Gabrielle handed over the right-hand bundle, smiling as Jake struggled to accommodate the living shawl in his arms.

"Now, who's that?" Nathaniel strode to the window, opened onto the soft warmth of the July evening. Carriage wheels crunched on the gravel below.

"Georgie, I expect," Gabrielle said calmly, playing with her daughter's tiny fingers.

"But how could she have known?"

Gabrielle smiled, tickling the infant's chin. "We've always known when important things are happening to the other. It's very mysterious."

"She has Lady DeVane with her," Nathaniel observed in mild resignation, leaning out of the window. "I can only imagine Simon and Miles and Lord DeVane are not far behind."

Gabrielle chuckled. "Probably not Lord DeVane. He's not too enamoured of babies. But I'm sure you're right about Miles and Simon."

Nathaniel scooped his younger son from the arms of the elder and said, "Run downstairs, Jake, and welcome Lady Vanbrugh and Lady DeVane, and escort them up here."

Jake blinked. This was a novel responsibility. He looked at the bundle that was his brother. Such a baby.

"Yes, Papa. Can I tell them it's two?" He slid from the bed and ran from the room before Nathaniel could answer him.

"Let me hold her too," he said, his eyes gleaming with pure pride.

Gabrielle handed over her own bundle and lay back, smiling. The extent of Nathaniel's pride and joy took her by surprise, and she wondered why as she watched him holding his children, waiting to present them to their first outside admirers.

"Gabby…" Georgie exploded through the door first. "Was it all right? I was so worried about you." Ignoring Nathaniel and his bundles, she flew to the bed and flung her arms around her cousin. "Look at you," she said between laughter and tears. "You look no more tired than after a day's hunting!"

Gabrielle hugged her tightly. "Believe me, love, I'd rather hunt."

"Yes, it is awful, isn't it?" Georgie straightened, feeling for her handkerchief. Misty-eyed, she turned to Nathaniel, who was reluctantly relinquishing his infants to the arms of Lady DeVane.

"Congratulations," she said, standing on tiptoe and kissing his cheek with a warmth that startled him.

He put an arm around her and hugged her with a fierceness that startled both of them.

"Well, if this isn't just like you, Gabby dear," Lady DeVane observed placidly, rocking the babies in her arms. "Always full of surprises."

"Quite so, ma'am," Nathaniel agreed, sitting on the bed beside Gabrielle, drawing Jake between his knees, rubbing the child's neck.

"Have you named them?" Lady DeVane asked, handing one infant to her eager daughter.

Gabrielle opened her mouth but Nathaniel spoke first. "Imogen."

"Oh, yes. For Gabby's mother. Very appropriate… Would you like to hold your sister, dear?" Lady DeVane bent her vague smile on Jake.

Jake wanted to ask how this lady could know which one she was giving him. She didn't know about the curl. But it wouldn't be polite to ask. He held out his arms.

"And what of the boy?"

"William," Nathaniel said quietly.

Gabrielle was suddenly very still. That was not a name they'd discussed.

"Is that a family name, Lord Praed?" Lady DeVane looked mildly curious.

"No," Nathaniel said. "It honors a lost life." He looked at Gabrielle, and she smiled her crooked smile, her eyes filled with love.

Guillaume's death had begun this. Her son would celebrate his life.