Page 36 of A Baby to Seal the Duke’s Fate

The faintest hint of color touched her cheeks. “She has a healthy appetite.”

He found himself smiling.

“I shall take that as a good sign.”

“The best, Your Grace.”

“And her sleep?”

There was a longer pause. Once again, Leopold noted the darkness beneath her eyes.

“She is a little more restless.”

Leopold nodded, strangely relieved that the nursemaid had answered him honestly, if a bit vaguely.

“She is still suffering with her teething?”

“Yes.”

“Badly?”

“I would not say badly.”

He gave her a dry look.

Miss Redmond smiled weakly. “Perhaps badly, then.”

Leopold returned the smile. “That sounds more honest.”

She dipped her head.

He considered her for another moment. “Does she wake angry or only offended?”

A flicker of amusement passed across her face. “She is not yet willing to distinguish between the two.”

“That seems sensible.”

“She would agree.”

Leopold found himself watching her rather than the notes in front of him. It was not merely that she answered well. She answered carefully, and with only enough detail to be useful.

It was as if she was not sure if she should elaborate. Or as if she did not trust him with elaborative details. And yet her answers were confident and certain, as though she could read the child’s mind.

Most nursemaids would struggle in the first few days of caring for a child until they learned that child’s specific cues and sounds. But Miss Redmond seemed to know what to do as if Cecily could tell her exactly what was wrong or what she needed.

He folded one hand over the other, thinking again about what his mother had said. The issues with the child were obvious enough, to be sure. But it seemed like Miss Redmond knew the perfect solutions, not for just any infant, but for Cecily in particular. “You speak about her as though you have known her longer than five days.”

Miss Redmond’s fingers paused against each other before she forced them loose again.

It lasted only a second, but he saw enough to know the question had struck somewhere tender.

“I have been with children before, Your Grace.”

“That was not what I meant.”

“No.”

He waited.