Jasper looked up sharply, as though startled by her tone. A slow, incredulous smile curved his lips. “I think… he does.”
Matilda tore her eyes away, cursing herself silently. This was absurd. She had long believed Jasper Everleigh incapable of tenderness, a man too consumed with arrogance and bravado to concern himself with something so fragile. And yet he was holding her sister’s child as though the world beyond the parlor had ceased to exist.
It unsettled her more than all his teasing ever had.
“I should not be impressed,” she said briskly, gathering her composure with effort. “But it seems you are not entirely useless after all.”
He chuckled, low and warm, his gaze still fixed on the infant. “High praise indeed, Lady Matilda. You may wound me yet with such generosity.”
For one improbable moment, Matilda thought she might never see him move again. He stood utterly still, as if carved fromstone, with the baby content in his arms. She dared not look too long, because her heart thumped traitorously with every breath.
Then the infant gave a sudden grunt, followed by the most unmistakable of sounds.
Jasper stiffened. “Good God.”
Matilda blinked. “What?—?”
His expression was stricken, almost horrified. “He has… he hasdone something.”
She pressed her lips together, trying not to laugh. “Babies are rather known for it, Your Grace.”
“No,” Jasper insisted, lowering his voice as though the babe might understand. “This is unnatural. No creature so small should produce such… suchviolence.”
Matilda could not contain herself. A laugh burst free, bright and ringing. “Violence? He has soiled himself, nothing more.”
“Nothing more?” Jasper’s eyes widened as the child wriggled again. “Madam, the very foundations of my coat are in peril.”
Her laughter grew until she had to clutch the arm of the settee. “Oh, Your Grace, you are absurd. Give him here.”
He wasted no time obeying, thrusting the baby carefully but with visible relief back into her arms. “I relinquish all duty. My role as godfather does not extend to,” he gestured vaguely, as though even naming the offense was beneath him, “this.”
Matilda shook her head, still smiling as she adjusted the infant against her shoulder.
“Coward,” she said again, though there was warmth in her tone this time.
Jasper gave a half-smile, tugging at his cuff as though to restore his dignity. “A prudent man knows his limits, Lady Matilda. Mine, it seems, end where napkins begin.”
Matilda was still laughing, unable to help herself, when the door opened.
“Ah, just look at you two!” Evelyn swept back into the parlor.
She paused, taking in the scene at once: Matilda flushed and smiling with the baby on her shoulder, and Jasper standing stiffly beside her, tugging at his cuff as if he could polish away indignity.
“How wonderful!” Evelyn clasped her hands in delight. “I knew you two would manage splendidly.”
Matilda gasped, heat rushing to her face. “Evelyn! You cannot simply abandon us in such a way?—”
“Nonsense,” Evelyn said serenely, moving to reclaim the baby. “You were quite equal to it. Look at him, peaceful as can be.” She glanced knowingly between them. “I daresay he enjoyed himself.”
“I would not go so far as to call it enjoyment,” Jasper muttered, his voice dry as dust. “The child performed an act of war upon my coat.”
Evelyn laughed, clearly delighted. “Ah, then he likes you, Your Grace. He is quite selective in bestowing such honors.”
Matilda groaned softly, pressing a hand to her brow. “Please, Evelyn, do not encourage him.”
But Evelyn only smiled all the wider, cuddling her son. “Encourage him? Why, I think you both have done marvelously. Who would have guessed?”
Matilda dared not answer. She could still feel the echo of her own laughter and the weight of Jasper’s gaze when she had let it slip.
