Page 54

Then Laura crossed the room and opened the door.

Iris was standing in the corridor in her white nightgown, one fist rubbing her eye, dark curls escaping the two braids that framed her face. She looked so small in the vast corridor, lit only by a single candle.

The sight made Laura’s heart melt.

“Iris, darling, what’s wrong? Did you have a bad dream?”

“No.” Iris yawned loudly. “I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking about the ball—nobody told me how it went. Miss Borden said I had to wait until morning, but I didn’t want to wait until morning, so I snuck out of my room.” She peered past Laura into the room, and her whole face lit up like the sun once she spotted Nathaniel. “Uncle Nathaniel! Are you still awake?”

Nathaniel made a choked sound. “I was just saying goodnight,” he said, with as much dignity as he could muster.

“You must say goodnight for a very long time because it is rather late,” Iris said, clearly pleased with the discovery. “Miss Borden only ever says goodnight for a minute. Do you say goodnight to Laura every night?”

“Iris.”

“I’m only saying.” She yawned again and tugged at the hem of Laura’s robe. “What was I saying, Laura?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea,” Laura laughed. She tucked back the girl’s curls playfully and pulled her against her side.

“Oh yes, will you tell me about the ball?” Iris asked, hugging her back. “Did you dance? Did anyone say anything mean to you? Did you eat lots of cake?”

Laura felt the last of her embarrassment fade into something warmer, something that had nothing to do with Nathaniel’s hands and everything to do with this girl standing barefoot in the corridor at an ungodly hour because she did not want to miss a single detail of her evening.

She crouched down, resisting the urge to laugh, and smoothed another wayward curl from Iris’s forehead.

“It’s very late, sweetheart,” she said softly. “We can speak about the ball over breakfast.”

“I know,” Iris murmured, rubbing her eyes. “But I’ll fall asleep faster if you tell me. I promise, I just need a story before I go back to my room.”

“You said that the last three times as well, and every one of those times I ended up carrying you back to bed myself,” Laura laughed, taking her hand.

“This time I mean it. I promise!”

She glanced back at Nathaniel, who was watching them. He gave the smallest nod, as though to say, Go on.

“All right,” she relented, eager to help the girl to bed but also return to her husband. “But only if you’re tucked into bed properly while I tell it. I’m not standing in a drafty corridor in my dressing robe catching a chill for the sake of your curiosity,” she teased.

Iris beamed and tugged her down the corridor with surprising strength for someone so small.

Laura threw one last look over her shoulder at Nathaniel. She just could not help herself.

He lifted a hand, the gesture somewhere between a wave and a request, and she felt its promise settle warm in her chest.

Iris’s room was awash in candlelight. A stuffed rabbit missing one ear sat on her small four-poster bed, and a book of fairy tales lay open on the floor.

Laura tucked the girl beneath the blankets and sat on the edge of the mattress.

She didn’t want to tell her how uninteresting the ball had actually been, so she decided to weave a good story for the little girl, to give her some entertainment. She told her about the fireworks that had cracked gold and violet over the gardens. She told her about a woman wearing a ridiculous peacock-feather headdress who had nearly set her hair alight leaning too close to a candelabrum. She told her how Everett had tried to dance a quadrille and stepped on his partner’s slippers twice.

“Twice?” Iris repeated, scandalized and delighted in equal measure. “Uncle Everett is meant to be good at everything.”

“He is exceedingly good at cards and exceedingly bad at quadrilles, apparently. I don’t think his partner has forgiven him yet.”

Iris giggled, her eyes growing heavier with every passing minute. By the time Laura was telling her about lemon ices melting faster than anyone could eat them, the girl’s breathing had evened out, and her grip on Laura’s sleeve loosened.

Laura sat there a moment longer than she needed to, watching her, thinking of how strange and unexpected it was that this small stubborn creature had become someone she would do anything for.

She gently extricated her arm, pressed a kiss to Iris’s forehead, and blew out the candle.