Pausing, she turned to face him. “Yes?”
“Have you given any thought to hiring a nursemaid for her?”
His sister’s lips firmed in a stubborn line. Since the birth of her daughter, she had been her sole caregiver. Feeding the child herself and caring for her in every manner. It was evident to him that Fanny adored her child, but he also felt the manner in which she dedicated herself to rearing Lily left little room for Fanny herself to find some measure of happiness.
“A nursemaid is not necessary. I am perfectly capable of minding my daughter.”
“Fanny—”
“No, Colin. I…” her voice broke. “Simon often spoke about his nanny who raised him. His first memories were of her…not his mother. I do not want that for Lily. Ever.” She took a steady breath, staring at her love child cuddled into his arms. “She looks just like him, don’t you think so?”
Him—Simon Gracely, the second son of Viscount Havisham. The gentleman his sister had been recklessly and passionately in love with; and, in the vein of being a ‘bad Fairbanks’, with whom she’d had a child out of wedlock. The scandal and condemnation she faced back then, coupled with the grief of her love dying in the war, had almost broken his sister.
“She is the very picture,” Colin said gently.
His sister smiled, and his damn heart ached to see the sadness in it. She needed to be out in society, and perhaps then she might find another gentleman to love. His sister was astoundingly beautiful and perhaps the most composed out of all his siblings. At three and twenty she had met her fair share of sorrows. Colin would have to be very careful in his dealings in the ton. It could not come out that Fanny had given birth to Lily outside the bonds of matrimony.
The first step really was to begin to paint a respectable picture for the ton and those nosey journalists who were determined to unearth all of the scandal about his family. If a wife was what his family needed, a wife he would procure. And not just any wife. One whose absolutely impeccable breeding would be without reproach, who would be an excellent hostess, and a respectable lady of quality with understanding of all the required etiquette and protocols of society.
One must do everything for family. And even if he did not like it, he would grit his teeth and power through. Family was first and always, even the bad, no-good ones.