As Maggie ran past them to ascend the stairs, he glanced at Ellie, whose face had paled.
“What do you mean he fell?” He strode for the stairs, Ellie next to him, his chest tightening with dread.
Maggie spoke over her shoulder but continued upward. “He was standing on his chair, explaining how birds take flight, when he lost his balance and fell. I think he hurt his ankle.”
Though his daughter wasn’t a physician, the fact that Peter hadn’t fallen onto something, or hit his head, helped Darius to think more clearly.
“What did Anna say?”
“He won’t let her near him. He just keeps wailing, ‘Mama.’”
That his son wanted his mother had Darius feeling like a failure. Would Peter ever stop missing Dinah and embrace Ellie?
Ellie glanced at him, her gaze sympathetic. “The poor dear. I know he wants his mother, but I promise I will do all I can for him.”
Maggie had reached the main landing, and they were about to step onto it with her when she spun around, halting their progress.
From the corner of his eye, Darius saw Ellie teeter at the sudden stop in her forward progression.
His heart stopped for a moment at the thought of her falling down the full staircase, and he grabbed her about the waist.
She grabbed his arm as she steadied herself, her hand securely on the balustrade. She looked at him, her face filling with her blush. “Thank you.”
That she was embarrassed for almost falling down the stairs had irritation striking through him. He turned toward his daughter to reprimand her, but Ellie spoke first.
“Maggie, why did you stop?”
Maggie shook her head as if they were daft. “Peter doesn’t want our dead mother. He wantsyou. Now hurry.” And off she went up the last five steps.
He felt Ellie suck in her breath at Maggie’s words, no doubt as surprised as he was. But he was very pleased. Still, he didn’t release her until they’d made the top of the stairs, where Maggie waited impatiently.
As they all started down the hall, Ellie spoke, though her voice was a bit shaky. “Why would you think he calls out for me? I’m sure, being hurt, it makes him want your mother more.”
He didn’t understand why Ellie would question what he felt was a Christmastide miracle. His children had spent so much time with Dinah, every day, that it had to have been a significant emotional adjustment to have her no longer in the nursery.
Maggie spoke over her shoulder, “No, he doesn’t, and neither do I. She never wanted us. She just sat near the window reading or sewing on the settee. Or she would write letters at her desk in the corner. Sometimes she’d yell for us to be quiet when we disturbed her.”
His step faltered at his daughter’s revelation, his surprise complete.
“That doesn’t mean she didn’t want you, Maggie.” Ellie’s voice was soothing.
“No. But she told us she didn’t want us. She said we were ‘Father’s little problems.’ I like you much better, and so does Peter.”
Darius felt his wife looking at him, but he couldn’t meet her gaze. Dinah had lied to him. She’d deliberately kept him from his children, having told him he needed to leave her alone with them, but her sole purpose was to take her anger at him out on them. Didn’t she care that they were the innocent ones?
Fury burned inside him, and he curled his fingers into his palms to keep from showing it. “Maggie, you are not my problems. You are my joy.”
Maggie shrugged. “We know. She was just unhappy and wanted everyone else to be, too.”
He had a sinking feeling that Maggie had heard that from a servant, because as smart as she was, he doubted she’d come to that observation on her own.
The sound of his son crying came to his ears, and he strode forward faster. As he entered the nursery, he found Peter on the floor, his foot on a pillow, his cheeks wet from his tears. The nursemaid paced nearby.
After hearing what Maggie told them, Darius rushed forward. “Peter.” He knelt beside his son, whose bottom lip trembled.
“I fell. I want Mama.”
“She’s here, Peter.” Maggie ran forward and sat on the floor next to him.
