‘It is no imposition at all, and please call me Mantheria,’ she said, waving her hand towards the house. ‘Come inside, everyone. I’ve had my housekeeper prepare rooms for all of you—including you, Mrs May. I’ve chosen my very best...although Wick’s letter said nothing about kittens.’
Wick ignored this sally, grateful that his sister was being so welcoming to Louisa.
Andrew reached out his hands towards Becca. ‘Kitty!’
Becca grinned and handed over the black kitten to her nephew. Andrew cradled it like a baby. Helen handed Wick her kitten, the little orange ball of fur. Instinctively, he stroked the little animal’s back.
‘I want a kitty, Mama,’ Andrew said.
Mantheria groaned. ‘He’s a Stringham through and through.’
Becca and Helen retrieved their kittens before dashing inside the house. Frederica linked arms with Louisa, leaving Wick and Mantheria, still carrying Andrew to take up the rear. His sister was six years younger than him, but in some ways she felt older. She was married with a child and ran several households of her own. Even though she was the same age as Louisa...only a few weeks younger.
When she had made her debut thetonhad declared her ‘a diamond of the first water’. And his sisterwasbeautiful. Mantheria’s person combined the best characteristics of his parents: Papa’s blond, aristocratic features and complexion, and their mother’s curvaceous figure.
‘I hope Glastonbury doesn’t mind our visit,’ he said.
His sister glanced away from him as they entered her large and opulent home. ‘Of course he doesn’t mind. Alexander doesn’t even know. He left three days ago for a house party in the company of Lady Dutton. I don’t expect to see him for at least a fortnight—probably longer.’
Wick cursed underneath his breath. Mantheria had been too young to marry that lecherous old goat. Even if hewasa duke. Lord Alexander Spooner, the Duke of Glastonbury, had been forty-five to his sister’s seventeen years. Only among thetoncould that sort of disparity in age be seen as acceptable. Or even desirable. When the Duke had married Mantheria the rumour had been that he wanted an heir. And he’d got one.
Wick felt a surge of protectiveness. ‘Do you want me to have a talk with him?’
Mantheria set down Andrew, whose little legs were pumping before they even hit the marble floor. The lad was clearly anxious to catch up with his aunts.
Wick followed his sister into a parlour with dark maroon walls and matching furniture. She didn’t sit down and so neither did he. They stood awkwardly next to each other. Their usual camaraderie gone.
‘Do you think me a child?’ she asked him. ‘Incapable of handling my own affairs?’
He held up his hands. ‘Of course not. I only thought to help. Forgive me for intruding where I am not wanted.’
His sister took his arm and rested her head on his shoulder. She had the same golden curls and blue eyes as their father and Matthew, also Charles, Helen and Elizabeth.
‘I know you mean well, but I am not your responsibility any more. And I prefer things the way they are.’
Wick scoffed, shaking his head. ‘You prefer your husband to be with another woman?’
She sighed, rubbing her face into his sleeve. ‘Glastonbury’s brief infatuation with me barely lasted past our wedding trip, when I became pregnant with Andrew. He has been with Lady Dutton ever since. Any jealousy I once felt is now long gone.’
Wick’s fingers touched his parted lips. For over three years his sister had borne this terrible situation on her own. ‘The villain!’
His sister’s tense posture loosened and she let out a long breath. ‘I do not hate him any more, but I cannot love him either, and I do not want him here. But at least he is good with Andrew. He positively dotes on him. And Lady Dutton is scarcely less friendly. She brings him a present every time she visits, and I know that Glastonbury takes Andrew to see her. He calls her Aunt Cressida.’
Wick’s entire body stiffened. ‘So you live together as strangers?’
‘Glastonbury is always polite, and we tend to spend very little time together outside of the London season,’ Mantheria said, her face pale. ‘He is often at house parties or overseeing his other estates. He only visits to spend time with Andrew.’
‘Do Mama and Papa know? Did you tell them before they left?’
‘How can I tell them when they pushed for the match? They thought I would grow to love Glastonbury, like Mama did with Papa... And from a material point of view I could not have done better. I am a duchess, and one of the wealthiest women in England.’
Wick spoke between his clenched teeth. ‘And the loneliest.’
He realised he did not want Louisa to make a similar loveless match. She deserved a loving husband and family after all her suffering at the hands of her aunt and the neglect of her uncle.
His sister forced a smile. ‘Nonsense. How could anyone be lonely with Andrew around? And now that my sisters, Mrs May and Lady Louisa have come to visit, I am quite overburdened with company.’
‘Does Glastonbury wish for more children?’