As if on cue, three nurses entered the drawing room and went about taking the smallest of the children.
“Should we bring Mary?” David asked his wife, Fanny. “Or is she still too young?”
“We’re bringing Julia,” West said. She and Mary were only a month apart in age.
“I would, but she’s practically falling asleep,” Fanny said. “Next year.” She transferred the toddler to the nurse.
Everyone set to bundling up the children and themselves. West indicated the others should precede them outside while he and his family brought up the rear. There were two carts to convey them to the forest, plus a third that would transport the log back to the house.
“You really couldn’t keep them from wrestling?” Ivy murmured. She carried Julia while West shepherded Leah and Sebastian toward the waiting cart.
“They’re children,” West said. “They move too quickly. And there was Jasper. Hell, there were far too many of them. It was me against a rabid army.” He caught the slight upturning of his wife’s lush mouth.
“Yes, three and four-year-olds are so treacherous. I daresay you’re lucky to have escaped unscathed.” She slid him a sarcastic glance, a single red-gold brow arching high on her forehead.
“Indeed.” He flashed her a grin before lifting their children into the cart. Once they were all settled, the grooms driving the carts set them in motion.
“I wish it was snowing,” Leah said wistfully, her head cast back as she looked up at the gray sky.
“That would make our hunt a bit more difficult,” Ivy said, stroking Leah’s back.
“I suppose.” Leah didn’t sound convinced.
They dipped through a large rut, and Emmaline, who was seated across the cart from West and Ivy, winced. She clasped her round belly.
“Everything all right?” Ivy asked with concern. “Perhaps you should have stayed at the house?”
“Nonsense. The babe won’t come for another month. I wouldn’t have missed this.” She glanced toward her two children, her features softening. “Or them.”
West understood. The joy he once gleaned from finding the Yule log was nothing compared to the joy of watching his children go on the hunt. This was Julia’s first, and it would be no less thrilling than Leah’s or Sebastian’s.
“Perhaps Ivy’s right,” Lionel said, watching Emmaline with a puckered brow. “Should you really be out here in the cold jostling about?”
“I’m going to jostle home before Epiphany. Both Benedict and Caroline were past when we expected them. I can’t imagine this babe will be any different.”
Lionel’s features relaxed in a half-smile, and he leaned over to kiss his wife’s brow. “Forgive me if I worry. I can’t help myself where you’re concerned.”
The children chattered nonstop as they rode to the forest. By the time they reached the wood, the energy in the cart was high enough to set a town ablaze, or so it seemed to West. He eagerly helped them all down, where they joined the children from the other cart.
“Now, everyone knows to stay together, right?” West announced.
“They’re not listening,” Ivy said, gazing over the raucous group. “Children!”
Their conversation dried up like a stream in late summer as they pivoted to face her.
“A captain indeed,” West murmured.
Ivy snapped her gaze to his. “What?”
“Nothing.” He cleared his throat and addressed the children. “You are to stay together. No one wanders off alone. Understand?”
Most of them nodded.
Ivy shook her head. “Not good enough. We need a roll call. When Fanny says your name, say, ‘I understand’.”
Fanny began calling out the children’s names, and each one dutifully responded. West leaned close to Ivy and whispered, “You are an inspiring force.”
She looked at him askance, her eyes sparkling. “Don’t you mean terrifying?”
“In the best possible way.” He kissed her cheek and lightly squeezed her waist. Suddenly, he was overcome with thoughts of her pressed against a tree in the forest, the Yule log hunt be damned.
“Can we go look now, Papa?” Leah asked, her gaze fairly teeming with excitement.
West grinned at her enthusiasm. “Yes, go find us the best Yule log!”
The children instantly scattered, and the adults called out to each other to follow them in various directions. West and Ivy stuck close to Julia since she was so small. She wasn’t looking at the trees at all. She was simply trying to keep up with her big brother Sebastian as he raced off in search of the perfect log.
“This one, Papa!” Sebastian called.
“No, that’s not nearly big enough,” Leah said. She looked about and pointed at another tree. “That one is better.”
“Is not,” Sebastian argued, his lips forming a pout. He stalked in the opposite direction while Leah marched toward the tree she’d indicated.
Julia followed Sebastian, and West was torn as to which way to go. Ivy was already going after Sebastian and Julia, so West turned to trail behind Leah. Except she was with several of the others, so he opted to stay with his wife, lest she end up having to tend Julia.
“Look, Mama, toadstools!” Sebastian declared as he squatted down next to a cluster of woodland fungus.
“We look but never touch, dear,” Ivy said to him with a smile.
Julia squatted down next to him and reached her hand out, but Sebastian gently took it in his. “No, Julia, don’t touch.” He looked around then guided her to a moss-covered rock. “Touch this instead. It’s soft.” He removed his mitten and showed her. He then helped her to take off her mitten so she could feel it. Her giggle filled the air and warmed West’s heart.
“If someone had told me I could love someone more than you...” He shook his head as he glanced toward Ivy. “I would have said they were mad.”
“And I would have said the same.” She moved close to his side, sliding her arm around his waist. “But the way I love you is quite different than the way I love them.” She narrowed her eyes slightly as she pressed against him.
He turned, taking her in his arms. “I should hope so.” His lips descended on hers, and their kiss ignited his desire.
“Disgusting!”
West and Ivy pulled apart, laughing at their son’s horrified outburst.
“West!” David called from several yards away.
Ivy went to take Julia’s hand. “Come, let us see what Uncle David wants.”
Instead, Julia held up her arms. Ivy lifted her and settled the toddler on her hip.
West clasped his son’s hand. “Do you suppose they found a tree?”
“But I want to pick the log, Papa.”
“We must all agree on one.” West began to question the wisdom in bringing eight children into the forest and expecting them to agree on the same Yule log. It had been hard enough before the children. Everyone had their own opinion on what constituted the perfect log.
They joined the others who stood around a fairly sizeable tree.
“It’s too big,” Fanny said, her mouth tipped into a slight frown.
“Is not,” Benedict said.