At least he’d thought so until the moment when they had bantered about Leo’s pony. He had brought her hand to his lips for a playful kiss, gazed into her sparkling green eyes, only to be rocked by an irresistible rush of desire. Her softened features and slightly parted lips assured him that the passion was mutual. In that mad moment, he had been sorely tempted to lay her down in the grass and damn the consequences …

Godwin cleared his throat. “I do hope we can come to a satisfactory agreement on this matter.”

Matter? It took Hadrian a moment to recapture the direction of their discussion. Ellen. Marriage. His own qualms.

“It might be best to allow Lady Ellen to enjoy her first season unencumbered by a fiancé,” he said tactfully. “Let her experience society, where she can have the chance to hone her conversational skills and gain her confidence. Rushing her will only make her unhappy.”

Godwin grimaced. “I take your point. However, let us not forget that it was your late father’s wish—and mine—that our families be joined in a closer bond. A pity things did not work out quite as we’d intended back then.”

“Because of Audrey.” A dormant anger awakening in him, Hadrian leaned forward to study the harsh lines of that aristocratic face, the man he had once feared to disappoint as a boy. “You haven’t spoken her name in the past ten years. Don’t you think it’s high time that you did?”

The earl stared stonily at him. “She cut herself out of our lives. It was her mistake, not mine.”

“It was a decision, not necessarily a mistake. One you should have respected and accepted. She might have stayed in England, then, and never died in that massacre.” His throat thickening, Hadrian shook his head. “And just so you know, I wouldn’t have courted Audrey, anyway. Not so long as she loved another man.”

“Love! She had a duty to marry well. She let this family down.”

“She let you down. Because of a bargain she’d had no part in making.”

Nor had Lady Ellen or himself, he reflected. That was why he’d never coerce the girl if she was unwilling. In truth, the arrangement between their fathers was beginning to leave a bad taste in his mouth, making him question his own judgment.

“It’s all water under the bridge now.” Godwin tossed back the rest of his port. “There’s no need to speak of it anymore.”

“Yes, we do need to speak of it. Audrey’s son is in this house at this very moment, up in the nursery. And you have a chance to make things right by accepting Leo as your rightful grandson.”

The earl glanced away, his jaw tight. “I will rely on the advice of my solicitor. Musgrave is an excellent man of the law. He should arrive in a day or two.”

Frowning at that stubborn face, Hadrian strove for calm. The earl had had a decade in which to harden his heart against his eldest daughter, and it wouldn’t be easily softened. Besides, Hadrian had seen something flicker in those blue eyes. A shadow of pain that gave him hope that all was not lost.