Free Regina Scott by The Heiresss Homecoming Page A

Molly and Polly, Dick and Nick, Ed and Ned and Hepsibah Elizabeth,” Toby said proudly. He leaned closer to Samantha. “The last is named for her grandmother.”
    Nick and Ned—or was it Dick and Ed?—started a tussle, and Toby waded in to stop it. Samantha backed up and bumped into Lord Kendrick, and his hands came down on her shoulders to steady her.
    “There’s a happy bunch,” his warm voice murmured beside her ear. “I always wanted a large family.”
    “So did I,” she murmured back. “Jamie and I would have done anything for siblings.”
    Too late she realized he might take that as judgment. His hands and his presence withdrew. Stricken, she turned to face him. His smile had faded, and his look was deeper, sorrowful, as if a cloud covered the forest green of his gaze.
    “I’m so sorry, my lord,” she said. “I meant no disrespect.”
    He shrugged, but she thought it cost him. “You spoke the truth,” he replied. “I left Jamie alone far too long. If duty hadn’t recalled me home, I might never have seen my son grow up.”
    Now she felt the sting. She knew the duty that had called him home—the death of his older brother. She should apologize for that as well, yet how did one apologize for playing a part in murder?
    “There we are,” Toby proclaimed, a son tucked under each arm, their feet dangling. “Come meet the missus.”
    Samantha pasted on a smile and turned to greet Toby’s wife, a pale, thin woman with luminous eyes. But she couldn’t help remembering someone else entirely—Lord Kendrick’s lost brother and her other suitor, Gregory Wentworth.
    * * *
    Will joined in the conversation with Samantha and the Giles family, but it was clear something had troubled her. The light of her usual energy had dimmed. Why?
    Was it her memory of how he had abandoned his son? He was ready to own his part in the matter. His behavior had come home to him when he’d returned to Kendrick Hall after news of Gregory’s death had finally reached him, only to find Peg’s eyes gazing back at him from his son’s too-solemn face. It had taken him the better part of a year to gain Jamie’s trust. It had taken far longer for him to forgive himself.
    Perhaps that was why he was so determined that Jamie not repeat his mistakes. Jamie was too young to consider marriage. Will had to help him see that.
    Before he could think of his next step, Samantha Everard stiffened. She had been contemplating her shoes, a dainty pair of green kid leather with rosettes on the toes, when her head jerked up as if she’d scented something on the breeze. Will glanced around, but could see nothing different in his neighbors. The only change was the sun pulling out from behind some clouds, bringing a glow to the stone church, the churchyard and the woods beyond.
    She picked up her skirts as if she intended to run a race.
    “It’s time!” she cried. “Come on, Jamie!” As if assuming his son would follow, she darted past Will, weaving through the headstones of the cemetery beside the church.
    Will glanced between her rapidly disappearing form and his son. Jamie had been teasing one of the older Gileses’ boys and had completely failed to notice the departure of his lady love. Mrs. Dallsten Walcott was lecturing Mrs. Giles on the proper way to discipline children, even though Will was fairly certain she’d never applied those techniques herself. He could point out that the woman she was chaperoning now had just disappeared, alone, or he could hasten after Lady Everard himself.
    He didn’t think further. He hastened.
    He caught a fleeting glimpse of her ahead of him as she ran into the wood. Where was she going? She’d forsaken the path that wound toward Kendrick Hall, instead plunging through the trees toward the fells. The undergrowth was sparse here, so he couldn’t fear she’d take a fall or lose her way. In fact she seemed to know exactly where she was going.
    He caught up to her in a clearing that ran against a draw in