Her Sudden Groom (Groom Series, BOOK 1) Read online

  “I will,” Lord Townson said, mounting his horse.

  “That was most peculiar,” Caroline mumbled as he rode off.

  Alex smiled at her. “He’s a good sort. I know you think he’s angry with me, but he’s not. He’s a good man.”

  “If you say so.” Caroline turned to walk toward the house. “I brought my notes with me today. Perhaps after chess we could discuss your experiment.”

  His head snapped in her direction, his eyes wide and intent, almost like he was guilty of something. “Oh, right,” he said with a slight shake of his head. “We’ll see.”

  She was about to say something in response when a lady with Alex’s same dark brown hair and matching eyes came walking down the front steps toward them, the skirts of her red day dress swishing back and forth as she walked.

  “Mother,” Alex said as the older lady approached. “This is Miss Caroline Sinclair. She prefers to be called Caroline. Caroline, this is my mother, Regina Banks, Lady Watson.”

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Caroline said, attempting another ill-executed curtsy.

  Grabbing Caroline’s elbow to help her back to proper standing position, the baroness flashed her a smile. “There is no need to curtsy, dear. I shan’t be returning one.”

  Caroline stared at her. Had she just been insulted?

  The baroness laughed. “I can’t. This dress does not allow me to do so without falling on my derriere. Anyway, we’re a very relaxed family around here. Such formalities aren’t necessary.” She turned to her son and wagged her finger playfully. “As host, you should have told her that, Alex.”

  “My apologies, Caroline,” he said, turning to Caroline. “It was remiss of me not to mention it before. However, after the curtsy I witnessed you giving Andrew, I couldn’t help but want to see it again.” He winked at her. “But Mother is right. We’re not formal here. In fact, you can take off your slippers and spend the afternoon in your stockings, if you’d prefer.”

  She stared at him. He had to be jesting with her. Just to test him, she said, “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? A gentleman can never resist a chance to peek at a lady’s undergarments.”

  He blinked and his mother laughed. “She’s teasing you, Alex,” his mother said with a wide smile that looked like a mirror image of Alex’s grin. “Caroline, I do like you. Shall we go have some luncheon?”

  Caroline nodded her agreement and Alex came to stand next to her, his hand on her shoulder. Adding the slightest amount of pressure to her shoulder with his hand, Alex walked forward, leading Caroline to do the same. They’d walked up two of the front stairs when suddenly Alex’s hand moved to the small of her back and he stopped walking. Confused, she glanced at him. He was looking over his shoulder. Twisting her head around further, her eyes fell on his mother standing with her hands behind her back, staring intently at sky. Caroline smiled to herself. Alex’s mother had moved his hand!

  Her eyes caught Alex’s as he was turning his head back straight. The tips of his ears were slightly pink, as were his cheeks. She would have laughed if she didn’t think it would have embarrassed him further.

  “Shall we?” he asked hoarsely.

  “I’ll be right behind you,” Lady Watson said suddenly. “I need to go check on something.”

  Alex nodded and led Caroline to the room—or perhaps closet—they would eat in. The room was tiny, only about eighteen feet long and twelve feet wide. Half of Marcus’ table wouldn’t fit in this room. She stared at the little table that couldn’t possibly hold more than six diners. On the table sat several covered dishes with the appropriate serving pieces resting next to them.

  Alex walked to one of the chairs and pulled it out for her. After she sat and Alex pushed her in to her satisfaction, he went around the table and pulled out a chair she assumed was for his mother. Then he came back to her side of the table and sat next to her.

  She looked at him quizzically. Wasn’t he going to wait for his mother to sit down?

  As if reading her thoughts, he said, “She prefers to scoot her own chair in. She says others push her too far forward.” He shrugged as if he didn’t really care one way or the other.

  A minute later Lady Watson came into the room, a wide smile on her face. “No need to get up,” she said, taking her seat.

  “We weren’t,” Alex said cheekily.

  “Yes, I know.” Lady Watson smiled at Caroline. “Alex means well, but sometimes he pushes me so far forward I eat three bites and hit the table.”

