"Boys… my God!" He shuddered, hugging them close to either side of him. "And little Charlotte?" He knelt down, tears in his eyes, as he beheld a perfectly adorable wee girl-child, no longer a squawling chub, but a miniature young lady so like her mother, with her mother's radiant amber-hazel eyes and spider-web fine, light-brown hair, long and bound into a loose tail beneath a missish little mob-cap. "When I left, you were still in swaddles. Lord, is it you, Charlotte?"
She hung back, a tad leery of him, a coy finger tugging at one corner of her pert little mouth… staring at him wide-eyed, like at a bad bargain. She came within grasping range only at his coaxing.
"Are you really my daddy?" she asked of a sudden, sounding just a bit cross and hiding her pudgy little hands in the folds of her fully flounced little sack gown.
"Well, o' course I am, Charlotte," he assured her, a tad put off. "Just been away too long, that's all. Of course I am."
As if to say, "Well, that's alright then," she relented, rushed to reward him with such a radiant and flirtatious smile, and flung her arms 'round his neck. He picked her up and stood, not knowing quite what to do with such a delicate packet, as she at last giggled aloud and gave him a peck on the cheek. Daughters, he thought ruefully, as he returned the favour upon both her cheeks; boys, now… them I can understand! Hell, I was one!
"Did you like the doll I sent you from Venice?" he asked her, as he paced about in a circle to admire her-now that she was satisfied that they were kin, "Did you get it… all safe and sound?"
"Ooh, Daddy, yessf she squealed with delight. "Did you bring me another?"
"Alan!" From the doorway.
He spun about to face her. Caroline! He roared her name in joy. It had been three long years; so long he'd almost forgotten what she looked like, even with a miniature portrait hanging in his cabins, almost forgotten what she sounded like.
Hugh was prancing about, wearing his gold-laced hat. Sewallis was being his ever-helpful self, dragging a heavy valise towards the entry. Yet there was his wife, and he could have trampled them all in the dust in his haste to hold her.
She came to him with the same haste, and charming little Charlotte had to fend for herself as Lewrie lowered her to the ground, instantly forgotten, to free his arms for Caroline.
Fierce as a lioness, her arms were about his neck as he lifted her from her toes. Fierce and needy as a starving lion was he, were both of them, as their lips met. She was beaming, weeping, her tears hot on his cheeks and his neck as he held her, pressing her to him and re-discovering her taut, slim firmness, and the sweetly softer curves of her hips, her belly against his, the press of her breasts…!
"God, it's so good to be home!" Lewrie crowed at the skies as he lowered her, slid his hands down to grasp hers, and leaned back to regard her. Her hair was down, like Charlotte 's, long, lustrous, and so fine-spun and loosely bound back in an almost girlish welcome, instead of a proper "goody" housewife's starched mob-cap. Clean, bright-shining… and sweet-smelling of her trademark citrony, flowery Hungary Water. Her eyes, her merry eyes! With the riant folds below them which waxed when she was happy… her mouth and lips, so widely spread in joy…
Damme, a touch o' grey? he puzzled at the sight of her temples; she ain't… I ain't… mean t'say, we ain't that old yet, surely…?
Crow's feet! merry-lookin' crow's feet, he corrected himself instantly. He felt her hands, so spare and slim, looked at her from head-to-toe (smiling all the while, mind), and took in how spare her forearms were below the lacy froth trim at her elbows-a definite softening of her formerly firm flesh, a falling away from the bone beneath…
Ah, but she did have the damn' fever, couple o' years ago, now didn't she? he assured himself; that'd put a few years on anybody!
He let go her hands and stepped forward to hold her close once more, to nuzzle at her neck, drink deep of her aroma, and stroke her back. "So damn' good t'be home! With such a lovely wife t'greet me! Swear t'Christ, Caroline… you're even lovelier than before!" Lewrie almost (but not quite) lied.
"Alan, I've missed you so!" she whispered in his ear. "Three long years! I'm sorry, I was above stairs… hoping you'd come today. Preparing, should you…?" She laughed softly.
"And a fine piece o' preparin' you've done, my dear," he told her. "Turned out like Sunday Divisions. Fair as morning…"
Here now, don't trowel it on, he chid himself; well-hang it-do! She's a woman, ain't she? You can't pay enough compliments!
They stood back from each other again, gazing fondly.
