The Devil's Web by Mary Balogh

glowing face to her son. “Let me see, then, sweetheart.”
    Caroline wriggled off James’s lap so that she too might see the completed painting.
    The fates must be against him, James thought. After the disaster of the ball, he had resolved to have nothing more to do with Lady Madeline Raine. He would not even see her again unless pure chance caused their paths to cross. He would put her out of his mind and out of his life, even before he sailed with the
Adeona
again.
    And now? It was too much to hope that she would not attend the picnic that was to be hosted by her mother’s particular friend. And she always went to Amberley for the summer, did she not?
    Good God, he would be living in the same house as she for a few weeks. And in the secluded atmosphere of a country home.
    Perhaps she would go elsewhere. When she knew he was going to Amberley, perhaps she would stay in London. Or perhaps she would go into Wiltshire with Lord and Lady Eden. Lord Eden was her twin, after all, and there had always been a close bond between them.
    Perhaps she would stay away from Amberley.
    And perhaps hell would freeze over, too.

    â€¢ • •

    S IR C EDRIC H ARVEY rode out to Richmond Park in a closed carriage with the Dowager Countess of Amberley and Lord and Lady Beckworth.
    â€œYou must be warned,” the dowager had said to him a few days earlier when he had been making plans for the carriages, “in case you have forgotten, that Lady Beckworth must not be exposed to moving air no matter what the weather, Cedric. And now that her husband is no longer in the best of health, she will be doubly cautious.”
    And so he rode with his friend and his guests in a carriage with the windows tightly closed on a sweltering hot day in late June when everyone else traveled in open carriages or on horseback.
    â€œBut it does not matter, Louisa,” he had said, “provided only they come. Strange people, the Beckworths. I could never understand people not simply enjoying life when it is so short and the future so full of uncertainties. They do not seem overjoyed to have their son at home, do they?”
    â€œThe foolish people are ashamed that he works for a living,” she had said. “They cannot simply rejoice that he is alive and well. My anxieties when Dominic was in the army for three years taught me to treasure every moment with my children.”
    â€œBut then you always did, Louisa,” he had said, touching her hand.
    â€œI am so very pleased,” the dowager said now to the Beckworths as they were riding to Richmond Park, “that you will be coming to Amberley for a month. It is so much more relaxing to be in the country, is it not? And you will enjoy being close to the children for a while longer, ma’am.”
    â€œIf only Alexandra would not allow them to be taken outside so frequently,” Lady Beckworth said fretfully. “The sea air is most injurious to their health, you know. I have warned her that Caroline is like to grow up in delicate health.”
    Lady Amberley smiled. “And you must be looking forward to spending more time with your son, sir,” she said, “before he returns to Montreal.”
    Lord Beckworth inclined his head. “I have learned to live without him, ma’am,” he said. “All is as God wills.”
    Altogether, Lady Amberley found, it was a great relief to descend from the carriage when they reached their destination and to find everyone there before them and in noisy high spirits.
    Jennifer, Anna, and Miss Cameron were with Dominic’s twins and young Caroline, although two nurses had been brought along to care for them. Christopher was perched on his father’s shoulders, holding tight by a fistful of hair. Madeline was laughing over something with Colonel Huxtable, Walter and Mr. Chambers. Dominic and Ellen were talking with Allan Penworth. Alexandra, her arm linked through James’s, was blushing over some