Chapter Twenty-Six

P urity answered quickly, putting him out of his misery. "Yes, I did. If you are agreeable to having them."

Matthew's face broke into a broad grin, and he put the kitten back into the basket before reaching for the one in her hands and restoring it to its sibling.

Then he drew her to standing and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close so she could feel the rapid tattoo of his heartbeat.

Then he looked down at her, his amber eyes glistening.

"I don't care if you bring a pride of lions with you, as long as you are still marrying me."

"That's good," she said, taking his face in her hands. "I left the lions on the doorstep."

He barked out a shaky laugh before bending low and claiming her mouth under his. As he tilted his head, she parted her lips to allow him entrance, relishing his tongue stroking hers. She didn't know how long they kissed, giving, taking, heating up and sizzling all over, but Purity would have been content to spend the day doing nothing more.

However, the kittens were mewling pitifully.

After Foxford had thoroughly ravished her mouth, he rested his forehead upon hers.

"I was certain I knew why you had come."

"And you were wrong."

"Thank God!" He sucked in a long breath. "May I explain about Diana?"

"If you wish. Shall we partake of the wonderful tea service? I would feel awful if the maid came to collect it and found a full pot as well as untouched platters. Imagine her showing your cook our ingratitude."

He tilted back his head and laughed. "Heaven forbid we insult my maid and cook."

After she sat, Foxford dragged the other chair next to hers.

"Now I wish we had the blasted sofa so we could sit close."

"You must stop swearing, at least in front of the child," she admonished to hide her own wish for a horizontal surface and some privacy with him.

Picking up her cup, she sipped while watching the kittens try to get out of the deep-sided basket.

"Diana will love them," he promised. Then he added, "You should have said something to stop me going on and on."

"You know how I feel about interrupting." Reaching for a biscuit, she added, "It is nearly as bad as vulgarisms."

After a pause, in which Purity hoped he didn't make her ask for the story, he said, "I shall get this all out at once. I knew Diana's mother before I left England."

And by the way he said "knew," it was clear to Purity what he meant.

"It was probably three years ago," he added. "She had fallen into the suds, finding no way to support herself except one. I didn't know she had a totiken already, hidden away. When I came back to England, her solicitor found me within a day. He'd been awaiting my return. Her mother had passed away, and Diana was living at the Infant Orphan Asylum in Wanstead."

"How terrible," Purity said, setting down her cup. "I am sure some of those places are comfortable, but I've read stories of dreadful conditions."

"Truthfully, I feared what I would find. Fortunately, it wasn't too bad, but it was crowded. The asylum isn't a very old place, and it was built of white stone with turrets topped by cupolas. Very uplifting, I thought. And I shall never forget the touching inscription over the door — ‘A structure of hope built on the foundation of faith by the hand of charity.' Her mother had secured Diana a place when she fell ill since I was nowhere to be found."

Foxford snapped a lemon biscuit in half but ate neither piece.

"It sounds as though Diana's mother did everything she could to give her daughter the best future," Purity said, considering the desperation of a woman who had to leave her child, not knowing for certain the outcome.

"Indeed," Foxford agreed. "Although you could have knocked me over with a feather when I learned she'd been left to my care." He winced. "A little like property, but her mother was hopeful I would take her in. She knew I had the means and the space, but she didn't realize I would be away when ... when the cancerous disease took her."

Purity shivered. "How did she guess you would care for Diana?"

Matthew looked down a moment, then straight back into Purity's eyes.

"Miss Barnes, for that was her name, said in her letter to me that she knew from our brief acquaintance I was a kind man."

Matthew could not possibly explain how he'd felt upon receiving that letter or the solicitor's insistence that he was the one Miss Barnes wanted to raise her child. He'd read and re-read the words in her wavering handwriting. He had asked a dozen questions. He had paced his study and run his fingers through his hair until he looked decidedly unkempt, but he'd never thought of leaving the little girl in the orphanage.

"I consider it an honor for her mother to have left Diana to my care. Just as your trust in me gives me the redemption I seek."

Purity caught her breath. "Do not place me upon such a pedestal, my lord. We are all imperfect, and one day, I may slip up. I would hate for you to be disillusioned."

"Never," he promised.

The kittens were still mewing, and it seemed wrong to keep the little girl from them a moment longer. He went to the bell-pull.

"I hope she won't be rough with them," Purity said. "My sisters were mostly gentle at that age, but all children are different."

"She is gentle, from all I have witnessed. I've known her almost four months now."

"And she calls you ‘Papa' already?" Purity sounded surprised.

