Ninety minutes after turning the children, including Abigail, over to the care of his housekeeper and butler with Jane in overall charge, Jeffrey slowly made his way up three flights of stairs to where the playroom was located.
As he made his way down the carpeted corridor the sound of Jane’s soft, sweet voice drew him quickly to the doorway.
“Now, unlike your home here we have to be careful as to what we do. The Viscount was kind enough to bring you in while the roof is repaired so we don’t want to overstay our welcome. If you have any questions feel free to ask Lady Abigail or myself,” he watched Jane tell them.
Something told him at least one of the Johnson tykes might not follow Jane’s request, Sue. When he’d held her in his arms earlier he could see a touch of the devil, similar to what his daughter had at the same age. All he could, for the time being, was to accept the inevitable and see what happened during their stay.
Right now his larger problem was where to have them take their meals. Up until now Abigail and Jane had started joining him at the table but could he trust the others, especially the littlest devil.
Stepping into the playroom he was greeted by six smiling faces looking up at him from a circle they’d formed on the floor.
“Ladies, gentlemen I must say you all look so much better than earlier. From the reports I got not one of you misbehaved during your bathing.”
“Thank you m’ lord. As you can see we were able to hunt down attire for everyone and I apologize for having to borrow several of yours,” Jane said, blushing as she started to stand in his presence.
Jeffrey waved her back down then decided it would be better if he was on the same level so he took a seat beside his daughter.
The sound of several children giggling brought an unexpected warmth to his heart, a feeling he’d not known since his daughter was much younger.
He’d wanted more children but with the difficulty his late wife had they’d decided not to risk her life again.
“Think nothing of it. As you can well see it’s been years since I’ve worn them and I’m happy they’re in use again. The same goes for the play dresses for the girls.”
“I dook da bretest ext to Aggil,” Sue cried out, jumping up and trying to spin around. “An tee how me ress tirls.
“Yes you do. I’m so glad Miss Jane chose it for you,” Abigail said settling Sue in her lap.
“And you young men look perfect in the clothes also as do you Joannie,” he replied and received warm smiles from them all.
“M’ lord, now that everyone is cleaned and properly dressed we were going to see if Mrs Linwood had tea ready for us,” Jane spoke, getting cheers from the five with Abigail leading.
“Miss Jane, would you mind if I joined your charges. We can have it on the terrace as it’s such a beautiful afternoon.”
Not surprising his pronouncement brought another round of screams of joy.
“We would be honored and I know everyone will be on their best behavior,” Jane declared, glancing to Rich.
“Yes Miss Jane I know my brother and sisters will,” he replied, to nods from the three.
“I’ll help also,” Abigail added, giving Sue a hug.
“Wonderful, then shall we go and I’ll have everything brought outside,” Jeffrey professed, then stood and assisted first Jane followed by the other girls to their feet as the two boys were already up.
He watched as Jane arranged everyone in single file with Abigail bringing up the rear then with them following started for the veranda. Enroute he came across his housekeeper and gave her instructions to have tea, for everyone, brought out.
