“And Bruno as our family dog!” Bryce stated.
Smiling, Toby nodded. “Just so.”
From Evelyn’s and Bryce’s expressions, they were very ready to embark on the game. Roland, however, looked somber, possibly unconvinced.
Growing serious, Toby spoke, directing his words more at Roland than the others. “Diana and I promised your father to do all we can to see you three safely to your great-aunt’s house in England. But there are men who will likely follow us and try to get in our way.” He paused, weighing the wisdom of telling them more, but forewarned was forearmed, and he needed them with their eyes open. “Unfortunately, those men might be dangerous, not just to me and Diana but to all of us.”
His wave encompassed the six of them in the coach, Helga included. Although she was listening as intently as the children, she appeared calm and unperturbed.
When Toby returned his gaze to Roland, to his surprise, the boy nodded with transparent understanding. “That’s why we have to play our game—our charade.” Leaning forward, he explained to his siblings, “Because those following aren’t looking for a family. They’ll ask about two grown-ups traveling together, not about a family, so they won’t find our trail.”
“Exactly so.” Toby allowed approval to shine in his eyes. He felt relieved as well, but kept that hidden.
“So,” Diana said, “when we stop for lunch, and there are other people about, we—all of us—need to behave as if we’re a family.” Her expression encouraging, she looked at Evelyn, then Bryce, and finally at Roland. “Can you do that, do you think?”
Toby was watching Roland, wondering how the boy would respond. Understanding a need might not be enough to have him pretend that Toby was his father.
“I can!” Evelyn piped up, her tone emphatic. “You will be Mama, and Mr. Cynster will be Papa.”
Her declaration had Bryce nodding in ready agreement.
Toby returned his gaze to Roland.
The boy met his eyes and nodded, too. “Papa told us we would need to pretend to be a family, and he said he wanted us to do it as well as we could.”
Not for the first time, Toby blessed Adrian Fellows. Outwardly, he smiled encouragingly. “Excellent.” He’d noticed cottages appearing along the road. “We’re coming into Graz. We’ll be at the inn where we’ll stop for lunch soon, and there’ll be plenty of people there, so let’s see how well we perform.”
He deliberately made it sound like a challenge. In his experience, children responded well to challenges.
Diana caught his eye and added, “Indeed.” She looked at the children. “This will be our first performance, as it were. Let’s see how well we can do.”
Unsurprisingly, the children were enthused.
Diana ran her gaze over their faces and was unwillingly impressed by how well Toby had navigated a difficult subject. All three children, even Roland, were now thoroughly engaged with their necessary charade and content to be so. That was no mean feat.
Then the carriage drew up outside an inn in the main square, and she had to turn her mind to behaving as if she was their mother.
If Toby was feeling his way over traveling as a father with children, she was in even deeper waters pretending to be a mama.
She felt very much on her mettle as they descended in the inn’s yard, and she and Toby, assisted by Helga, ushered the children inside. Sorting out who should do what as they went, they managed to arrange seating and for food and drinks to be supplied.
They sat and ate and behaved exactly as a family.
She slanted surreptitious glances at others in the room, but no one seemed to detect anything untoward in their performance. And indeed, as the minutes passed and she grew more immersed in the role—helping Evelyn with her food and assuring her that Rupert the Bear, squashed on the bench beside Evelyn, didn’t need any pie—Diana sensed instincts rising that left her more alert and watchful than she would usually be.
In a flash of insight, she realized that, contrary to her belief to that point, she did, in fact, possess maternal instincts.
Her gaze shifted to Toby, seated between Roland and Bryce on the bench opposite. He was helping Bryce cut up a sausage. No one watching would imagine Toby wasn’t at least related to the boys.
To her eyes, he seemed tense—as tense as she. He was watching himself and the children, ready to correct any little slip, yet he managed to appear more relaxed than she felt she did.
She turned assessing eyes on the children. She was unsurprised that Evelyn was both delighted with their game of pretend and also very good at projecting just the right image. The little girl played make-believe with her toys all the time; for her, pretending to be a family in real life took no great effort.
Bryce, too, was managing well. Diana recalled that he still occasionally played make-believe. Clearly, he hadn’t lost the knack of stepping into a role.
Despite his understanding of the need and his determined agreement, Roland was the least assured, but with his naturally quieter manners, he appeared to be merely more reserved.
Having so recently lost her father—indeed, becoming an orphan as the children now were—she had some inkling as to the feelings Roland would be grappling with, albeit as a child rather than an adult. That would only make coming to grips with the situation all the more difficult.