  “Think of it as a way to keep fit,” Alex teased.

  “I fit just fine in my current gowns, dear boy,” she returned with a mischievous smile.

  Alex shook his head and grabbed a serving fork. “Would you like some roasted chicken?”

  Caroline blinked at him. He was serving them lunch? Where were the footmen? A delicate cough brought her eyes up to meet the warm, brown eyes of Lady Watson. “As I said before, we’re terribly informal here. We enjoy luncheons by ourselves. No servants or distractions.”

  Caroline was taken aback. She’d always been served by servants while eating at Ridge Water, no matter what the meal or how many were present. The only time she hadn’t been served a meal was when she was a little girl up in the nursery at her house in London. But that was when her mother was still alive. Her mother would come up at every meal and eat with Caroline and Nurse. She’d even carry the trays up and down the stairs, claiming no servant was needed because meals were meant to be spent with those who were most important, and to her that was Caroline and Nurse.

  “Yes, please,” she said when she realized Alex was still waiting on her answer, holding the serving fork just above the chicken.

  He put a sizable piece on her plate before doing the same for his mother then serving himself.

  “Tell me, dear,” Lady Watson said to Caroline, grabbing a piece of bread off the plate Alex was holding out to her, “I know the current Lord Sinclair is actually your cousin. My husband was very good friends with his father, Joseph, but I’m not very familiar with his brothers or their families, I fear. Which of Joseph’s brothers was your father?”

  “None,” Caroline said quietly, dropping her gaze to her plate.

  “Oh,” Lady Watson said a minute later. “You’re Sophie’s daughter, then.”

  Caroline gulped and forced herself to nod as her world crumbled around her ears. The inside of her hands grew so clammy she nearly dropped her fork. If Alex’s mother knew who her mother was, this was going to be a very uncomfortable afternoon. Though she’d loved her mother dearly, the ton had not. Nasty rumors had always swirled around her mother’s name. Caroline was too young to know the truth back then, but what her aunt and Olivia told her was enough.

  “I attended a girls’ school with her,” Lady Watson added. “Only for a short while. About two months or so.”

  Caroline nodded numbly. Any mention of her mother at a girls’ school usually led to the revelation of her downfall.

  “We shared a room,” Lady Watson continued, seemingly oblivious to Caroline’s discomfort. She laughed. “Care to hear something humorous?”

  “Always,” Alex muttered with a game smile. The way his tone belied his answer and his facial expression made Caroline smile despite the discomfort of the room.

  Alex’s mother shook her head. “Alex, I have no idea what I’m going to do with you. I hope you find a lady who can make you socially acceptable.”

  “I do, too,” he said, his tone gravely serious as an unspoken message passed between mother and son. “Do tell whatever you’d planned to before pointing out the flaw in my personality.”

  Shaking her head again, Lady Watson smiled warmly. “Sophie and I once had a discussion during bedtime of what we’d name our children. Her first choice for a boy’s name was Alexander, and my first choice for a girl’s name was Caroline.”

  “It seems you both got what the other wanted,” Caroline commented with a hint of a smile.

  “I suppose so,” Lady Watson ag
reed. “Even when I did finally have a daughter, I didn’t get to use the name Caroline.”

  “You have a daughter?” Caroline asked, shocked. No one ever told her Alex had any siblings, least of all Alex.

  The baroness cocked her head and looked at her queerly. “Yes, her name is Edwina, named for my husband Edward and myself. She’s only sixteen. She’s at Sloan’s School for Young Ladies. That’s where your mother and I attended.”

  “Oh,” Caroline said dully. “Does she come to Watson Estate often?”

  Alex snorted. “No. Unlike the rest of the family, Weenie prefers the city.”

  “Weenie?” Caroline squeaked.

  “That’s what we all call Edwina,” Alex explained.

  Caroline knew her eyes were bulging. She just couldn’t help it.

