* * *
“Three days and no word from you?” Dorothy cried as she stood in the doorway. “What were you thinking, Allan?”
He stood on her doorstep with his arms folded. It was true he hadn’t been to see her for the last few days.
“I’m sure you have heard my news regardless.”
“Of course, I have. The scandal sheets are full of the fact you and Frederica are to marry after your scandal.” She turned back into her house, beckoning him to follow just as Stephen appeared though he was not alone.
He was running down the corridor, chasing after two toddlers who were doing their best to outwit him. The taller of the two, Peter, was racing ahead, dragging his little sister behind him, who was struggling to keep up, for she had not long been walking.
“Peter!” Stephen shouted.
“Yes, Father?” Peter cried back with an innocent tone.
“Careful with your sister!”
Young Arabella was too busy sucking on her thumb to notice where she was going as she ran. Fortunately, when she tripped, she fell into her brother’s back. Peter caught her with ease and laughed happily beneath his sister, who promptly complained he wasn’t a very comfortable pillow at all.
Stephen raced to catch up with them, swinging his daughter into the air, kissing her on the cheek, then pulling Peter up to stand with just one hand.
“Now, is that what we do when I ask you to help look after your sister? You run away?” Stephen asked, crouching down to sit beside his son.
“Yes,” Peter said, laughing joyously as he did so.
Stephen shook his head and tutted.
“I swear you do not get your mischief from me.”
“He does,” Allan and Dorothy said in unison together.
Stephen turned, clearly noticing Allan’s arrival for the first time in the doorway.
“Aha!” Stephen said, standing and picking up Peter with his other arm, so he was carrying both children. “Who wants to greet Uncle Allan today?”
“Allan!” It was Arabella who shouted his name the loudest.
Allan laughed, smiling freely for the first time in days as he took his niece into his arms and carried her into the drawing room, following his family. She proceeded to pull on his cravat, trying to tie it around her tiny hand. Peter was promptly placed down with some wooden horses to play with, and then Arabella kept pulling on the cravat until Allan put her down so she could join him.
“Looks like there will be more children soon,” Stephen observed as he sat down near his children.
Allan flinched and looked at his sister, wide eyed.
“You’re not —”
“He doesn’t mean me.” She waved a hand in the air and clapped Allan around the arm in reprimand. “He’s talking about you.”
“Me!?” Allan spluttered. He didn’t even have a ring on his finger yet, and they were already making predictions about him having a child? “I’m not married yet!”
“No, but you left it to the scandal sheets to inform the ton that Frederica had accepted your proposal. Speaking of which…” She promptly tapped him around the arm again, a little harder this time.
“Ow,” Allan complained.
When Stephen looked starkly between his own children and Allan and Dorothy, he shook his head.
“I’m beginning to think we have created two copies of you two. They’re as mischievous as you two are.”
“We are not,” Allan and Dorothy complained in unison, at which Stephen laughed loudly.
