Page 36 of The Duchess Debt

“It’s bedtime,” Helena explained as she led a reluctant Gabe up the stairs to the nursery. She had interrupted his pre-dinner glass of cognac in his study, and from all outward appearances, he wasn’t at all happy to be completing another task on her list of engagement demands, especially since he’d spent a long day working with the men at the bridge. “That means Alice needs to have a story read to her, and there’s no one better for that task than her father.”

“Don’t let Nanny Potts hear you say that,” Gabe grumbled from behind her.

Helena stopped on the landing and put her hands on her hips. “It’s time Nanny realizes that things are going to change at Grangely, including how the nursery is run.”

“Definitely don’t let her hear you saythat.”

“Gabriel Cavanaugh,” she scolded. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were afraid of the nanny.”

“Of course I am.”

With a shake of her head, she blew out an exasperated sigh and took his hand to lead him forward into the nursery.

The room was all readied for the evening, with the window shutters closed against the cool night and the light of a single candle glowing on the bedside table. The toys that were normally scattered across the floor had all been put back into their proper places on the shelves, with the dolls sitting properly on their little chairs and the rocking horse stabled in the corner. It was most likely all Nanny Potts’s doing, Helena knew. Knowing how Alice liked to drag her feet when it came to bedtime, Helena suspected that the only reason the little girl was in her night railand waiting patiently in bed was because she had been bribed with an extra chocolate biscuit if she behaved tonight.

When Gabe lingered near the door, Helena nudged him forward.

“Good evening, Alice,” he called out to her as he approached her little bed with its white velvet counterpane and lacy pink canopy.

Helena had to give Nanny Potts credit for making the nursery so wonderful for Alice over the years. She had made certain the little girl wanted for nothing…even if her father had barely acknowledged that she existed.

But all that was changing. Tonight’s story was simply another cog in the wheel.

“All ready for bed, I see.” He gestured at the warm covers pulled up to her chest as she leaned back on a pile of pillows stacked against the headboard.

Alice nodded and clutched tightly the doll that Helena had given her. From the wary frown of her brows, she seemed as uncertain about this whole activity as Gabe did.

Until Helena arrived at Grangely, Gabe rarely visited the nursery, and as far as Helena could tell, he’d never once read a bedtime story to Alice. Not that ignoring children was uncommon among the aristocracy, she understood. Most members of thetonthought the best way to raise a child was to put them under the watch of someone else until they were old enough to be sent away to school, then welcome them home when they turned eighteen…just in time to marry off the daughters and send the sons away to university or into the army.

But Helena’s own childhood had been one of love and attention, and she wanted the same for all her children, including Alice.

“Lady Alice has been washed and dressed for bed as always, Your Grace,” Nanny Potts interjected a bit defensively.

“Of course she has.” Helena smiled at the woman. “You’ve done a marvelous job of caring for her.”

But the woman only continued to wring her hands at tonight’s change in their usual routine, standing awkwardly in the middle of the room. Like most nannies, she slept in the nursery with her charge, her own bed located on the other side of the room, so she had no place to retire to while Gabe and Helena finished the bedtime routine for her.

“Why don’t you go down to the kitchens?” Helena suggested, grasping at an excuse for her to leave. “Cook was heating a pot of chocolate for the staff, and I’m sure she’s already made sticky buns for breakfast. Help yourself to all you’d like.”

Nanny Potts didn’t seem pleased about that offer when every other servant in the house would have jumped at the opportunity for such a treat. Instead, she looked expectantly at Alice, as if hoping the little girl would demand that Nanny stay with her to put her to sleep, as usual.

But Alice didn’t. She was too curious about her father and why he would be in the nursery to pay any attention to her nurse.

“Thank you, Miss.” Nanny Potts gave a stiff curtsy to Helena. “Your Grace.” Her curtsy to Gabe was only slightly deeper. Then she pulled back her shoulders beneath her gray uniform, held up her capped head as high as she could, and marched out of the nursery.

Alice sat up eagerly. “CanIhave chocolate and sweets?”

Gabe slid Helena an I-told-you-so look.

Helena wisely ignored that and said with exaggerated excitement, “We have something much better for you.” She cast a smile at Gabe. “Your papa’s going to read you a story!”

“Oh.” Alice sank back against her pillow. Disappointment darkened her face.

“Good to know I come in second behind chocolate,” Gabe muttered to Helena beneath his breath.

“Of course you do. She’s four,” she returned in the same low voice. “But that’s not the point of this.”

“Then what is?”