Nathaniel sighed and threw his jacket to a waiting footman, then kicked off his boots by the door and walked barefoot through the hallway at her side. There was still an hour until luncheon, and he had hoped to forget his unfortunate encounter with his daughter until then.
“Lilian would not talk to me,” he admitted, letting her draw him into one of the small sitting rooms and close the door. “She had locked herself in her room and would not come out. For all I know, she is still up there, although I dare say she will get hungry eventually.”
“You just left her in there?” Cecily gasped, as though he had just admitted to kicking a puppy or helping himself to shillings from the church’s poor-box.
“Miss Osborne was there, along with two nursemaids,” Nathaniel defended himself. “Lilian wouldn’t let them in either. She told me she hated me so many times that I’m starting to believe it’s true. Perhaps I shouldn’t stay here too long if that is how she feels.”
“Lilian doesn’t hate you,” Cecily insisted, her face a mask of disbelief. “She is only very young and rather shaken up from so much change.”
“But you thought relocating her here would be good for her,” he pointed out. “I thought you made a strong case, and that is why I agreed to it. Are you now saying it was wrong and Lilian ought to go back to the dower house?”
“The change that matters is that you have married again and brought a stepmother here!” Cecily nearly shouted at him, her hands on her hips. “Don’t you understand how significant it is in a child’s world when the adults around them come and go? Don’t you see why Lilian needs reassurance? How can you possibly talk about leaving her and going back to London?”
Prickled and defensive, Nathaniel felt as though part of him was shuttering inside. He did not want to hear any of this, but he could not escape it, and even trying to escape would be ridiculous for a grown man.
“Why don’t you focus on your relationship with Lilian, and I will focus on mine?” he replied, lacking his usual insouciance. “A little girl needs a mother more than a father anyway.”
Those words did not have the calming effect he had hoped for.
“So, that’s your answer, isn’t it?” Cecily scoffed, her face hardening. “That’s your plan? You want your daughter to accept me so that you can swan off back to London alone and leave us to it? Are you still here only because you’re waiting to… have your way with me? Well, as far as I’m concerned, you can do that tonight and leave in the morning.”
With that parting shot that felt like a slap in the face, she rushed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her.
CHAPTER 20
“Of all the blind, arrogant, careless men,” Cecily muttered furiously to herself as she stormed upstairs to the new nursery wing. “I cannot believe him! I cannot believe I almost—” She broke off, choking on the words.
She had been willing to give herself to Nathaniel entirely this morning. How could the same man be so sensitive, seductive, and even likable at one moment and then so pig-headed, irresponsible, and vexing the next?
Before she reached the nursery corridor, she heard concerned voices in an urgent meeting. As the rooms came into view, she saw a small group gathered outside one of the doors. Clearly, no one had managed to coax the child out of the room since Nathaniel had given up so easily.
Miss Osborne looked quite ill, her skin sallow and her movements nervous, while two nursemaids leaned against the walls, looking bored and frustrated. Several trays of uneatenfood lay on the floor. Patrick was shrugging helplessly as he talked to Mrs. Barnes, and even Mary had joined them.
Presently, Mary was shouting through the door that Lilian was a very ungrateful little girl.
“Mary, please keep your voice down,” Cecily ordered. “It is unlikely to be helpful. Mrs. Barnes, has Lilian been locked in there all morning?”
Mary fell silent and looked embarrassed, while the nursemaids stood straighter.
Everyone looked at Cecily. Well, she was the Duchess of Greyhaven now, regardless of her ambivalent feelings for her husband.
“Yes, Your Grace,” the housekeeper replied. “I’ve been upstairs and downstairs all morning, offering Lady Lilian’s favorite foods, new ribbons, and outings, but she will not come out. We’ve had days like this before, but never so bad.”
“Keys shouldn’t be left in locks around such a young child, especially unsupervised,” Cecily observed sternly, not meaning to scold anyone in particular but noticing that Miss Osborne looked shamefaced at the floor.
“It won’t happen again, Your Grace,” Mrs. Barnes immediately assured her. “But what do we do now? Lord Patrick wants to break the door open.”
Mary gave an unimpressed little snort at that.
“Well, we can’t leave Lilian in there forever, can we?” Patrick immediately took issue with her reaction. “What if she gets sick or hurts herself?”
“Lilian would definitely be hurt if a great big door went flying and hit her,” Mary pointed out. “You never think things through properly, Patrick, do you?”
“Tell me your bright ideas, then,” Patrick challenged.
Cecily hushed both of them and crouched down to peer through the keyhole, before looking down at the bottom of the door and then nodding her head.
“Can someone fetch me a piece of paper and some strong tweezers?” she requested. “Lilian? This is Cecily, your stepmother.”
