Pippa sipped chocolate while she sang her morning song, something Maria must have taught her. Alex thought it was—or had been—an Italian children’s song, but Lord knows what any of the sounds were meant to represent. Pippa’s language skills were none too good, although she said “Papa” very clearly.

Suddenly she clutched his arm, spilling some chocolate on the sheets. “No! No, Papa, no!” she said. She was escalating into panic, her small body starting to shake. Alex grabbed her chocolate, put it on the table next to the bed, and pulled her against his chest, whispering into her ear.

“Pippa, it’s all right, remember? It’s all right.” He rubbed her back rhythmically. “Calm down, Pippa, you know Papa won’t leave you. I promised, remember?”

Finally he looked up. There in the doorway, a look of horror in her eyes, was Pippa’s new nanny, hired a day earlier.

“My lord,” said Miss Virginia Lyons, and stopped.

“Yes?”

“My lord, what is Lady Philippa doing here?”

Alex looked at her in some surprise. “Why shouldn’t she be here?” he said. “I don’t mind. And it keeps her from screaming.”

Miss Virginia opened her mouth and stopped again. She didn’t even know how to formulate an answer to such a basic question.

“Children,” she finally said, “are to be seen and not heard, at the proper times, in proper places. The rest of the time they stay in the nursery.”

“She screams in the nursery,” Alex said. “I explained that to you yesterday. She screams so loudly that she can be heard in the basement—and the nursery is on the third floor. And she drums her feet against the floor. I can’t have that,” he said reasonably.

Alex frowned a bit at Miss Virginia. She was red in the face. He adjusted the sheets, pulling them a little higher. Then he waved his hand dismissively.

“Miss Virginia, we are not yet receiving company.”

The nanny was not ready to give up. “Lady Philippa must come with me now. She does not belong in a man’s bedchamber—”

Alex cut her off. “Miss Virginia, while I accept with some reservations the presence of my child in this bedchamber, I am not ready to extend the privilege to all the staff. Please. We will join you, in the nursery, after breakfast.” He smiled amiably at Miss Virginia, whose face was fiery red now, and she backed out of the doorway.

“That was not kind of us,” he murmured into Pippa’s hair. Now that the menace (as Pippa saw all nannies) had disappeared, Pippa was humming happily and trying to grab her chocolate again. Alex settled her firmly against his side and handed her the scant third of a cup left in her mug. His own chocolate was stone cold. He finished it in one gulp, shuddering slightly.