He brushed a tear from her cheek, then wrapped his arm about her shoulders. “But you’re right; nothing I say, or likely do, can make your discomfort better. Much as I might try. I could carry you up the stairs whenever you like so you do not have to walk them. Or be an errand boy so you don’t have to move as much.”

“But I want to move,” Adelaide told him miserably. “I don’t want to feel like I cannot do something. Or that I must rely on others.”

“Hmm.” Basset paused, seeming to give it some thought. “Yes, you are independent and stubborn, so that would be galling. Perhaps look at it this way. Your present situation is giving the rest of us an opportunity to be more discerning and to serve you. It is not that you cannot do something, but that there is now an opportunity for us to do something on your behalf. Be generous with us, Adelaide. Let us learn to be better Christian people.”

His tone had become almost dramatically pleading, and it made her giggle, her tears vanishing. “You are a terrible persuader, Basset. I will try to think of it as you say, but please, do not beg for opportunities to serve me ever again. I am the dramatic one here, not you.”

“Apologies, I simply thought I would try the act on.” He chuckled softly, nudging her shoulder. “It stopped your tears, though.”

“Was that your aim?” She looked at the music before her, afraid to meet his eyes after asking such a question.

Basset rubbed his hand gently across her shoulder. “Not initially, but in bringing about your tears, I thought it my duty to remove them.”

He made no move to leave the bench, nor to slide away from her, which prodded an insistent impulse to confide something that had struck her during her playing.

“Basset…” Adelaide began slowly, one hand falling to the rise of her stomach, “I would like our son to marry for affection. Not love, necessarily, as love can grow, and connection is important for the title and estate. But I would like him to choose his own bride based on affection. Companionship. I want him to know and like his bride before the engagement is set.”

“You don’t want him to do what I did to you.”

She winced at the implication. “Well—”

“Oh, don’t worry,” he said at once, smiling a little. “Had I known what I was doing, had any inclination of what a marriage would actually be like, I’d have never subjected you to the orderly manner with which I arranged things. Certainly, I ought to have met you, learned more of you, spent real time with you…”He broke off, giving a wry laugh. “Hell, if I’d even bothered to court you, it might have saved us both a few headaches.”