Houston, without saying a word, took Edan’s offered arm, then held out her other arm for Ian. For several long moments, he didn’t move, but when Houston just stood there, as stubborn as he was, Ian came forward and took her other arm.
There was more than enough room for the three of them to walk down the stairs together.
“Ian,” Houston said, “I can’t thank you enough for helping me the last couple of days.”
“I need to earn my keep,” he mumbled, looking away from her in embarrassment, but he was pleased with her thanks.
“Where the hell is everybody?” Kane shouted from the bottom of the stairs, then looked up and saw them. “You all goin’ somewhere? Edan, I need you.” As he said this, his eyes were on Houston alone. The other two didn’t exist as far as he was concerned.
“We’re going in to dinner,” Houston said, as she forcibly held Ian’s arm to her. He’d tried to jerk it away when Kane appeared. “Would you join us?”
“Somebody has to earn a livin’ around here,” he snorted as he turned on his heel and returned to his office.
During dinner, as course after course was brought into the room, Houston led the conversation to what Ian had been reading over the last few days. This was a topic that hadn’t been mentioned last night.
Ian nearly choked on a piece of tenderloin. His Uncles Rafe and Sherwin had encouraged his reading, but he’d learned to read in secret for fear of being thought of as a sissy. “Mark Twain,” he said with an air of defiance when he’d cleared his throat.
“Good,” Houston said. “Tomorrow, I’m arranging for a tutor to come and give you lessons. I think that will work out better than going to school, since you’d be quite a bit larger than the other children. And besides, I rather like having you here.”
Ian gaped at her for a moment. “I ain’t goin’ to no school to be laughed at and called names. I’ll go back to the coal mines and—.”
“I perfectly well agree with you,” Houston interrupted. “And tomorrow, we’ll have you fitted for your own clothing. Ah, the sorbet. I think you’ll like this, Ian.”
Edan was laughing at the expression on Ian’s face. “You might as well give in, boy. Nobody wins an argument with this lady.”
“Except him,” Ian said.
“Especially not him,” Edan answered.
They were just starting dessert when Kane came in. Houston had persuaded Ian to tell them the story of Huckleberry Finn, but when Kane entered he stopped talking and looked down at his plate.
“Sure is takin’ a long time to eat,” Kane said, putting his foot on a chair and helping himself to a handful of grapes from the arrangement in the center of the table.
The look Houston gave him made him sit down in the chair. She nodded to a footman, who set a place in front of Kane and served him. After a moment of surprise, Kane began to eat the chocolate charlotte with gusto, so much gusto that the others started watching him. Kane put his spoon down and looked a bit like he wanted to run from the room.
Ian was surreptitiously watching his cousin and Edan was concentrating on his food.
Houston had left the head of the table for Kane and was sitting next to Ian, across from Edan, but Kane didn’t take the head seat, sitting next to Edan instead. Houston caught Kane’s eye and held up her fork, and he began to follow her directions on how to eat with some semblance of manners. To start the conversation again, she tol
d of getting the gardeners to work and how well the Japanese family had taken to having help.
Kane told of how he’d met the Nakazonas, and Edan added to the conversation with a story of bringing in the plants from all over the world, and Ian asked what the tree was outside his window. It was stilted, but it did resemble conversation and, best of all, it was pleasant. When the meal was finished, the four of them went away smiling.
Kane and Edan went back to work after dinner while Ian and Houston went to the small drawing room. Houston embroidered pillow cases while Ian read and, after using some persuasion, she got him to read aloud to her. He had a good voice and a flair for reading dialogue. Edan joined them for a while.
At bedtime, Houston went up alone, Kane being firmly ensconced inside his office, cigar smoke seeping out from under the door. Sometime during the night, he crawled into bed with her, pulled her close to his big, warm body and went to sleep immediately.
Houston woke to the heavenly sensation of Kane’s hand roaming over her legs and hips. She turned her face toward him before even opening her eyes, and he fastened his lips onto hers as he began to make love to her gently, slowly, languidly.
It wasn’t until their passion was spent that Houston at last opened her eyes.
“Wanted to make sure it was your husband?” Kane asked, smiling down at her. “Or would any man do, this early in the mornin’?”
She decided to answer his teasing with some of her own. “How would I know about other men? Should I try to find out?”
A frown crossed his face as he rose.
She put her arms around him, her bare breasts against his back. “I was only teasing; I have no desire for any other man.”