Untamable Rogue (Formerly: A Christmas Baby) by Annette Blair

Author:Annette Blair [Blair, Annette]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Annette Blair
Published: 2012-01-19T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

They woke at dawn to find Micah setting kindling in the hearth like the lowliest of servants. “Oh no,” Lark said, which made the boy start and scurry into the corner.

When Ash slipped into his trousers and approached her nephew, Micah covered his head, as if Ash might strike him. “No, little one,” he said. “I will not hurt you,” and Lark thought she might find herself falling a little bit in love with her husband after all.

Unable to go to her nephew, for she lay naked beneath the bedcovers, Lark wept for seeing his fear. She became angry as well at the family who had kept him, especially after all the money she had put into his care, only to see that he’d not been kept at all well.

Ash lifted Micah in his arms and carried him to the window. He pointed out the ghostwalk, the spinney, the orchard, the bridge over the lake, the lavender field—all the places on an estate a boy might like to explore.

“Lark,” Ash said. “He is trembling in my arms. I will take him to my room while you wash and dress, but I think he needs a woman’s touch.”

Lark dressed and went for him in short order. Ash now wore a shirt as well as his trousers, and he held Micah by the hand, as he showed him bauble after worldly bauble that had been purchased in his father’s time.

Micah no more fought her, when she lifted him into her arms, than he had fought Ash, which made her fear that he had been beaten into submission over the years. Despite taking him to her heart and kissing him, her nephew remained stiff and unyielding. “I will take him back to the nursery,” she told Ash, who regarded her as if he saw and understood her sadness.

Ash kissed her brow. “I must wash and dress, see to some estate matters, then I will find you up in the nursery.”

“Go and see your mother,” she said. “Take her hand, kiss her brow.”

In response to her urging, Ash shook his head and turned toward the dressing room, giving her a wave without looking back.

Lark carried Micah up the nursery stairs. “You are not a servant in our house, Micah,” she said. “You are family.” She sang the lullaby she used to sing to him when he was a child, but though he looked straight into her eyes, he made no sign of recognition.

Mim bobbed Lark a curtsey when she arrived. “The boy slept well enough, my Lady, but when he woke, he was afraid. I’m that sorry he got away after his breakfast and bath. I looked and looked, and couldn’t find him anywhere, until I went to tell His Lordship, who had him in his care.”

Lark shook her head as much at a loss as the maid. “No need for apologies. I fear he is acting on years of training.” Lark intended to take Micah on her lap in the nursery rocker, then she thought better of it and decided he should learn to play, again.

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