she sat primly. He lifted her slender hand from the chair’s arm and bowed over it before sitting across from her. His hope that he had handled the greeting correctly withered when he adjusted his spectacles and saw astonishment on her face. What faux pas had he made now?
He bit back the question as the little boy grinned at him, then pointed to the baby girl as he announced, “My baby!”
“Gil is very protective of Joy.” Lady Caroline smiled when the baby smacked the little boy on the arm and giggled. “Though some days, I feel I should be protecting him from her.” Her voice was soft and soothing as she bent toward the baby and said, “Do not hit Gil, Joy. You don’t want to hurt him, do you?”
“Gil is a big boy,” Jacob said with a smile Gil returned brightly. “He can take care of himself.”
“Gil big boy.” He tapped his chest proudly, then turned to Lady Caroline and repeated the words. Standing, he leaned on Jacob’s knee. “Big, big boy.”
“That you are, young man.”
When the little boy laughed, Jacob could not help doing the same. He could not recall the last time he had a conversation with a child as young as Gil. He had been more accustomed to talking to his students at the university, and now most of his discussions were with the miners who worked on his estate.
The baby girl picked up a shiny stick from the rug and stuck it in her mouth, holding it by one end that appeared to be made of silver.
Jacob’s bafflement must have been visible because Lady Caroline said, “Joy is getting her first tooth.”
“And the stick helps?” he asked.
“It appears so. She chews on the coral. Because it is hard, the coral seems to give her relief from the pressure of the tooth on her gum.”
“Do you have another teething stick?”
Her light blue eyes narrowed. “Yes, but why do you ask?”
“I would be interested in examining such a helpful device, but I dare not ask Joy to relinquish hers. She seems to be enjoying it far too much.”
She rose and walked past him without a word. He jumped to his feet belatedly. Was she going to the nursery now? He glanced at the children playing on the floor. She was leaving him with two babies? If she knew the truth of how untrustworthy he could be when his thoughts were elsewhere...
No! He was not going to blurt out the truth. Nobody in Porthlowen knew of his past, and he intended to keep it that way. He had no worries about his family discussing the tragedy that had left his darling Virginia dead the night he proposed to her; they preferred to act as if the accident had never happened.
“My lady—”
“Yes?”
Too late, he realized Lady Caroline held a bell to call for someone to fetch the teething stick. He should have guessed, but he was too unaccustomed to having servants ready to answer any summons.
Somehow, he managed to say, “If it is an inconvenience...”
“None.” She rang the bell, and the door opened in response.
While she spoke to a maid, Jacob tried to regain his composure. How she would want to laugh at him for being unsettled at the idea of being left alone with a two-year-old boy and a baby! Not that she would laugh. She was far too polite.
The maid returned moments later with another smooth stick. Lady Caroline took it, then handed it to Jacob before thanking the maid, who curtsied before leaving. As Lady Caroline went to sit by the children, Jacob examined the coral stick. The flat sides resembled a table knife.
“Fascinating concept,” he said, glad to concentrate on something other than his disquiet. He ran a single finger along the smooth, cool coral. The silver handle, which was connected to a ribbon, was embossed with images of the sun and flowers and birds.
“The ribbon can be tied to a child’s waist to keep the teething stick from getting lost, but my mother stopped doing that after I almost knocked an eye out with mine when I was a baby. Apparently, my cheek bore black bruises for a week.”
Jacob tried to envision Lady Caroline as an infant with a black eye. The image banished his dark thoughts temporarily, and he laughed. “It sounds as if your mother was a wise woman.”
“She was.”
The sorrow in her voice subdued his laughter. What a fool he was! Speaking of her mother’s death would remind her as well of her husband’s. He knew how impossible it was to forget someone loved and lost forever. Unsure what to say, he fell back on the clichéd. “You must miss her.”
“Yes.” She squared her shoulders and looked at him directly. “Now tell me what has brought you to Cothaire this morning, Lord Warrick. I know you are a busy man, and I doubt this is a social call.”
“I would like to ask you if... That is...” He was making a muddle of what should be a simple request. Taking a deep breath, he sat once more facing Lady Caroline and placed the teething stick on a table by his chair. He kept his voice even as he said, “I need your help.”
“My help? With what?”
“Please hear me out before you give me an answer, my lady.” When she nodded, words spewed from his lips before he lost the courage to say them. “My family is coming to Warrick Hall for the Christmas holiday.”
“How wonderful!”
He kept his smile in place. Wonderful was not the way he would describe the visit, because his stepmother loved drama and excitement while he preferred quiet for his writing and other long hours of work. “It would be wonderful if Warrick Hall was in any condition to receive guests.”
“That does present a problem, but we would be glad to have your guests stay here with us. We have plenty of room, and it is a short drive from here to Warrick Hall.”
“Thank you, but my family will expect to stay at Warrick Hall.”
“Of course.” She paused when the baby chirped. Lifting Joy, she set the squirming baby in her lap. “Forgive me, my lord, but I am confused. Will you explain how I can help you?”
He appreciated her getting right to the point. He would do the same. “I need help in redoing Warrick Hall so it is ready for my family. I suspect there is enough furniture in the attics, but I have no idea what pieces to use or how to arrange it. Nor do I have any idea which colors to use to repaint. Will you help me?” He jabbed at his spectacles, pushing them up his nose, and held his breath.
If Lady Caroline did not agree to assist him, he had no idea where to turn next to keep his stepmother from interfering in his life with disastrous results...again.
* * *
Caroline Trelawney Dowling struggled not to grin at Jacob Warrick. The baron was not as tall as her brothers, but of above-average height. His hair was ruddy-brown, his jaw firm and his face well-sculpted. However, the first thing she always noticed was his brass spectacles slipping down his nose. When she had been told he was calling, she had never guessed he would make a request that could gratify a craving in her heart. She had been struggling in recent months not to be envious when her younger brothers and sister began creating homes of their own. She had not realized how much she wanted to do the same. Cothaire had been her responsibility for the past five years, but that changed when her brother Arthur, Lord Trelawney, had married.
Even though she would always have a place to live at Cothaire, Caroline had been shunted from her position as the great house’s chatelaine. Not that Arthur’s wife, Maris, was anything but the epitome of kindness. She sought Caroline’s advice regularly. However, the household now looked to Maris for direction, not Caroline. It was as it should be; still, Caroline longed for a house to make into a home.
Now Lord Warrick was here with an offer for her to help him do exactly that with dilapidated Warrick Hall. Assisting him to make the old manor house comfortable for his family would show her