“Do you think my stepfather will send you fifty pounds for Georgie’s care?”
“Oh, no. It doesn’t matter. I knew I had to appear to be as venal as Sir Henry, else he just might have seen through everything and offered Georgie to me only if I paid a vast sum for her.”
“He’s despicable.”
“True, but if he marries Mrs. Finch, I have this feeling that he will receive just what he deserves.”
“Why do you think that?”
“When I was thanking Darnley and Mrs. Smithers for their assistance in making Sir Henry miserable, they told me that one of the servants at Cit Palace found out—doubtless from eavesdropping—that Mrs. Finch was married to a very rich man who died shortly after their marriage.”
“Was he very old?”
“Not above sixty. But that wasn’t the point.”
“What was the point?”
“Mrs. Finch has been widowed four times.”
“Oh, dear.” Jack pressed her knuckles to her mouth. “Oh, dear. But Gray, my stepfather isn’t old or rich.”
“Ah, so you believe Mrs. Finch loves him?”
“He is exceedingly handsome. He can be charming. My mother refused to believe ill of him until the day she died.”
“Be that as it may,” Gray said, leaning forward to straighten Georgie’s collar. The child just stared at him, saying nothing. “It also appears that Lord Rye is interested in the lady. It also appears that she’s seen in his company as well as in Sir Henry’s.”
Jack laughed. She couldn’t help herself. She hugged Georgie close, kissing the top of her head. “Your hair, Mistress Georgie, is like silk, all slippery and shiny. What do you think of that?”
“I-I-I heard P-P—”
“Your papa?”
The little girl nodded. Gray wondered if she would ever be able to speak her father’s name.
“He said to himself that he’d s-s-swallow what he had to and marry the b-b-bitch. B-B-But not for l-l-long.”
The two adults stared at the child. “Now this is a kicker,” Gray said at last.
“You mean that the two of them just might try to do each other in?”
“May the best man or woman win,” Gray said. He leaned over and lightly stroked his fingertips over Georgie’s cheek. “You have an excellent memory, Georgie. Now, how will you like London?”
“W-W-What’s Lunnon?”
22
“I HADN’T expected to fill my nursery quite this quickly,” Gray said as he watched Jack tuck Georgie into a little girl’s bed, quickly brought down from the attic, all draped with frills and gauzy material. Had it belonged to his grandmother? He didn’t know. It was simply very old. He listened to Jack singing to her sister, rather a thin voice, but true.
“No, I hadn’t either,” Jack said quietly, her lullaby finished, looking up at him. She smiled toward Dolly as she said to Gray, “We’re lucky that Dolly loves Georgie so very much and wanted to come with us. I was afraid of too much change for her. When my stepfather’s sister came to take her to York, I thought Georgie would just fold down. She became so quiet, as though if she were quiet enough everyone might overlook her and leave her be. The stuttering is new. All the change, the uncertainty, I suppose. But she’ll be all right now, thanks to you, Gray.”
Again, the dreaded gratitude he didn’t want. Then she leapt on him, laughing, kissing his chin, the end of his nose, tugging his ear so that he bent down to kiss her. “Thank you,” she said into his mouth. He didn’t want to stop kissing her, but Dolly was standing there, looking down at her toes, blushing a bit, Georgie wasn’t completely asleep, and Mrs. Piller had materialized not eight feet away from them. Gray pulled back and gently pressed his forehead against Jack’s.
“My lord,” she whispered, lightly touching her fingertips to his chin, “you’re so smart I’ve decided to enroll in more of your teasing lessons. And I must practice what you’ve already taught me. I wouldn’t want to forget anything or grow inept.”
Where had this delightful flirt been hiding herself?
Gray said, as he pulled himself together, “Dolly, this is Mrs. Piller. She’s the best housekeeper in all of London. She’s known me since I was three years old and has complained ever so long now that this house needed a child’s laughter again. She told me you’ll be in the bedchamber at the opposite end of the nursery. Thank you for coming with us.”