He dropped a kiss on his daughter’s forehead and then his wife’s lips.
“The doctor said she wasn’t a bad weight at all for such an early arrival,” Diana commented with a twinkle in her eye. “Six and a half pounds. She seems strong, too.”
“Good,” Edmund said. “Just small enough and far away enough that no one can ask inconvenient questions about dates. What shall we call her?”
Diana looked down again at the baby’s sweet, chubby little face still slightly purple from birth, and thought to herself.
“Iris,” she suggested. “What do you think of the name Iris?”
He remembered immediately the irises edging the glade where he had first made love to Diana, and where perhaps their daughter was conceived.
“Iris is the right name for her,” he concurred. “Lady Iris Turner, do you find your name agreeable?”
The baby mewed and wriggled in his arms without opening her eyes.
Smiling, Diana leaned her head against Edmund’s shoulder and began to sing a lullaby.
* * *
“Look at this, you two.” Jacob laughed, pushing a piece of newspaper towards Diana and Edmund on the grass of the top lawn of Blackmore Manor, Edmund’s estate outside London.
Diana took it and read with a smile while Edmund continued to tickle Iris’s toes and blow raspberries on her belly to her evident delight. Lord and Lady Templeton dozed in comfortable chairs on the paving beside the conservatory while Edmund’s mother and sisters played croquet with Percy and Kitty on the middle lawn.
The whole family had been delighted to finally welcome little Iris to England, and short visits to Blackmore Manor had been extended and blended until the whole group was there together. Jacob had expressed some reticence about intruding on family occasions, but at the insistence of almost the whole party, he had stayed long beyond his originally planned week.
Edmund had been sad to see the way Jacob sought Kitty’s eyes when he last asked whether he should not return to London. Older family members had insisted he stay to save Percy from being worn out as a dancing partner by all the girls. Younger family members wanted him to stay because he was so much fun. Edmund and Diana announced him as an adopted member of the family.
But Kitty had only sat alone, looking out the window and seemingly unaware that the question had even been asked or that Jacob was actually seeking her answer.
“The gossip sheets are wondering if the Duke and Duchess of Colborne will be gracing London with their presence this season,” Diana told Edmund, pushing the paper under his nose, and picking up Baby Iris who gurgled and batted happily at her mother’s face in the sunshine. “Apparently, a ball at Colborne House would be both welcomed and expected by thetonafter our lengthy stay in Scotland.”
“Indeed?” Edmund said, reading the few paragraphs and seeing the small cartoon of a coach on the road from Scotland.
“I’m not sure I can be bothered.” Diana shrugged, and both men burst out laughing.
“Lady Colborne doesn’t want to dance? That’s a first.” Edmund grinned. “I’m not sure I believe it either. Nanny MacDowell will take good care of Iris, you know. She always does.”
Diana leaned over to kiss her husband.
“I always want to dance with you,” she assured him. “But I’ve never organized a ball. All those invitation lists, calls, working out precedence and so on. It does seem like an awful lot of work. I think I’d need a very good reason to hold a ball.”
“Three beautiful unmarried young ladies in the family. Is that not reason enough for any ball?” Jacob smiled. “Society ladies hold events for far poorer causes than that.”
“If we did, it would be the only ball of the Season that Kitty would probably attend,” Edmund observed. “I heard our mothers saying that she’d declined everything she could for this season. She’s only accepted a handful because Lady Templeton would like to attend her friends’ events and wanted her as a companion.”
“In that case,” Diana said with a gentle smile at Jacob, “perhaps we should. Our mothers can advise me on how everything is done after all, and your sisters will be very excited.”
“Who’ll be excited about what?” Percy asked merrily, ascending the slope to the top lawn, and swinging his croquet mallet as he walked. Beatrice and Sophia followed closely behind him, as jubilant in their victory as Percy was magnanimous in his defeat.
“We’re going to hold a ball this season.” Diana’s announcement was met with exclamations of pleasure from her brother and sisters-in-law.
“I do believe that you’re more excited than the girls, Percy,” Jacob teased.
“Young men do have feelings as strong as young women,” Unity observed with a smile, coming up the slope with her arm through Kitty’s. “There’s no shame in that, Jacob.”
“None at all,” Jacob agreed, springing to his feet. “Can I get chairs for you, ladies?”
His offer was declined by all but Unity, Edmund’s sisters preferring to sit on the ground with baby Iris and talk to Diana about the ball. Meanwhile, Kitty announced her intention to write some letters and went into the house alone, leaving Jacob gazing after her.