by Abby Ayles
She had come to care for the young woman just as much as she would a close relative, and though she was only her responsibility for a little while longer, that did not mean that she had any desire for her potential to go to waste.
Patience was not truly a troubled girl, though she had her own issues. All of them, though, should be resolved if Joanna was to consider her role as governess complete.
After all, was she not supposed to prepare her for life as a married woman? And would she not be remiss if she did not stop her from tumbling headfirst into ruin?
Ruin may well have been averted in the case of Jasper Rivers, but that did not mean that Patience was entirely saved. After all, she might fly towards whichever young gentleman came courting next.
It was not a problem of disobedience, Joanna could see. It was not merely a wish to displease her brother or cause some scandal. On the contrary, Patience seemed contrite at the trouble she had caused.
But if that were the case, it meant that there was something deeper beneath Patience’s plan to run off and marry her soldier.
And, that being so, the risk of it happening again with another gentleman was not entirely averted. Something more had to be done to prevent that from happening.
By the time she returned to the house for luncheon, and to change to her duties as secretary for Edmund, she had begun to formulate a plan that might help her young charge.
“Lord Kelt, I wanted to talk to you about Miss Patience,” she said, more than a little hesitantly, instead of picking up her quill to begin writing letters.
He had not wanted to discuss the subject since they returned, and she was anxious not to stir his anger again.
“Go on,” Edmund said, though his tone was dark and warning.
“She is sixteen,” Joanna began, taking a deep breath. “Nearly seventeen, indeed. I do not wish to overstep my bounds, but I fear that if she is not allowed to act her age, then disaster may follow.”
“Whatever do you mean?” Edmund asked, frowning.
Joanna felt that this was not going as well as she had hoped – but nevertheless, she persisted with her argument.
“At her age, she ought to be attending balls and showing her face in society. We ought to have guests in the household, young men from appropriate families sent here to court her. To hold a ball here in the house, even. It is what will be expected for her. Already, the other young ladies of her age are seeking a husband that they may marry in a few years’ time.”
“And you think this pertinent how?” Edmund snapped. “She has already strayed once. We cannot afford another.”
“That is precisely my point, my lord,” Joanna said, refusing to back down even though Edmund’s tone worried her.
“She is restless. Her female heart is yearning for romance and fantasy. Let her play out that role in public, where all can see that her conduct is becoming. Let her find a match who will be suitable. She is bored, and she has only met one man who ever attempted to woo her. Of course it was natural that she should fall for his charms.”
Edmund hesitated. A troubled look passed over his face. “She is not so old as all that,” he protested.
“I am afraid she is, my lord,” Joanna said, ducking her head.
“I confess, when I was her age, I was quite enamoured of at least three gentleman who had offered me a dance, all at the same time. All of them were passing fancies, in the end. But Miss Patience has not had the chance to know the difference.”
Edmund reddened slightly and cleared his throat.
“Forgive me, Miss Warrick,” he said awkwardly. “I sometimes fall to recall that you have been a young lady in the same position yourself.”
“I hope I am not quite as elderly a spinster as that yet,” Joanna laughed.
Edmund reddened further, and shook his head.
“I do not mean that at all. You are quite charming. No, I just meant that you are far more responsible than Patience is.”
“I have had reason to learn,” Joanna said. “But Miss Patience has much growing to do in a short space of time.
“You will see how she begins to change once she is out in society. She will learn how things go, and will mature at the same rate as her suitors’ chances. She will be ready to marry respectably before you know it.”
Edmund sighed, looking away to the far side of the room.
“Perhaps that is what I am afraid of,” he admitted. “I suppose I would like her to stay a little girl forever.”
Joanna’s heart was warmed by his reaction. He looked so forlorn at the mere thought of his siblings growing up.
“Rest easy, my lord. Amy is some years behind her still. You will have a little girl in your care for a long while to come.”
Edmund shot her a gentle smile, though it was tinged with regret.
“I just wish that our parents were here to stand by her side, the way that they should have been,” he said. “It is my father who should be leading her to balls, not I. My mother who should be arranging suitors and visits.”
“I understand that it is difficult,” Joanna said, bowing her head.
She could not, in fact, imagine how hard it must have been to face the continuation of life alone. Of course, that was part of the point.
“But you are not alone. Jenkins served your parents for decades, and he knew of their wishes. He can guide you. I, too, have experienced it all first-hand. And there are friendly families in this district who would each be happy to take Miss Patience under their wing, with her best interests at heart.”
