“It will not happen,” Northwich explained patiently. “Wishes must be secret in order for the Wish Fairy to grant them.”
Her daughter’s eyes went wider still. “Wish Fairy?”
“Yes, of course.” Northwich strolled to Charlotte and lowered himself to her level. “Have you never heard of her?”
“No.” Charlotte watched him with rapt fascination.
Seeing his ease with her daughter made Pippa’s heart give a pang. She had never given thought to marrying again in the wake of George’s death. He had left her with enough funds that she’d not had financial need, and her heart had been too bruised and broken to ever contemplate another marriage. But now she could see how Charlotte looked at Northwich. She had been little more than a babe when George had died.
Could he possibly be a father to her daughter? The question did not give her as much pause as perhaps it should. The notion of marrying again did not seem like a betrayal now, particularly given the revelations she had uncovered about George. It seemed instead…a possibility worth entertaining.
“The Wish Fairy is tasked with granting the wishes of all the children in the world,” Northwich was continuing, spinning his tale to his intrigued audience. “She has wings, like a bird, and she flits about, listening for wishes.”
“Char-char want see her,” Charlotte said.
“Ah, but you cannot. She is invisible.”
Charlotte’s brow furrowed in concentration. “Vivisibibbew?”
Pippa bit her lip to stifle the unexpected chuckle that rose within. There was something so heartwarming about the sight of the tall, strong duke on his knees on the gravel garden path, charming a small girl with the fanciful notion of the Wish Fairy.
“Invisible,” he corrected gently. “It means we cannot see her. She could be around us at any moment, ready to hear your wish. Keep your wish in your heart, and she will discover it.”
His tale was holding Charlotte spellbound. However, Pippa’s common sense and motherly instinct took hold.
“If no one is privy to the wishes, how can we be certain the Wish Fairy shall hear them?” she asked pointedly.
Northwich glanced back at her over his shoulder. “There is one exception to the Wish Fairy’s rule, of course. You may tell your wish to your mama, but you must do so in a quiet whisper so that no one else overhears.”
Clever man.
Charlotte did not require further explanation. She raced to Pippa in decidedly unladylike fashion. Croydon would have scolded her had she been in the gardens with them. Pippa was suddenly grateful the nurse was not. She adored her daughter’s innocent exuberance, and the notion of the nurse relentlessly quashing it grew less palatable by the day.
Charlotte was racing with such abandon that she tripped over her feet and would have fallen on the path had not Pippa scooped her up in time.
“Mama!” Charlotte cried, wrapping her arms around Pippa’s neck, oblivious to the injury she had just narrowly avoided. “Char-char wish!”
Pippa obliged her daughter by offering her ear. “Do tell me, dearest, so that the Wish Fairy might be certain to make it come true.”
Charlotte’s grip on her neck grew tighter as she leaned into Pippa to reveal her wish. “Mama happy.”
The words landed in her heart and made her eyes well with tears. Furiously, she blinked them away.
She hugged her daughter tight, acutely aware of the Duke of Northwich’s dark stare upon her. He rose with silent grace and approached her, bringing with him that same magnetism he had exuded so long ago. The pull was becoming increasingly difficult for her to resist.
And why should she? He had stolen her heart once upon a time. If everything he represented to her was the truth, then he was a good and honorable man. Her own interactions with him thus far had proven the same.
“I hope you are considering my offer with care,” he told her, his voice as serious as his expression.
“I am,” she acknowledged.
Her daughter deserved to be safe and happy. And to have a mother who smiled again.
Pippa had no notion whether or not the Duke of Northwich would prove a haven or a dreadful mistake. She had walked away from him once, and she had married George.
Tilly trusted Northwich.
Tilly’s husband trusted Northwich.
