"No."

"Listen to me, Lily. If we find the jewels-yes, it's we now-they will be returned. They're this Billy's property, whoever the devil he may be, but I will discover his identity. I have no intention of becoming a criminal."

She looked up at him now. Her voice and face were equally cold. "I don't mind. Being a criminal would be better than being a poor relation."

"Relation?" A dark eyebrow shot up a good inch. "You're no relation at all, Lily," he said slowly, looking into her eyes. "You're no relation to the children, no relation to me."

She made a low sound deep in her throat and tugged again. He held fast.

"No, I really don't wish to chase you to ground any more today. Just hold still."

She became quiet again, too quiet.

He wanted to get a rise out of her. It was perverse, he knew it, but he couldn't help himself. God, the tumult she'd put him through since she'd just strolled into his life such a short time before. "I see you didn't bother to deny it this time. You aren't Laura Beth's mother, are you?"

He could see it in her eyes, the question of whether or not to lie to him. "Tell me the truth, damn you."

"No," she said. "I am not the woman who gave birth to her, but I am her mother."

He should have been warned, but he wasn't. He was immersed in thought, and in erotic images too vivid to abide, when suddenly she kicked him, hard, in the shin. He released her and she jumped back even as he sucked in his breath and hopped on one foot.

She turned quick as a hawk in flight and sped away, back toward the huge manor house.

He didn't go after her this time. If he had, when he caught her he'd have thrashed her. That or kissed her until they were both insensate.

No, he'd bide his time.

He returned to the manor house. He hadn't even been inside yet since his arrival. One of the stable lads had seen Lily walking toward the lake and had told Knight, who immediately followed her.

Thrombin didn't seem at all surprised to see him now, just bowed as low as his age and arthritis would allow and gave him a beaming smile. Knight saw that there were even fewer teeth in Thrombin's mouth than the last time he had been here, and felt a stab of concern. Lord, Thrombin had known him since his birth. They chatted for a moment, then Knight heard his name shrieked out.

He looked over to see Laura Beth bounding down the stairs as fast as her short legs would allow.

"Be careful and slow down!" But she didn't, of course. He strode toward the staircase, and when Laura Beth landed on the third-to-last step, she launched herself at him.

He heard Thrombin moan. Knight just smiled and caught her, drawing her up against his chest and kissing the smiling little mouth. "Well, snippet?" He tossed her into the air, and her screams brought every Castle Rosse servant.

Mrs. Crumpe came to a panting halt in the entrance hall. She stared. "I don't believe it," she said aloud.

She watched her urbane, sophisticated master toss the little girl again, then catch her and hug her until the child squeaked with delight. She watched as Laura Beth nearly choked the viscount, giving him wet smacking kisses on his cheek.

"Sir!" Theo, older and trying to be as sedate as an indifferent adult at a surprise visit from a favorite uncle, made his way down the stairs slowly, but he was speaking at a great speed. "Oh, Cousin Knight, wait until you see what John and I have done in the library. Do you know that I'm already to the L's? Do you know how many volumes are there, some that haven't even had their pages cut?"

"No, Theo, I don't know. To the L's, huh? Remarkable, my boy, quite remarkable." Theo held back just another very short instant; then, as Knight shifted Laura Beth to hold her in one arm, Theo, with a big smile, flung himself against Knight's side.

"I'm glad you're here, Cousin Knight. Mama's been so unhappy and we were so afraid you were really hurt bad, even though she told us you were all right."

"It's Cousin Knight!"

"I've only got two arms," Knight shouted as Sam pelted through the front doors.

If there had been four children, perhaps it would have been a problem. However, Knight simply gathered both boys against him, and for a moment he closed his eyes. God, dear God, they were his and he'd missed them so much. He just hadn't realized- "Hello, my lord," John said. "We're delighted to see you restored to good health. We were all quite concerned when Mrs. Winthrop told us of the attack in London."

