The Bachelor Earl - Darcy Burke Page 0,52
make his heart feel as if it might burst. That he’d found a love so strong and so pure would humble him until his dying breath and likely beyond.
“Why is everyone apologizing?” Lionel, Marquess of Axbridge and one of West’s closest friends, asked as he entered the drawing room. He carried their youngest, Caroline, who was the same age as Julia and was followed by West’s brother-in-law, David Langley, Earl of St. Ives whose arms were full with his youngest, Mary.
“The boys were wrestling,” Emmaline explained to her husband.
“Who was winning?” Lionel asked, and West couldn’t help but laugh. But then all the women either frowned or glared at him and Lionel, and they quickly sobered.
“What happened?” Fanny asked.
“There was only Papa here,” Leah answered, as if that response perfectly summed up why a fracas would break out. And West supposed it did.
“I shouldn’t have been left alone with them,” he said in meager self-defense.
Leah came to him and touched his hand. “It’s all right, Papa. I was here to help.”
West stifled a smile and caressed her cheek. “Thank goodness for that.” He winked at her then transferred his attention to the other adults. “Are we ready for the Yule log hunt?”
This provoked a chorus of excitement from the children, followed by laughter from the adults.
“I think that’s a yes,” Lionel said with a wry grin.
Graham and Arabella Kinsley, Duke and Duchess of Halstead, entered then. Graham carried their youngest, Charlotte, who was just a year old. “Did we hear that it’s time to leave for the hunt?”
Jasper wriggled in West’s arms as he reached for his mother. Arabella strode toward them and embraced him with a smile. “Thank you for watching Jasper while we tended to Charlotte. The nurses are ready to take charge of the small ones while we go on the hunt.”
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