Page 49 of The Duke’s Godsend Bride

“I do not need help with Alice.”

“You will. She is not the same Alice you knew a year ago, the quiet little girl who cried in her room because of nightmares and would not speak above a whisper. She has twice that energy now, and you have an entire estate’s worth of correspondence sitting on your desk besides. You cannot manage both at once, not properly, and there is no shame whatsoever in admitting it.”

“I have it under control, do not worry.”

“Do you? Because I rather think Seraphina left Alice with you specifically because she knew I would be here to help. If she had wanted Alice minded by someone with no other obligations at all, she would have left her with Lady Byron instead.”

Anthony gave her a knowing look. “You truly believe Lady Byron is more capable than I am of looking after a child?”

“That is not what I said, but yes.”

“Leonora!”

“Contrary to everything you believe about Lady Byron being cold as a winter morning, she and Alice get along remarkably well. Alice adores her, in fact.”

“Fine. But none of this proves I am incapable of managing Alice myself.”

“I never said you were incapable, Anthony. Of course you are capable. You are capable of a great many things, as you are forever reminding everyone within earshot.” That earned her the faintest huff of something that was almost a laugh, and she pressed on before he could argue further. “I only want to help because you look like you have a great deal more on your plate, between the estate and the tenants and whatever else keeps you locked in your study until all hours. I am already here most days as Marian’s companion. It would hardly be any trouble at all to simply fold Alice into that.”

She held his gaze as she said it, which cost her a great deal of courage. Looking at him directly these past few days had become its own small trial, her eyes sliding away from his before she could stop them, her face warming simply from the act of being looked back at. She made herself hold it now regardless.

“Come on,” she added quietly. “You looked, not a minute ago, like a man drowning in four feet of water and too proud to call for a rope.”

“That is an unkind description.”

“It is an accurate one.” She smiled. “Ask me.”

Anthony shifted his stance then nodded. “Fine.” He said it quietly, almost reluctantly, the fight going out of him all at once. “If you are certain you do not mind it.”

“I would not have offered otherwise.”

“Then yes. I would like your help. You will have to tell me what I am doing wrong, though. I have no experience in this at all, and I suspect she already knows it. It’s scary because she has only been here for one morning.”

Leonora giggled. “Everyone starts with no experience. I did not have that experience myself until I started spending a great deal of time with Cordelia and Georgianna, my sister, Euphemia’s twins. You simply let them teach you as you go. Children are generally far more patient with us than we deserve.” Leonora found she liked him rather better for the effort of it than she expected to.

She smiled at him, pleased with herself and with him both, and his gaze dropped, just for a moment, to her mouth, lingering there. Leonora felt the look deep in her stomach. She wondered what would have happened if she had not pulled back from the kiss the other day in fright because it had all been so overwhelming in the moment.

Maybe she wouldn’t be thinking about it so much.

Clearing her throat rather more loudly than the moment called for, she looked away.

“We should return to them,” she said. “Before Alice convinces your grandmother to let every cat in the house sleep in her bed.”

“That ship, I suspect, sailed some time ago, along with any hope I had of keeping this house free of cat hair.”

They went back in together, and Anthony crouched down in front of Alice, who was still perched on Marian’s lap with one of the cats now attempting to climb into her sleeve.

“Alice. Leonora is going to be spending a great deal more time with you from now on. You are in her care now, so you shall see her nearly every day you are here. If you need anything at all, you need only ask her for it. I shall be in my study most of the time, but you may come and find me there too, if it is something that cannot wait.”

Alice considered this seriously, the cat still halfway up her sleeve. “I would much rather stay with Leonora, grandmother, and the cats. Your study is boring, Uncle Anthony.”

Anthony let out an incredulous laugh. “My study is not boring.”

“It is. There is nothing in it but papers.”

“There are books in it. A great many books, in fact, more than you could count in a week.” Anthony drew himself up slightly. “It also has the best light in the entire house, and a view of the garden that your own room, I will remind you, does not have.”

“I do not want to look at the garden. I want to play with the cats.”