Lady Caroline smiled, and the room lit up as if it were the sunniest summer afternoon instead of a chilly November morn. She walked gracefully to a chair near where the baby slept while the little boy played with wooden blocks. Sitting, she asked, “Will you join us here by the fire?”
“Thank you.” He took a single step, then halted when the footman cleared his throat again.
When Jacob glanced back, the liveried man repeated too quietly for Lady Caroline to hear, “Ahem!” Did the man have something stuck in his throat?
“My father will be sorry he is not here to speak with you himself,” Lady Caroline said.
“If this is not a good time—”
“Nonsense. As I said, you should always consider our door open, my lord.” Again she motioned for him to join her by the fire, then reached down to check the little girl. The baby had opened her eyes and stared at him sleepily. Lustrous curls topped her head.
“She has grown so big!” he said.
That brought an even warmer smile from Lady Caroline. “Yes, Joy is thriving at last. Just as Gil is.” She stretched to ruffle the little boy’s brown hair. “All six of the children have settled in well, whether here or at the parsonage with my brother or with my sister on the other side of the cove.”
The Trelawneys, from the earl to his four children, had taken six abandoned waifs into their hearts after the children were discovered floating in a rickety boat in the cove. The family had never stopped looking for the children’s parents, even though he guessed it would be a sad day when the Trelawneys had to return the children.
The footman cleared his throat yet again.
About to ask the man to stop making the annoying sound or take his leave, Jacob realized he still wore his greatcoat and carried his hat. Even he was familiar enough with propriety to know the footman had expected to take them upon Jacob’s arrival. He hastily shrugged off his coat and handed it and his hat to the servant, who had the decency not to smile.
He turned his gaze to Lady Caroline. He needed to obtain her help. She was the perfect choice, and not only because she had taken on the task of overseeing Cothaire after her mother’s death five or six years ago. From what he had heard, she had no interest in remarrying since her husband’s death around the same time, though he suspected such a lovely, gentle-hearted woman had many offers. She treated Jacob with respect but had not flirted with him during their previous conversations. Because of that, he was willing to ask her this favor. Another woman might see his request as a prelude to a courtship.
Stepping carefully around the children, Jacob went to where she sat primly. He lifted her slender hand from the chair’s arm and bowed over it before sitting across from her. His hope that he had handled the greeting correctly withered when he adjusted his spectacles and saw astonishment on her face. What faux pas had he made now?
He bit back the question as the little boy grinned at him, then pointed to the baby girl as he announced, “My baby!”
“Gil is very protective of Joy.” Lady Caroline smiled when the baby smacked the little boy on the arm and giggled. “Though some days, I feel I should be protecting him from her.” Her voice was soft and soothing as she bent toward the baby and said, “Do not hit Gil, Joy. You don’t want to hurt him, do you?”
“Gil is a big boy,” Jacob said with a smile Gil returned brightly. “He can take care of himself.”
“Gil big boy.” He tapped his chest proudly, then turned to Lady Caroline and repeated the words. Standing, he leaned on Jacob’s knee. “Big, big boy.”
“That you are, young man.”
When the little boy laughed, Jacob could not help doing the same. He could not recall the last time he had a conversation with a child as young as Gil. He had been more accustomed to talking to his students at the university, and now most of his discussions were with the miners who worked on his estate.
The baby girl picked up a shiny stick from the rug and stuck it in her mouth, holding it by one end that appeared to be made of silver.
Jacob’s bafflement must have been visible because Lady Caroline said, “Joy is getting her first tooth.”
“And the stick helps?” he asked.
“It appears so. She chews on the coral. Because it is hard, the coral seems to give her relief from the pressure of the tooth on her gum.”
“Do you have another teething stick?”
Her light blue eyes narrowed. “Yes, but why do you ask?”
“I would be interested in examining such a helpful device, but I dare not ask Joy to relinquish hers. She seems to be enjoying it far too much.”
She rose and walked past him without a word. He jumped to his feet belatedly. Was she going to the nursery now? He glanced at the children playing on the floor. She was leaving him with two babies? If she knew the truth of how untrustworthy he could be when his thoughts were elsewhere...
No! He was not going to blurt out the truth. Nobody in Porthlowen knew of his past, and he intended to keep it that way. He had no worries about his family discussing the tragedy that had left his darling Virginia dead the night he proposed to her; they preferred to act as if the accident had never happened.
“My lady—”
“Yes?”
Too late, he realized Lady Caroline held a bell to call for someone to fetch the teething stick. He should have guessed, but he was too unaccustomed to having servants ready to answer any summons.
Somehow, he managed to say, “If it is an inconvenience...”
“None.” She rang the bell, and the door opened in response.
While she spoke to a maid, Jacob tried to regain his composure. How she would want to laugh at him for being unsettled at the idea of being left alone with a two-year-old boy and a baby! Not that she would laugh. She was far too polite.
The maid returned moments later with another smooth stick. Lady Caroline took it, then handed it to Jacob before thanking the maid, who curtsied before leaving. As Lady Caroline went to sit by the children, Jacob examined the coral stick. The flat sides resembled a table knife.
“Fascinating concept,” he said, glad to concentrate on something other than his disquiet. He ran a single finger along the smooth, cool coral. The silver handle, which was connected to a ribbon, was embossed with images of the sun and flowers and birds.
“The ribbon can be tied to a child’s waist to keep the teething stick from getting lost, but my mother stopped doing that after I almost knocked an eye out with mine when I was a baby. Apparently, my cheek bore black bruises for a week.”
Jacob tried to envision Lady Caroline as an infant with a black eye. The image banished his dark thoughts temporarily, and he laughed. “It sounds as if your mother was a wise woman.”
“She was.”
The sorrow in her voice subdued his laughter. What a fool he was! Speaking of her mother’s death would remind her as well of her husband’s. He knew how impossible it was to forget someone loved and lost forever.
