“Peter conceived the notion to provide Papa with a young, buxom nurse. Arabella found some village girl with a kindly disposition toward ‘the old dear,’ and His Grace is reported to be pinching the maids and threatening to appoint himself Lord of Misrule.” Percival rested his chin against Esther’s temple. “Will you do the same for me, Esther, when I’m old and crotchety?”
The idea that they’d grow old and crotchety together loomed like the greatest gift a man might aspire to—though Esther hadn’t a crotchety bone in her lovely body.
“Of course, Percival. You shall have all the buxom nurses and giggling maids you desire, because I know you’ll not begrudge me my handsome footmen and flirting porters, hmm? And my doctors will be the most attentive and doting, too.”
She patted his chest, while love for her expanded to every corner of his heart. A month ago, she would not have teased him thus. A month ago, she would given him a look he could not read, and gone about taking her hair down as they exchanged careful small talk.
“I love you, Esther Windham. I will always love you.”
“I love you too, Husband.” She yawned again but made no move to leave his embrace; nor was he about to let her go.
A thought popped into Percival’s tired, happy mind. A thought that might have terrified him only a few short weeks ago. “You took a nap yesterday, Esther, and again today.”
“All by myself, which was a sorry waste of a large bed.”
“We shall put that bed to mutual use presently, but tell me: Are you carrying?” She sighed softly, and that was not a no. “Esther?”
“You adore your daughter, Percival. You study her as if she were some treasure unearthed from exotic antiquity, and you delight in the way she manages the boys.”
Percival inhaled through his nose, the better to catch Esther’s rosy scent, and it hit him: an undernote of nutmeg graced her fragrance. “I love all my children, and I love my wife, and if my wife is carrying yet another child, I will love that child too. And you’re right, I am fascinated by little Maggie and her way with her brothers. I am fascinated with all of them, but mostly, I am in love with my wife.”
He waited for her tell him she was carrying. Instead, she kissed him, and because he was her husband and he did love her to distraction, that was answer enough.
Epilogue
The door to Esther’s bedroom cracked open as the baby stirred in her arms.
“Quiet now, you lot,” came a whispered admonition. “If the baby’s sleeping, we mustn’t disturb her, or your mama will be wroth with us.”
Percival Windham, His Grace the Duke of Moreland, had rounded up his lieutenants to make a raid on Esther’s peace.
“Mama’s always wroth with us,” Gayle observed.
“She’s not wroth with me,” Bart countered.
Percival pushed the door open another few inches and peeked around it. “Hush. The next man who speaks will be court-martialed for conduct unbecoming.”
“No pudding,” little Victor piped. “No pudding.”
Victor was very particular about his pudding, much like his father and his late grandfather.
“Come in,” Esther said, pushing up against her pillows and cuddling her newest daughter close. “I’ve been telling Louisa to expect some callers.”
Percival held Louisa’s older sister Sophie in his arms, and Devlin walked at his side, while Bart charged ahead, Victor clutched a fold of his father’s coat, and Gayle kept Valentine by the hand. Maggie, as always, hung back, though she was smiling, as was her father.
Another healthy girl child safely delivered was an excellent reason to smile.
“Can I see the baby?” Victor asked.
As small as he was, he could not see his mother in her great bed, much less the new baby. Percival tucked Sophie in against Esther’s side and hoisted the children onto the bed one by one. They arranged themselves across the foot of the bed, never quite holding still, but demonstrating as much decorum as they were capable of.
“There, you shall all have a look,” Percival said when he’d positioned his troops. “But no shouting or bouncing around lest you rouse your baby sister Louisa.”
“She’ll mess her nappies,” Gayle observed. “You named her for Uncle Peter, because his real name was Peter Louis Hannibal Windham.”
“We did,” Esther said, though she shared a smile with Percival over the scatological preoccupations of the young male mind.
Not to be outdone, Bart gave his next-youngest brother a push. “You named Sophie for Grandpapa, and that’s why she’s Sophie George Windham.”
“Sophie Georgina,” Gayle said, shoving back.
Percival scooped up wee Sophie and settled with her, his back to the bedpost. “The next fellow who shoves, pushes, or interrupts his brother will be sent back to the nursery.”
“No pudding,” Victor said again, grinning at his older brothers.
Percival tousled Victor’s dark hair. “Heed the young philosopher, boys, and follow Maggie’s example of juvenile dignity.” He winked at Maggie, which always made the girl turn up bashful. “Esther, how do you fare?”
This had become a family ritual, this bringing the older siblings to see the new arrival, and what a darling new arrival she was. Louisa had Victor’s swooping brows, which on a newborn made for a startlingly dramatic little countenance.
“I am well, Percival. Childbearing is not easy, but it does improve with practice. Would you like to hold your daughter?”
They exchanged babies with the ease and precision of a parental drill team, and Esther beheld the Duke of Moreland give his heart, yet again, to a lady too small to understand the magnitude of such a gift.
Gayle also watched his father gently cradle the newborn in his arms. “If you have another baby, Mama, will you name her Cyclops?”
“Cyclops is stupid name,” Bart started in. Percival silenced his firstborn son and heir—Bart was arguably Pembroke now, though no parent in their right mind would tell the boy such a thing yet—with a glower, while Esther waited for Victor to pronounce sentence on the pudding again.
“Cyclops is not a stupid name,” Gayle replied with the gravity peculiar to him. “Sophie was named for Grandpa, and he died. Louisa is named for Uncle Peter, and he died right after Grandpa. Nobody has seen Cyclops for days, so she must be dead too, and that means we can name a baby after her.”
Percival left off nuzzling the baby long enough to smile at Gayle’s reasoning. “I think if you climbed up to the straw mow on a sunny morning and were quiet and still long enough, you’d find that Cyclops has finished her own lying-in and has better things to do than let little boys chase after her and threaten to take her prisoner.”
“Girls don’t like to be taken prisoner,” Maggie said. “May I hold the baby?”
The idea made Esther nervous, though Maggie would never intentionally harm her siblings.
“Come here,” Percival said, patting the bed. Maggie crawled across the mattress to sit beside her father. He placed the baby in Maggie’s lap and kept an arm around his oldest daughter. “I think she looks a little like you, Maggie, around the mouth. She’s very pretty.”
Characteristically, Maggie blushed but did not acknowledge the compliment. “Sophie was bald. Louisa has hair.”
Little Valentine squirmed closer and traced small fingers over the baby’s cheek. “She’s soft.”
“She’ll mess her nappies,” Gayle warned.
Bart apparently knew not to argue with that eternal verity. “Can we go now?” He looked conflicted, as if he might want to hold his baby sister and didn’t know how to ask without losing face before his brothers.
In Esther’s arms, little Sophie squirmed but did not make a sound. “Take Thomas with you if you’re going to the mews, and mind you big boys look after Victor.”