Page 40 of Duke of Diamonds
“Well, she has been found,” Isaac said, stepping aside and gesturing grandly toward the hall. “And unless you wish to become goblin dinner yourself, you would do well to scamper back to your bed as swiftly as possible.”
David puffed out his chest, his bare feet planted wide apart in a parody of defiance. “A grown man is not afraid of measlygoblins,” he declared, the very picture of youthful bravado. “Besides, goblins are only in stories. I do not believe in them. Unlike some people.”
He cast a taunting glance toward Rebecca, who stuck out her tongue in reply.
“I should like to hear you say that again when you become a goblin prisoner,” Rebecca retorted smartly.
Isaac folded his arms and suppressed a smile, the corners of his mouth twitching with mirth.
Little warriors, both of them. And neither with an ounce of caution between them.
As Rebecca and Miss Eveson continued up the stairs, David, not to be outdone, made a face and lurched after them.
“Oh, look, little girl,” he growled, his voice pitched low in imitation of some dreadful creature. “I am a goblin, and I have come to take you prisoner!”
He followed his pronouncement with a series of absurd animal noises that filled the hall.
Rebecca squealed, the sound bouncing off the marble floors, but not in terror—in delighted defiance.
“You are not a goblin, David,” she said stoutly over her shoulder. “And I am not frightened of you.”
Isaac allowed himself a quiet chuckle, the sound warming the chill that had settled in his chest earlier that day.
At least some battles are fought with laughter rather than pain.
“What festivities are taking place in my front hall at this scandalous hour?” a new voice inquired, cutting through the revelry.
Isaac turned to see his sister, Elaine, emerging from a nearby archway, her housekeeper hovering a step behind. Surprise flitted across Elaine’s features as her gaze landed on him.
But to Isaac’s relief, there was none of the sharp displeasure he had half-expected—not after the terse parting they had shared the evening before.
He straightened and offered a slight bow.
“The children were merely returning to bed,” he said, nodding toward the stairs where Miss Eveson shepherded her charges upward.
Rebecca, however, broke away from the nurse’s guiding hand and scampered back down the steps. She launched herself into Elaine’s arms, pressing a quick kiss to her mother’s cheek.
“Good night again, Mama,” she said, her voice brimming with unspent energy.
Elaine caught her daughter instinctively, smoothing Rebecca’s hair with a fond, if bewildered, hand.
Rebecca grinned and skipped back to the nurse, who waited patiently at the landing.
“Good night again, Mother,” David called out more formally from halfway up the staircase, his chest swelling with the pride of behaving, at last, as a proper young gentleman.
Isaac bit back another smile as he watched them go, and Elaine let out a little chuckle as she bid her children goodnight for what seemed to be the second time that evening.
Turning back to Isaac, she gave a small shake of her head and led him toward one of the smaller salons.
Inside, she moved with brisk efficiency, selecting a decanter from the sideboard and pouring two measures of brandy.
“I put them to bed myself,” she said lightly, handing him a glass. “Right before I was called away to tally some accounts with Mrs. Alden after dinner. They were tucked in, kissed, and sworn to good behavior.”
Isaac accepted the tumbler with a nod, the familiar weight of it grounding him.
No governess or nanny could have managed them half as well. Rebecca and David would not be half so wild if they did not feel so loved.
Elaine settled opposite him, perching neatly at the small bar table, her skirts arranged with practiced grace. She lifted her glass but did not drink, instead regarding him over the rim with an expression too careful to be called casual.
