Eden could feel the tension drain from Raven when he finally fell asleep, but she lay awake far longer. She wished she could ask her mother for advice, and overwhelmed with homesickness for her parents, it was all she could do not to sob out loud. That was the problem, she realized—all her thoughts led inevitably to sorrow. Alex’s death, Raven’s perplexingly perverse personality, the war that kept her from returning to those she loved, everything she cared about caused her pain.
Now she was sorry she had not pretended to be asleep when Raven had entered his cabin, for she was certain he would have embraced her as he fell asleep. What did that mean? Did he like her better when she was asleep than awake? Fearing she was making herself more sick with worry than she would already feel in the morning, Eden forced herself to breathe deeply and contemplate nothing but dreamless sleep, but a long while passed before she was successful.
Raven placed his hand over Eden’s in a comforting clasp as they climbed the steps of the Lawton townhouse the following afternoon. She was clinging to his arm with a fierce grasp that revealed the true feelings her sweet smile failed to disguise. He knew he was partly to blame for her fright, but her imagination had clearly supplied a more vivid picture of a horrid confrontation than even he had predicted.
“Wait a minute.” Raven paused as they reached the door. “If your aunt does not have the courtesy to treat us well, we’ll leave immediately. I’ll not subject you to a moment’s unpleasantness. You have my word on that.”
Raven wore such a determined frown Eden did not doubt him for an instant. “I’m not in the least bit ashamed for eloping with Alex, or marrying you, so nothing my aunt can possibly say is going to bother me. Nothing will ever hurt me as much as Alex’s death has, and a person can only feel so much pain. All I feel now is numb. I just want to get this over with as quickly as possible.”
She looked tired as well as sad, and taking her at her word, Raven gave the large brass doorknocker several loud raps. “This is the first time we’ve appeared in London as Lord and Lady Clairbourne. Let’s hope it does not prove to be an ill omen.”
When the butler swung open the heavy oak door, there was not the slightest sign of trepidation in Eden’s expression as she stepped over the threshold. Admiring her courage, Raven followed her inside. As they were shown into the drawing room, he saw Lydia glance at Eden’s gray gown and stylish bonnet and wince, as though the sight of her recently widowed niece in anything but jet black was actually painful. Stephanie rushed to his side then, and he had to brace himself in order to hide his disgust at her touch.
Stephanie gave Eden only a hasty kiss in passing before she threw herself into Raven’s arms. “We are so dreadfully sorry about Alex. By the time we learned of his death, we knew we could not possibly arrive at Briarcliff in time to attend his funeral, so there was no point in our making the trip.”
“We would have appreciated your expressions of sympathy, regardless of when you arrived,” Raven instructed her coldly. It had not even occurred to him until then, but as Eden’s close relatives, he really should have invited them to make the trip to Devon with him. Doubting their presence would have been any help to anyone, he decided that oversight had definitely worked in his favor.
“My darling,” Lydia cooed as she gave Eden a brief hug. “I sent a letter to Briarcliff only yesterday beseeching you to come back to us. You’ll not be expected to accept any invitations, of course, but we’ll need to have some suitable mourning attire made for you immediately. Once Alex’s friends learn you’re here, they’ll want to pay sympathy calls. I already had your trunks packed, but surely you don’t want to move them to Alex’s townhouse. I know your mother would want you to remain here with us.”
Raven managed to elude Stephanie’s possessive grasp and moved to Eden’s side. He exchanged a brief greeting with Lydia and then waited until the ladies had all been seated before he took the chair next to Eden’s. Stephanie had taken a place on a small settee and patted the cushion beside hers invitingly, but he pretended not to have noticed. He and Alex had been at the Lawtons’ for tea on several occasions, but he had never been at ease. Now he felt a surprising sense of calm that bordered on elation and he could barely keep from grinning from ear to ear although he knew Lydia would consider it highly inappropriate.
“Thank you so much, Aunt Lydia, but I really can’t come back here to live.” Eden accepted a cup of tea, but quickly set it upon the rosewood table at her side.