  “It’s just a nickname we use to shorten her name.” Alex shrugged. “Well, that’s not exactly true. That’s just what we say. The real story to how she got the nickname in the first place—”

  “Alexander Christopher Banks,” his mother broke in sharply. “That will be enough.”

  He shrugged again and a slow, teasing grin took his lips. “Why? It’s a rather amusing story. Don’t you agree?”

  Ignoring him, Alex’s mother turned to Caroline. “Believe me, if it were not done affectionately, I would not allow my boys to call her that.”

  “Boys?” Caroline echoed. He had brothers, too?

  The baroness gave an exaggerated sigh and groan all rolled into one. “Really, Alex, did you not tell her anything about our family?”

  “No,” he said, not a hint of emotion in his voice.

  “I have four children, Caroline.” Lady Watson ran her fingers up and down the stem of her glass. “Alex is my oldest at nine-and-twenty, then he has two brothers, Elijah and Henry. They’re both two-and-twenty, twins of course. Then there’s Edwina.”

  “Where are your other sons?” Caroline asked. Why had she never heard of their existence before?

  “In America,” the baroness said sadly, developing a sudden interest in the portrait landscape on the far end of the room.

  Alex leaned down by Caroline’s ear. “My Uncle John went to America as part of his Grand Tour and didn’t come back for more than twenty-five years.”

  “Why not?” Caroline asked, curious as to why someone would prefer America to England.

  “He fell in love.” Alex brushed a hank of Caroline’s dark hair away from her eyes. “That’s where he met the charade-loving Carolina. She was an American. He decided to stay. Mother’s afraid Elijah and Henry will do the same.”

  “How long have they been gone?”

  “Six months,” he said. “Before that, they traveled the continent for a while and even made their way all the way to India. Since they’re twins, they’ve always liked doing things together.”

  “Are you close to them?”

  “Yes and no. We have a lot of things in common, but I’m not a twin. It’s difficult to explain. See, I’ll always be their brother and share a close bond because of that, but I’ll never be as close to either of them as they are to each other. Does that make sense?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you have any siblings, Caroline?” Lady Watson asked, a wobbly smile returning to her lips and the tears gone from her eyes.

  “No.” Caroline didn’t meet the baroness’ eyes. “Not unless you want to count Marcus and Olivia. But they’re not really my siblings.” Was it just her, or did Lady Watson’s teeth clamp together at the mention of Olivia’s name? She blinked away the thought.

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Lady Watson said, reaching across and placing her hand on top of Caroline’s.

  “Thank you,” she said softly, meeting her eyes again.

  “Alex, dear, could you do me a favor before your game?”

  “Of course, Mother.”

  “Could you make sure they’ve put a lounge chair outside for me?”

  He stood up. “Of course, I’ll be right back.”

  After Alex had departed, Lady Watson touched Caroline’s hand again. Caroline looked up and met her eyes. “Caroline, I want to apologize to you. I hope I haven’t made you uncomfortable today. I didn’t realize who your mother was, and when I did, I should have left it alone.”

  “It’s all right,” she said quickly, swallowing convulsively.

  “As I said, I knew her,” the baroness continued, “not well, of course. But well enough to be able to distinguish what’s true and what’s not. I’ve never thought less of her, nor do I think any less of you, either.”

  Caroline stared at her, confused.

  Lady Watson sighed. “Caroline, I don’t know what will or won’t happen between you and my son, but I want you to know that you’re welcome in my home anytime you wish to come.”

  Caroline blinked back the tears that pricked the back of her eyes. Marcus had always been accepting of her. Her uncle had, too. But not Olivia, nor her aunt. To have a stranger who seemed to know everything about her mother’s past accept her was astonishing. “Thank you,” she croaked.

  “There’s nothing to thank me for.” She gave Caroline’s hand a quick squeeze. “Let’s go play chess.”

  Caroline stood up and walked with the baroness to the door. “I hope he’s not too good.”

  “You’ll just have to see for yourself.” She lightly tugged on Caroline’s sleeve. “Let’s go this way. It’s closer to where we want to be.”