“You may be right,” Edmund sighed, rubbing his forehead. He paused, then made a gesture of defeat. “Then read to me the invitations we have received lately. I know you have been keeping them secretly.”
Joanna smiled, and opened a small drawer to the side of the desk.
There, wrapped with ribbons and impressive seals, were a pile of invitations that had been coming in all summer. She had been saving them, just in case Edmund would change his mind.
“Shall we begin with the most recent, or those invitations for balls which are soon to be upon us?” she asked, unfolding the neat cards and laying them out on the desk.
“Whichever you feel is best, Miss Warrick,” Edmund said, with an air of resignation that made her chuckle to herself.
By the end of the afternoon, they had sent off letters of acceptance to five invitations, which was a considerably small number of those they had received.
It seemed that everyone in the area knew the Hardwickes had a girl who was ready to be courted, and more than that – that the Earl was himself a single man.
Joanna tried to push away the twinge of jealousy that came at that thought. After all, her days of being courted were long over.
She did not count Christopher, who clearly had some kind of ulterior motive hidden away up his sleeve.
And even if she had been in a position to accept a proposal of marriage, it was hardly likely to come from Lord Kelt.
Still, the very thought of him taking a wife sent a cold darkness up her spine, that nested in her head and would not depart.
Such a woman entering the household would cause utter disruption, and would leave her future there in doubt. Supposing the new wife did not approve of Edmund’s choice of governess? She would be likely to be dismissed forthwith.
She might wish to change things, or send Samuel away to school before he was ready. She would have the final say over the children’s education, not Joanna, and so she would be forced to bend to any orders that were placed upon her.
The thought filled her with horror, so much so that she almost wished to rip up the responses she had painstakingly written out and throw them in the fire.
Edmund was expecting them to be delivered, however, and there was no way around it now that he had agreed to attend.
With resignation, Joanna handed the finished letters to Jenkins, allowing him to take them for the morning’s post. She told herself that she was only being unkind.
W
ho would wish for Edmund to be alone the rest of his life, without a wife by his side?
No, there would be a marriage one day, and she would simply have to accept it. That was her lot, as governess.
Chapter 27
It was with mixed feelings that Edmund watched the doctor cut away the bandages from his arm and remove the splint.
“How does it feel?” he asked, encouraging him to flex his long-dormant muscles.
Edmund turned his arm over, twisting the elbow, and moved all of his fingers.
It all seemed to work just as it had before. He reached out for an apple on the table, picked it up, and took a bite out of its flesh.
“I believe it is all in good working order,” he said, lifting his apple as proof.
“Excellently done,” the doctor proclaimed, as if he had achieved some great task in simply healing at a normal speed. “You are fine to return to life as normal, Lord Kelt. I shan’t think you will be hearing from me anytime soon, barring another one of your accidents.”
“Please do not be offended, Doctor, but I sincerely hope not to see you for some time,” Edmund said, moving his arm about freely in some wonder at how strange it felt to be able to do so again.
The doctor chuckled. “I understand perfectly,” he said. “Well, it was a pleasure.”
He held out a hand to shake, and Edmund took it, glad to be able to do so once more.
Edmund wandered out of his room, watching the doctor go, and trailed after him to the main hall just as the man was leaving. Jenkins, Mary, the driver, Miss Warrick, and the three children had gathered to hear his news.
“All well again,” he said, lifting his arm as proof. “Well, children, this means you have your governess all to yourself again. I will be able to travel to the London office again from now on, and write my own letters, too.”
“Oh,” Samuel said sadly.
“I am flattered, Mr. Samuel,” Miss Warrick said dryly.
“Oh, no,” Samuel said quickly. “Not that. I just meant, I liked having Edmund at home with us.”
“Me too,” Amy declared.
Edmund smiled, and ruffled her hair. “Well, perhaps I can arrange it so that I am not at the office for so many hours a day. Would you like that?”
A chorus of agreement followed, making him chuckle.
“There is only one problem,” he said. “If I am to return early each day, I will still require Miss Warrick to attend some correspondence in the evenings on a regular basis. Can that be managed, Miss Warrick?”
Miss Warrick smiled and dipped her head in a nod. “Yes, my lord,” she said. “I am at your disposal.”
Edmund smiled back briefly, though he quickly extinguished the expression for fear that an altogether too familiar warmth was held within it.
Bidding farewell to his time with Miss Warrick had been a source of unhappiness for him, and he was pleased with himself for coming up with a reason to continue it on the spot.