He shrugged and took his seat once more. "She did that from the moment I picked her up at the orphanage. Diana said she had been waiting for me. In the carriage ride home, she said her mother told her not to worry, her papa would come for her."

"Gracious!" Purity looked to be choking back tears. "And do you have any knowledge of her true father?"

"I do not. In her profession, it is possible Miss Barnes didn't know, either. Frankly, at this point, it seems unimportant. I can give Diana a good life in which she'll want for nothing. She has already claimed my heart, so I gave her my last name."

He grinned. "And now I can give her the most upstanding, wonderful woman I know to help me raise her."

"Again, no pedestal, please," Purity said, blushing becomingly.

Matthew couldn't help leaning toward her to kiss her again.

But the door opened, and instead of a maid or his butler come to ask his wish, it was Diana herself, rushing ahead of her nanny.

"Come back, Miss Diana," the woman said, freezing in the doorway. "Apologies, my lord. She got it into her head that she knew your visitor, whom she spied from the nursery window."

"I do," Diana proclaimed, having already skipped over to Purity. "It's the pretty lady." She held up her doll. "Same as Clara."

"You may leave us, Mrs. Caldwell," Matthew told the nanny. "We were just sending for Miss Diana anyway to show her the—"

"Kittens!" the little girl cried out with glee.

He was glad to see she didn't simply drop Clara on the floor and snatch up one of the little cats. Rather, Diana placed her beloved doll carefully on the table and then looked to him for permission.

"May I touch?" she asked quietly.

His heart clenched at her sweetness. "Indeed, you may. Lady Purity brought them to live with us. Will you help take care of them?"

"I will, Papa."

Purity, still seated by the basket, reached in and plucked out one of the kittens. After showing her how to hold it, she handed it to Diana.

"That's well done of you, Miss Norland," Purity said.

"I am Diana," the little girl said, then asked, "What is its name?" She was unable to stroke the cat while carefully cradling it with both arms.

"That's for you to decide," Purity said. "Neither of them have names yet." But when her gaze found Matthew's, he knew she was fibbing. She was giving the child an extra gift.

"Maybe Miss Diana can spend a little time thinking about it," he said, imagining the names she might come up with in a hurry.

"Oh, no, Papa, they'll tell me."

"Will they?"

Diana laughed in her bubbly fashion.

He looked at Purity. "Did you know these cats can speak?"

"I did not," Purity said, "but maybe Miss Norland... I mean, Diana knows more about this type of thing than we do."

The little girl nodded emphatically and stared down at the kitten that was amazingly calm. Then she giggled.

Matthew looked at Purity, whose own face was filled with joy, and he wondered how he had become such a lucky man.

"That is a quiet puss," he said. "Is it talking to you?"

"Yes, Papa. She is Miss Soft," she said.

Matthew was glad the name wasn't worse.

Diana kissed its head before plopping it into the basket and hauling out the other one.

"They have very tiny bones and are fragile, like your papa's best dinnerware. Are you allowed to play with the fine porcelain dishes?" Purity asked.

His little girl shook her head.

"Because dishes might shatter," Purity explained. "The kittens won't shatter, but they can get hurt if they are dropped or squeezed too hard."

Diana nodded, her eyes large in her attentive face.

"I'm glad you understand," Purity said. "You're a sensible girl. What is this one's name?"

"Hm," she said, rocking the green-eyed cat that was a little less docile than Miss Soft and trying to escape. "It is Miss Wriggles."

Before his little girl could return the kitten to the basket, it jumped from her arms, hit the table, knocked over one of the teacups, and trod though the platter of sweets, managing to get a little cream cake on all four paws. Like lightning, it jumped to the ground from the low table, leaving a mess behind as well as sticky footprints, before running to the far end of the room.

Diana was laughing so hard, he thought she might collapse.

"Miss Wriggles, indeed," Matthew said. "I suppose I should be glad the new sofa and chairs weren't in place, lest Miss Wriggles get her grubby paws on them."

But it didn't truly matter because Purity was laughing, too, while trying to sop up the spilled tea with a napkin after making sure the doll was lifted to safety.

"I've always heard it's a good thing to butter a cat's paws before it goes out in order to keep it from running away," she said, "but I've never heard of tea and cake being useful to keeping a cat."

"I'll find her," Diana said and dashed from the room.

"I don't believe Miss Wriggles left the room," Matthew said, astonished that the little girl would think so.

Then they saw the cat race through the door after her.

"Now Miss Wriggles is going to find her instead." He went to the door to make sure the nanny kept an eye on them both.

"I hate to tell you this," Purity said, and even those words said lightly made his stomach twinge. Matthew wouldn't truly relax until they were legally wed.

