Page 17 of The Secret Love of a Gentleman
‘Let me see, Aun’ie Ca’o.’
She wished to look as much as George did. She crossed the room and they looked through the window.
Robbie’s fashionable phaeton stood below and two thoroughbred chestnuts shook out their manes in the traces. Robbie jumped down as a groom held the horses’ heads to stop them bolting.
She watched Robbie dancing last night. He moved gracefully for a tall man. She knew he had not meant to disconcert her yesterday, he was simply being kind and thoughtful; she saw that in the way he engaged with his family.
‘Uncle Bobbie!’ George reached to the window with his horse.
‘No.’ Caro caught his hand, afraid he would hit and break the glass.
His legs straightened, expressing his desire to be put down.
When Caro set him on his feet, immediately he ran to the door and reached up, trying to turn the handle.
‘Master George!’ the nanny reprimanded, but George would never be deterred from the thought of someone new to play with.
‘I will go with him,’ Caro said as George managed to turn the doorknob, open the door and run out.
‘Forget the tea. I doubt we shall be back.’
Caro’s heart raced as she followed, but it was not with fear. She felt a sudden, rare punch of…excitement.
‘George! Wait for me!’
He raced along the hall, his hands fisted, his arms pumping. He always looked like a little caricature of Drew when he ran.
‘George! Wait! Or I will tell your papa you misbehaved and you will not see Uncle Robbie!’
He did not stop.
Fear returned as he neared the top of the narrow stairs leading down from the attic rooms.
‘George, stop!’ She clasped the skirt of her dress, lifted it high and ran, terrified he would fall.
The child was an absolute nightmare when he chose to be, but he stopped at the head of the stairs and clutched a spindle of the banister as he looked back at her.
‘Good boy, George, darling,’ she praised breathlessly when she reached him, dropping to her haunches to hug him as love spilled from her heart into her blood on a tide of relief. ‘Remember, you are not to run near the stairs, nor near horses or water. They are the three things you must never do.’
He nodded, his expression crinkling into a look of concern for her distress.
‘Good boy,’ she said again, giving him another squeeze, then lifted him to her hip and kissed his cheek. ‘Now, let us find your Uncle Robbie.’
She carried him down, with one hand sliding along the stair rail.
‘May I see Uncle Bobbie’s ho’ses?’
‘They will be in the stables. You will see them another day.’
‘Will Papa let me ’ide them?’
‘One day, yes.’
George’s short-sentenced conversation continued down the stairs. He rarely ran out of enthusiasm or energy.
When they reached the first-floor landing, Caro heard male voices. Robbie and Drew were in the hall below. She stopped, looking down. The servants were bringing in Robbie’s trunk.
‘Uncle Bobbie!’ George shouted.
