In the library doorway a few days later, Daniel’s butler cleared his throat with a phlegmy rattle. “They’re here again, sir.”

Daniel glanced up from his perusal of the plans for the new school he was building for the village. “They, Evenson?”

“The young Masters Jacobs, sir.” Daniel could see that his man was trying to keep the impassive demeanor his position required, but his greying hair looked wilder than usual and a tick seemed to be working on his firm jaw.

Nevertheless, the library seemed suddenly brighter. Daniel arose eagerly, shrugging into his old tweed coat. “Splendid. Where have you put them?”

“I hesitated to put them in the withdrawing room without anyone there to oversee them,” Evenson replied. “Especially after the incident with your great-aunt’s vase.”

Daniel made a face, remembering their game the day before. While it was easier for him to have them visit here where he had no fear of disrupting Jonathan, the house was definitely taking a beating. “Were you able to find enough of the pieces to put it back together? The Countess dotes on it so.”

“Your great-aunt will never know the difference,” Evenson assured him, “so long as she doesn’t pick it up.”

“Very good, Evenson.” He paused in the doorway to listen, glancing up and down the darkly paneled hall, but his fortress of a mansion was as quiet and still as usual. He glanced back at his man with a frown. “So, where did you put them?”

From down the corridor came a deafening crash of metal on hard wood. Daniel was dashing toward the sound with Evenson at his heels before the first echoes started reverberating to the arched ceiling.

Three pairs of wide blue eyes met his in front of the door at the end of the corridor. Daniel rolled his own eyes before turning to Evenson. “The Armory?”

Evenson cleared his throat again. “Yes, well, I thought it would keep their interest, and it was my understanding that everything was nailed down.”

“And so it was,” James said calmly, looking slightly less pale than the other two. “All except him.”

Daniel looked to where he pointed. What had been an ornamental suit of armor just inside the doorway was now a haphazard jumble of dented metal. “Ho, what happened to Sir Cedric?”

“Adam did it,” John declared.

Adam gasped and immediately burst into tears. “I…did…not!” he wailed, setting the echoes jarring through the house once again.

“Easy now,” Daniel said as calmly as he could, his glance taking in all three of them. James was biting his lower lip in exactly the same way Jonathan had used to do when he was about to get caught for some misdeed. Adam was sniffling pathetically, his baby face a-wash in self-pity. John was studying the wall of swords on his right with remarkable intensity. It was impossible to tell who had caused the disturbance, but then, Daniel reflected, it probably didn’t matter.

“No harm done,” he assured them. “I’m sure we can put Sir Cedric back together again. In fact, wasn’t there some rhyme to that effect?”

“All the King’s horses and all the King’s men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again,’” James quoted helpfully.

“Nonsense,” Daniel declared in their skeptical faces. “Who needs a lot of soldiers anyway? What say we have a go at it, just the four of us?”

Adam nodded, brightening over hiccupped sobs. James looked pleased at the idea. John narrowed his eyes. “Can’t we just leave it for the servants?”

Daniel put an arm around his shoulder and guided him farther into the room. “Never leave your mistakes for another man to fix, John. Besides, I’d wager the three of you know far better what a proper knight should look like than our friend Mr. Evenson here.”

“Assuredly, sir,” Evenson obligingly agreed.

“There, you see? We’ll work here for a bit, and when we’re done Mr. Evenson will have tea and cakes waiting in the withdrawing room.”

Luckily, Sir Cedric was far easier than the infamous Humpty Dumpty to put back together again. The wooden frame on which the various pieces of armor had been hung had merely been tipped over. Once righted, the boys were able to identify the pieces and hang them back into place, with much merriment as gauntlets were mixed with the breast plate and the helmet. By the time they retired to the withdrawing room, they were in a much happier mood.

“This surely is a fine, big, house,” John commented as they sat munching on the cakes Evenson had brought them, their voices echoing in the large, drafty room. “Of course, it isn’t quite as fine as Colonel Hathaway’s, is it, James?”

James frowned. “Colonel Hathaway?” He jumped suddenly, and Daniel had the distinct impression that John had pinched him under cover of the tea tray. “I…I’m not sure who you mean, John.”

Daniel smiled at the boy’s attempt to tell the truth and still support his brother.

“You remember Colonel Hathaway,” John encouraged. “Mother’s beau?”

Daniel found he had little interest in hearing about Cynthia’s latest conquest, and he cleared his throat in a warning to change the subject.

“Mother has a bunch of bows,” Adam piped up.

“That’s right, Adam,” John encouraged, casting a sidelong look at Daniel but ignoring the obvious hint. “And her favorite is the Colonel.”

Adam frowned, but John pushed another cake onto his plate, and the little boy turned his attention to attacking it eagerly.

Probably another charming military man. The bitterness of the thought surprised Daniel.

“In fact,” John declared boldly, “Colonel Hathaway is probably going to be our new father.”

The last bite of cake was suddenly hard for Daniel to chew. James choked on his own piece. Adam’s blue eyes widened.

“He is,” John insisted, somewhat belligerently, Daniel thought. “I heard Uncle Jonathan say Mother had to marry. He doesn’t have the blunt to keep us all, isn’t that so, Mr. Daniel?”

“Your uncle can care for you as long as needed,” Daniel assured him, although he knew how strapped Jonathan must be with four extra mouths to feed. The smaller Kinsle estate had never been prosperous, and what little had been left Jonathan had poured into his library on inheriting. He had hardly expected his sister, who hadn’t been home in nearly ten years, to suddenly appear with three nephews he hadn’t known he possessed.

