“How do you know?”
“Yes,Miss Kent,” he said, stepping ahead of the horse so he could at least look back at her. “Explainthatto her.”
She blushed, and he realized he’d never seen her cheeks so rosy. No hat shaded her face, and he wondered if she even possessed one. No gloves protected her hands, nor had there been any during the nights when he’d seen her. Had she given up all her worldly possessions?
“Because she once told me she’s a girl horse,” she said simply to the blond-haired lass in her arms who couldn’t have been older than four, thin as a rail, with huge blue eyes. He imagined Vivi with a daughter, similar in appearance. She should have had her own children by now, should have been married. Accepting her explanation, the girl reached out and patted Sophie on the nose. Vivi tipped her own nose up haughtily, and for the first time in years he chuckled with the sheer appreciation of being bested.
“I noticed last night they refer to you as ‘Miss Kent.’”
“I thought it best to be discreet concerning the status of my family.”
He glanced around at the modest surroundings. “Are you on your way to taking vows, to becoming a nun?”
“No. I’m not worthy of such a life.”
“That’s crock—but I’m glad to hear it. There’s too much sensuality in you to have it wasted on celibacy.”
“That’s not appropriate talk around the children.”
“These children you... collect. They provide for them here?”
“Yes. Although we’re running out of room. There are so many children, Finn.”
“Creating them is a good deal of fun.” She appeared stricken by his words. “My apologies. I don’t mean to make light of it. I know firsthand it’s a problem. But people aren’t going to go against their nature.”
“They need to be educated. I should write pamphlets.”
“Many who need those pamphlets can’t read.”
“Makes it rather a continuous circle, doesn’t it?”
He brought the horse to a halt where children were lined up. He lifted the three children off, put three more on, and began walking again, glad when Vivi continued along beside him. He decided a change of topic was in order. “Why did you come to Whitechapel?”
“Because it was very unlikely I’d run into anyone here whom I knew. It’s not as though duchesses and countesses stroll about the streets.”
“And the foundling home?”
“Two reasons. I knew my brother would never look for me among nuns. And I wanted a place where children would be welcomed.”
“You came here with a specific purpose, knew what you wanted to do.”
“What I’ve wanted to do for some time now, but it took me a while to work up the courage to do it. It’s complicated. So much has transpired since I last saw you.”
He wanted to know all of it, just as he’d once wanted to know everything she’d done while she was away from him at the country. “You’ve quite deliberately taken up the cause of children.”
She met his gaze, sadness in the depths of her eyes. “You’re responsible for that. What you told me that night in the garden touched me deeply. I never forgot how embarrassed you sounded for something in which you were not the least bit responsible.”
The circumstances of his birth had tainted his life. She’d made him feel scrubbed clean and imagined she did the same for all the children here. “Do you have an appointment with a baby farmer tonight?”
“Not tonight.”
“Then go on an outing with me.”
He could see the desire to say yes warring with the need to say no. Slowly she shook her head. “If those men my brother hired—”
He brought Sophie to a halt. “You can’t live your life hiding away. I’ve been a prisoner, Vivi. It’s no way to live. Take a chance that nothing bad will happen, that no one will figure out you’re a quick five hundred quid.”
“Not so quick or easy. I’ll fight.”
