Free The Hunt Club Chronicles Bundle by Heather Boyd Page A

discuss and then I want to see the children.”
    “They are receiving instruction from their new tutor.”
    “Another one? What happened to Bridgewater ?”
    Sybil twitched her sleeve and didn’t look him in the eye. “He was impertinent and I dismissed him.” She glanced up and battered her eyelashes.
    More than likely she’d failed to seduce another servant and he’d fled.
    “Damn it.” Nathan grasped Sybil’s arm and hauled her up the stairs. The servants remained in place until they crossed the threshold and then Nathan heard them whispering behind his back. He took his wife into the drawing room and closed the door. “What has come over you?”
    Sybil sidled up to him and pressed her hands to his chest. “Am I not allowed to miss my husband?”
    Nathan blinked. His wife was flirting with him. Flirting? The woman hadn’t done that since their third child had been conceived. “What did Mr. Bridgewater do?”
    “He was too familiar with the children.”
    “Oh, in what way?”
    “He spoke with too much familiarity. He forgot his place.”
    Nathan relaxed. It was inevitable that a tutor would occasionally slip and drop the use of his son’s rank during speech. It didn’t bother him overmuch. Nathan’s own tutors had done the same from time to time. It had never affected the strength of their teaching skills. Mr. Bridgewater was an excellent educator. He would have Henry entice him back if he was able.
    Thinking of his lover reminded him that Henry might be disturbed by his wife’s affectionate greeting. She’d never been one given to amorous displays outside the bedroom, and her greeting on the steps was unprecedented. Nathan moved out of her reach and further into the room.
    A seductive smile played across Sybil’s lips as she followed, playing with the edge of her gown. “Come, my love, it has been far too long since we have spent any length of time together. Wouldn’t you like to spend a little time in my bower?”
    Hearing Sybil speak as if the past separation hadn’t occurred unnerved him until a thought slipped into his mind. She was all soft, womanly curves—her face full as if she had eaten more than she should. But Nathan didn’t think that could be the case.
    Sybil had always been particular about keeping her figure. Even from the time they had first married, she had employed reducing regimes frequently. He feared she had another reason for her pursuit—one that would require his participation to mask.
    Instead of anger, he found her predicament amusing.
    Perhaps sensing he was softening, she approached him again. Hiding his humor, Nathan ran his hands over her body, cupped her breasts and then slipped his hands over her belly. He couldn’t be sure he felt a new life growing there, but the look on her face, arrested and wary, told him all he needed to know.
    She was breeding—and the child certainly wasn’t his.
    Nathan stepped back. He wouldn’t touch his wife again. Sybil had felt all wrong against him. Foreign. “I think I shall go find the children.”
    Nathan left the drawing room. He didn’t glance back but was certain Sybil would be furious. Taking the stairs two at a time, Nathan found the nursery and his children.
    Sun-kissed curls greeted him, postures straight as a new ploughed field. James, Pierce and even little Cecily leaned over slates, writing with all the care they could muster. Nathan stayed quiet, observing his adorable children. Despite having Henry, he’d felt the tug of guilt knowing he’d been away from them.
    Showing affection for ones offspring wasn’t popular among his set, but he didn’t care. They were made in his image. They all had his bright green eyes and his nose.
    The new man teaching them looked far too young for the position and far too handsome. He was almost pretty and Nathan wondered where Sybil had hired him.
    Nathan propped himself against the door frame. “And what mischief have you all gotten into in my absence?”
    Excited eyes turned