“Snow,” she’d explained with a shrug.
Apparently, the indomitable Miss Wood had spent her dinner hour decorating. Her cheeks were still pink from the cold or perhaps embarrassment. Layton couldn’t shake the feeling that she was uncomfortable. With him? And why was that frustrating?
“Miss Caroline, would you please help me with the cake?” Miss Wood spoke as if addressing another grown woman.
Caroline smiled quite proudly and nodded. Miss Wood sliced the small Twelfth Night cake into three pieces and laid each one on a nursery-sized plate.
“Give the first to your father, dearest.”
Caroline walked carefully, slowly, around the table and laid the tiny plate in front of Layton. “Did I do good, Papa?” she whispered.
“’Twas perfect, love,” Layton answered in a matching whisper and kissed her on the forehead. She giggled and returned to the cake, pulling one plate in front of her own chair before sitting down, the picture of feminine demureness. Miss Wood had, apparently, been instructing Caroline in her mealtime manners.
“Can we look for the coin now?” Caroline asked Miss Wood, her eagerness belying her patient demeanor.
“That would be up to your father, Miss Caroline,” Miss Wood answered gently.
Miss Wood turned to look at Layton, expectation brightening her eyes. Something akin to mischief showed in the pair of chocolate-brown eyes. Brown. Why had he never noticed that before? It was an unusual combination: red hair and brown eyes. Yet it fit her somehow, surprisingly and unexpectedly.
“I think we’d better begin our search, Caroline. I’m anxious enough I just might eat the coin and not realize it.”
“Oh, Papa!” Caroline giggled. “You are funny tonight!”
“Someone must have put funny pepper in the soup,” Miss Wood said, smiling at Caroline.
“Funny pepper?” Layton and Caroline said in unison.
“Don’t tell me you haven’t heard of funny pepper.” Miss Wood looked like she knew they hadn’t and found it amusing.
“I have a feeling we are about to hear another story.” Layton smiled in spite of himself.
“Not if you are in danger of breaking a tooth on the coin hidden in your slice of cake,” Miss Wood answered.
“And how do you know the coin is in my slice?”
She shrugged. “I suppose I don’t, really. You just seemed so convinced you were about to swallow a small fortune in hidden change.”
“I want to hear about the funny pepper.” Caroline jumped into the conversation.
“Don’t you think we should eat our cake first?” Miss Wood asked.
Caroline appeared to think it over for a minute, obviously torn between the two choices. Finally, she nodded. Miss Wood opened her eyes wide as if overwhelmed by excitement. She held her fork ready and watched Caroline like she would a rival in a race, but with a laugh in her eyes. Caroline held her fork precisely the same way and looked at Miss Wood with the same mock rivalry.
Miss Wood nodded almost imperceptibly. In perfect synchrony, the two females tore into their cakes with their forks.
“I am going to find it, Caroline! I am going to find it!” Miss Wood called out as she dug with remarkable enthusiasm.
Caroline laughed so hard she could hardly search for the coin. Tears trickled from her crinkled eyes, and she gulped for breath. Miss Wood had reduced her slice of cake to a pathetic pile of crumbs and had begun picking apart Caroline’s. Squeals and giggles echoed off the walls of the nursery, a sound Layton had never heard, not once in the four and a half years since Caroline’s birth.
“It’s—It’s not—there,” Caroline gasped out between giggles.
“Where could it have gone?” Miss Wood asked as though she were completely baffled.
“Papa has it, Mary!”
“He’s hiding it from us, is he?”
Then they both turned to look at him, eyes running over with laughter. Layton felt his smile widen. He’d been certain when Miss Wood had arrived that she would be trouble. But watching Caroline, listening to her easy laughter, Layton was never more grateful for another person. Caroline had saved him four years earlier. And now Miss Wood was saving Caroline.
Chapter Ten
“That means he’s king,” Caroline said.
“Not if we get the coin before he does.” Marion laughed, an idea popping into her head.
Amusement flashed in Caroline’s eyes, and Marion was instantly glad she’d encouraged the girl in a little devilment. She needed to laugh and smile more. She needed to play more. If only Mr. Jonquil could shed a little of his composure so his daughter would feel lighthearted and playful with him.