Loving Lady Marcia by Kieran Kramer Read Free Book Online Page B

deal of pride. “I’m strong. And fast.”
    But then he caught sight of his new circus animals, turned his back on Duncan, squatted, and began to play with them. “I’ve got to see to it that they’re fed,” he said over his shoulder. “The elephants are hungry, and the lion wants to eat them. One of my toy soldiers will have to fight him.”
    You’re going to be trouble.
    Duncan’s guilt was overwhelmed by a love so strong, he was amazed he was capable of it. He stood, his hands on his hips, reveling in the boy’s enjoyment of his gift. Turning four today hadn’t changed Joe in the least.
    It is I who have changed, Duncan thought. Utterly and completely .
    He saw that the servants had gathered at the door. “The whole family’s here, my boy,” he told Joe, “so it’s time for a song.” He walked to the pianoforte, lifted the tail of his coat, and sat down.
    A rustle of some skirts and some thumps of boots, and the makeshift family was inside the room. Joe sat amid them all on the carpet, grinning from ear to ear.
    Duncan made a sweeping motion with his fingers down the keys of the pianoforte, paused a moment, then hit a crashing major chord: “I once knew a boy named Joe…”
    He thought quickly as he played a few playful notes. “I mean to say, JosephHenryAugustusLattimore, the fourth…”
    Which made everyone laugh.
    He proceeded to invent a funny song about Joe and an elephant and a wicked lion whom Joe tamed with sweets, some of which managed to fall out of Duncan’s pockets as he played.
    After which everyone clapped, Joe, especially, his mouth bulging with a piece of toffee. And Duncan played for another hour, song after song after song. Ruby, the cook, was an excellent soprano, and Warren-the-valet’s lower register was so low, the windows rattled when he sang. The maids played “Ring Around the Rosie,” with Joe over and over until he lay down on the rug and fell asleep.
    The banging on the piano never woke him, and when they were done, Duncan read two chapters from Gulliver’s Travels . The servants watched raptly as he walked about the room reading, acting out all the parts with different voices and the occasional flourish or flinch, scowl or chest-thumping, depending on the action.
    And when he was done, Margaret woke Joe, and Ruby fed him a meal of a roasted chicken drumstick and potatoes and peas in the kitchen, where he had his own special table and chair, just his size. He hated to eat in the nursery, so Duncan didn’t make him. Afterward, Aislinn walked with him upstairs to play games again for another hour, then to hear a story, bathe, and dress for bed.
    When Duncan went in to kiss the boy good night, Joe grabbed his hand. “Papa, why don’t I have a mother?” he asked him from beneath his coverlet. “Perhaps she lives in a great shoe. I’d like her to tuck me in tonight.”
    He’d never said such a thing before, had never seemed to notice his lack of mother. He’d seemed perfectly content with Aislinn and all the women of the house.
    Duncan looked quickly at the maid, whose face was frozen in concern, and kept his smile in place. “Aislinn does a fine job of tucking you in, does she not?”
    Joe merely stared at him.
    “And I love you very much,” Duncan told him. “It’s why I come to kiss you good night.” He did just that, kissing Joe’s forehead. “Would you like another story? I can tell you one about a knight and a dragon.”
    “I’m tired.” The boy blinked and yawned. And then he rolled over and closed his eyes.
    Thank God .
    Out in the hallway, Aislinn waited. “I’m so sorry,” she said in her gentle Irish accent. “I read him the Mother Goose rhyme about the old woman who lived in a shoe.”
    Her face flushed.
    “No. You’re doing a fine job.” Duncan meant it, but the glow of the evening was gone. “He was bound to ask sometime.”
    Joe would only get older and more clever, and someday he would learn the truth, that his mother had died in