Page 54 of A Secret Consequence for the Viscount
Chapter Eleven
It was a small New Year’s gathering, but Eleanor felt more nervous than she could ever remember being. Lucy was playing with her new china doll and her dolls’ house, the front piece opened so that the rooms could be easily viewed as she sat at her chair and table to one side of the fire. On the other side on two large sofas her first cousin Frank Rogerson and his wife, Ilona, were in a lively conversation with Jacob.
Grandmama was asking Lucy about what was inside the rooms and Eleanor’s daughter was giving her a running commentary on even the tiniest pieces of furniture.
‘It’s the smallest table in the world, Grammy, but it still has four legs and there are cups and plates that can sit on the top, see. If I pressed down hard I would squash it all to pieces like a giant.’
When did people lose that love of words, Eleanor thought as she watched her daughter, that uninhibited joy in all that was around them? She prayed that Nicholas might like Lucy. She also prayed that Lucy might like him.
* * *
The evening light was just fading as the Viscount arrived, shown into the front drawing room by the butler. As soon as he saw her he smiled, the dimple on his un-ruined cheek deeply etched in the light.
‘Lady Eleanor.’
‘Lord Bromley.’
They were formal here, polite and most correct, but she felt the thrill of his notice even as she stood and introduced her daughter.
‘This is Lucy, my lord. She has just come back to London from Millbrook House.’
She could see the interest in his face. ‘You look just like your mother.’
‘That’s ’cos I have the same colour hair, but mine’s not so long.’ Small hands brought her plait around to show him. ‘But I like my red ribbon. I got it for Christmas from Mama. It has sparkles.’
When he nodded Eleanor could tell he had not been around children much, his face a picture of uncertainty and a kind of fright. So she helped him.
‘Lucy was most fortunate this season and got a dolls’ house and another dolly as a present. Would you like to show the house to Lord Bromley? I am sure he would love to see it.’
The thought hit her then just how much the Viscount’s appearance contrasted so forcibly with their daughter, her child’s soft perfectness balanced against his wounded hand in its sling and the terrible slash across his cheek. And yet in the way they held their heads and watched people there was a decided similarity. Her eyes were exactly his colour.
‘You can play with the dolls if you want to. You can have the baby one because I don’t like her clothes as much as the other new one,’ Lucy chatted on as she found the swaddled china figure and held it out to him.
Without another option she saw Nicholas square his shoulders and walk forward to kneel to the side of the dolls’ house.
Looking away, she caught her brother’s glance upon her and flushed. Jacob was looking at her strangely and she could tell that he thought something was amiss.
* * *
She was not as small as he had thought she might be, this child of Eleanor’s, but she was beautiful in the way of all little girls. He smiled at this because in truth he’d hardly had any contact with children in any part of his life.
Except Emily.
The name brought a cold rush of air into the warmth and his fingers shook as he held out his hand to receive a tiny china baby doll all wrapped in white cloth.
‘You can put her to sleep if you like.’ Up close he could see Lucy’s eyes were not blue, but a warm golden brown.
‘In here?’ A miniature bed was in the room on the top-left storey and it seemed to be this she was pointing to.
‘No, silly. That’s a baby. She needs to go in the cradle, not the big girl’s bed.’
Her hands found an even smaller piece of furniture, pink ribbons festooned in every corner and rockers beneath it.
‘It even lifts up and down, see.’
And it did. The sides had been fashioned so that a lever could be pushed and the wood collapsed in on itself. With all the care in the world he placed the baby doll in its cradle and looked at Lucy for what to do next.
‘Now we have to tuck her in. Here.’
