Marrying the Mistress by Juliet Landon Page A

mother is ailing. The same as Linas. I knew they’d be snowbound and running low on food.’
    â€˜But they were not snowbound, if you got through to them.’
    â€˜They were, almost. My brothers knew that, if they got away, they’d probably not get back again and, as it was, I only just managed to find them, knowing that I could stay overnight. They told me I was mad, but I’m the eldest and I have a responsibility to them. My mother needs medicines. I cannot let a snowfall stopme, but nor could I have taken Jamie and his nurse. I tried to make him understand—’ I stopped and held a hand to my face.
    â€˜You’re not the monster-mother you thought you were, you know. He was as right as rain, once I picked him up.’
    He was trying to reassure me, I knew, telling me that there was no magic in it. But Jamie would run to him without any promise of rewards or alternatives, but simply to be noticed by his hero. It had been the same when Linas was alive. Jamie doted on him.
    â€˜Who is Nana Damzell? Your mother?’ he said.
    I nodded.
    â€˜I see. And there are animals there too. They have a farm?’
    â€˜Yes. Please don’t ask me any more, my lord. I cannot tell you.’
    â€˜Why? Are they outlaws, like Robin Hood?’
    â€˜Not at all like Robin Hood,’ I said, glancing at my cooling cup of tea. My hand still shook, but I managed not to spill while I drank, wondering how much my chatterbox son had divulged about his uncles and their isolated home. I suspected that Winterson would have liked to ask me about the Bridlington connection, but he apparently thought that enough had been said for one day, for he did not pursue the question of why anyone living in a town the size of Brid should run out of food. Or indeed how I had managed to get there. Or not.
    â€˜Miss Follet,’ he said, after a pause.
    â€˜My lord?’
    â€˜I wouldn’t like you to think that I shall make a point of asking Jamie about his maternal family. I shall not. I can see that you’d rather not talk about them, so I’llwait until you do. But neither do I want you to use Jamie’s inclination to chatter as an excuse to keep him away from me. You’re entitled to your privacy, and I shall respect it. That’s what Linas did, I believe.’
    The truth was more stark than that. Linas had not the slightest curiosity about my family. Not only did he never ask me about them, but even when I visited them for two days at a time, with Jamie, he didn’t ask where, who, or how they were, whether they had what they needed or what had happened to their former lives. I didn’t complain, for I was able to share my earnings with them and that was all that mattered. But I often found it strange how Linas’s life revolved only around himself, until Jamie came.
    â€˜As you know,’ I said, very quietly, ‘Linas was a very private kind of person, and I sometimes think that he tended to ignore the possibility that I had a family in case I brought them into the life we shared. I would never…ever…have done that, but I think he believed it was a risk. Some mistresses’ families can be quite demanding, as I’m sure you’ve heard.’
    He smiled at that. Lady Emma Hamilton had recently lost her beloved Lord Nelson and, anticipating that he would leave her substantial wealth, the poor woman’s relatives were already hounding her day and night. That, at least, would not be happening to me. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘now you see how differently Linas and I view matters. I can accept that you have a responsibility to your family whose privacy you wish to protect and who you need to visit from time to time. But to take Jamie all that way without a proper escort is a risk I do not want you to run. In the future, you musttake at least two men with you. Either my men, or your own.’
    While we were on the subject, I thought I might as well tell