“HOW IS HE?” Joseph asked, looking up from his book.
Sighing, Chrystabel lowered herself to the plush stool at her dressing table. “Brave, but not a particularly gifted actor. The ankle was obviously still paining him, so I gave him some sack to help him sleep.” She began preparing herself for bed.
“You’re fretting, Chrysanthemum. I can hear it in your voice.” Joseph removed the reading spectacles his son-in-law had given him this past Christmas. “Don’t be such a mother. Rowan will be fine.”
“Hmm?” Chrystabel dipped her fingers in a bowl of lavender water, then dried them on a clean cloth. “Oh, I grieve for poor Rowan’s discomfort, but it’s not him I’m fretting over. Lily—”
“Is with Rose. I’m sure they both arrived safely at Hawkridge.”
“Indeed, that’s just it.” Dampening the cloth, Chrystabel began to wash her face. Was it her imagination, or were those hollows under her eyes? “Lily is off with her betrothed unsupervised, and, given the way his son speaks of him, I can hardly trust Lord Hawkridge to have a care for her reputation.”
“If you’re so concerned, why did you let them go?”
“I didn’t feel I had a choice. Lily was clearly determined, and we did raise our daughters to make their own decisions. But now I wonder if I was rash.” Chrystabel heaved another sigh. “Meanwhile, I cannot account for Rose’s part in this at all. I’m very much mistaken if she’s forgiven Lily, yet she claims to have volunteered to bear her company.”
Looking thoughtful, Joseph chewed on one end of his eyeglasses frames—a new habit that secretly drove Chrystabel wild. “Are you suggesting that Rose may have some other agenda?”
“No—maybe—I don’t know.” She turned from the mirror to meet her husband’s eyes. “I don’t like to think her capable of deliberately sabotaging Lily’s happiness, but she’s definitely hiding something from me.”
“Darling, she’s your nineteen-year-old daughter. Of course she’s hiding something from you.”
Chrystabel almost smiled.
“In any case, haven’t we learned by now that interfering in their squabbles only makes things worse? They’re good girls; they’ll sort it out. Hopefully before one of them maims the other.”
Now Chrystabel did smile. “You’re right, of course. Lily is tougher than she looks, and Rose has a good heart underneath. I must let nature take its course.” The smile faltered a little. “And I must do my best to trust that Lily’s and Rand’s own integrity will keep them chaste.”
“Right you are.” Joseph put his book and eyeglasses aside. “Now come to bed. You’ve hardly paid me any notice all day, you’re so solicitous of our son. You must convince me you like him better than me.”