The Pirate's Secret Baby (38 page)

"One must be prepared for all weather, Miss Burke. Danger does not always present itself in front of a cozy fire. However, even pirates might enjoy some hot drinks when they return."

"And ginger biscuits!" Mattie piped up.

"I will see to it," Lydia said. She no longer winced or made disapproving noises when they had weapons practice. Either the governess was becoming more piratical, or she'd resigned herself to accepting this as an appropriate father and daughter activity, which reminded Robert of something else he needed to do now that he was at Huntley.

"Do you ride, Miss Burke?"

"Of course, my lord. I was raised in the country."

"I need to get Mattie on horseback. If you did not order a riding habit in Liverpool, we need to have one made for you."

"My father taught me to ride," Lydia said with a soft smile of remembrance. "It is one of my favorite memories, the time we spent together."

"Mine also," Robert said in surprise. He'd forgotten those times with his father, good times. Alfred Huntley used to berate Ralph for being harsh with the horses, Nicholas for being skittish, but Robert he praised for his skilled hands on the reins. Riding brought father and son together, a period where they could forget Robert bore little resemblance to the rest of the Huntleys.

His childhood hadn't always consisted of canings in his father's study. He had land to roam, and Nicholas, and sometimes, the regard of his stern father. Would the late Lord Huntley be pleased to see Robert sitting in his seat? Robert knew what
would
have pleased his father--to see the estate properly managed again, its people cared for, a legacy restored for the next generation.

He looked at the woman walking beside him, her soft chestnut hair gleaming in the lamplight.

"Thank you," he said, the words popping out before he'd thought about them.

"For what?"

"For everything. For helping to make Huntley a home again. For taking such good care of Mattie."

He wanted to say more, but she watched him, evaluating his words, looking for hidden meanings, traps for unwary governesses. He wasn't certain himself what he meant. All he knew was that returning to Huntley, something he'd dreaded, had become a far different experience from what he'd feared and it was all due to the woman by his side.

Without Lydia, Huntley was simply a cold, worn pile of stones. With Lydia, it was a home. He had to ensure she would stay here, forever, with him and Mattie and their motley crew of pirates and puppies.

She left him to return to the nursery, and he watched her ascend the stairs, admiring her bottom, of course, but also thinking. The most successful and long-lived pirates don't get that way simply by being faster with a blade, one needed strategy as well.

It was time for Robert to hone his strategy beyond using his amazing handsomeness, bed skills and charm to win the lady. It still surprised him when he considered it, but that was no longer enough. Probably better that way. He wouldn't want her in his bed and his life only because he was so wonderfully attractive. After all, even the most accomplished of rakes and pirates eventually grow old and find themselves sucking in their guts or examining their thinning hair in the looking glass each morning. He needed to bind Lydia to his side for all time using more permanent methods.

Of course, his amazing handsomeness, bed skills and charm wouldn't hurt in the campaign and he'd enjoy his gifts while he still had them. He flashed the maidservant at the door a smile that had her dropping her feather duster.

Yes, it was good to know one still had all of one's skills.

Robert didn't realize how smoothly he'd been steered until they entered their fifth shop on High Street. Mattie was enjoying herself with Nell, and so far he and Lydia had been to the draper's (pins), the grocer (tea), the tavern (ale for the manor), apothecary (headache powders) and now they were standing in front of the blacksmith's.

"You need an iron hinge?"

"You see it right here on my list, my lord: 'hinge for kitchen door.' Mrs. Farmer mentioned it to Braxton, and since I was coming to Ashwyn, I offered to drop by the blacksmith and let him know."

"Miss Burke, I know how to spot a ruse when it's in front of me. You intend to visit every shop in the village, don't you?"

"No," she said for his ears alone, "I intend for
Lord Huntley
to visit every shop in the village. Now, let's take care of that hinge."

So Robert followed her into the smithy, where they heard the clang of metal from the back. A young woman with a babe on her hip came out to the front of the shop and her eyes grew large at the sight of her visitors.

