He stretched out his legs, crossing his boots at the ankle, and she was intensely aware of the muscled thighs beneath the snugly fitted buckskins.

He cracked his knuckles and a shiver ran through her as she recalled the way he’d stroked her nipples with those same knuckles.

She forced her gaze elsewhere and tried to focus on the conversation. “What happened to the boy’s mother?”

“Died giving birth to him.”

“And there was no other family he could go to?”

“No.”

Poor little boy. George knew what it felt like to grow up having no family—none that she knew of at the time, anyway, thanks to her father keeping her existence a secret. She was eighteen before she knew she had a family—one who actually wanted her.

“Couldn’t he—I didn’t catch his name—couldn’t the boy live with you?”

“Phillip? With me? In London? The city is no place for a child. Besides, I know nothing about children. No, I moved the boy to one of his father’s minor properties that I gather had been quite overlooked in his scramble to sell all he could. I’m in the process of reorganizing the main estate and one other that was stripped of all valuables and mortgaged to the hilt. If all goes as planned, by the time the boy is of age, he should have a substantial inheritance.”

She nodded. To repair the damage Phillip’s father had done was admirable, of course, but to move a small boy to a new place, when he’d just lost his father . . .

Silence fell. He gazed out the window, tapping his fingers impatiently, drumming a soft tattoo on the seat leather. He was restless—he probably would have preferred to ride and feel more active. George watched the long, strong fingers and thought about the unexpected sensations they had coaxed from her. A warm ripple of remembrance clenched her insides. He seemed to know her body better than she did.

“Why did you move Phillip away from all that was familiar to him?”

He frowned. “I didn’t—at least that wasn’t why I moved him. He should be away at school by now, but according to his tutor he’s delicate, and academically he’s not yet ready for school, so this place is temporary. Besides, the boy’s home brings in far more in rental than the small house he’s in now.”

“But he’s a small grieving boy.”