“Oui!”
“Non!”Flora glared up at him.
Marcus scowled down at her.“Oui!”
She scowled back at him.“Non!”
Tessa, seeing the two almost identical expressions on man and baby, began to laugh.The sound distracted Flora, who paused in her struggles as she glanced across at Tessa.In a flash, Clothilde had the cloth wrapped around her bottom and between her legs and knotted it firmly.
The little girl tried to unfasten it, but Clothilde knew her business.She stood back, smiling.Flora scowled.
“You’re a stubborn little creature, aren't you?”Marcus told the little girl.He scooped her up into the air.“You’re going to be the devil of a lot of trouble when you’re older, aren't you?”
Tessa laughed.
Flora stared down at him, frowning and puzzled, her little legs dangling.He tossed her up in the air and caught her.Her eyes widened, then a peal of baby laughter came from her.“Encore!”she demanded.“Encore!”
“And thus she adds a fourth word to her vocabulary,” Marcus commented, and tossed and caught the little girl again.
Tessa laughed again.It was a delightful surprise seeing Marcus so at ease with the little one.She’d half expected him to be awkward, but she was obviously the inexperienced one.
“You have nieces or nephews, don’t you?”she said.
“Yes.Both.”He tossed Flora up one more time, and set her down beside Tessa, saying, “That’s enough, young lady.Much more and you’ll throw up that nice egg you had for your dinner.”
Flora frowned, clearly wanting to understand the words, though she snuggled against Tessa contentedly enough.Clearly she’d forgotten about the hated napkin.
“Madame?”Clothilde hovered.“Would you like me to put the little one to bed?”
When Marcus explained, Tessa shook her head.“No thank you, Clothilde.I’d prefer to do that myself.”Her first night with her new daughter.She was going to savor every moment.
“Merci, Clothilde,” Marcus said in clear dismissal.
Clothilde turned toward the door, hesitated, and turned back, twisting her hands in her apron.She opened her mouth as if to say something, then closed it, half turned away, then, with a determined expression, turned back to face them.
Tessa nudged Marcus.
“Is there something else?”he asked the girl.
She swallowed.“Monsieur, you said you had lost all the baby’s clothes.Did you lose her nursemaid as well?”
He glanced at Tessa, made a quick translation, then said to the maid, “Why do you ask?”
“Because if you did lose her, then ...what about me?”
“You mean hire you as our nursemaid?”
She nodded eagerly.“I would work hard for you and madame, m’sieur.And as you saw, I am good with little ones.”
“What about your aunt?What would she say to such an arrangement?”
“Tante Jeanne is not really my aunt.She was my mother’s friend and after Maman died, she took me in.Papa and both my brothers had perished in the wars and I was young and alone.”Marcus hesitated and she added eagerly, “Tante Jeanne will probably be glad of one less mouth to feed.We don’t get many guests here.It is hard to make a living, and she has other children to help her—her own children.”
Marcus explained it to Tessa, who had been listening, frustrated at not understanding.“Does she realize we will be living in England?”Tessa said in a low voice.
Marcus turned to the girl.“We’re going back to England.What would you do then?”
“Go with you, of course.”
