“You too, sweetheart,” he said. “You too.”
And then she went out of the door, knowing exactly why she didn’t care about all those gentlemen down in the drawing room. Because not a one of them was a scrap on her papa, that’s why.
She met Harriet coming down the corridor. Her beloved, sweet-faced stepmother didn’t look nearly as tired as her papa. In fact, she had a sort of glow about her that made Eugenia secretly grin.
“I think Papa is finally getting Colin to sleep,” Eugenia whispered. “I couldn’t quite manage it. I was about to give up and call for his nurse.”
Harriet fluttered her hand toward the drawing room. “There’s twelve of them in there now,” she whispered back.
Eugenia groaned, but turned and sauntered down the stairs.
Harriet smiled, watching her go. Her awkward, big-nosed child had turned into the most ravishing girl to debut on the ton in years. She had all the eligible gentlemen—and most of the ineligible ones—at her knees, if not her feet. Not that Eugenia gave a damn.
Jem looked up from the crib where he was just putting down Colin.
“You’re a miracle,” Harriet said softly. Colin gave a little snore and turned over. She looked down at him. “He’s so beautiful, isn’t he?”
Jem caught her in his arms. “Not as beautiful as you. He takes after his father. I can already see the wrinkles starting by his eyes.”
Lovingly Harriet pushed back the hair from his laughing eyes. Her body still tingled from the pleasure they’d shared and she knew that he still felt it too. “Remember when I first met you? I thought you were the most beautiful man I’d ever seen, and since I arrived at your house with Villiers, that was really saying something.”
“My first thought was that if Villiers had any idea of switching sides and seducing you, I’d kill him first. I should have known from that moment. I’ve never given a damn where men find their pleasure, and suddenly I was like a dog with a bone.”
“A very strange bone,” Harriet laughed.
He nuzzled her. “I must say, I am glad that you’ve given up your breeches.”
“It wasn’t hard once I realized that everything I learned in breeches I could simply employ in my gowns.”
“Still, you never sit quietly as ladies are wont to do, during dinner conversation.”
“No,” she said, grinning.
“And you’re the most bruising rider in five counties, although no one knows that the duchess goes forth at twilight scandalously clad in breeches.”