A Lady's Guide to Courtship

XXXI. A Lord's Guide to Courtship

Everyone doted on the one-year old Harold while the two adopted children, Fiona and Faye would not stop talking about their adventures in Ashmore, making Ysabella feel as though everything had finally went back to normal.

"Darling, Ralph will not drop Harold," Margaret said to her husband who was watching over Ralph and Samuel as the two peered at the sleeping baby curiously.

"You yourself told me how many times he had dropped Emma when she was a babe, Meg," Cole murmured under his breath.

"You ought to see Levi as well," Emma said to their sister.

"He was here for the hunting games?" asked Margaret, her green eyes glimmering with excitement. "Was Tori here as well?"

"Of course," Emma said. "Unluckily for you, you were stuck in Ashmore. No offense meant, my lord," she added to Cole.

"None taken," Cole said, eyes still on Ralph.

"When is he going to awake?" Ralph asked, looking at his nephew with a frown.

"Are you certain he is just sleeping? He is not moving," said Samuel.

Fiona and Faye laughed. "He is not a doll!" Fiona said, jumping on the chaise beside Ralph.

"If you look closely," Faye said, bending over Harold across Samuel's lap, "he is breathing. See?"

Samuel and Ralph peered closer.

Ysabella scoffed beside Margaret. "They shall never have children. I cannot imagine it," she muttered beside her sister.

Margaret simply laughed. When she turned to face Ysabella, her expression changed. She frowned. "Have you been crying?"

"Asked the same question earlier," Ralph uttered. "Hands off, Devitt, you will have him later once we are gone," he snapped at Cole when the man made a move to get his son. With a sigh, Cole scratched his brown hair and turned toward the door.

"Mother must be tired," he said to Margaret on his way to the door, "but I would still insist that she join us for tea."

Margaret nodded to her husband and returned her attention to Ysabella. "What happened?" Her sister had a knowing look on her face, reminding Ysabella of Margaret's keen observant eyes. They could never hide a secret from Margaret. Never.

"I shall tell you later," she whispered to her sister. "For now, you must be tired. Did you come by your estate before you came here?"

"Of course. Mother was already there. We could not simply go straight here," Margaret said.

"How is Lady Ida?"

"She is well," Margaret said. "I merely hope she can stop ignoring Faye and Fiona," she added only for Emma and Ysabella to hear. The three of them watched as the two girls, Samuel and Ralph doted on the sleeping Harold.

"At the very least she accepts Harold," Emma said.

Margaret nodded.

"And the rest of us do love Faye and Fiona. That is all that matters," Ysabella said, staring lovingly at the two black-haired girls. Anyone would think they were sisters, when in fact they were simply two girls who met the same fate in the hands of very bad men until Cole and Margaret took them under their care and made them part of the family.

"By the by, will you be attending the Seymour ball?" Margaret asked.

Ysabella did not wish to go, but she knew she would have to at least show her family that she was all right. "Of course!" she said, eyeing Emma. "Our gowns are ready, are they not, Em?"