Caroline.
The family’s social absence meant isolation from many sources of entertainment. She hadn’t received a caller in weeks, and Matthew wondered if perhaps he had made a mistake in being so harsh before. He had promised his father he would see his sisters happily married—though at that moment, he would have settled for Caroline being happy at all.
Picking at her toast, she ignored everyone. She sat with Trevor on one side of her, and Blackmoor on the other, but didn’t look at either of them. Both gave her a wide berth. Sighing, she reached for a lump of sugar. She plopped it into her tea, stirred it idly with a spoon, but didn’t drink from her cup.
After a few moments, she placed both hands on the table and stood. “If you’ll excuse me.”
The men stood as she left the room. Cassandra sighed and shared a sympathetic look with Matthew. As Cassandra tried to stand to go after her, Jasmine put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a soft smile.
“I’ll talk to her.”
Jasmine followed Caroline from the room, and Matthew didn’t see her until they were ready to return home. In the carriage, he asked what they had spoken about.
“It’s not a big secret.” Jasmine sighed. “She’s lonely.”
“She’s surrounded by family,” Matthew argued. “How could she possibly be lonely?”
“She’s surrounded by love-matches, a widow,yourfriends, and children,” she corrected him. “With all of this love around her, she’s worried she won’t find her own.” She squeezed his hand. “Everyone treats her like a child. Cassandra married at Caroline’s age. You need to allow her totryto find a match.”
“I know, but…” He brushed his hand through his hair. He was hesitant to leave their haven, didn’t want to go back to looking over his shoulder. “I can’t be everywhere at once. If anything ever happened to her—”
“We face it when it comes.” Her voice gentled. “We cannot hide forever on a possibility. We’re part of this world, we need to live in it. It’s time we rejoin society properly.”
“Fine, but a slow start,” he conceded. “What would you suggest?”
Jasmine’s face lit up. “The opera is tonight. What do you say we attend as a family? My parents will be in attendance, and I don’t imagine it will take much convincing for Cassandra and Seth to leave the house.”
Unease stuck to him like tar, but the hope in her smile softened his resolve. He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles.
“You win, but I’m inviting Blackmoor too.”
“Why?”
“He enjoys music,” he said flippantly. “If there are that many of us, we’ll need his box. It’s bigger.”
And the most secure.
Hours later, Matthew returned home from boxing. Keeping his steps quiet, he padded past the sitting room of his townhouse. From a sliver in the doorway, he watched Jasmine command their sitting room. When she spoke, every woman listened. She had taken to her role as a viscountess perfectly. She mastered her smile, poise, and needlework—evident by the pile of baby clothes she handed to Honora.
Before, he hadn’t understood the power of gossip, but Jasmine learned more about society’s happenings over tea than he ever could in the House of Lords.
Smiling to himself, he ascended the stairs to take a much-needed bath. The ladies had left by the time he finished. He pulled a linen shirtover his head and donned a pair of drawers. Before leaving the room, he plucked a small rosewood box from his nightstand. He had hidden the gift in the back of a drawer for a special occasion.
Tonight would be perfect.
Barefoot, he stepped into what his wife calledtheirstudy. Jasmine sat in his leather chair behind a mahogany writing desk. She had positioned bouquets of flowers in every corner of the room, filling his nose with the fragrance of roses and violets.
Jasmine signed a piece of parchment, then added it to a stack of papers before her. She looked up from her work and greeted him with a smile before returning her quill to its stand. She gestured to the box in his hands.
“What is that?”
“A gift.” Matthew moved to stand behind her and peered over her shoulder. “First, tell me how you’re spending my money today.”
“Ourmoney,” she said sweetly. “We have more than we’ll ever be able to spend. What’s the point in having wealth if you don’t do any good with it?”
“All right, all right.” He reached over her and grabbed the top page from the desk and made a show of squinting at it. “Which good cause are we donatingourmoney to?”
Jasmine stood, took the page from him, and then set it back down on the desk.