Page 52 of Snowdrops and Winterberry
“I have had a great many Christmases ruined, Lord Jonquil. This won’t manage it, I assure you.”
The little boy climbed up onto the sofa and looked up at him. His golden brows pulled in an expression of focused concern. “Why have your Christmases been ruined?”
“I don’t have a father or mother to play games with me.”
“Who do you play games with?”
Adam hadn’t expected an interrogation from a five-year-old. “With no one. That is why my Christmases are not as merry as yours.”
“Mama.” Philip remained on the sofa but turned to face his mother. “Adam Grace doesn’t have anyone to play games with him. He needs to stay with us so he can play games on Christmas.”
The little lordling had taken to calling him “Adam Grace,” though Adam hadn’t determined yet whether the boy was genuinely confused by his parents calling their visitor Adam while the staff all called him “Your Grace” or if the boy was using the misnomer in order to be funny.
“Adam is staying with us for Christmas, Philip,” Mother Julia said. “Your papa brought him to Lampton Park specifically to be here at Christmas.”
Philip turned wide eyes on Adam. He dropped his voice to a vehement whisper. “Tomorrow is Christmas.”
“I know.” Did he actually think Adam didn’t know what day it was? There was a lot Adam didn’t understand about children.
The little boy stood on the sofa and, with a posture and tone that would not be out of place on any stage in London, declared dramatically, “We have to stop playing huckle buckle beanstalk.”
Lucas, who had Corbin under an arm and was chasing Jason, to the delight of both his twins, asked, “Why do we need to stop?”
“Adam Grace is staying for Christmas, Papa.” Philip set his fists on his hips. “He has to be part of the surprise.”
“Surprise?” Mother Julia looked to Lucas with wide-eyed curiosity.
Philip slapped his hands over his mouth, clearly fearing he would reveal a secret.
Layton filled in the silence, though he addressed his father, not his mother. “Adam is one of Mama’s boys. He has to be part of the Christmas surprise.”
“Right.” Lucas assumed a somber demeanor and walked to Adam. “Carry this one.” He held out Corbin in the manner one would hand over a portmanteau, which, for reasons Adam didn’t understand, made the tiny boy laugh again.
Adam eyed Corbin with misgiving that he knew he didn’t keep hidden. “I don’t have experience with children.”
“Precisely why I’m having you hold the one least likely to bite.”
“Bite?”
“A small chance of it, and a small bite at that.” Lucas’s somber expression dissolved quickly.
“Lucas will tease you mercilessly if you let him, Adam,” Mother Julia said.
Adam knew that well enough. He found it a little confusing, but he liked it just the same.
With a smile, Lucas set Corbin’s feet on the ground. “Hold Adam’s hand,” he instructed his boy. “Jason, take the other one.”
The small twins tugged Adam to his feet.
“And I am not to be told what this excursion is that you all are undertaking?” Mother Julia didn’t actually seem upset to be excluded. It was more of this family’s tendency to tease.
“It is a surprise,” Layton declared firmly, and that was the end of the conversation.
Adam, tugged along by the twins, followed Lucas, flanked by Philip and Layton, out of the drawing room.
“I am not actually one of her boys, you know.” He felt he ought to point that out before he was pulled into anything he had no right to be part of.
Lucas stopped and turned back to look at him. “Do you truly think that because you don’t live here or because we don’t share a surname or a family tree, you aren’t one of our boys? I taught you about family, Adam, and I taught you better than that.”
