The baby breathed evenly.
“The roof on the east outbuilding,” William added. “Harwood had it on the list for spring. I’m moving it up to February.”
“Because of the accounts.”
“Because of the accounts.” A pause. “It needs fixing properly, and spring is too long to wait. I’ve also had Harwood pull together the orphanage accounts. There are some things I want to look at more carefully. Nothing that needs discussing tonight.”
She nodded.
The fire settled. Outside, the wind kicked up, pressing against the glass pane in a way she could feel from where she sat.
“I’ll need to have the drawing room curtains seen to,” she said. “They’ve started pulling at the top left corner. Mrs. Eldridge says it’s been like that for two years.”
“It has?”
“And no one addressed it.”
“No one noticed it.”
“I tend to notice things.” Cecily shrugged.
“I’ve noticed that.” His tone was dry, a smile in it.
The baby shifted, made a small sound, then resettled. Both of them looked at the crib. Both of them waited. The sound did not come again.
William said nothing. The fire flickered.
“Letitia cried,” Cecily revealed. “This afternoon. She didn’t want me to see, so I didn’t.”
“She’ll be devastated for approximately a week,” William said, “and then she’ll redirect her energy to something else. She always does.”
“Is that how you know her or how you manage her?”
He looked at her and smiled wryly. “Both,” he said, and it was honest enough that she didn’t press him.
“She’ll be warm enough at Granger Street now.” Cecily was not sure if she said it for his sake or hers.
“She will.” He said it without hesitation. “I’ll check personally before the end of the month.”
“I know you will.”
He looked at her briefly.
“You’ve changed the house,” he said, after a moment.
She looked at him. “I haven’t changed anything.”
“Not the house, butthehouse.” He said it differently the second time, and she understood what he meant. She felt warmth spread through her that she did not try to stop. “The girls are different. Last Thursday, Isadora talked at dinner for twenty minutes about the logistics of the Salamanca campaign. Letitia is reading. Actual books, not just the first chapters.” He looked at the fire. “Mrs. Eldridge told Prentiss that the house feels lived in, and Prentiss told me. I believe it was meant as a compliment.”
“I should hope so,” Cecily quipped.
“It was.” A pause, and then he said quietly, “You’ve unsettled my carefully ordered household, Duchess.”
She looked at him for a moment. “Perhaps it needed unsettling.”
Something moved at the corner of his mouth. When Cecily saw that it was a smile, her pulse fluttered.
He looked down at his hands, then back at the fire, and she had the sense he had said more than he intended and was deciding how to feel about it.
