He was a dreadful tease, she had come to learn, and he was so quick with his wit that one had to be paying a good deal of attention to keep up with him. Fortunately for her, she had always been rather astute in her observations, and her own mind particularly quick in such things. It was not quite so fun to spar with Richard as it was with Basset, but it did make her laugh, and that was an encouraging thing.

He had not had a fever in three days now, and he slept far less than he once had. His color was better, and he had managed three laps around the room before luncheon and two more before tea. His mood was cheery, his spirits high, and his discussions on how to improve his life now that he had forsaken his life of debauchery rather hopeful.

Surely Basset would see the change in him and begin the forgiving process. Trust would take time, she knew well, but if resentment could cease, it would be so lovely for all three Basset siblings to be reconciled and to enjoy life together rather than pointedly apart.

Adelaide had been determined to nurse Richard as much as possible herself, as long as her strength and the child would allow. She had formed a connection with him through their letters and was desperate to prove to Basset, as well as herself, that she could tend to the sick and the downtrodden, as a mother would have done. She wanted to know this was within her, that she could find such tendencies and capabilities, and she wanted Basset to see it as well. She knew that she was not the mothering type, but that did not mean she could not learn to be.

This would prove that to her.

“And then,” Richard was saying, continuing with some story Adelaide had barely been listening to, “I snuck back down into the kitchens and found the rest of the Mahogany, which I finished off in the course of an hour. I have never been so violently ill in all my life, and my father was livid. More because there was no more Mahogany rather than because I had consumed such a drink so young, but the fact remains.”

Adelaide shook her head with a smile, putting together enough pieces of the story to garner an appropriate reaction. “You are a wicked man, Richard Basset, and that clearly started when you were very young. What did your mother say?”