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It made him feel as if he should just cut off his own head and be done with it
Tobias was curled in a chair in his cha at hily "There’s an old nanny up there who used to care for Lady Lisette She tried to feed oing?"
"No," Tobias said with a patent lack of interest
Really, Villiers thought, wasn’t that precisely what he himself would do? He never infor or why
Though he’d always taken that as the prerogative of being a duke Tobias was no duke
"What are you reading?"
"It’s a book about this Cosmo Gordon, see? He killed someone"
"In a duel I know He killed Frederick Thomas in Hyde Park last year How did you learn to read?"
"Mrs Jobber taught us I can write too"
"I ot," Villiers said, frustration licking at hiain So far fatherhood felt like an exercise in failure "Where’sthat Finchley went off to try to calm him down"
"Ridiculous That ani It’s hten Lady Lisette," Tobias said wistfully "Look at this" He held up a small bronze horse with a tail that whisked in the air
Villiers hauled on the bell cord, wishing that Finchley would drop the errands of et it?"
"It was sitting around in the nursery," Tobias said "They haven’t had any children there in a long time Everyone knows that Lisette won’t have any"
"She is Lady Lisette to you," Villiers pointed out "Why won’t she?"
"She loves babies But her father says she needn’ther, are you? Is she the one?"
"Yes," Villiers said decisively, putting Eleanor out of his mind "She is"
"She’s potty," Tobias said "Cracked They all say so"
"Who says so?"
"Her old nanny The maid said the sa, there isn’t anyone who can stop her Except you, I guess He said you picked her up and she settled down just like a baby with a bottle of gin"
"Babies don’t drink gin," Villiers said, pretty sure that he was right about that
Tobias shrugged He obviously had about as much interest in baby care as Villiers did
Lisette had been surrounded by children froe She clearly adored children, and even itimacy wouldn’t disturb her It was unlikely that any of those orphans had parents whose doular
By now Finchley had reappeared "Would you like the young master to return to the nursery now?" he asked as he pulled off Villiers’s boots
Villiers glanced over at Tobias The boy was listening, of course, though he was pretending to read "He doesn’t look as if he’ll be shocked by the sight of my pump handle"