  Caroline nodded and followed the baroness down the hall to where a servant was waiting to open the side door for them. Stepping outside, Caroline was pleased to find she wasn’t blinded by sunshine like she’d expected. Right above the door they’d exited was a private balcony with several hanging flower baskets acting as an excellent sun screen. Close to the door was the lounge chair Alex’s mother had requested. About fifteen feet away was a little stone table with thirty two smaller stones lined up in four neat rows on top with a chair on either side of the table.

  Caroline blinked at the little table and a giggle escaped her lips.

  “Did I miss something?” Alex asked, walking up beside her.

  “No,” she said quickly, staring at the chess table in disbelief.

  The baroness, smart lady that she was, stepped up. “It’s not what you expected, is it?”

  Alex looked at them, confusion marring his handsome face. “What do you mean?”

  “Caroline was expecting lawn chess,” Lady Watson explained.

  He gestured to the table. “This is lawn chess.”

  “No, this is lawn chess,” his mother argued. “She was expecting lawn chess.”

  “And what, pray tell, is lawn chess?”

  “This is fine,” Caroline put in quickly. “Let’s play.”

  “No.” Alex shook his head. “I want to know what lawn chess is.”

  His mother sighed. “Do you remember when you were fifteen and we took you to the Tollison house party?”

  He nodded.

  “Remember that giant, wooden platform they had in their backyard that was painted black and white and all you boys moved around those giant chunks of carved wood that were so big it took two of you to move them?”

  Alex’s jaw dropped. “You were talking about that?”

  Caroline bit her lip and nodded sheepishly. “Yes.”

  He turned back to his mother. “And you knew she was expecting that?”

  His mother repeated Caroline’s gesture. “I had a slight inclination. Years ago, your father and I used to go play lawn chess over at Lord Sinclair’s. They had a set and we’d all play together.”

  Caroline swallowed. They had a set was right. After her mother died, Uncle Joseph got rid of it before her father could voice any claim to it.

  “Caroline, let me tell you a secret I’ve learned from being married to Alex’s father for more than thirty years. Like Edward, Alex will give you anything you ask for. But you need to be specific. Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want. He’ll give it to you or get it fo
r you.”

  Caroline nodded as she absorbed what Lady Watson told her. She smiled. From what she could tell, the baroness’ observation seemed undeniably accurate.

  “Not to fear though. This can still be salvaged,” Lady Watson chirped.

  “We’ll just play regular chess.” Caroline moved closer to the chess table.

  “Nonsense. You were expecting to play an outdoor game that is more physical than sitting in a chair, and you shall have it. I asked a footman to set something else up.”

  Alex groaned.

  A twinkle shone in Lady Watson’s eye. “On the other side of the house I directed a pall mall course be set up.”

  “What’s that?” Caroline asked, intrigued.

  Alex groaned again. “Nothing.”

  “I think you’ll like it, Caroline,” Lady Watson assured her.

  “Judging by how displeased your son seems to be, I think you’re right.” Caroline grinned at Alex.

  “Now, Alex, Caroline is your guest, you need to be a gracious host and play whatever she wishes,” his mother said, her shoulders shaking with mirth.

  “Yes, she is,” he acknowledged with a single, slow nod. His face was nearly expressionless. “If you wish to play pall mall, so be it. But you may not like it. It’s difficult, so playing it the first time may not be much fun.”

  She looked curiously at him. He really didn’t want to play this game. “You never know, I might be a natural,” she ventured.

  He snorted.

  That strengthened her waning resolve. “I think I’d like to play,” she told him primly.

  “Very well.”

  He offered her his arm, and they had almost walked around to the other side of the house when suddenly his mother’s airy voice floated through the air. “Oh, Alex, remember your manners and let Caroline choose her color first. And if she wants the pink one, be a gentleman and let her borrow it.”

  Chapter 7

  Alex hated pall mall. As far as he was concerned it was the worst game ever invented. Tapping a wooden ball through a series of iron hoops in the least amount of strokes was nothing short of misery for someone who liked logic.