Page 42 of A Baby to Seal the Duke’s Fate

Honora smiled despite herself and settled beside her on the blanket. Let her be angry, she thought. At least she is not terribly suffering from her teething for the moment.

It had been nine days since she arrived at Belgrave. She knew the layout of the manor and the grounds. She knew which corridor creaked outside the nursery, which stair was never used by the staff, which door the kitchen maid used when she carried laundry down to the washhouse, which times the gate was opened for deliveries and which times it stayed locked.

She knew when Mrs. Pritchard preferred the household quiet, when the upstairs maids made their rounds, and when Leopold vanished into the study and stayed there long enough to make the rest of the house feel as though it had forgotten him.

She had come to know these things by necessity so that she was never caught with her guard down. And now, at last, she had a plan for how she would get Cecily out of the manor and disappear before anyone even realized they were gone.

She would take Cecily and go north to Northumberland, where her aunt on her mother’s side had married years ago and now lived in a house by the coast.

Honora had not seen her in more than a year, but her aunt had once written kindly enough and had always been the sort of woman to take in a relative if the need were plain and the request honest. Honora hoped, perhaps foolishly, that she might offer shelter. Not forever. Only long enough to think.

She had enough money for the journey if she was careful. She had the service gate in mind. She had already decided which changes in the household routine gave her the best chance. What she did not have yet was the right time.

Cecily crawled to the edge of the blanket, found a leaf, and held it up with great seriousness.

Honora leaned back on one hand and watched her. “You are determined to become filthy.”

Cecily babbled, then shoved the leaf toward her mouth again. Honora took it away. The baby protested at once, kicking one foot hard enough to make the blanket shift. Honora was about to distract her with a ribbon from her sleeve when voices came from the path beyond the hedge. She looked up.

Leopold and Barnaby came around the corner from the stables, both of them in riding coats and boots dusted with the road. Leopold had one hand lifted as if he had been in the middle of saying something.

Barnaby walked beside him with his usual easy look of alertness, one shoulder slightly angled as though he had been listening more than speaking. They stopped the moment they saw her. And then, they saw Cecily.

Leopold’s face changed first, though only a little. The baby, for her part, lifted both arms and made a pleased sound at the sight of him.

Honora felt her shoulders contort into firm knots.

Leopold glanced at Barnaby, then at Cecily, then at Honora. “You have escaped the nursery.”

Honora rose partly, one hand still steadying the child. “She needed air.”

“That sounds reasonable.”

Barnaby looked from the baby to Honora and then to Leopold with a faintly amused expression. “Are we interrupting something private?”

“No,” Honora said, perhaps too quickly.

Leopold did not answer as quickly. He was looking at Cecily, who was reaching for him as though he had already promised to pick her up.

“She wants you, it would seem,” she said,

Barnaby’s brows rose slightly, but he said nothing.

Leopold looked at Honora as if checking whether she meant it. Then, when she did not move to stop him, he crouched beside the blanket and held out his arms.

Cecily reached with both hands and leaned forward immediately. Honora’s breath caught. Leopold lifted her carefully, one hand under her back and one at her hip, and Cecily settled against him at once as if that had always been the proper arrangement. She pressed her face into his shoulder, let out a pleased little sigh, and closed her eyes.

Honora froze. A month ago, that baby would not have gone to anyone but me, she thought. Something had changed, and Honora did not have the first idea what it could be.

Honora watched Leopold hold the child, trying to suppress fear and helplessness. The plan she had been creating in her mind began to crumble, as she no longer knew whether Cecily’s new ease with him made leaving simpler or impossible.

Barnaby watched the exchange with a look of quiet interest.

“How is she settling in?” he asked Honora.

The question sounded casual, but Honora knew it was not. She could feel the attention behind it, the careful way he was asking without seeming to ask too much.

“She is settling,” Honora said carefully.