Both children nodded solemnly, their little pale faces streaked with the stains of tears. Louisa helped Abigail into the bed andthen found a washbasin and wet a cloth, gently wiping their faces and tucking them in.
"Wonderful, now then. You may have a song or a story, which would you like?"
"Story!" Kenneth said eagerly, and Abigail looked like she wouldn't disagree with him, so Louisa smiled.
"Once upon a time there was a little girl," she started, and Kenneth made a noise of disappointment.
"It's always a girl in these stories, why can't one be about a little boy like me?"
"I will tell you so many about little boys," she assured him. "There are a lot, I am sure you have even heard some before like Tom Thumb and Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk, correct?" he nodded slowly. "Exactly, so this story is about a little girl and also about a little wolf. The wolf is a little boy, so you see there is a character for each of you."
"Oh!" Kenneth said, excited. "I would like to be a wolf!"
"No, you'd eat people," Abigail protested, giggling. "You would have a tail!"
"She is quite right," Cedric said, stepping closer to them. "All wolves have tails and tails are very inconvenient."
"Have you had a tail, Uncle Cedric?" Kenneth asked seriously, so seriously that Louisa had to fight not to laugh.
"Anyway," she said firmly. "This little girl lived in a red house in the middle of the forest and her very best friend in all the world was the son of the Wolf King, a young wolf prince with black fur who went with her everywhere. They had many adventures, but the one I am going to tell you about is the time that they tried to find the Duke of the Birds and convince him to end the war between the birds and the fish."
"Why would they be at war?" Abigail asked suspiciously. "A bird can't swim and a fish can't fly."
"Exactly," Kenneth said. "They would not be in each other's' terr-tories."
"Very clever," Louisa said warmly. "And very true. But sometimes wars do not happen for sensible reasons. In this case a ring that the Duke of the Birds loved very much had fallen from his claw and fallen into the lake and the Emperor of the Fish had eaten it."
"That's not fair!" Abigail protested. "It was the Bird Duke's!"
"Just so. This is why there was a war. And this is why the girl and the wolf had to walk all the way across the forest past the great castle made of cake, and the strange old witch's hut that walked around on chicken legs! Then they tricked the strange fairy people who lived under the ground to make sure there was peace."
Both children were watching her now with interested and sleepy eyes and Louisa felt encouraged to delve even further into the story world that she had developed. She painted a picture of the cake castle that had been left in the forest by an old and forgetful giant who had been taking it to his daughter's wedding but had put it down and forgotten about it. How a whole group of moles had turned it into a castle by eating tunnels into it and how the girl and the wolf ended up running away with one of the chimneys which was made out of marzipan and tasted very fine.
She told them about a grand ball in the fairy kingdom and all the beautiful finery and dances, spinning lovely soft tales until the children's eyes closed at last and they were asleep.
She almost ruined all of her hard work then by shrieking when a hand landed on her shoulder but she managed to claw it back in time, whirling to see Cedric standing just behind her.
His exhaustion was even more evident this close. There were lines of worry on his face and circles beneath his eyes that she had not noticed before and she had to wonder to herself how long he had been pretending everything was all right so no one would notice that nothing was.
"Come," he said softly. "Join me in my study. I think they will be all right for now."
Considering that the last time she had been in his study it had been so he would tell her not to disobey him on the matter of the children, it should perhaps have concerned her more, but she felt strangely at peace with him at this moment. They wereno longer at war. They had found an understanding, and she was curious to see where that understanding would take them.
CHAPTER EIGHT
It was a very different sort of feeling stepping into the study with the master of the house at her side instead of barging in to confront him or being summoned to speak to him like she was a naughty schoolgirl in trouble with a teacher.
There was still a little flutter of nerves in her chest from being alone with him, like they would get in trouble if they were found out. Perhaps that was the most ridiculous thing of all, to be feeling nervous to be alone with her own husband?
What will the servants say?She thought perhaps a little hysterically to herself.How scandalous, Lord and Lady St Vincent alone in his study. They might be talking, he might see her ankles!
She must be even more tired than she had thought, it was a relief when Cedric took her arm steadyingly, withdrawn and quiet as he showed her to a seat and then crossed to one of the dark wood shelves around the room, mostly piled high with strangeold books, and pulled a bottle of dark amber down from a high shelf along with a couple of clear crystal glasses.
He poured a measure into one glass with a liberal hand and looked up to see her watching him. "Would you care for a drink, Louisa?" he asked, softly.
She felt as though there was a note of challenge or doubt in his voice, so she nodded firmly. She had never drunk anything like whatever this was. The most she had drunk before apart from occasional flutes of light champagne or a small glass of sweet wine was the time she had slipped into the masked ball and taken for herself an entire bottle of champagne. It had made her feel invulnerable, delightful and then sick in short succession.
Cedric crossed back to her with the second glass with only a very little amount in it. "It is quite strong," he said at her aggrieved look. "Best to ensure you like it before I pour you more."
