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Of course. Meggin must be one of Tom’s strays. It was always animals when he was young; one might have guessed that he’d move past livestock once he became a vicar. Rees walked into the room, nodding at Leke to give him a plate of coddled eggs.

“You have an excellent cook,” Tom said cheerfully.

“I gather you have met my brother?” Rees asked Lina, dropping into a chair to her right. She nodded around a piece of dry toast. She must have decided to go on a thinning plan again, a move he usually deplored because it turned her into a shrew. Truthfully, though, if you compared Lina’s and Helene’s bodies, Lina did look a bit overly round. Not lumpish, exactly, but her waist must be twice the size of Helene’s.

Rees had always thought that it was best to get over rough ground as lightly as possible. Brutal honesty had generally worked for him in the past, although not, he had to admit, with any consistency during his marriage. “I’ll be bringing Helene back to the house later,” he announced, without fanfare. Then he forked up some eggs.

“You can’t have really meant what you said last night?” Tom said slowly.

Lina had dropped her toast. “Helene, your wife?” she gasped.

Rees would have felt a pulse of guilt, but he saw a fugitive gleam of excitement in her eyes. If he had been tired of Lina, she seemed to be positively blue-deviled with boredom. She would likely adore the idea of returning to the opera house with a large settlement in hand. He was perfectly well aware that he had been just as disappointing from Lina’s point of view as he was from Helene’s.

“I’m not putting you out,” he said, taking another bite of eggs. When he was finished, he looked at Lina. “You won’t even have to move rooms. Helene will stay on the third floor, in the room next to the nursery.”

“I was planning to put Meggin in the nursery,” Tom said. He shook his head. “What am I saying? Helene will never agree to this absurd plan!”

The memory of his wife’s anguished face saying that she wanted a child—and a similar memory from over a year ago—flashed through Rees’s mind. “Yes, she will,” he stated.

“You’re dreaming.”

“I threw her out of the house. Now I’m taking her back.”

Lina started to laugh. “You want me to stay in your wife’s bedchamber? While she moves to the third floor? You don’t know much about women, do you?”

“No. But I do know Helene.”

“Why?” Tom demanded. “Why in God’s name would she humiliate herself in front of all London society in such a way? I doubt very much that she’s been pining for your presence.”

He didn’t say it with scorn, but Rees felt the pinprick all the same. “She wants a child,” he said shortly, forking the eggs in his mouth as quickly as he could. He wanted this conversation over. The sooner he could go to Helene’s house and take care of arrangements there, the sooner he could get back to work.

“I never heard of a woman wanting a child that much,” Lina said. She had put down her toast. “The scandal will be tremendous.”

“If Father was going to turn in his grave, this would do it,” Tom put in. “Do you suppose if I showed you disturbed earth, you would stop trying to wake him?”

Rees just looked at him. “I need Lina in the house.”

A flash of distaste crossed Tom’s face.

“To sing what I compose,” Rees finished calmly. He took the last bite of his eggs. “Where, might I ask, did Miss Meggin come from, Tom? And what are you planning to do with her?”

Meggin looked across the table at him. Now that he’d had a moment, he could see that she didn’t really resemble Tom. Her eyes were light blue and utterly bewildered. She didn’t seem to know what to do with her fork and kept putting it down and trying to eat eggs with her fingers.

“She sold me three apples,” Tom said. “I shall take her back to East Riding and find a family to care for her.”

Rees looked at the little girl. Her pinafore was stained and crumpled, and she didn’t look terribly clean. “Have we any maids at the moment, Leke?” he asked the butler.

Leke was obviously listening with all his attention. This must be the most exciting morning of his life. “My niece Rosy, my lord.”

“Of course, I’d forgotten Rosy. I hope she’s better with children than she is with an iron. You’d better ask her to help us out with Meggin until my brother decides to return to his parish, which I dearly hope will be very soon.” Rees shot Tom a look. “And Leke, send a message to Madame Rocque and ask her to send one of her assistants to measure the child.”

“Lovely!” Lina said, “I should like Madame Rocque’s current pattern book as well, Leke. Just think of the cosy times Lady Godwin and I shall have, pouring over La Belle Assemblée together.” She laughed. “You’re a fool, Rees.”

“We need sturdy, serviceable clothing, not the kind of thing that—” Tom’s eyes skittered over Lina’s elegant morning gown.

“I’m sure they can provide whatever Meggin needs,” Rees said with perfect indifference. He rose and bowed to the room at large. “I’m sure you’ll all excuse me. I have to collect Helene. You should expect your mistress in the house by supper time, Leke.”

But he was followed by a light swish of silk. “Surely you were wishing to speak to me, Rees?” The sarcasm in her voice pricked his shoulder blades.