Page 24 of Love and Other Disasters

“That hardly signifies,” Sophie whispered.

“She can’t be left with me,” Jasper complained. “None of my lovers have conceived that I’m aware of.”

“Now you’re aware,” Sophie said, fingering the child’s clothing and frowning. “This is an expensive garment. The child comes from a wealthy household.”

Jasper drew closer to the child for a better look. Isabelle had plain brown hair and was dressed from head to toe in thickly embroidered white muslin garments. But it was her feet that drew his eye. She wore embroidered silk slippers bearing the family crest.

“This is a mistake.” Jasper reached for Sophie’s hand as his stomach lurched. “How did she even get in here?”

“Many of the doors stood open for your guests tonight when I was downstairs.”

“Yes, I heard you were roaming the halls earlier, dressed like that. What did you want with me? To show me this?”

“I want nothing now.” Sophie turned away, headed for the door.

Jasper rushed after her. “You can’t leave her with me!”

“I’ve no reason to stay,” she warned. “This child is not my responsibility.”

“Think of the child,” Jasper warned, casting his eyes about the room in a panic. “Where should I put her to sleep? In the closet with my boots?”

That made the governess pause, but then she smiled. “Perhaps you should carry her with you everywhere you go tonight, while you get used to the idea that you are a responsible parent now. I’m sure your guests will understand.”

Jasper blanched at the idea of anyone downstairs seeing him with an infant. They’d want to know where she came from. Jasper had not the slightest idea. His last lover was too new to have a child of this age. The one before that, a longer-term mistress, had not fallen pregnant to him. She was married now, and had every chance to tell him about a pregnancy long before that event.

So, this could not be his child…but it might bring disgrace to him and the family. He had to hide Isabelle until he knew the truth about her parentage. “I can’t take her downstairs with me. I’ll be made a laughingstock.”

“You might have thought of that before you trifled with…well, whoever you’ve trifled with and can’t now remember. There are always consequences for our actions, my lord.”

“For the last time, this child is not mine. I would own up to my responsibilities if I had any.”

“So you say,” Sophie muttered, and with that she left the room, slamming the door behind her.

Jasper blinked as the child started crying again. “Damn her. She ought to believe me.” He looked down at the infant as it continued its whimpering. “Why won’t Sophie believe me?”

The child’s cries increased, her face scrunching up to prepare for an even louder outburst. Jasper rushed to pick up the child, turning her face away from his chest in case she cast up her accounts a second time, and tried to think of what to do.

He jiggled her gently as he walked about the room, until he eventually passed close to a tall mirror and saw that Isabelle had closed her eyes, falling fast asleep in his arms while he panicked.

“Damn,” he muttered. He went to put her back down, but she stirred immediately, uttered a little squawk, and grumbled. Jasper wanted to leave her there, but the longer she wasn’t in his arms, the more restless she became. Before another bout of loud crying could erupt, he scooped her back up, and she settled once more. He circled back to the mirror in time to see her fall asleep in his arms a second time.

“Devil take it,” he muttered softly, glancing down at the annoying infant. He had to get back downstairs to oversee proceedings before some other calamity befell the palace. He couldn’t neglect his duties as host. What he needed was another pair of hands, willing ones, and more experienced than his own, too.

He turned on his heel and stalked to the door. He peeked out into the hall, but Sophie was long gone. “How am I supposed to get anything done with you…and without Sophie to help me?”

Chapter Eight

The child was silent again, as had happened on and off since Sophie had first laid eyes on the poor little thing, kicking and screaming in the center of Lord Jasper Sweet’s enormous bed.

It had taken all her strength to leave the girl in Lord Jasper’s unprepared hands. To leave him after a kiss that never should have happened felt even worse.

She could still feel Jasper’s hands on her body, his tongue teasing hers, and the devastating heat of his body pressed against her full length. Although she should never have allowed a moment like that to sweep away her good sense, she’d uncovered a truth about herself. She was not immune to a rake’s kiss, after all.

Not since the last rake, a man who’d broken her heart, had kissed her had she experienced such excitement. Thank heavens for the child’s interruption. The little girl’s arrival had put Sophie’s position in the household firmly in her mind again.

The child was Lord Jasper’s offspring, although he denied the responsibility most strenuously. There was no doubt in her mind that Isabelle and Lord Jasper were family. Isabelle had been named after the man’s late mother, Isabelle Sweet, Duchess of Ravenswood, and there was a strong family resemblance between them. He ought to care for her for at least one night.

Isabelle had a family; a father, and a mother somewhere. She had asked around discreetly that morning, but no one else had seen a stranger and child wandering the palace. Isabelle was lucky to have Jasper, unwilling or not.