“I have a meeting at the Foreign Office,” Walter Carpenter said.

Her Grace of Rothwell glanced at Lady Worthington. “Are we still taking the babies out this afternoon?”

“We are. The older children are going to the Tower today.”

“The Tower?” Hugh’s attention was immediately diverted from his plate.

“Only if we behave,” his sister said.

“And after we take our exercise,” Rothwell’s daughter added.

A girl who resembled Worthington dabbed her lips with a serviette. “After our dancing lessons, Mary and I are going riding with our grooms.”

John studied the younger children for a few seconds and finally saw the resemblance they all had to each other in one form or another. He recalled Walter Carpenter saying something about a bunch of five-year-olds. “Are you all five?”

There were nods around the table, but it was Rothwell’s daughter who had her mother and uncle’s bright green eyes, who answered. “We are all within a few months of one another except for Elizabeth, who is four.” On the other side of Worthington a little girl smiled. “Gideon is the eldest”—the boy next to Worthington inclined his head— “Vivienne is next”—the little girl seated beside Merton grinned at John—“I am next, then Hugh and Constance; they are twins.”

John had never felt the need for a large family, but what would it have been like to be part of a group of cousins all the same age or close to it? If he did marry Eleanor, he’d be a member of this family, and if her sisters wed this Season, his children would have cousins close to their age.

The clock chimed the time, and the children rose and began to file out of the room.

“School,” Hugh muttered as he passed John. “I must be good.”

A few seconds after the door closed behind them, everyone started to laugh. “I take it that poor Hugh has difficulties behaving?”

“Very much like his father,” Worthington drawled.

Kenilworth shrugged. “He will eventually grow out of it.”

“When he’s over thirty,” Worthington agreed amiably.

“It didn’t take me quite that long.” Kenilworth appeared a bit pensive. “Close, but not quite. Aside from that, he has his sister and cousins to help him along.”

John had a feeling Kenilworth was right. That was another benefit of having a large family. “Not that I have been around many children before, but they seemed very well behaved.”

“That is because you and St. Albans are here,” Walter Carpenter pointed out. “And they have been promised an outing if they behave.”

Eleanor shook her head. “I think they are not as bad as you believe they are.” She wrinkled her nose. “But they are usually much louder.” She glanced at John. “Generally they hold their own conversations without regard to what other conversations are going on. If they confined it to the one nearest to them, it would not be so loud.”