Lydia leaned forward as her tone became more insistent. “Listen to me carefully, child. Alex’s untimely death has shocked and saddened everyone. In a few years the, shall we say, unusual circumstances of your marriage will be overshadowed by that tragedy. You might even have the opportunity to remarry one day. Why, in time, the War Between the States will surely end and you can return home. Your whole tragic stay in London can be forgotten then.”
Uncertain where to begin her response when all of her aunt’s remarks were unwelcome, Eden glanced first at Raven. He nodded, giving her all the encouragement she required to speak her mind. “Raven told me you’d been embarrassed by our elopement, and I’m very sorry for that but it couldn’t be helped. Alex knew he didn’t have long to live, and it would have taken months to plan a formal wedding. Time was very precious to us, and we didn’t want to squander a second of it even if our behavior was viewed as highly unconventional. It didn’t matter to us, but I am truly sorry for any embarrassment you might have suffered.”
While Lydia was clearly shocked by that news, she quickly recovered. “Alex knew he was dying?”
“Yes, but it was the time he had to live that mattered most to us.”
Lydia’s eyes brightened, and she again moved slightly forward on her chair as she glanced toward her daughter. “That’s a wonderfully romantic story, Eden. I’ll see that it’s soon common knowledge as it makes your elopement appear noble rather than reckless.”
“It’s not merely a romantic story, Aunt Lydia, it’s the truth.”
Lydia waved that comment aside as though it were unimportant. “Yes, yes, of course it is. The fact that it’s so compelling a truth just makes it all the better. If we manage things properly now, I do believe we shall be able to salvage your reputation.”
“Aunt Lydia, really—”
“You are so innocent at times, Eden. Don’t you know that whenever a couple marries as hurriedly as you and Alex did, the rumors immediately begin to fly that the man was forced to make an honest woman of her?”
Eden felt her cheeks redden with a bright blush, but if her child was even one day premature she feared those rumors would begin circulating an
ew, and with a tiny babe in her arms, there would be no way to refute them. She would not care what anyone said about her, but the prospect of Alex’s good name being dragged through the mud when he would be unable to defend himself was deeply troubling.
“We were well aware there might be malicious gossip about us, but we refused to allow it to taint the joy of our love. I hope that if anyone were so rude as to mention such scandalous suspicions to you, you did not dignify them with a response.”
“No one dared say it to our faces, Eden, but it was what everyone was thinking, and I mean absolutely everyone,” Stephanie promptly revealed, her mouth set in an unbecoming pout.
“Hush,” Lydia scolded her daughter. “What’s done is done, but now that we know Alex was in poor health, we can use that excuse to squelch any rumors that weren’t quelled by his death. Thank God most people still have the manners not to speak ill of the dead but we can’t give them anything new to talk about. That’s why it’s imperative that you return here to live. You can’t possibly reside in Alex’s townhouse. Raven is far too attractive a man not to start the worst sort of gossip circulating about the two of you if you shared the same house.”
It had been clear to Raven from the moment Lydia had begun to speak that she cared not at all about their grief at Alex’s death. All that concerned her was maintaining her own spotless reputation and that of her spoiled daughter. Lydia was not about to allow Eden the independence her marriage to Alex should have won her. Instead, she obviously planned to take her niece in hand and manipulate her actions as a puppeteer did those of his marionettes. Thoroughly disgusted with her, he had heard more than enough.
“I think not,” Raven informed Lydia with a confident smirk he could not contain. “Eden is now my wife.”
“Your wife!” Stephanie sputtered through a mouthful of tea, then still attempting to catch her breath she rose awkwardly to her feet. “Eden, tell us that isn’t true! Surely you would not have married him when you knew that I, well, you simply can’t have married Raven!”
“Sit down!” Lydia commanded firmly, but it took several such orders to silence her daughter’s hysterical outbursts and even then Stephanie sat whimpering unhappily.