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“Go, enjoy a well-earned break,” Seth pressed. “We’ve both done this before.”
Susan gave Charlotte a quick hug, then told Seth ‘thank you’ from across the room before slipping out.
When his mother left, Samuel started fussing again. Seth spun him for a bit and then skipped across the room. But playing horse was quickly getting old. Samuel stopped crying for a bit but didn’t giggle this time.
“Let’s hope that handkerchief gets here soon,” Seth said to Charlotte. “Otherwise, we might have a mutiny on our hands.”
“Hand him to me, then,” Charlotte said. “I haven’t held him all day as it is.”
“I don’t know, we men have to stick together when life gets rough.” Still, he allowed Charlotte to pluck the little boy out of his arms.
“Even brave men who ride wild horses,” she said, moving back toward the settee, “need their grandmothers now and then.” She sat down, placing Samuel on her knee, facing her.
“That’s true,” Seth said, coming to sit beside her. “I guess we’ll let it go this once.”
Just then, the nursemaid came back into the room with a tray. Atop it sat a handkerchief and a small bowl of several sugar cubes. Seth directed her to place it beside the tea service on the table in front of him.
“I am curious what you plan to do with all that,” Charlotte said.
The nursemaid must have felt the same, for she stayed in the room, standing just a few steps away.
Seth took the handkerchief, cold to the touch but not stiff, and placed a sugar cube directly in the center. Then he folded the handkerchief over on itself so that the center with the sugar was on one side and all the rest of the handkerchief was bundled up on the other.
“Hand him to me.”
Charlotte did, and Seth turned the boy around so that the little thing sat on his lap, resting comfortably against Seth and facing outward toward the room. Leaning forward carefully, Seth picked up the handkerchief and placed the center with the sugar into the boy’s mouth where he suspected the tooth was trying to come in.
Samuel twisted his head away at the touch, then immediately turned back toward the handkerchief and looked at it. He batted at it for a moment. Then, quite suddenly, he reached for it and then promptly shoved nearly a third of the handkerchief into his mouth.
At her grandson’s attempt to take such a huge bite, Charlotte laughed softly beside Seth.
The little boy moved the handkerchief about his mouth for a minute, biting now and then. After a minute, he must have gotten the sugar where it felt the best, for he stayed there, gnawing on the handkerchief as though he were a starving dog with a solitary bone.
Seth let go of the bit of fabric, confident the boy could handle it himself. Samuel gnawed for a bit, then chomped down hard even while tugging on the rag, as though he meant to rip a piece off. After a moment, he went back to the constant biting.
All the while, however, not a single cry or fuss escaped him.
“That’s quite smart, that is,” the nursemaid said.
Seth couldn’t help but smile as he watched the little boy attack the handkerchief as though it were his sworn enemy. “A cold handkerchief always helped my daughters when their teeth were coming in. We didn’t normally have sugar cubes about, but there was this one time when Dinah was having a particularly hard go of it, my sister’s neighbor suggested we plop a little sugar in the rag. It made the difference.”
“I’ll remember that for next time,” the nursemaid said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I think the nursery needs a bit of tidying up.”
“Don’t bother with that just now,” Charlotte said. “You look ready to drop, yourself. Go take a break. The mess can be dealt with later.”
The nursemaid curtsied. Her smile looked relieved. “Thank you, m’lady. That is most kind of you.” She hurried out the door.
Samuel grunted as he used both hands to tug on the handkerchief yet again.
“I think his sugar is gone,” Charlotte said. She leaned forward and plucked another cube from the small bowl.
It took some wrestling on Seth’s part, but he finally got the handkerchief away from Samuel, who fussed endlessly once it was out of his hands. Together, they got another sugar cube back into the center of the fabric and wrapped the handkerchief around the sugar once more.
As soon as Samuel had the handkerchief back in his hands, his gaze grew focused, and his nose scrunched up as he resumed his near-barbaric endeavors to shred it with the tooth he was trying to get in.
Charlotte laughed softly as she snuggled in closer to Seth, resting her head against his shoulder even as she reached out and massaged one of Samuel’s little feet in her hand.
“I’m so glad Susan and William chose to come for a visit.”
“Nothing is better than time with family,” Seth said.
“How true,” Charlotte agreed, “how true.”
Seth glanced about himself quickly. “Now that we are alone, I actually have something I must tell you. Regarding Emma.”