"What is it?" he asked, returning to take the soggy napkin from her and drop it upon the tray before drawing her up beside him.

"Tell me," he said, nuzzling her temple with a small kiss.

"That is actually Mister Wriggles."

They both started to laugh again, as Miss Soft tipped over the basket and made her escape, too.

"What have you done to my orderly household?" he demanded. "I thought you were going to bring your persnickety skills to organize me after we wed. Instead, we're not even married yet, and you've brought feline chaos.

Still, he tried to kiss her.

She squirmed like one of the kittens.

"I would be content if we could stay right here in one another's arms, no matter the impropriety. However, I believe we ought to find them, or at least tell your staff. If someone should leave a door open or if the kittens were to get access to the coal chute, then it might be a very sad ending."

"Agreed," he said. "I cannot credit that I'm going to put off kissing you to chase cats."

"That's the sacrifice we parents must make, I suppose," she said.

He blinked. "Are you saying you will help me raise her?"

"Yes," she said, offering an emphatic nod. "I shall."

The wedding of Lord Diamond's second oldest daughter to the baron, Matthew Norland, Lord Foxford, was hailed as a splendid if surprising event. Some went to watch because they couldn't believe the Fox was tying the marital knot. Others attended because they couldn't believe Lady Purity would attach herself to such a wild fellow.

Many witnessed the ceremony because St. James's Church was large enough that no one noticed them sneak in, but only their true friends and family would be at the wedding feast afterward.

"I shall tell everyone you are ready to go to the church," Lady Diamond said, pausing at the door to Purity's bedroom. "Another gorgeous bride in the family."

Humming to herself, she descended the staircase.

"It's funny, isn't it?" Purity said to Clarity as they stood side-by-side, taking a last look in the mirror. "I shall have a daughter who is older than yours."

Clarity sent her a happy smile. "And without having to wait, I shall have a niece old enough to play with. I shall be the most entertaining of aunts."

"Undoubtedly," Purity agreed.

"Then let us get you married, for I am certain it is the wedding night to which you are most looking forward."

"Clarity!" Purity exclaimed, turning away from her reflection after seeing her own cheeks become as red as August tomatoes.

Her sister chuckled. "You are marrying the renowned Fox, after all."

Thankfully, Clarity said nothing more. And Purity was able to gather her nerves into a wiry bundle and control them when her father took her arm and walked her up the aisle to give her away.

After he kissed her forehead, she was certain she heard him say, "Two to go," as he stepped to the side to join her mother.

Then her focus was purely on her husband-to-be, in a black tailcoat with a gray waistcoat and bright white shirt, finished with a black cravat. A more perfect bridegroom she could not imagine. As his amber eyes found hers, she let everything else fall away, wondering if she would even hear the words of the clergyman who officiated.

Naturally, Diana wore a new white dress to match Purity's, who had decided to follow the example set by their queen. Yet where Diana had a crown of flowers in her hair, Purity wore a tiara with a single diamond in the center and a row of sapphires stretching out along either side.

Throughout the eleven o'clock ceremony, Purity continued to keep any jitters at bay and was elated not to make a misstep. At the afternoon wedding "breakfast" in her parents' home, she managed to stave off any anxiousness over the events to come that night — or at least, she did during the first four courses of the relatively modest six-course meal.

Lord and Lady Diamond had foregone any vulgar display of ostentatious abundance, having no need to prove their wealth and standing. Therefore, Purity knew they would be finished in under two hours, from the soup through the final toast to their health accompanying a slice of the wedding cake.

Despite the tastefully inelaborate meal, when it came to the cake, Lady Diamond had decided on a large, lavish confection. It had a place of prominence on the sideboard and had held Diana's gaze for an hour.

The little girl, who Purity's family had immediately accepted, had been allowed to attend the grown-up wedding feast, but as most four-year-olds do, she grew tweaguey and tired and had to be led away by her nanny with the promise of cake when she awakened.

Looking around the table at all her family and friends, Purity felt blessed. The Season had the expected outcome of her finding a husband. However, the man who now sat beside her was the most unexpected of all. If someone had suggested after the first time she'd encountered Matthew — as she now gave herself permission to think of him and even to call him — that he would be her life's mate, she would have thought the notion outrageous. They seemed as different as chalk and cheese, or at least, their reputations were.

Yet from all the time they'd spent with one another, she knew they were surprisingly well-suited with a similar outlook on many things. And regarding passion, at that moment, they were both of a single mind entirely. She knew this for her husband's hand had slid over to touch her leg, causing her to quiver.

When he moved it higher, stroking the top of her thigh, she nearly choked on her morsel of roast chicken.

Her husband!