"My Lord Huntley!" she said and bobbled an awkward curtsey that made the babe crow and wave a fist in the air, clutching a pewter ring he then shoved in his mouth and began gnawing.

Robert removed his hat. "How did you know who I was, Mrs...?"

"Rostron, sir. Janet Rostron. There's my husband, George," she said with a toss of her head to the back, and she smiled, bringing the freckles on her nose and cheeks into prominence.

"And who else would you be, sir? A fine and handsome gentleman, newly arrived in our village. I also had tea with Mrs. Castle this morning," she added. "You must be Miss Burke."

"I am indeed," Lydia said. "That is a handsome boy you have there."

"Little George," Mrs. Rostron said with an indulgent glance at the drooling baby. "He's going to be big as his da someday."

Big George emerged from the back of the smithy, ducking so he wouldn't smack his head against the lintel. If the child was on his way to becoming large as his father, he had a ways to go. The massive smith looked capable of molding a hinge with his fingers alone.

Robert offered his hand and the blacksmith took it, and Robert appreciated having his hand back uncrushed.

"You have calluses, my lord," the blacksmith rumbled. "Not what I expect from the gentry."

"I was a sea captain long before I came into my title. Being Huntley is a new position for me as well."

"This is Miss Burke, Lord Huntley's governess," Mrs. Rostron said, jouncing the baby on her hip. "There is a little girl?"

"My daughter," Robert said crisply, but neither Rostron appeared interested in Mathilde's origins.

"I hear there is to be an assembly soon." Janet grinned. "Mr. Clegg heard it from Mary who works at the vicarage. That would be the Mary who's sister to your Martha at the manor."

"For such a quiet spot, word travels fast."

"You are adding excitement to Ashwyn," Lydia said. "It's to be expected."

"I live to add excitement to peoples' lives."

Rostron said he'd come out to Huntley to have a look at the hinge, and Lydia said she'd have a list for him of other repairs for which they'd need his skilled services.

As they exited the smithy Robert turned to her and said, "You have a skill with people, Miss Burke."

"You do also, Captain."

"I certainly have enough charm to get my way most of the time--really, must you make that snorting noise?"

"I cannot help it."

"As I was saying, I can charm, but you are good at--" He thought about it, trying to phrase it properly. "You are good at people. I am always looking out for my own advantage, or my own safety, but you are skilled at understanding people in a different way. You are skilled at making people comfortable and at ease."

"What a lovely compliment," she said, a glow in her moss-green eyes lighting an answering glow in his chest, in the region of his heart. They returned to the vicarage to collect Mattie, and Mrs. Castle gave them the particulars of the upcoming assembly.

"There is much excitement among the younger set, and the older folk said they remember well when Huntley was the site of a festival each wakes week, my lord."

"I shall make it a goal for Huntley to once again host a festival next year, Mrs. Castle."

Mattie and Nell came running down the steps and while Nell still wore a pinafore, she had an eye patch and a wooden sword, as did Mattie.

"Look, Papa! Nell's papa had these packed away. He said he'd been saving them for when Nell has a little brother, but we explained how silly that was when there are two girls who could play with them now and he agreed. Then we tied up a doll and held her for ransom and we wanted to dress Nell's cat Snowball as a pirate, but Snowball ran off to the kitchen."

"Cats have a strong instinct for self-preservation," he said.

Lydia confirmed plans for the Castles to come to supper and they headed back to Huntley.

It was one of those perfect autumn days helping Robert see there were some attractions to living in England. The crisp air and the colors of the landscape were a change from the languid humidity and heat of the islands, heat that brought fevers raging through populations in that unhealthy climate. It was better for Mattie to be here, and each day he felt as if he was shedding a shell that formed around him when he turned his back on his native land. As a youth he only longed to be away, but as a man, as a father and a landholder, he saw his life here with a new eye, one that appreciated a life where excitement came in the form of village dances, not at the end of a blade.

It was a better life for Mattie, for him, and by all that was holy, he'd make it a better life for Lydia Burke as well.

