Her mother blinked at her. "Well, of course. You wouldn't be happy with a weak man, you needed someone who was your equal. Of course Edwin's an honorable man, I knew he'd take care of you and respect you."
"I don't understand." Eleanor's hands were trembling so badly that she had to set down her teacup before she spilled the hot liquid all over herself. This conversation was nothing like she'd expected and she felt as if she was missing some key knowledge, something that would make it all make sense. "You always told me that love was the most important thing."
"It is, but Edwin's always loved you."
"Like a little sister!"
"When you
were younger, but when I saw the way he looked at you at your ball and the way he danced with you..."
"That's just passion or desire, isn't it?"
"Well passion and desire is part of love." Rather concerned, her mother set down her tea cup and gathered Eleanor's hands in her own. They felt warm and comforting against her chilled skin; she hadn't even realized she was chilled until she felt the temperature of her mother's by comparison. "Dear heart, I know that Edwin had a bit of a reputation, but it's often said that reformed rakes make the best husbands. They've sampled all they need to of the buffet, enough to know what they want to settle down with and enough to differentiate between lust and love."
"But he never says he loves me," Eleanor muttered. That had been her largest sticking point. Shouldn't love be acknowledged? Assuming its existence seemed like a short road to heartbreak.
"That is a problem, but I'm sure he'll come around eventually. After all, how could he not love you?" Her mother smiled and squeezed her hands. "Men sometimes have trouble acknowledging their emotions, especially the first time they have to express them. I can count on my fingers the number of times your father has told me he loves me, but that doesn't make his emotion any less real."
"But he's always sending you away!" Eleanor's shock was back.
Her father told her mother that he loved her? Her father who was always in London while she and her mother were in Bath or the countryside? While she could accept that her father could spank her mother and still love her, after all he spanked his children and still loved them, how on earth could those long distances be justified? Especially since it was obvious how sad it made their mother whenever they were separated? How could that be love?
"Oh dear..." The dismay on her mother's face matched Eleanor's own as she realized what her daughter had interpreted as an expression of disinterest. The older woman shook her head. "Sweetheart... It's not that your father wants us to be separated so often."
"Then why does he do it? It makes you so sad to be away from him; he was always sending us away or leaving us and not allowing us to come to London."
"For a while you were too young to go to London with us, and neither of us wanted to leave you alone with just a nanny or governess. I can't even imagine the shambles of a house we might have come back to," her mother said with a smile, releasing Eleanor's hands and picking up her tea cup again. "Then, once you were old enough... well I do enjoy London, but I have a decided preference for Society in Brighton or Bath. It's slower and not as demanding. I also have a bit of a problem with my lungs and London is so very dirty. The longer I stay there the more it effects my health. It worries your father so when I begin to cough or have trouble breathing, he gets rather frantic actually. But of course he has to be in London because he's so involved in the political scene. Although I think I've convinced him to begin passing a lot of that responsibility off to someone else. He'll still have to return to Parliament to vote of course, but he's getting older as well and he's enjoying our stay here in Bath, he needs to lessen the amount of stress on himself."
Bright happiness shone in her mother's eyes and Eleanor suddenly felt very small and confused. The explanation was turning her world on its head, casting a different kind of light on all the incidents she's witnessed throughout the years. Her father's impatience with her mother whenever she tried to remain in the city long, her mother's pale face and wane looks which she had always thought were due to being sent away rather than realizing it was the cause, and the fact that her mother currently looked as though she was glowing with health.
"Of course I pined for him when we were separated, but that's to be expected. He came and visited as often as he could, although I wouldn't let him overexert himself." Her mother sighed. "It hasn't been easy, I admit, but now that Hugh is taking over so much of the responsibilities in London it will certainly be easier." Her mother gave her a rather rueful look. "I wish you'd told me before what you thought about your father always been in London. I would have explained."
"Talking about him always made you so sad when you were separated, I didn't want to bring him up."
"Well I'm glad we've had this little chat," her mother said smiling as Eleanor picked up her tea again now that her hands were quite so shaky. She still felt as if she'd been blown sideways by a stiff wind, but at least her physical reactions were back under her control.
"Me too," said Eleanor rather wonderingly. Her mother had given her quite a bit to think about.
******
Although he'd been loath to leave Eleanor at home by herself, Edwin had been reassured when her mother had arrived and he'd gone with Wesley to greet Lord Harrington. They'd all gone to a gentleman's club to have a drink and chat until Wesley felt he needed to go and greet his mother, leaving Edwin alone with his father-in-law. Since most of Society was in London the club room was lightly sprinkled with other patrons, most of whom were much older and had already taken their leave from the Season if they had attended at all. Edwin and Wesley's presence had brought down the average age drastically, and even Lord Harrington had contributed to the effort.
As such, it seemed like the perfect place for Edwin to receive some masculine advice. His own father was more studious than anything else and he'd often gone to Hugh's father for advice on more mundane matters like women, boxing, swords and really everything that labeled him as a Corinthian. It only seemed natural that he would seek out the older man's advice now, especially as he was married to the man's daughter and hadn't had a chance to talk to Hugh. Who else would know her better?
"So I believe I may be guilty of taking her for granted a bit," he confessed, after having explained the quarrel that had brought them to Bath in the first place, although of course he didn't go into the more sordid details.
Lord Harrington chuckled. "Worst thing you can do to a woman, son. Especially a woman like my daughter, she's not the type to stand mildly by and wait for you to take notice."
"I'm just not quite sure what she wants." Edwin stared broodily at the drink in his hand. "I don't ignore her. I give her presents. I pay her more attention than most men do their wives at balls. But she runs hot and cold... although I never thought she'd tried to leave without telling me. I know she wants something from me, I just don't know what."
"Do you think she was really trying to leave?" Lord Harrington wondered. "Or just test you? My Eleanor does like to test her boundaries."
"It certainly felt like a test, although I'm not sure I passed," he grumped in response. The older man hid a smile. Edwin's black scowl went rather well with his dark good looks, if there had been any women in the room they would have been swooning over his rather Gothic demeanor. Personally Lord Harrington thought it was rather good for Edwin, from what he'd seen many things in life had come rather easily to the young man - including his marriage to Eleanor - it would do him good to work for it. It was obvious that Edwin did want to work for it.
"I rather think you must have, if you got her to Bath without incident," Lord Harrington said rather dryly.
"That's true," Edwin said, his expression lightening somewhat. "I just... she's driving me wild. The idea of her not wanting to be around me... I can't..."