The Garden's End (MLM)

CHAPTER FORTY.

                Pip spent breakfast alternating between sitting beside his mother, his hand in both of hers, or scurrying around to hand them tea or fill their glasses of water or put more food on their plates. Robert hid a smile.

"And what of some bread?" offered Pip quietly, though Robert could hear it all. "Some butter? Oh, please, mother, you must eat, I can't sit still at any rate, you know that!"

"I'm so terribly sorry about all of this," said Adeline as she gripped her youngest son's arm, attempting to keep him next to her. "Thomas and I can move to the kitchens with the other servants—"

"Stop it this instant," said Helen, waving around a forkful of eggs. "Don't you know I've always wanted to know what Pip's family was like? We've heard so much about you, Adeline."

"Good things only, I hope," she said.

"Wonderful things, in fact," said Isolde. "Your son loves you very much. He thinks you quite the hero."

"Oh, I"—she blushed—"I don't do much. Not as much as my sons do. Did you hear, Pip? Thomas has a new position."

Thomas looked around at the table. "M-Mother, I don't think they want to hear about . . ."

"Oh," she said, and nodded, muttering, "Yes, of course. Pip, sit down, have some food."

"I'm not hungry, mother," he said, filling Robert a glass of water. Pip glanced his way, clearly aware of being watched, and Robert felt a thrill shoot up his spine.

How? How was it possible for his fingers to itch so badly to touch someone? To not be able to look away when he had been able to force himself before? Was it because he'd had a taste of him? He'd touched Pip's naked skin and felt his beautiful lips and licked every inch of his body—had he become addicted to it? He found he didn't mind.

His hands curled to fists on the chair's armrests, eager to reach out and take Pip by the waist and pull him onto his lap without a damn to who was watching.

But not yet. Pip was afraid of being heartbroken again, betrayed, abandoned. Robert knew just what to do to promise him his life, but he would have to wait. Only until everything was ready.

Robert realized Helen was watching him, her lips curled into an amused smirk, and he looked away with a clear of his throat, tugging at his collar. It was far too warm in here.

"Thomas told me about his position, Adeline," said Robert, mercifully relieving Pip of his staring. "He wanted our Pip here to return with him."

"Pip, be careful," said Thomas, standing as Pip held a steaming plate of eggs in one hand. "You'll hurt yourself." He looked around as a large pile of snow fell from the roof outside. "What was that?"

"Nothing, darling," said Adeline calmly, patting his arm. "Sit back down, please." Then, as though nothing had happened, she looked to Jane, who sat on Isolde's other side. "Now, how old are you, sweetheart?"

"I'm eleven," she said. "But I'm going to be twelve in two months!"

"My, I thought you were older," said Adeline with a kind smile. "So mature for your age." She looked to Amelia who quietly sat by Jane's side. "You've raised her so well, madame, if you don't mind me saying."

Jane beamed at the compliment, and Amelia flushed. "O-Oh, please, ma'am, I am no madame."

Adeline chuckled. "And I am no ma'am. I wonder," she continued to Jane, picking up the purse she kept beside her chair and rummaging through it, "if you like ribbons? I am a seamstress, you see, and so I have quite a lot of them that I don't end up using." Out of her bag, she pulled a long, thick, blue, silk ribbon that glimmered against the glow of the candles.