This Duchess of Mine(111)

“I’ll get the medicine,” Villiers said. “Where is it?”

“Nonsense,” Elijah said. “Dukes don’t fetch things. Jemma dashed over to your house to fetch the article on foxglove, and now you’re the same.”

“We’re not living up to your ducal expectations?” Villiers said.

“In some ways, yes,” Elijah said. “What has happened to you? You look as altered as I. Did you know that your hair ribbon does not match your coat?”

Villiers had grabbed it from the table and left his valet bleating something or other.

“Just to demonstrate that dukes do fetch things, yesterday I went to fetch my eldest son.”

“Were you successful?”

Jemma murmured something and turned in her sleep. Bright hair spilled over Elijah’s knees. Villiers realized with some surprise that he felt nothing.

“The boy had been consigned to a grotesque personage who ran a group of boys as mudlarks.”

Elijah frowned instantly. Of course he, of all the dukes in the realm, would know precisely what a mudlark was, and how perilous their lives. “Has he been injured?”

“His legs are somewhat scarred, but he seems well. Another boy appears likely to lose his foot from a great cut.”

“The mortality rate is very high.”

Villiers felt that like a punch to the stomach. “Ah. Well, my son appears to be alive. Very alive. In addition, he seems to be a hellion.”

“Imagine that,” Elijah said. “Who would have thought?”

Villiers ignored his sarcasm.

“Where is he?”

“I handed him over to Mrs. Ferrers, my housekeeper.”

“You handed your son over to the housekeeper? You don’t know where he is sleeping?”

“What housekeeper?” Jemma said, straightening up and yawning. “What time is it?” With a groan she collapsed back onto Elijah’s chest.

“Who else could take care of the boy? He was filthy. Was I supposed to do something with him?” But it was a question he had been asking himself. Should he go up to the nursery and say something? Take the boy somewhere?

Jemma sat up again and threw back her hair. “What the devil are you doing here, Villiers?” She blinked and clutched her blanket a little higher.

“I came to hear your good news,” he said blandly.

“Oh.” Then she beamed at him. “Isn’t it wonderful?”

“Yes.”

“But what were you saying about your housekeeper?”

“The housekeeper has been assigned to care for one of my children,” Villiers said. “I have five more children to find, and God knows what sort of living arrangements my solicitor made for them. He’s gone missing, by the way, and I expect he’s taken a quantity of money with him.”

“Have you put a Runner on him?” Elijah inquired.

Villiers nodded. “Not for the money, but in the event that I can’t find one or more of the children.”

“You must go look for the rest of them,” Jemma said.

“What are you waiting for?”

“Advice,” he said flatly.

“I know nothing of children,” she replied. “Perhaps you should hire a nursemaid. In fact, you will need more than one, as well as a governess. Your housekeeper can find them for you.”

“Not that,” Villiers said, picking up his sword stick and examining it as if he’d never seen it before. “I need a wife. That is, I suppose I do need a nanny or two, or three. But I need a wife. And I’ve lost two fiancées so far.”

“You need someone of a generous temperament, of course.” She hesitated. “Are you certain that you wish to bring up these children in your own home, Leopold? You could place them in the country, with a good family, and visit them often.”

“No.” He didn’t know why it was, but he couldn’t have Tobias sent away, where he might not be safe. Never again. Even though he was a repellent little monster. “I was under the impression that you were quite enamored of your brother’s illegitimate brat.”

“But last year Elijah threw a tantrum at the mere idea that the boy would be staying under our roof, and he was just the one child, rather than six,” Jemma said, elbowing her husband.

“I was trying to be effective in Parliament at that point,” Elijah said. “And I was going about it the wrong way.” He dropped a kiss on her hair.

“You need a woman who won’t be terrified by the very idea of your children,” Jemma said, “which I think excludes the greater number of debutantes, don’t you agree, Elijah?”

“The problem,” Elijah said slowly, “is not how to handle these children now. It’s what will happen to them when they reach marriageable age.”