Page 26 of Love and Other Disasters

Lord Jasper turned in circles, looking about the room, appearing frantic. “What do I do?”

Sophie deposited Isabelle on the bed and glanced at her charges. She was loath to involve them in Lord Jasper’s problems, but supplies were easily at hand if one knew where to look. The children did. The question, though, was if Thomas would be a help or not. “There is some clothing for an infant in the nursery cupboard. They were once Liam’s, I believe.”

“I don’t want those anymore,” Liam said, climbing up onto the bed nearer to the girl’s head. “I’m too big.”

“Indeed you are, my dear. Perhaps someone could fetch them for me,” she said, without looking at anyone in particular.

“I’ll go,” Thomas said as he paused a moment beside the bed. He looked up at Sophie, nose wrinkling. “She smells.”

“She does indeed, but in a little while, she’ll be clean and you can be introduced properly. If your uncle approves.”

Thomas raced off, and Liam put his face right close to Isabelle’s and her hand slapped onto his cheek. Liam laughed and Isabelle chortled, delighted to see a friendly face so close at hand.

Sophie smiled at the pair. “Children never hesitate to satisfy their curiosity, do they? Perhaps, while we wait for Thomas, you might open the windows to draw in some fresh air, my lord.”

Jasper rushed to the windows and threw them open, causing a cool draft to swirl around her skirts. Sophie removed her shawl from her shoulders, placed it aside on the bed, and then rolled up her sleeves. “I’ll need a bowl of water, soap, and a washcloth.”

Lord Jasper was quick to do her bidding, silent and apparently content for her to make decisions for once.

He’d brought the washbasin to her, including the stand it usually rested upon, by the time Thomas returned with his arms overflowing. The boy had brought everything. “This is all I could carry!”

“Thank you. Perhaps we might have a little privacy now,” she requested, and Jasper kindly pulled the bed curtains closed around one side of the bed and ushered his nephews to the far side of the room with him.

Sophie glanced down at the child and smiled at her unhappy expression. “I think you will be glad to have this taken care of, won’t you?”

“What was that?” Lord Jasper called.

“I was not speaking to you, my lord,” Sophie replied, and then cleaned up the little girl. A task of a moment for someone well accustomed to the chore. At the orphanage, she’d tended to her share of helpless little children. Given the delay in changing her, Sophie elected to dress her entirely in fresh clothing, too. Nothing so grand as what she had arrived in, but appropriate for the day. “I’m surprised there’s nothing for you to wear. Was your mama in such a hurry that she forgot?”

The child said nothing to that question, of course, but she kicked her legs about happily. Such a pretty child. She had Lord Jasper’s eyes. Sophie spent a moment in contemplation of the mother’s identity, but then shrugged the problem away. It was none of her business. The child was clean and healthy and happier now.

Sophie emerged from behind the curtains with the soiled clothing rolled into a ball in one hand and Isabelle balanced on her hip. She asked Lord Jasper to clean the clothes. He looked so befuddled that she had to explain what she meant. “They should go to the washerwoman. I assume she remained behind?”

“I think she did.” He shook his head. “I suppose I cannot keep this a secret from the servants.”

“No. Have your guests noticed your distraction?”

“Not yet, I think. Thank God.” He gnawed on his bottom lip.

“You will have to do something about them,” she murmured, thinking it expedient to end the house party. A bastard child would be widely gossiped about.

“You were right, I did not think well enough about hosting the party here with so few servants remaining.”

She nodded and held out the happier child to him. “Here you go.”

“Ah…” Jasper said, pulling a face and swiftly putting his hands behind his back.

Sophie made him take the child back by forcing Isabelle against his chest. She wasn’t about to be saddled with his offspring so easily. Isabelle was his responsibility.

She stepped back to allow the children to crowd their uncle and meet the infant. “Be gentle with her,” she warned them, worried about their enthusiasm for tickles. The boys could be a little rough with each other at times.

Isabelle seemed quite taken with more faces around her, and when Jasper laid the child inside a makeshift crib—a drawer pulled from furniture in the room—the children started talking to her.

Lord Jasper backed toward Sophie slowly. “Thank you.”

Sophie wrinkled her nose. “I would say it was my pleasure, but I’m sure you understand it was not.”

“I do understand. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart,” he said, and Sophie scoffed.