He had to bless Samuel and Amy for providing him with the excuse.
Now that he was able to travel to the city again or ride about in the carriage as he pleased, Edmund returned to work with a vengeance. He spent his hours at the office, and was pleased to find that the entire business had not disintegrated in his prolonged absence.
There was, however, a certain slack attitude to paperwork that appeared to have built up, and he was quick to correct this in his employees.
The long days were necessary after so much time away. Customers and merchants both demanded his time for meetings face to face, and it was necessary also to appear at certain events in order to make it clear that he was back at his post.
People could not be allowed to whisper that he was neglecting his duties, or held away by some mystery illness that would take his life.
Indeed, there had been plenty of whispering by the time that he returned. He knew it was not a good omen, given his father’s untimely death, that he should be detained away from the office by health reasons.
Still, he did not appreciate the churlish nature of what had been his father’s best clients, that they would gossip about him in corners like fishwives.
Many of these rumours and whisperings made their way back to his ears, by design rather than luck. He had cultivated quite a network of trust with the employees of his company, and of messenger boys and couriers besides.
At the docks, there were scruffy street urchins who knew that a piece of information might net them a shiny coin with which to take their supper.
This was valuable stuff, and he was able to use it to his advantage. It was quite simple to slip in the particular words a man might have used behind his back when meeting him for the first time, and to allow him to realise with a slow dawning horror that his conversation had been reported.
For the most part, they would fawn and put on airs then, and he had managed to negotiate a few contracts at a better price as a result.
All of this made him terribly busy, but it was not to be avoided. Despite his promise to the children, there were some days when he could not but return late at night, missing dinner and arriving only in time to retire.
It was on the first of these nights that he arrived at his home, surprised to see a candle burning in the window of the schoolroom where all the rest of the house was growing dark and quiet.
“Miss Warrick?” he said, pausing at the door of the schoolroom.
“Oh!” Miss Warrick exclaimed, hastily putting down the book that she had been engrossed in. “Lord Kelt, you are returned.”
“I am surprised that you are still awake,” Edmund said. “That must be a very interesting book.”
“No,” Miss Warrick said, then shook her head with a sheepish look. “I mean, yes, it’s a good book. I just wanted to wait in case you needed me to do anything.”
“Oh, heavens,” Edmund said, shaking his head in return. “No, no, you have no need to stay up late on my account. I wouldn’t ask you to work at this hour. You must be fresh for the children in the morning.”
“It’s no trouble,” Miss Warrick said, flushing a little. “I don’t mind waiting.”
“All the same, I don’t wish to take advantage,” Edmund said, wondering why on earth he was pressing the matter when he found it quite pleasing that she had done so.
“All the same,” Miss Warrick said agreeably, smiling.
Edmund had the feeling that he had lost, although it was hardly any kind of argument.
His feelings were confirmed on the next occasion when he was kept late at the office, for he saw the candle burning in the schoolroom window once again.
It made him feel a bit of a cad to demand that she stay awake simply to match his schedule, though the sting was taken out of it by the fact that she insisted.
Over the weeks, it became a special treat of his to come down the driveway and peer out of his carriage window to find that light burning in the schoolroom.
Edmund was touched to know that there was someone watching out for him, even if everyone else in the household had gone to sleep.
It was a warming feeling to see that flame, steadfast and true, every time he came home.
And every night, no matter if he arrived late or early, he would lay awake in the darkness until he heard the sound of Miss Warrick stealing into the room and sitting down in his chair.
Such was this comfortable arrangement that Edmund could not wish for any alteration in it, even to make his work easier or to bring a wife to run the household. No, he was quite satisfied beyond measure.
All that was set to change, as it always did, when Christopher returned home for his next period of leave; and after several months of peace, it was all fated to be broken again by his arrival like a cat amongst the pigeons of their simple life.
Chapter 28
Christopher’s visits had become something that Joanna had learned to be wary of.
It seemed that every time he arrived, he brought only trouble with him. Thus it was with some apprehension that she le
arned he was going to return on leave once more as the seasons began to change.
She had made up her mind to avoid him, but it was not to be possible; on the first day of his arrival, he swaggered by to the schoolroom, still dressed in his red uniform.
“Christopher!” Samuel exclaimed, drawing the attention of the others.
For once, it was not Patience who sprung up to greet her favourite brother. The whole sorry affair with Jasper had done damage to their relationship as well, it seemed.