Clyde Andrews was also a cheerful and affectionate father, a faithful spouse from what Pamela said, and he only got drunk on the Sabbath, when no work was to be done for hire.

Ellie did not trust him, though she distrusted him less than she distrusted her cousins. “Keep Clyde away from Jack, Pamela. Jack is not a good influence.” Though to Ellie’s knowledge, Jack had never involved Clyde in an illegal scheme. Clyde was the sole support of three children and thus, according to Jack’s reckoning, not a man to be taking on risky ventures.

“Our cousins are enterprising lads, Ellie. We don’t all have your good fortune. Ouch.” Pamela gently batted the child on the nose—very gently.

“I am lucky,” Ellie said. “I am also careful, and I work hard.”

“You wouldn’t have to work so hard, but you alone of all the Naylors insist on ignoring opportunity when it all but falls into your lap.”

“I ignore the opportunity to end my days with a rope around my neck.”

The oldest child glanced up from the pebble game, then looked to her mother.

“Aunt Ellie is cross this morning,” Pamela said. “She works too hard.”

The middle child scrambled to his feet. “Aunt El rides in fancy coaches with fancy gentlemen!” This occasioned dancing about and general shrieking on the parts of the older two. “Cousin Jackie says Aunt El rides in a fancy coach with fancy coves!”

“Both of you go play on the landing,” Pamela said. “Go now, before you upset the baby.”

“They upset me,” Ellie said, when the door had been stoutly slammed by the departing children. “Has Jack been spying on me?”

Fancy gentlemen, the children had said, plural. Not the occasional coach ride shared with His Grace of Walden, but gentlemen.

“Jack keeps an eye on us all. Grandpapa told him to.”

“That was more than ten years ago, and Grandpapa told me the same thing. I don’t lurk in alleys watching what you get up to.”

“Take the baby,” Pamela said, passing the infant over. “I can’t say Jack has been lurking in any alleys, but you do ride about in fancy coaches. I saw you myself just yesterday. The Walden crest is well known, and there you were, pretty as a princess in the middle of the afternoon.”

Ellie put the baby to her shoulder and softly patted his little back. “Her Grace lends me the carriage on occasion when the weather is inclement.”

“In-clem-ent,” Pamela drawled. “You really have left Yorkshire behind, haven’t you?”

The baby was precious and sweet, and to have this argument when the little fellow was due to drift off for a nap struck Ellie as wrong.