Ethan had not been thinking at the time. All he had thought of was the opportunity to finally catch up with time lost caring for Elizabeth. He needed to sleep and the second he thought the stranger had things under control, he snuck out of the room and went to bed. His fatigue was no excuse for his cruelty, but at the time, it seemed logical.

Fully expecting the door to be pulled open to reveal the red head with brown eyes, he was disappointed after a few minutes of standing there, to find himself still staring at the firmly closed door. Perhaps she had decided to run off? Not that he could blame her —he thought, as he made his way down the hallway— because Elizabeth was a handful. Indeed, all it took for any woman who had the misfortune of having to care for her, to run off was a few nights with her. He supposed now that the stranger was gone, he could focus on finding a nanny for Elizabeth. This time, he might even put out a newspaper advertisement. If he didn't find a proper nanny, then he would have no other choice but to find Juliet.

The mere thought of Juliet left a bitter taste in his mouth. But what choice did he have? He had an infant who barely ate, cried all the time, and simply would not fall asleep. When she did manage to fall asleep, she cried herself to it. He was simply desperate; desperate enough to comb London and the entire England if he had to, in order to find Juliet and drag her back here to care for Elizabeth until she was grown enough to live without her unreliable mother!

He rubbed his forehead, pushing the door to the nursery open —he might as well see to Elizabeth's care this morning. He stepped into the room, his gaze searching briefly for a sign of his daughter. He didn't have to search for long. Lying flat on her back with Elizabeth on her chest was the missing stranger.

Relief flooded his body, a loud sigh drifting from his lips at the sight of her. He could barely believe his luck at her decision to stay, and so much more than her decision to stay was her decision to stay with Elizabeth.

Slowly, he began making his way toward the two females who laid sleeping on the carpet. The woman had her arms around Elizabeth, as if to keep the infant from falling off, her cheek resting slightly against Elizabeth's head as she laid sleeping.

Ethan knew that standing there and staring at the stranger as she slept with his child was probably an odd thing to do, but once again, he found it nearly impossible to turn away from her. The swellings seemed to have eased and the cut from the morning before had obviously been cleaned by a maid. Her red eyelashes rested comfortably on her cheeks as her eyelids stood shut, the rest of her fiery red hair sprawled on the gold patterned carpet. Tiny freckles congregated around her nose area, and her rosy lips were parted slightly for her soft snores to escape.