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‘Jacob. Your sister has a name. Use it.’
Willa took her baby and hit him with it, and he grabbed the doll’s arm and held on. Willa tugged the other direction. He pulled at the doll once and then released it. ‘You can have her back, Willa, Lady Ratface.’
He smiled at Melina.
‘Jacob. It is nearly your bedtime and you must behave if you wish to stay up any longer.’ Melina stood.
He shrugged. ‘Willa likes it.’
Melina kept her voice stern. ‘I do not. Do not do it again. The two of you are not to fight. Brothers must be kind to their sister.’
He nodded. ‘I am. She likes hitting me with the doll and I like calling her names.’
Warrington opened the door and walked in, making all the noise of a spirit, but Jacob saw him.
The boy jumped from the floor and whirled to his father. He gave a bow and schooled himself into the manner of an Englishman. Warrington reached out and tousled Jacob’s hair, laughing when the child used both hands to straighten it.
‘I need to show you the picture I drew. It’s of Uncle’s ship,’ Jacob said, then scrambled to pull a paper from inside a book. He unfolded the drawing and handed it to his father. ‘You can have it,’ he said. ‘I’m drawing another one.’
‘Thank you.’ Warrington took the picture, pulling it closer to his face. ‘We must save it. Tell your nursery maid to start collecting your best drawings. I will have them bound into a book and we can look at it together.’
Jacob smiled. ‘I’m going to sail with Uncle—Captain Ben, when I am bigger.’
He gave his son a pat on the shoulder. ‘We’ll see.’
Willa became aware of the conversation. She kept the doll’s foot in her mouth and ran to Melina’s knees.
The earl’s face didn’t flicker as he looked in their direction. Instead, he took Jacob by the hand and left the room. Melina could hardly believe the difference in Warrington. He’d not spoken to her privately after the night Ludgate had appeared. Perhaps she was more like the earl than she realised, seeing not the person, but the appearance, and she’d been misled.
Warrington hadn’t burst with smiles on the ship, but now he acted colder, and this man’s hands would not touch a slop bucket now. She had no question in her mind concerning that.
Willa ignored Warrington much the same way as he avoided her. But she had to be restrained from toddling to Broomer if he walked into a room where the little girl was, and even though the servant acted put out by it, Melina could tell he exaggerated the irritation to please Willa and he made silly faces at her when he thought no one noticed. He’d even given the nursemaid a little carved toy for Willa.
Now Willa sat, pulling at the dress on her wooden doll, the plaything’s stoic expression a complete opposite of the little girl’s. Willa had a fan, a full-sized one, and waved it over her doll, hitting the toy’s face often as not.
Melina stayed with her until Willa fell asleep on the floor. Lifting Willa, Melina placed her on the bed. The nurse woke at the movement, and mumbled that she’d finish getting the little girl to bed.
* * *
Melina went in search of Jacob, but truly she knew she looked for his father.
Warrington sat on the sofa in the sitting room, in his usual relaxed pose of his eyes half-closed, legs relaxed in front of him. His cravat hung loose. Jacob slept beside him, looking as if he’d fallen over, and he used Warrington’s lap for a pillow.
‘I’ll get him to bed,’ she whispered.
‘Nonsense. Sit with us and watch a fireplace with no flames.’
She hesitated. ‘It’s late.’
‘It’s getting later and then it will get early and become a new day.’
The melancholy air of the room touched her, but she stayed.
‘I hope you remember your time in England well, even if you might now think it is filled with the worst of the world...’ His voice rolled smoothly into the room, curling around her the way the flames would have wrapped around burning coals had the fireplace been alight.
‘I will remember you.’ She walked behind him, putting fingertips on his shoulder.
He reached up and clasped her hand. ‘I hope it has not all been difficult for you, Melina.’
‘The world has been so different from what I am used to. I miss my adelfi, my sisters, and the plainness of Melos. Each day is the same as the day before. And the sea—I liked the sea. Even the smells are different here. The scents there are from the earth and nature. Here, they are from the people cooking and bringing horses about.’
