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The squeal would indeed have been ear deafening, but she had placed both her hands over her mouth to stifle the sound. He could not help but smile as she descended the steps, looking back at the crowd now assembled on the stairs to watch.

She reached out and touched her gift, which nickered softly. “Oh, Papa, Mama, thank you, thank you.”

“You must look after her as well as you do Cordelia.”

“I will. I promise.” And she hugged the buckskin Welsh pony around its neck softly so as not to spook it. She had grown too tall for Cordelia, and so he and Rose had decided that it was time for a bigger pony. Charles had done his research on the pony’s bloodline and decided she was of excellent stock.

“What will you call her?” Rose asked, shuffling Lily from one hip to the other.

Maxine tapped her lip as she was wont to do when she was thinking. “I think I will call her Viola after Twelfth Night.”

Her male cousins all groaned. She had yet to convince any of them that Shakespeare was worth reading.

“A most appropriate name, my dear,” the dowager said. “Now can we have cake?”

Everyone laughed and went back inside, leaving only Rose, Lily, Maxine, and himself on the steps.

“She is so beautiful,” Max said, patting the pony on the neck. “I will still take Cordelia with me if she can keep up, and when Lily is old enough, Cordelia will be hers.”

“That is a lovely idea,” Rose said as Max came up the steps to hug her.

His daughter put her hand over the small swell of Rose’s stomach. “I think this one will be a boy.”

“You would not mind having a brother?”

“I would love to have a brother. Papa and I could teach him how to fish.”

“Oh, really?” Rose looked at him, and he smiled.

“Timothy, Charles, and I took her once. She spent most of the time making daisy chains,” he said, tapping Max on the nose playfully.

“Well, that was only because Timothy would not be quiet and was scaring all the fish away. It got boring.”

Rose hugged her. “Since you are so good at picking names, if it is a boy, what shall we call him?”

Edward shut his eyes. This could be a disaster. Again, there was a considerable amount of tapping of the lip but eventually she grinned.

“Nicholas Edward Ashton.”

Edward raised his brows and looked to Rose, who was grinning too.

“That is a perfect name. How did you come to it?” he asked her.

“Well, I asked Uncle Tony what Mama’s father’s name was before Lily was born, and he said it was Nicholas, so it was an easy decision. You have told me so much about him that I wish I had known him. And Edward for you, of course, Papa.”

“Goodness. This child had better come out a boy then,” Rose said as they headed back inside.

Maxine took one last look at Viola as the pony was led to the stables by the groom. “It does not matter to me if it is a boy or a girl. I just love having siblings at last.” Then she ran off back to the parlor.

“She may not feel the same once they are older and want to shadow her about everywhere she goes,” Edward said softly to Rose before kissing her. “I used to hate having Charles, Thomas, and Tony all pestering me.”

“I bet you would not have changed a thing about that now.”

“No. I am slowly building back the trust of my brothers. I did not always do the right thing by them, but I never stopped loving them.”

“I think they know that.”

Edward took his daughter from Rose and kissed her chubby cheeks until she giggled. If not for Rose, he would not have the life he had now.