Page 25 of Love and Other Disasters

Seeing the child abandoned on Jasper’s bed had brought back painful memories of Sophie’s time in the orphanage and a loneliness that she had believed long buried. Sophie had been left in a wooden box on the poorhouse’s front step at a similar age, wrapped in rags, not heavily embroidered muslin robes, and without a note accompanying her. Sophie didn’t even know the name her own mother might have given her once. She’d been named by the woman who’d run the orphanage and then handed off to an indifferent servant’s care. The painful reminder of Sophie’s abandonment had nearly robbed her of speech in front of Lord Jasper. Almost, but not entirely.

Isabelle was fortunate to be here. Lord Jasper could be made to make provisions for her by his brothers. Lord Nash and the duke would ensure it, no doubt.

She glanced at the nursery door, curious about Isabelle’s prolonged bout of silence now. Perhaps the mother had returned, or Lord Jasper was getting the hang of his child at last. It had taken all of her powers of persuasion to keep Thomas and Liam from running off down the hall to see the infant for themselves once they’d recognized the sound for what it was. The children had excellent hearing, far better than their uncles, and they were painfully curious about the intruder in their midst.

Sophie judged the girl around a year old by the look of her. She might have told Lord Jasper that last night, but she’d been too embarrassed to discover Jasper could turn her head. Lord Jasper’s half-voiced insinuation that she preferred Lord Nash had taken her by surprise and made her do something reckless to prove it wasn’t true. She was not attracted to Lord Nash at all, and she did not like the feeling thinking of Lord Jasper stirred in her today. She would prefer to avoid Lord Jasper, but she probably ought to check on the girl’s welfare. If only for a moment, to appease her own conscience. Make sure the child was being fed and kept clean.

Sophie glanced at her charges. The boys were occupied enough that they might not miss her if she slipped away alone for a few minutes. She should leave them behind when she made her trip to Lord Jasper’s bedchamber again, anyway. Lord Nash would not like his children to become aware of their uncle’s wickedness at such a young age.

Sophie edged toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Thomas asked, standing to face her.

“I’ll be right back,” she promised them, hoping that would be enough to appease them.

“We want to see the baby,” Thomas announced, hurrying to her with Liam following suit.

She’d hoped they might have forgotten the child with the prolonged silence but clearly they had excellent memories, too. “I’m only going to fetch another shawl from my room,” she lied.

Thomas, however, clearly did not believe her. He frowned. “We’ll be quiet.”

Sophie sighed softly. “Thomas, she’s terribly young and could be asleep.”

“I know how to tiptoe,” Liam promised. “Thomas taught me.”

Thomas puffed up his chest then and addressed her with such a stern tone, Sophie was taken aback. At times Thomas seemed too much like his father. “Radcliffe, we will see the child. Now.”

“I think—”

“You are not employed to think,” Thomas continued, parroting the old duke when he delivered a set down to other servants. “But to obey.”

Sophie was stung by that. She wet her lips, pained by the realization that as much as she cared about Thomas, he likely saw her as nothing more than another servant to be ordered about. And his younger brother would likely follow in his footsteps soon after.

“As you wish,” she answered. “But Lord Jasper might not want you there.”

Thomas ignored her warning and strode to the door. Liam grasped her hand and dragged her out the door with them. Thomas took the lead toward their uncle’s bedchamber, marching down the hall and down the main staircase. Liam, however, tiptoed by her side but kept glancing up at her.

At the door, Thomas paused and turned to her, a look of uncertainty on his face at last. “Should I announce myself?”

“It would be polite,” she murmured, hoping his sudden burst of arrogance might only be fleeting.

He scratched at the door and then ran behind Sophie, putting her at the front of their little group.

The child inside was hiccupping, working itself up to another wail by the time the door was flung open.

Lord Jasper looked a mess. Sophie ran her gaze over his bloodshot eyes and whiskered jaw. Given the rumpled state of his clothes, and lack of coat, it was obvious he’d not slept a wink since she’d seen him last.

He caught Sophie’s gaze. “Help.”

Such a plaintive wail from a grown man-made Sophie’s resolve crumble, and she ventured inside cautiously, the boys following. “I take it her mother did not return?”

“Obviously not, and I still don’t know who she could be, but I’m going to have a few choice words to say to her when I find out her identity,” he grumbled, following close on her heels.

Before Isabelle could launch into another bout of wailing, Sophie picked up the child to look into her eyes. “Now, now, Isabelle. What has your poor papa done to deserve so much unhappy wailing?” She took the child into her arms, running her hand from shoulder to rear, and then detected an unmistakable odor about the child. “Ah, I see.”

Jasper was at her side in an instant. “See what?”

“Calm yourself, my lord, but someone needs changing into something clean and dry.”