"Mama was crying," Sam said, looking up at Knight, "but she made us promise we'd be good because she was riding to London immediately to take care of you."

Knight didn't like to hear that. He hugged each child again and released them. "Ah, hello, Mrs. Crumpe. Mrs. Allgood sends her love. It's good to see you again. All of you," he added, encompassing all the servants he saw. He must have put on quite an unexpected show for them. "What do you think of these monkeys? Are you ready to run screaming from Castle Rosse?"

"Oh, Cousin Knight, we've been good as-"

"Good as what? Dross?"

"What's dross?" asked Laura Beth.

"Nothing important, snippet. How would all of you like to have some of Mimms's lemonade and some cakes? Of course you would, and I also. There's greed shining from all our eyes. If you please, Mrs. Crumpe? We'll be in the drawing room-no, make that the library. I have to examine all the tomes to the L's."

Theo beamed with pride.

"I've got so much to tell you about the horses," Sam confided, sticking his hand into Knight's. "It's all right, I washed them after I mucked out Violet's stall. You know, we need to have some work done on the southern paddock," Sam continued, all seriousness and plans.

Knight swallowed and listened, to all three of them. At once.

Fifteen.

Knight bided his time until an hour before dinner. Lily hadn't shown her face or any other part of her. But he'd learned a lot from the children that afternoon.

And he saw, really saw, how much they adored her. She was their mother, no way around it. While he'd been in his royal snit, when the children hadn't been there in London, he'd forgotten.

"I thought Mama was going to fall over, she was so upset," Sam had said to Knight over lemonade and cakes. "But you know what she's like-she never cries, her lips just get all stiff. She left with Charlie really soon after he arrived."

"Sam's right," Theo said. "And Mama was real quiet when she came back. We were worried, Cousin Knight, but she promised us you were all right."

Knight could just imagine how quiet she must have been.

"I prayed real hard for you," Laura Beth said, beaming up at him, her mouth full of scone and strawberry jam.

As he dressed himself for dinner, he gave unscrupulous thought to how he was going to get Lily to the dinner table. He smiled to himself when he hit upon just the thing. As he shrugged himself into his evening coat, he found he missed Stromsoe for the first time. He grinned to himself, remembering how Stromsoe had nearly burst into tears at the thought of his master touching his high-gloss Hessians with dirty fingers.

Knight was whistling when Thrombin arrived for his message to Lily. "Ah, yes, Thrombin, please tell Mrs. Winthrop that I've come to a decision. Tell her that I expect her downstairs to dinner, that it is essential to her future and to the children's future that she come."

He grinned into his mirror as he studied his cravat. Even without Stromsoe directing his every article of clothing, he was pleased with his appearance. He looked formal and as arrogant as his great uncle Max.

He was pacing the drawing room, waiting for Lily. She was two minutes late. His breath caught in his chest at the sight of her. She was wearing the same brown wool gown, a relic with long, tight sleeves and a nun's neckline. She hadn't gotten to within ten feet of a hairbrush, had the stoniest expression he'd ever seen on a face, and she looked lovely.

"Good everning, Lily," he said and gave her a smile. It wasn't much of a smile, but it did pass muster.

She gave him a mockery of a curtsy. "How lovely of you to ask me to dinner," she said in a faraway voice. "Is this to be my last?"

He shrugged. "Who knows? Ah, here's Thrombin. I trust Mimms outdid herself?"

"Yes, my lord, I believe you will be pleased."

"A fatted calf, undoubtedly," Lily said, and she was quite serious.

"For the prodigal viscount?"

Knight allowed Thrombin and Thomas, a footman, to serve the first course; then he dismissed them with a kindly "We'll see to ourselves now, thank you."

He turned to Lily. "Would you care for bacon-cheek garnished with greens? They're one of Mimms's specialties."

Lily helped herself, saying nothing.

Knight served himself a good portion of rump steak and kidney pudding, ate two bites, felt it thud in his stomach, and sat back in his chair, his eyes on Lily. He picked up his full wineglass and twirled the delicate stem between his long fingers.

