A Pair of Rogues Read Free Page B

envied.
    After a quick freshening up, she joined Louisa in the nursery. With conspiratorial smiles, both ladies tip-toed over to the cradle. Robert Edward was fast asleep. Their presence must have disturbed his little lordship, for he yawned and stretched with his tiny eyes still closed, poking out his swaddled bottom until his back arched at an impossibly concave angle.
     Christina gave a low, watery laugh and promptly fell in love.
    “I’m so happy you invited me to be his godmother,” she whispered, as she and Louisa retreated from the room.
    “I knew you would love him. You are just like Ned.”
    “Ned?”
    “Yes. The Earl of Windermere.” Louisa closed the door to the nursery and led the way back downstairs. “He is to be godfather.”
    “Godfather—Ned?” A vivid memory flooded Christina’s brain—a head of windswept hair, as thick and black as pitch; merry eyes with a teasing gleam; two strong arms; and a comforting lap.
    She waited until her sister-in-law and she were safely ensconced in Louisa’s withdrawing room with the doors firmly closed, before saying, “The rake? I thought he and Robert had parted company many years ago. It is certain in any case that I’ve heard of Lord Windermere’s tainted reputation, even so far away as Bath. He doesn’t seem to be the sort of man Robert would have for a friend.”
    “Ned has his moments,” Louisa admitted, “but he has been so good to Robert and me. And he adores the baby.”
    His handsome face flashed in Christina’s mind again. “He always did like children,” she said.
    Louisa paused in her stitching. “I didn’t know you two had ever met.”
    Christina grinned. “You could scarcely call it a meeting. I doubt if he remembers me at all. I was five and he was seventeen. He came down with Robert on the long vacation, but had the good sense never to come to Broughton Abbey again. Of course, I doubt my mother would have allowed Robert to invite him again.”
    “Oh, dear.” Louisa seemed strangely discomposed. “What did he do?”
    “I’ve never been entirely sure.” Christina frowned, searching her memory for clues. “Something to do with the upstairs chambermaid, as I recall. It wouldn’t have taken much to turn our mother against him. She’s referred to him ever since as ‘that horrid Windermere boy.’“
    “Yes, I believe that is precisely how she referred to him in her last letter. I’m afraid I was so unwise as to advise her that we had chosen him for a godparent, but she did ask. Still, I shall refrain from asking Robert about the incident, and I would advise you not to either. Their friendship always has a rather . . . precarious feel.
    “But what about you?” Louisa seemed curious. “You were very young when he came. Why do you remember him?”
    A smile pulled at the corners of Christina’s mouth. “I remember him as the only one of Robert’s friends who ever made me sick.”
    “Not sick!” Louisa looked stunned. And strangely disappointed.
    “Not in the way you think,” Christina said, laughing. “I meant quite literally sick. I was playing out in the park with my nurse, when Robert and he passed by on their way to hunt. When Ned saw me, he ran over and grasped me by the wrists. He started to spin me about in a circle faster and faster. I was rather frightened at first, and then delighted by the ride.”
    She made a disparaging face. “I suppose I must have giggled too much, for as soon as he stopped I began to feel ill. I’m afraid I lost my breakfast all over his boots.”
    Louisa covered her mouth with one hand. “Oh, dear. He must have been quite put off. But what did the boys do? Were they horridly callous?”
    “Not at all. Ned was very contrite. He held me on his lap until my spasms passed. As I recall, Robert stood around and looked helpless.”
    As soon as she’d felt better, her brother had consigned her to Nurse’s care, but not before Ned had kissed her on the cheek and said he was sorry. He had