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Kade smiled at him. “You would know, since you practically raised me. Although I doubt you changed my dirty clouts.”
“You’d be wrong,” Royal said, “because I certainly did.”
Ainsley scoffed. “That cannot be true.”
“It’s not an experience one forgets,” he said.
“Didn’t your father hire proper nursemaids?” she asked.
“Of course he did. It’s just that . . . well, never mind.” It was not a topic he wished to discuss.
“He used to sneak into the nursery at night and take me back to his room,” Kade explained. “Nick said the first time it happened, the household went crazy looking for me. Finally, they found me cuddled up in Royal’s bed, happy as a grig.”
“On top of that, you changed his nappies, too?” Ainsley’s tone suggested she thought him dicked in the knob for doing so.
“What else was I supposed to do? Babies do need their clouts changed on a regular basis.”
“I’d wager the nursemaids weren’t happy about you raiding the nursery,” Victoria said with amusement. “They disapprove of disruptions in their fiefdoms.”
“They were less than keen, I’ll tell you that,” Royal said, shaking his head at the memory. “I got more than one scold for doing it.”
And several hard whacks from the senior nursemaid when no one was looking. Still nothing had stopped him from carting Kade off to his room.
Ainsley was obviously perplexed. “Butwhydid you do it?”
He started to give an awkward shrug but realized he might disturb Tira. “He wasn’t any trouble, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“He was afraid I was lonely,” Kade said. “We’d lost our mother, you see. Royal worried that I would feel all alone, even though I was just a babe and too young to know the loss.”
Royal blinked, startled. His little brother knew the story, of course. It was one of the family jokes—a rambunctious eight-year-old playing nursemaid to a squalling infant. He had never told anyone why he did it, but he wasn’t surprised Kade would see to the heart of it.
The lad always did.
“What anexcellentbrother you are, Royal Kendrick,” Victoria said, rubbing a gloved fingertip under one eye.
“Victoria, for God’s sake do not start bawling,” Royal said as he gently rocked the baby.
“My brothers certainly never did anything like that,” Ainsley said quietly. “I suspect they never set foot in my nursery, much less cared whether I was happy or sad—at least until I was much older.”
And, Royal suspected, probably not even then from the sounds of it.
Kade grimaced in sympathy. “That’s very sad.”
“You were lucky to have such a nice family,” she told the boy with a smile.
If she thought Kade or any of the brothers were lucky, with all the bad fortune they’d suffered over the years, it made Royal wonder what her childhood had truly been like.
“No one could have asked for a kinder, more generous family,” Kade said. “Royal especially takes the cake, even though all my brothers are splendid.”
“When we’re not all getting into trouble and driving Nick crazy, that is.” Royal was well aware he’d been anything but kind the last few years. Monumental pain in the arse to his long-suffering family was a better description. “Ainsley, why don’t you take the baby,” he suggested, uncomfortable with the conversation. “She’s gone back to sleep, so I’m sure she won’t fuss.”
Ainsley shook her head. “It took forever to get her to stop crying when I held her before.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” Victoria protested.
“Yes, it was.”
“You’re trying too hard, love,” Royal said. “Just relax.”
