Foxford snapped a lemon biscuit in half but ate neither piece.
“It sounds as though Diana’s mother did everything she could to give her daughter the best future,” Purity said, considering the desperation of a woman who had to leave her child, not knowing for certain the outcome.
“Indeed,” Foxford agreed. “Although you could have knocked me over with a feather when I learned she’d been left to my care.” He winced. “A little like property, but her mother was hopeful I would take her in. She knew I had the means and the space, but she didn’t realize I would be away when ... when the cancerous disease took her.”
Purity shivered. “How did she guess you would care for Diana?”
Matthew looked downa moment, then straight back into Purity’s eyes.
“Miss Barnes, for that was her name, said in her letter to me that she knew from our brief acquaintance I was a kind man.”
Matthew could not possibly explain how he’d felt upon receiving that letter or the solicitor’s insistence that he was the one Miss Barnes wanted to raise her child. He’d read and re-read the words in her wavering handwriting. He had asked a dozen questions. He had paced his study and run his fingers through his hair until he looked decidedly unkempt, but he’d never thought of leaving the little girl in the orphanage.
“I consider it an honor for her mother to have left Diana to my care. Just as your trust in me gives me the redemption I seek.”
Purity caught her breath. “Do not place me upon such a pedestal, my lord. We are all imperfect, and one day, I may slip up. I would hate for you to be disillusioned.”
“Never,” he promised.
The kittens were still mewing, and it seemed wrong to keep the little girl from them a moment longer. He went to the bell-pull.
“I hope she won’t be rough with them,” Purity said. “My sisters were mostly gentle at that age, but all children are different.”
“She is gentle, from all I have witnessed. I’ve known her almost four months now.”
“And she calls you ‘Papa’ already?” Purity sounded surprised.
He shrugged and took his seat once more. “She did that from the moment I picked her up at the orphanage. Diana said she had been waiting for me. In the carriage ride home, she said her mother told her not to worry, her papa would come for her.”
“Gracious!” Purity looked to be choking back tears. “And do you have any knowledge of her true father?”
“I do not. In her profession, it is possible Miss Barnes didn’t know, either. Frankly, at this point, it seems unimportant. I can give Diana a good life in which she’ll want for nothing. She has already claimed my heart, so I gave her my last name.”
He grinned. “And now I can give her the most upstanding, wonderful woman I know to help me raise her.”
“Again, no pedestal, please,” Purity said, blushing becomingly.
Matthew couldn’t help leaning toward her to kiss her again.
But the door opened, and instead of a maid or his butler come to ask his wish, it was Diana herself, rushing ahead of her nanny.
“Come back, Miss Diana,” the woman said, freezing in the doorway. “Apologies, my lord. She got it into her head that she knew your visitor, whom she spied from the nursery window.”
“I do,” Diana proclaimed, having already skipped over to Purity. “It’s the pretty lady.” She held up her doll. “Same as Clara.”
“You may leave us, Mrs. Caldwell,” Matthew told the nanny. “We were just sending for Miss Diana anyway to show her the—”
“Kittens!” the little girl cried out with glee.
He was glad to see she didn’t simply drop Clara on the floor and snatch up one of the little cats. Rather, Diana placed her beloved doll carefully on the table and then looked to him for permission.
“May I touch?” she asked quietly.
His heart clenched at her sweetness. “Indeed, you may. Lady Purity brought them to live with us. Will you help take care of them?”
“I will, Papa.”
Purity, still seated by the basket, reached in and plucked out one of the kittens. After showing her how to hold it, she handed it to Diana.
