James recoiled. Bloody hell. He hadn’t thought of nasty nappies.
“Nella, darling, I’ll work it out.”
She grinned. “You’ll do no such thing. Because I’ll be there.” She hooked elbows with him and sidled close. “You know you’ll want me with you.” She turned her face up to him and delivered her most engaging smile. The one he could never resist.
“You’re positively wicked, my little minx.”
“Then I may go?”
She fairly jumped for joy.
“On condition that you don’t set one foot out of the carriage.”
Nella swatted his arm. “We’ll be in Windermere, forgetful husband. You can’t possibly deny me the opportunity to do a bit of shopping.”
James sighed. Perhaps he should wish for a boy. He had begun to discover that as sweet as they could often be, girls were dreadfully hard to argue with.
“All right. Shopping only.” He tapped her nose with his forefinger. “But you’ll let me handle things at Bellingshire House.”
“Absolutely, my love. I truly do not want to be anywhere near that woman. And the quicker we get that innocent babe out of her hands, the happier I will be.”
“And that is forever my life’s goal, my dear. Making you happy.”
The kiss she surprised him with put their argument to rest.
“You’ll have to come up with another goal, darling husband,” Nella cooed, “because every moment of every day with you makes me happy.”
He laughed. How he loved the way she made him feel like king of her world.
“Well, then, wife. Be ready at eight o’clock tomorrow. We are to be at Bellingshire House by noon. I won’t have time to wait for any primping lassies.”
“I shall come in my nightclothes, if need be.”
James wheeled around, half shocked at her statement, half worried she might be serious. Her laughter reassured him. She would be ready. And fully clothed.
~■~
Nella sighed. The coach to Windermere hadn’t been nearly as awful as she had anticipated. A month before, James had insisted his coachman put new springs and gadgets on the coach’s undercarriage so it would rock as gently as a cradle. The man had driven it around the countryside for hours breaking in the new hardware. And it had worked.
Once she alighted from the coach in Windermere, it took her only a moment to recover her land legs. Her maid, Treadway, fussed over her briefly until she was finally satisfied that Nella had made the trip unscathed.
“Crowley’s is at the end of Portsmouth Avenue. I’ll meet you there at two o’clock.” James squeezed her hand. “Don’t be late.”
“I shan’t,” she assured him. In truth, she felt she could spend days here in the charming Windermere shops. But a couple of hours would have to suffice.
James backed away and returned to the coach, calling directions to his coachman.
On her own while James went to Bellingshire House to collect Lady Blanche’s infant son, Nella led Treadway into Windermere Mercantile.
“I’ll look for the china I wish to replace, Treadway. You look over there for some baby things. I don’t want to leave Blanche’s babe with Vicar and Mrs. Chancellor without a few necessary items.”
Treadway nodded, pleased to have a mission of her own.
In truth, Nella already felt a connection to the child. While she believed her husband completely, the poor little thing’s vulnerability as long as he remained with his mother had sealed within her a commitment to sponsor the child into his new life. How grateful she was that James shared that commitment.
The china she sought proved more of a problem than she’d expected. By the time she had narrowed the choices to only three, they had been in the store for more than an hour. If she were to get to the wonderful millinery shop she had seen, she needed to go now.
“Treadway? When you’ve finished purchasing the baby things, come to this counter and choose a china set. Twelve place settings will do. I can’t decide, so you choose. Get both the tea cups and the demitasse cups. Have them wrapped and ask the valet to carry them with you to Crowley’s. I’m going to pop into that darling millinery at the end of the street. I’ll meet you at Crowley’s at a quarter to. All right?”
Treadway beamed her assent.
Nella had no doubt she would choose the best set. The girl was masterful at matching jewelry with gowns. She would easily do as well with china. Besides, Nella liked all three sets of bone china equally well.
Free at last, Nella darted as ably as an almost-seven-month pregnant female could out onto the sidewalk. It took just minutes to reach the end of the street where the charming millinery shop was located. If the hats displayed in the window case were any indication, this milliner was top rung.
With nobody to hurry her along, Nella wandered the three aisles of the shop, collecting riding gloves and a hat that would go well with her herringbone riding habit. She stepped around a ladder where a shop girl was retrieving samples from a hundred button drawers that lined the wall. Once safely past, she stopped at a table laden with lace. On impulse, Nella snatched up a charming bundle of lace remnants, sure she could use them on her own babe’s growing wardrobe. As she turned to lay them on the counter, a voice from behind her froze her where she stood.
“You never learn, do you.”
Nella whirled toward the voice and choked back a startled yelp as she saw Lady Blanche stepping toward her. The woman’s face was frozen in a look even more hateful than Nella had seen months earlier.
And worse. She looked haggard, as if giving birth had stripped her healthy glow and replaced it with stark whiteness.
“You…you don’t look well, my lady. You should sit down.”
Blanche ignored her and took another step closer. Now she was near enough that Nella could see the milk stains badly soaking the front of the woman’s gown. Knowing Lady Blanche’s vanity, it was a shocking thing to see her in that state.
“How did you know I was here?” Nella asked, trying to keep her voice from trembling.
The woman cackled, a hollow, deranged sound. “I was just leaving Bellingshire House. Can you see it? Just there on the hill.” She breathed a seething breath. “I saw the coach let you out down here, and then your bastard of a husband showed up to take the brat.”
Nella turned and easily spotted the large house that sat on a knoll not far from the center of town.
“You were supposed to come alone. You were supposed to take the babe and leave James. That’s all you had to do. Just disappear!”
With each statement she moved closer, gathering herself in a menacing way.
“But you had to bring him, didn’t you. You just had to ruin my life all over again.”
“Ruin? I don’t—”
The woman staggered, knocking into a table and sending its display of hats flying in every direction.
“You brought him to humiliate me, didn’t you.”
Nella cringed at the pure hatred that flowed from Blanche’s stiff lips.
“No, I—”
“You were to collect the brat and leave the country. That was our arrangement. But oh, no, you wanted to keep the brat and James, too.” She cocked her head to the side as if hearing voices. “I couldn’t understand why you’d take the brat, but now I see.” She gestured at Nella’s swollen stomach. “You’re probably afraid yours will turn out to be a mongrel.”