Good girls don't go snooping where they don't belong.
But Lady Delia Scarborough never claimed to be a good girl.
Lady Delia Scarborough wants her sister back from the grave.
Since that can't happen, she'll settle for the next best thing...
Making...
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Kieran paused outside the door of the nursery, taking a deep breath and then another. There was a small and cowardly part of him that wanted nothing more than to stay away, to do as so many men of his class did and simply watch his daughter grow from afar.
He couldn't do that, not after already missing the earliest parts of her life, and he was going to have to face Delia at some point. In the small hours of the morning, he had even considered letting her go. He would provide her with a generous sum, enough to keep her for at least a year, but surely what had happened last night meant that they could no longer live under the same roof, didn't it?
If she wants to leave, I will not stop her, and I will certainly pay her what she's due. However, I am not sure I can order her to leave myself. I won't do that to Alice, and I will not do that to myself.
He knew that at the bottom of it was something terribly desperate. If he could not have Delia as his mistress, he still wanted her around, no matter what capacity it came down to.
Kieran entered the nursery quietly, and for a few moments, he watched Delia and Alice, their heads bent over a primer and Alice sounding out the letters with a dubious look on her face.
His daughter was charming, but it was Delia's face that captured Kieran. It was relaxed and sweet, a gentle smile on her lips as she oversaw Alice's education. She encouraged Alice when she faltered, and when the little girl succeeded, she made soft exclamations of pride.
Kieran might have stood there watching her forever if Delia hadn't noticed him across the room and straightened up.
"Kieran."
Some part of him was pathetically, desperately grateful that she had not retreated into calling him by his title. He was not sure that he could have borne that.
"Delia. What is the lesson today?"
He sounded, even in his own ears, terribly stiff and stilted, but Alice looked up with a grin on her face, ready and eager to show him what they had been working on. She was delighted to be given a challenge, and she rewarded Delia's efforts by reading back the first five pages of the primer in a stuttering but increasingly confident voice.
"That's very good, Alice. Thank you for sharing with me. I only wish that I could stay longer..."
Alice's face fell. "I want you to stay, Papa!"
Kieran started to make up some excuse, but then Delia was there, rising smoothly to her feet and turning to Alice.
"Poppet, will you please go set up your painting and drawing supplies? Go find them in the box. I think we have had enough of reading and we should go to drawing next."
Alice looked as if she would like to argue, but with a dark frown, she stomped to her drawing supplies, pulling out the tools she liked best. Kieran wondered if Delia was giving him a chance to make a graceful exit, but then she turned to him.
