Her eyes brightened, and he sang her tune a little louder. Bits of gold shone like shooting stars in the darkness of her irises.
He liked surprising her.
Then he switched to English. “ ‘Ahoy! Ahoy! Sailor, sailor sailing on the high sea.’ ” He paused and pursed his lips. “Should we sing Lionel a lullaby about a shipwreck? One where the men . . . the sailors eventually eat each other? I hardly think it appropriate.”
“My friend, Mrs. St. Maur, she hums it often. I suppose if you examined it closely, one wonders how something so sad could become a child’s lullaby.”
“True, but maybe it was made for boys. We require adventure.” He gave up trying to get out of the chair and relaxed as she sang more.
Then Lionel snored, and the world was perfect again, except here was a woman, a kind woman, a woman who’d be sweet to his ward even when Busick wasn’t looking, and he had to terminate her employment. “So, what am I to do, LaCroy?”
He swept his gaze over her, neat in her finely button-up gown of blue checks, her spotless white apron. “I do think I like you better as a girl.”
“If I hadn’t been so clumsy or if I hadn’t bothered to assist you to the stairs, you wouldn’t recognize me, and I wouldn’t be facing unemployment.”
“I would have figured it out. I’m very observant. And being up close in my face twice, without a wig and with your figure free . . . Did I say I liked you better as a girl?”
“Yes. Well, thank you, I think.” Her lips curled up, but was that for Lionel or him?
It didn’t matter. He reached for his crutch. He should stand for this last part. “This is unfortunate, for we are back to where we were last night. Me having to terminate you.”
“What, no option for a loyalty oath?”
“Your mother taught you not to swear, remember.”
“If I learned more from her, maybe I’d have better fortunes. I can be loyal. And look at your ward, he’s clean and happy.”
“It’s a bad precedent. I make an exception for you, then what lapses will I allow next? It’s obvious you’ve worked here before, and I terminated all who did.”
“Then rehire me.” She set the baby back into the crib and picked up the crutch he’d been struggling to grasp with the chair moving.
He caught her palm. “Why were you sneaking in and out of Hamlin? Why risk your employment here?”
Her eyes, her luminous eyes, looked away. “I can’t sleep sometimes. This property is very convenient to where the countess put me when she took me in.”
“And dressing as a footman does what? Keep men from bothering you?”
She slid her hand from his. “I don’t like to be bothered, and I’m not one to beg, not to a man who’s made up his mind. At least keep me on until you find another wet nurse.”
“Do something to assure me that you can be trusted. Convince me. Can’t you see that I want a reason to go against my rules?”
“I hate rules. I despise them. I’m suffocated by them.”
“This is not helping your cause, Mrs. LaCroy.”
Her neck, lovely and long, tilted to the side. Was she studying him? Were his buttons misaligned?
She knelt before him.
His pulse ticked up. She was close, and his mind stuck at the no begging. “Please—”
Everything stopped when she put a hand on his knee. He didn’t feel her warm fingers. She’d chosen the leg that was missing a knee, a shin, a foot.
She straightened the stuffed form his valet had made to look like a heavily bandaged foot. It had twisted with his fumbling to get out of the chair. His deception had worked until this moment.
He waited for the questions that always came.
But none did.
