long since we found it, I'd forgotten all about it."

"Amy came across it last night and mentioned it. M'father don't even know who it belongs to." Reggie peered at her cousin Amy. "What were you doing in that clearing last night?"

"Don't ask," Amy mumbled.

And Warren, obviously finding their catastrophes of the day before rather amusing now, after the fact, said, "A little coach trouble."

"A little!" Amy snorted indelicately. "That coach is cursed, I tell you. Who did you say you bought it from, Warren? Because you were definitely swindled."

He chuckled and patted her hand. "Don't worry about it, sweetheart. I'm sure the crew I sent over to dismantle it this morning will make good use of the kindling."

Amy nodded, then turned back to her cousin. "We ended up having to cross that clearing on foot last night. It just surprised me, to find a grave there, so far from the family plots, yet still on the property."