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“Are you a bee?”
“I am not!”
His expression! If she had been in the habit of laughing, she would have roared with it. “Whatever you are, is it true?”
“That the male brings in the children? Yes. It is some goddess-forsaken—truly, one would have to forsake the goddess to give the male this power, but yes. If I deem it so, then when my seed…does what it does in your, your womb, then if I—” He trailed off.
“If you what?” How difficult could this be? “Are there words, a ceremony? Need you dance around a bonfire as a heathen would or…?”
“I do not know. I have never called down a child before.”
“Shall I ask Charlotte?”
“Do not!” His Grace tore at his hair, which exploded in a profusion of curls. “Sweet Freya, that’s all we need.”
“If I was to allow marital duties as a part of our cordial affiliation…” Was he going to make her say it?
“You are taking leaps and bounds here, Madam. Even for one such as I, who is not a hare.”
“Then I shall put it to you.” Beatrice stood as firm as she could. She called upon the spine of steel from her poorly told story. “I seek to redraw our terms. If it is in your power even with one such as I, who has been barren throughout five years of marriage, if your kind can give me a child, then I ask you to give me a child.” Ah. There was power in her asking. Did he say nay, her life was no different, but did he say yea…
“I must think on this.” He crossed to the hearth to kick the fender.
It was not a “no.” “Of course. I did catch you on the hop. Hare or not.” Beatrice hid her shaking hands in her skirts. “I shall leave you to it, Osborn.” She nodded, and he nodded, and she walked out the door.
“Sleep well,” he called as she went down the stairs.
Through the corridor.
Into the stillroom.
Where she closed the door.
And leaned against it.
And breathed.
She sat in her chair, after washing her face and plaiting her hair, and stared at the moon waxing in its heaven…and had hope.
Ten
Breakfast was as energetic on the sixth day of the children’s arrival as it was from the start. The cubs refused to sit still and seemed to subsist on air, if the effort it took to make them eat was anything to go by. Tarben hopped around the table to the disapprobation of Bernadette, who was skilled in pushing her porridge about to appear she was eating it, which she was not. Ursella slid from her seat to take up residence beneath the table, a little hand waving for scraps of toast, only accepting them if they were free of jam. A pile of rejected slices sat on her chair.
Madam wished to willingly add to this chaos? Whatever her initial discomfort with the cubs, it was long gone as she managed to convince Tarben to return to his seat, encouraged Bernadette to finish her porridge, and ended up with Ursella on her lap, cajoling the child into consuming a rasher of bacon, one sliver at a time.
Arms around the child, she nevertheless had recourse to her inevitable pen and paper and informed the servants and Todd of their tasks on the schedule, or was it Schedule. She reviewed what had been achieved thus far, with great praise for all involved. Arthur noticed that Madam explicitly did not address the fact that workmen, from who knew where, swarmed the roof, and several within were tasked with re-plastering the walls. Nor did she call attention to the veritable army repairing the cottages that once housed the members of his—of his father’s sleuth.
Nor did she complain when the children began airing their preferences regarding their accommodation; in fact, she exacerbated their high spirits by transcribing their opinions.
“And have you discovered anything else lacking?” Madam treated this inquiry with the utmost gravity.
Bernadette concluded her long list of items necessary for bringing the schoolroom up to scratch, while Tarben’s imagination went in other directions. The absence of their parents allowed it to reach new heights of whimsicality.
“We require a giraffe!” his nephew cried.
“It would come in very handy for retrieving things from the highest shelves.” Madam made a note, and Tarben hooted with glee.
“Yes!” He cuddled into her side. “In my other aunt’s house, she had a stuffed giraffe.”