"You expect me to kick you out?'"

"Your message was that you'd come to a decision. I'm waiting." She hadn't looked up as he'd spoken. It seemed to him as if she were finding her vegetable marrows of great interest. "As you pointed out, I'm not even a poor relation. I'm not anything at all, as a matter of fact."

"I wouldn't say that's true. You're a very beautiful woman, Lily. And a very passionate woman as well."

She stiffened up like a poker at that observation but still didn't look at him.

He simmered, perversity singing through his veins. Damn her for her aloofness. "What a man loves to hear is woman's breathy little cries, to feel her fingers digging into his arms, to know that she wants him to-"

"Stop it, damn you."

He smiled. He'd won; at least he'd gotten her eyes off her vegetable marrows and onto him. "All right. All I wanted was your attention. Answer me a question, Lily, and no, don't look back down at your plate."

"Very well."

"Tell me why Tris didn't marry you."

She looked as if she'd like to slam her fist into his jaw again. Then she looked incredibly weary, shrugged, and said, "Why not tell you, even though you won't believe me. Tris did ask me to marry him. I refused him, particularly before my father's death. After his death, I had no money, no home, and Tris asked me again. I continued to turn him down. I was very fond of him, but I didn't love him, you see, not the way I think a woman is supposed to love the man she will marry. But there were the children. Finally I agreed. We would have been married by now if he hadn't been killed."

"I see. How long did you live with him?"

"Six months. And I didn't live with him, I simply lived in his house."

"Naturally. How very crass of me to state things so crudely. You were, of course, the children's nanny?"

"That's right."

"In Tris's house?"

"Yes, that's correct."

He took her completely off guard when, after pausing for a long moment, he cocked his head to one side and said, "You've quite a right uppercut. Did you knock me out?"

She would never understand a man's mind, she thought, staring at him. They were the most curious creatures, their thought processes defying logic. "No, after I hit you, you stumbled, lost your balance, and struck the back of your head against the edge of the mantelpiece. That knocked you out. I did, however, add another blow to your stomach."

He dropped his hand unconsciously to his belly. "Thank you. I couldn't remember anything beyond your right to my jaw."

Lily said nothing. She took a drink of her wine, set down her glass carefully, then folded her napkin. "Would you care to tell me what decision you've reached?"

He waved her question away. "I was pleased to see the children." He frowned the moment the words were out of his mouth. "I hadn't realized that I'd missed them."

"They were pleased to see you. Of course, they don't really know what you're like, but-"

"Nor do you."

"If it makes you feel all the more powerful to hear it, you were all they could talk about. They doubtless went to sleep talking about you. They'll doubtless have wonderful dreams about you."

"That sounds nauseating, doesn't it?"

"Yes. What is your decision?"

"You're not much for light dinner conversation."

She pushed back her chair and made to rise.

"Sit down. I'm not through with you, Lily, not by a long shot. Sit down."

She wasn't about to obey him. Her chin went up in the air. "Why should I? You have no hold over me. You're just enjoying playing with me as a cat would with a mouse."

"Sit down and I'll tell you my decision."

She looked mutinous, but finally gave in and eased back into her chair.

"Good. Now, I've decided not to boot you out, so to speak, if you and I can come to some sort of mutually satisfying agreement. It would be worth your while to listen, Lily."

"I won't be your mistress, Knight."

"I wouldn't consider you for that position. I doubt you have the requisite skills."

She raised her eyebrows and shrugged. "It's bound to be an insult in any case," she said, more to the cold vegetable marrows on her plate than to him.

"I hope not," he said.

"Very well, say what you will, Knight. I'm listening."

"I want you to marry me."

If he'd told her that he was Lazarus and he'd just been away on a trip for three days, she couldn't have looked more taken aback. She turned as still as Lot's wife, her pallor nearly as white as that pillar of salt.