“I don’t recall whether I like Colonel Hathaway,” James remarked thoughtfully.

“Oh, he’s all right,” John said with a shrug. “I daresay he’ll be gone as much as Father was. And even when he is in the country, he’ll be out at his club. We won’t see him much.”

“Mother won’t like that,” Adam said with a pout.

“Mother doesn’t have a choice,” John informed him. “She has to marry whoever asks her. Uncle Jonathan said so.”

The conversation was definitely unsuitable for young gentlemen, and Daniel wasn’t entirely sure it was suitable for his own hearing. But he wasn’t their father, and the best he could do was rattle the dishes on the tea tray to focus their attentions elsewhere.

“Poor Mother,” James said with a sigh.

“Poor us,” John amended. “Father may not have been home much, but at least he loved us. We won’t be so lucky this time.”

Adam’s bottom lip trembled, but he sucked it in manfully as he slid down from the leather chair to the Aubusson carpet. “Colonel Hathaway might love us.” When John scowled at him, he stuck out his chin. “He might! We’re lovable, aren’t we, Mr. Daniel?”

Something constricted in the vicinity of Daniel’s heart. “You are indeed, my lad, all three of you.”

“If you were our father I daresay you wouldn’t leave us for some silly club,” James asserted with a sniff.

“All fathers need time to themselves,” Daniel tried to explain to them. “But I’m sure whoever is lucky enough to be your new father will want to spend time with you.”

Adam had wandered closer to him and now climbed happily into his lap. “Why can’t you be our father, Mr. Daniel?”

He should have seen it coming. The spark in John’s eyes told him the conversation had been manipulated in just this direction. James and Adam were waiting eagerly for his answer. He’d have to pick his words carefully if he were to keep from depressing them further.

“Any man would be proud to be the father of three such fine, smart, boys,” he told them.

It was obviously not enough. Adam frowned. “Then why don’t you marry Mother?”

Daniel kept a determined smile on his face. “Well, your mother and I have known each other since we were children, Adam, but we’ve never been particularly attached to each other.”

“But she’s awfully pretty,” Adam argued.

“And she has a pleasant disposition,” James asserted.

“And she can bake better cakes than this,” John muttered, setting the confection firmly on his gold-rimmed plate.

Daniel glanced around at their earnest faces. The idea was too far-fetched to go any farther. “Well, gentlemen, I’m quite flattered by your encouragement, but I assure you your mother wouldn’t have me.”

“Don’t see why not,” James replied. “You’re a much better choice than this Colonel Hathaway fellow. And you like us.”

Daniel ran his hand back through his hair. Why couldn’t he seem to get them off this subject? Was some part of him actually entertaining the notion that he could court and win a beauty like Cynthia Kinsle? She’d laugh him out of the house. “Truly, my lads,” he insisted. “Your mother and I would never suit.”

John’s frown was more of a pout. “Why do you both keep saying that? Mother’s the mother, and you’d be the father. You just need to explain that to her.”

“It’s hardly that simple, John. Surely your mother would expect a gentleman to court her properly.” He realized he wasn’t convincing anyone in the room, including himself, and hurriedly added, “I wouldn’t even know what to say to her.”

John was quick to reply, reinforcing Daniel’s opinion that the boy was masterminding this affair. “You need to visit her at Uncle Jonathan’s. Talk about things ladies find interesting, like clothes.”

Daniel kept a straight face although the thought of discussing the merits of silk over kerseymere with Cynthia was laughable in the extreme. “Clothes, eh? Somehow I don’t think…”

“Or gardening,” John tried as if sensing reluctance. “You can talk about your gardens.” He nudged his brother. “Couldn’t he, James?”

James, always solemn, nodded. “Yes, that should suffice.”

The grin broke free as he tried to imagine Cynthia rhapsodizing over rosebuds. “Your mother likes gardens, does she?”

“And you should bring her presents,” John encouraged him. “Everyone likes presents. A package of pins, perhaps, or a tea strainer.”

“Really?” He tried to look appreciative of the well-meant advice, but his mouth hurt from holding back the laughter.

“And candy,” chimed in Adam. “There’s nothing sweeter than candy.” He sighed longingly, and Daniel, seeing the obvious hint, reached obligingly for the nearby crystal candy dish, allowing a chuckle to escape. As they helped themselves all around, he was relieved to hear them return to their usual conversation of whose turn it was to pick the game and how they might elude their uncle the next day so they could come visit again.

As he listened to them, a part of him kept toying with the idea of courting Cynthia, but he shook his head. He had courted a number of young ladies over the years, but none had stirred his heart enough to offer. He had decided the love spoken of by the poets was obviously beyond him. Yet, a companion would be pleasant, and certainly he was beginning to realize what a hole would be left in his life when Cynthia eventually remarried and the boys moved away. But did he care for them enough to risk a life with the redoubtable Cynthia as his wife?

He kept the boys busy the rest of the afternoon with a “tiger” hunt through the grounds. It wasn’t until he had called for his carriage to take them home that John broached the subject again.

“So, Mr. Daniel, when shall we tell Mother that you’re going to call?”

There they were again, three faces raised entreatingly to his. He wondered how any parent ever found the strength to say no. But refuse he must before this madness went any further. He was about to do so, with as much force as necessary, when he noticed the tension in John’s face. His blue eyes were over bright, and there was a decided tremor in his lower lip, not unlike the way Adam looked before he cried. He’d never seen the boy want anything so much, and he found he couldn’t be the one to deny him.

“Perhaps I can find time in the next few days,” he heard himself say. “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt for your mother and me to become reacquainted.”