Their carriage was well maintained, as Ralph had no doubt wanted to travel in style and comfort. The horses too were good stock and as they traveled the short distance back to the manor he breathed deep of the scents of a familiar place, a place he never knew he'd longed for until he returned.

He glanced at the woman at his side, the child snuggled against her for warmth. She looked at him from beneath her attractive cottage bonnet of lavender sarcenet, headgear finally enhancing her attractiveness rather than disguising it, and she smiled at him. It looked like a smile saying nothing more than, "I am glad I am here beside you at this moment," and he knew that might be the most important smile he'd ever seen.

* * * *

Lydia and Mattie were already dressed for church and eating breakfast when Robert joined them the next morning.

"Papa, I have not been to church in ever so long. Will it be like St. Martin with Father Jacques?"

"You will find some things familiar, some things different, child. I confess that I have not been to church in so long much of it will be new to me as well. We can learn together."

"I suspect it will gratify Mr. Castle--as well as the Almighty--to have you in All Saints, my lord. In these villages it means a great deal to have the baron in his pew at Sunday worship."

"No matter what he's been up to on Saturday night, Miss Burke?"

She blushed again and it fascinated him. It was as if she was able to leave all of that starchy governessing behind once she entered the bedroom, and don it again when she was out in public. The parts of Miss Lydia Burke made for a fascinating whole, one he intended to explore further, for many more years. He knew what he wanted, and he'd never let obstacles keep him from his goals. There were many ways he could ensure she was spliced to his side and accompanying her and Mattie to church would help in that campaign.

She'd have to make up her mind soon. Last night all their delightful play caused him to forget himself and spend inside her. He had no need to prove his virility--proof was sitting beside him with strawberry jam smeared on her rosy little cheeks--but the idea of Lydia carrying his babe, her belly rounding and her already lush bosom becoming fuller was an image that struck him as highly desirable. She would not be happy though if she felt forced to marry, not an independent soul like her. Lydia Burke was not the kind of woman who could be carried off like a treasure chest.

No, he would have to make changes in his life. Be Huntley, not St. Armand. Toddling off to church was an excellent first step.

He'd dressed for church, not to make a piratical statement, and was pleased with himself. Sober tobacco brown coat, conservative cream striped waistcoat, the smallest of plain gold rings through his ear. It was a good disguise and he saw some of the older ladies, who everyone knew were the real power brokers in any small village, nod in approval as they entered All Saints.

The Reverend Mr. Castle, as predicted, was pleased to see Lord Huntley in his pew. After worship he made a point of introducing Robert to people he hadn't yet met and Robert could tell from their looks that his reputation preceded him despite the protective coloration he'd donned for the Sabbath.

He watched his daughter with concern. Mattie seemed completely unaware her status as the bastard child of an island mother and a pirate caused some of the townsfolk to look askance at her. Based on the looks the governess turned back on these individuals he knew if Lydia had a basilisk's power they'd be stone statues now.

The children didn't care. The boys in particular seemed fascinated by Mattie's chatter about life aboard ship, and no wonder.

"Mattie, I don't recall anyone getting devoured by sharks on our voyage to England. I'm certain I would have remembered such a thing."

"Maybe not on this voyage, Miss Burke, but I am sure
someone
has been eaten by sharks, maybe even tossed over the side by Mr. Turnbull and Mr. Na--"

"Ladies, I believe it is time for us to return home," Robert said, coming to the aid, once again, of the beleaguered governess. She flashed him a grateful look, a gesture that did not go unnoticed by the ladies. Lydia's reputation was already at risk in his household. Steering her to a safe harbor was becoming more imperative with each day they dwelled here.

The church service seemed to be the signal people had been awaiting to pay calls at Huntley. Some of it was curiosity about the manor, some was motivated by curiosity about Robert. Fortunately for him, he was away most afternoons following up on the improvements to the estate. Fuller accompanied him on these rounds, and after a week Robert formalized the situation by offering his friend the position of steward, which the older man accepted.