Miss Hurstman sat on the edge of the bed and watched the baby suck.“I have never seen any of this before, Eleanor,” she said with unusual softness.“Thank you.”
Eleanor smiled up at her.“I’m glad you were here and that you bullied me so.To think I could have hurt this precious.”Her hand gently stroked the soft golden down on the baby’s head.“I just wish…”
“That your husband had been here.He would have been here with you, wouldn’t he?No going off to a cockfight, waiting for word.”
Eleanor didn’t answer.Tiredness was at last beginning to creep over her and she couldn’t face the thought of Nicholas.She saw the child’s soft mouth had slipped moistly from her breast and that her daughter was asleep.She let Miss Hurstman take the tiny bundle to the cradle by the fire and suffered a careful examination by the midwife.Then she lay down to sink into a deep and dreamless sleep.
Chapter 14
When Eleanor woke the next day she was in a different world, or so it seemed to her.
She no longer carried a child; she was a mother.
The waiting was over and she had a purpose for the rest of her life.
Immediately she thought of Nicholas.Would she ever see him again?It was as if she could think clearly about it for the first time.
It had been nearly five months.She trusted Lord Stainbridge’s instincts and did not believe her husband was dead.That left no easy explanation, however, for the fact he had not even tried to contact her.
She could only think that some new endeavor had caught his errant fancy and he had again decided his family could wait while he saved the world.Perhaps he had decided for some quixotic reason that it would be better she should believe him dead.Did he think she would marry again?
No, she would not do that.She resolved however, for her sanity’s sake, to behave from this day as if she was a widow.She could not even clearly bring his face to mind any more, and here, where they had never been together, there was nothing to summon him for her.She wished she had a portrait and yet suspected she was better off without.
When Miss Hurstman came in with the breakfast tray she was very pleased by her young friend’s spirit.“I feared at one point you might be the kind of simpleton who would slip from the world once you had done your duty by the child.What are you to name her?We need to call her something.”
Eleanor pushed down an instinct to call the babe Niccola and said, “Arabel.”
Miss Hurstman went pink.“That is extraordinarily kind, and you must let me stand godmother.I will see she grows up with spirit.”
“That would be wonderful.You are going to stay, aren’t you?”
If possible, Miss Hurstman went even pinker, and there was a hint of moistness in the wrinkles at the corner of her eyes.“Yes, if you can put up with me.But I will keep up my cottage in case you don’t need me anymore.”
In case Nicholas should return, she meant, and they both knew it.Eleanor merely gave a sad smile.
“Besides,” said the older lady briskly, “you’ll eventually want to take up your life in Society again, and I can’t abide that circus.”
It was clearly a directive.“Yes, ma’am,” said Eleanor meekly.
Miss Hurstman eyed her sternly.“Humph.I see you are a minx now you are yourself again.Did you show this face to your husband, I wonder?”
Eleanor felt wistful.“I hardly know.There was so little time, and I was so anxious about so many things.”She chuckled.“Probably as well.He would likely have beaten me.”
Miss Hurstman stiffened.“You would have given as good as you got were he so foolish, I’ll be bound.”
“Of course she would,” said Nicholas.
He was leaning against the door frame.
There was a smile on his lips that warmed his eyes, but there was also a great deal of watchfulness.
He made no move to come any closer.
Eleanor felt as if she might faint.She couldn’t seem to say a thing.
Miss Hurstman gave her a concerned look and opened her mouth to address the returning reprobate.Then she thought better of it and swept out of the room, pushing him into it and shutting the door as she went.
He grinned at this maneuver, but then the amusement died and he looked at his wife and child solemnly.“Eleanor?”
