Page 24 of The Devil to Pay

“I am bigger!” the boy exclaimed, bottom lip trembling.

Jules—who had five younger siblings, the smallest of whom was only six—sensed a tantrum in the making.

“You are extremely big for your age, I think,” he said, gaining the boy’s attention. “How old are you? Fifteen?”

The boy wrinkled his nose, looking at Jules with surprise. “Three,” he said with great certainty.

“No! Are you, really? I thought you were much older than that. A very big boy. I say, what have you got in that wagon there?”

The child squirmed in his sister’s arms until she put him down, picked up the string that pulled his toy, and took it over to show Jules.

“Blocks.”

“So I see, and can you build things with those blocks?”

The child nodded proudly.

“Can you build me a big castle?”

“’Course,” the lad said, and with such evident scorn Jules laughed.

“Well, that told me. Show me how.”

He crouched down to watch as the boy took the blocks from the wagon and then glanced up, finding Selina watching him, her expression unreadable.

Jules stiffened as he remembered he was staff, beneath her and her little brother. He had a job to do and ought not to forget it. Damn, but that rankled. The desire to tell her who he really was had become increasingly hard to contain, and yet there was another part of him that did not wish her to know. He did not dwell on why that might be. Jules stood, battering down his indignation as he offered her an apology. “I beg your pardon, I ought not to presume.”

She waved this away and went back to her work, apparently content to let Jules entertain her little brother for her, but he felt her watching him, and was uncertain she was pleased with their interaction.

“Look!” the little boy demanded, taking back his attention to show three blocks, haphazardly set one on top of the other. Jules gave a soft laugh and spent a remarkably entertaining half an hour with the lad before an elderly nurse hurried in, clutching at her apron.

“Oh, Miss Davenport. I’m that sorry,” she said urgently. “I only closed my eyes for a moment, and I must have dropped off. When I woke and found him gone, I was beside myself,” she added, looking genuinely distraught.

“Not to worry, Hilly. There’s no harm done. I ought to have asked Abigail to help you mind him, but she was so desperate to go into the village and buy some ribbon to furbish up that pink frock of hers I didn’t have the heart to tell her no.”

“Oh, indeed, no. For the dance next week is all she can speak of and there’s little enough society in these parts. Goodness, and she’ll be off for her season before we know it, I suppose,” the nurse added disconsolately. “They grow up so fast. It seems like only yesterday that you were but a little bit of a thing. It’s a shame you won’t go to the assembly with her and have some fun.”

Davenport cleared her throat. “Yes, well, that will be all, Hilly, thank you. Perhaps you could take Master Ben out for a walk, it’s stopped raining now and I’m sure the fresh air would do you both good.”

“Yes, miss, I’m sure you’re right. Come along, little Jammy. Let’s go and splash in puddles, shall we?”

“Oh, yes, Hilly. I like puddles,” the boy exclaimed, his castle forgotten in the light of such a treat. Jules got up, expecting the lad to go without giving him a backward glance, but at the last moment he checked himself and turned back.

“I like building with you,” he said, a little shyly.

“I liked it too. It’s an excellent castle,” Jules said with a smile.

“What’s your name?” the child demanded.

“J—Mark,” Jules said hastily, almost betrayed into giving his real name. “My name is Mark,” he repeated, feeling wretched for telling the little boy a lie.

“Bye-bye, Mark. Will you play with me again?”

“Perhaps, if your sister says you might.”

Benjamin glanced at his sister, who did not answer, merely saying, “Run along now, dear. Don’t keep Hilly waiting.”

The door closed behind them, and Jules glanced back at her.