Now he had another reason for wanting to find the coward and put the fear of God in him.
Miss Bonnie looked up at Bray with the happiest blue eyes and widest snaggletoothed smile he’d ever seen. She turned him loose and said, “Thank you for finding him for us, Your Grace.”
Bray looked over at Louisa. Saint licked her chin and she laughed and smiled lovingly at the dog while she hugged him and brushed her hand softly down his blond coat. Those old feelings of remorse from the night Nathan Prim died rose up in Bray and threatened to choke him. Silently he winced and swallowed them down.
Damn Miss Prim and her sisters for making him experience emotions that had been so easy to bury in the past.
“Mrs. Woolwythe will be a lovely addition to our home, Your Grace,” Mrs. Colthrust said as she floated back into the room, smiling broadly. “Mr. Tidmore picked an excellent choice from the agency, and she can start by the end of the week.”
Miss Sybil grabbed Saint from Miss Prim, and the girls ran over to show Mrs. Colthrust the dog. The chaperone put her hands up in front of her and backed away. “No, no—please, girls. Get him away from me. I’m not fond of dogs and don’t want him near me.”
“But His Grace said we could have him,” Miss Sybil said.
“He’s going to come live with us,” Miss Bonnie added.
“Oh, no, my dears, I’m afraid that won’t work,” Mrs. Colthrust said coldly. “Not in our house, he won’t.”
“But the duke—”
“Well, then, His Grace can keep you and the dog,” Mrs. Colthrust said, interrupting Miss Lillian. “I’m afraid half a dozen girls is all I can take care of in one household. There is no room for pets.”
“No, he’s ours,” Miss Bonnie said, and burst into tears. “Tell him, Sister.”
Bray’s throat thickened again.
“He’s our brother’s dog,” Miss Sybil cried. “You can’t force us to give him up!”
“They keep Saint,” Bray said firmly at the same time that Miss Prim said, “We keep Saint.”
Mrs. Colthrust threw back her shoulders and lifted her chin high. “Lord Wayebury—”
“Is no longer in charge, Mrs. Colthrust,” Bray cut in. “I am. Now, you can remain or you can go. Your choice. But Saint stays with the children.”
Bray turned to Louisa. Her look of pain had been replaced with an expression of gratitude.
He felt a small measure of satisfaction for having done something right.
Chapter 9
Young in limbs, in judgment old.
—The Merchant of Venice,act 2, scene 7
“And the little boy promised he would never run away again.”
Louisa closed the book and looked down at Bonnie’s sweet face, over to Sybil’s peaceful expression, and then down to the foot of the bed, where Saint lay curled. They were all asleep. After all the excitement of finding Nathan’s dog and then playing with him in the back garden until dark, Louisa thought it would take the girls a long time to settle down and fall asleep. She had been wrong. She was less than five pages into the story when she noticed the squirming and sighing had ceased, but she kept reading. It was soothing and peaceful to read aloud into the quietness.
She slowly rose from the bed and reached over to blow out the candle. Saint had raised his head and was looking at her. “Lie back down and go back to sleep,” she whispered. He paid her no mind and started to rise. “Stay,” she said in a stronger voice, and held her hand out as if to stop him.
Saint immediately lay back down but kept his head up and his dark, watchful eyes alert to her every movement.
“Stay¸” she said again. “You must stay with the girls.”
He turned to look at the girls at the head of the bed, and then—as if satisfied that he had a job to do—he placed his head on his front paws.
Louisa knew Bonnie and Sybil would be upset if Saint were gone from their room when they woke in the morning. She blew out the candle and quietly left the room, closing the door behind her.
The light was still on in Mrs. Colthrust’s and in Gwen and Lillian’s bedchambers as she walked by. It was still rather sad to Louisa that the older girls no longer wanted her to come in and say good night to them. Gwen insisted long ago that they were much too old to be read to or tucked in, and Louisa had reluctantly agreed.
