She shrugged. “I’ve often wondered that myself. I think he must have gone out onto the marriage mart as soon as it was seemly, I cannot imagine him doing otherwise. But no one was ever good enough for his standards, I think. He’s always thought he deserved the best. I suppose he didn’t like the pedigree of whoever was willing to settle herself with him.”

“A blunt view of your father,” he said.

She stopped as they crested the hill and looked down onto the vast, blue expanse of a gorgeous lake. “Oh, you are lucky to have water on both sides of your home. The lake here and the sea to the opposite. I adore it. I shall be very happy with both vistas.”

He caught her elbow and drew her a fraction closer. “I didn’t mean what I said as a slur,” he explained. “In fact, I think your father deserves the censure. He hasn’t proven himself very high in my estimation.”

She flinched, for many would judge the child with the same harshness as they did the parent. But Jasper’s gentle expression didn’t show that. She sighed. “I think he might blame…blame us for his troubles as much as himself. Ladies were fearful that if his first wife bore multiple children like us, they might face the same fate if they married him. Childbirth is terrifying enough a prospect, but since most would not survive such an ordeal…”

He shook his head. “So he both blamed you for the reality and then planned to use you to change it. Again, I do not think that speaks highly of him.”

“He is a man of his time,” she said with a shrug that didn’t show the pain she had gone through to get to that conclusion. “And he isn’t all bad.”

He arched a brow but said nothing, as if to grant her an opinion he didn’t share. They moved to the edge of the lake and stared for a moment. He bent to pick up a rock, then tossed it. She watched as it skimmed along the surface. “Oh, how did you do that?” she asked.

He glanced at her from the corner of his eye. “You’ve never skipped a rock? No cousin ever taught you?”

“No, our male cousins were older and thought us odd for being triplets,” she said. “I’ve never done it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it.”

“It’s all in the wrist movement,” he explained, and picked up another rock. He flicked his hand and the rock skipped along the water’s surface, farther than the last had done. “Do you want me to show you?”

She nodded and moved closer. He picked another rock from the shoreline and stepped behind her, folding her fingers around the smooth surface. She caught her breath as his body heat curled around her back, his fingers gentle on her bare wrist as he showed her the flicking action.

She tried it and the rock sank immediately. They both laughed and he searched around for another rock to try. “Sometimes it helps if they’re flatter,” he explained, tossing a few aside before he found the right one. He handed it over, and this time just watched as she tested it and failed once again.