Read Online The Country House Courtship by Linore Rose Burkard - Free Book Online Page B

delighted to comply. They liked to be together for bohea and biscuits, but lately the children joined them in the drawing room since the guests were there as well. It would be cozier upstairs, just the four of them and Mrs. Perler.
    Thirty-five minutes later, Miranda had been fed with all the attentions due an infant (meaning she was burped, nursed on the other breast, burped yet again, and thoroughly adored, all while maintaining a complete oblivion to the squeals of delight and laughter around her) before Ariana asked her husband, “Do you wish to hold your daughter?” Coat removed, he had been playing upon the carpet with his son, letting the child climb all over him and giving him rides upon his back.
    â€œBy all means,” he said, with a little smile, patting Nigel on the head before getting up to come and take the baby. Unlike the manner of his rough play with their son, Phillip took his littlest child gingerly into his arms, but without the great air of confidence that usually accompanied his actions. He sat down and studied her face, touched her with his finger, and let her little fingers clamp around one of his. Ariana came and sat beside them, after giving Nigel some tea and letting him pick what he wanted from the tray, which usually amounted to naught but biscuits.
    â€œIsn’t she lovely?” Ariana said, for the thousandth time.
    â€œShe certainly is,” he murmured. “Just like her mother.”
    Miranda had been born with a beautiful silky layer of dark black hair, but at two months, it was already beginning to fall out, and, to his delight, was being replaced with the same light golden strands he loved on Ariana. He may not have been in his element holding an infant, but the miracle of this child being flesh of his flesh still astounded him, and he relished having her. At Nigel’s birth, he’d felt awestruck that he had taken part in giving life; and that the life was part of him, part of Ariana, and something that, once there, he would never want to live without.
    Until his children were born, he’d had a sense of needing an heir, but to actually have a child of his own in his arms was unbelievably satisfying. He had to conclude that it was a God-given desire, hidden within some people more than others, perhaps, but there just the same. He hadn’t known that it was within him to feel so much love, to be fiercely protective of others the way he felt for his family. Not until Ariana, and then Nigel and Miranda came into his life.
What was life without them? How had he ever thought he was at all enjoying himself? God was so merciful to have given him what amounted to a new life! A family. A wonderful, precious family.
    After holding the baby until she slept (Ariana never grew tired of the sight of her strong, handsome husband cuddling a baby against his chest), he motioned to Mrs. Perler to take the child, but his wife said, “I’ll take her.”
    He handed her over gingerly, but said, “A few more minutes; then, come with me so I can speak to you.”
    â€œI haven’t done, Papa!” cried Nigel, his mouth full of crumbs.
    Their visits were the highlight of his days, even more so than just having tea every early afternoon; Mr. Mornay’s eyes softened at his son’s words, and he sat back down. Meanwhile, a maid began refilling cups for the adults, including Mrs. Perler, who was always allowed to partake with the family. She knew to sit aside by herself in a corner of the room unless she was needed, however, and she did so now. Ariana often had her tell any stories of things the children did, or what new smart thing Nigel had said or accomplished in her absence.
    Ariana would have transformed a parlour into a nursery so that she could have the children always near her; but Mr. Mornay insisted that she needed time apart, to rest for one thing; and to be available to him, for another. And so the upstairs nursery, which was really a small