"Been dyin' t'be away from Portsmouth, London… achin'!"-Alan chuckled-"t'be with you… see your sweet, angel's face." She teared up again. But she was smiling fit to bust. "Love what you've done with the house, the drive, and all. And this fine round garden! What a splendid sight," he prated on. "I'd wager it's a fine thing to clap eyes on first thing of a morning… from our chambers, hmm? Or watch the dusk gather…?" He leered.
"Mummy, see Daddy's medal!" Hugh prompted. "For killing ever so many Frogs!"
"Frenchmen, Hugh dear," Caroline automatically corrected. "For killing Frenchmen then," Hugh amended.
"Not so polite to say 'round dear Sophie though, is it, Hugh?" Caroline instructed. "You must think of what might hurt people by the words you say… or the topics you mention, hmm?"
"It's alright, Hugh. I got this for fighting Spaniards." Alan winked. "The one for Frogs is to come by post."
"Hurray!" Hugh piped, and even Sewallis sounded glad. "Let's go inside, shall we?" Lewrie suggested. "I'm fair dry, and a tad peckish. That coach ride… let me but park my fundament in my favorite wing-chair. See if it awakens! Oh, Caroline, this is my steward, Aspinall. And his burden… that's Toulon."
"Ma'am," Aspinall said, doffing his hat and making a shy "leg." "Mister Aspinall," Caroline replied, with a regal incline of her head and a warm smile of welcome. "My husband has written of you so often. It will be quite the sailors' rendezvous here; you, Mister Padgett, and Andrews, for a time. I hope you take joy of your stay here."
"Lordy, I hope not, Mistress," Aspinall said, making a jape in his slow, shy way, "but… a sailors' rendezvous is where the Impress Gang gathers 'fore they goes out t'kidnap unwary sailormen."
"Let's call it 'Fiddler's Green,' then." Lewrie laughed out loud. "Free-flowin' rum, beer, and wine; music 'round the clock; and never a groat does the publican demand."
"Amen to that, Cap'um Lewrie." Aspinall smiled. "I'll be yer burden just 'til Monday, though, ma'am. Me and Padgett… we thought t'go back up t'London for a piece. Me mum an' dad's there… and Ma's doin' poorly. 'Til Cap'um Lewrie gets a new ship, ma'am."
"A new ship, yes… I see." Caroline frowned, turning to Alan for confirmation with a vexed, worrisome look. Complete with that vertical exclamation point wrinkled 'twixt her brows. "Do they say…?"
"Oh, not for weeks, I'm bound, dearest," Lewrie hastened to assure her. "Nigh on a month, perhaps. The First Lord, Earl Spencer, to my face told me I was due a spell of shore leave."
"Daddy's new kitty?" Charlotte exclaimed, going to peer close into the wicker cage. "Ooh, I want to hold him!"
"I wouldn't, young miss," Aspinall cautioned. "He's a terror when he's upset. An' the coach ride didn't set him well."
"Aye, Charlotte, leave him be, for a while, there's a good chub."
"But, Daddy…!" the wee'un said, stamping an imperious foot.
"Let's go in," Lewrie said again. "I'm dying to see what you've done with the place. All those improvements you wrote of…"
The formal salon was now furnished in light, airy fabrics, homey cherry or walnut settees, and such; the larger dining room was furnished as well. In the entry hall, those red-lacquered Venetian bombe commodes that Clotworthy Chute had "obtained" (how, he'd prefer never to know!) flanked the carpeted stairs, bearing coin-silver candelabras.
"Gawd, it's magnificent, Caroline!" He breathed in awe, as she preened proudly; a visitor might think the Lewries settled and financially secure for ages. More
to the point, possessed of good taste all that age, which was more than could be said for even titled households, who equated cost with instant elegance, no matter how garish.
Toulon was making unsettled rumbling, hissing noises as Aspinall set his cage down in the entry hall beside the luggage. Wee Charlotte was down on her knees, poking and peeking.
"Best we feed him quick so he doesn't get it in his head to run outside and get lost," Lewrie suggested. " 'Fore he runs afoul of those setters Sewallis is so proud of, hey, Sewallis?"
He looked at his eldest son, remembering that Sewallis had been half terrified of his old cat, William Pitt, before he'd passed over.
Well, chary of him Lewrie amended to himself, being charitable.
Sewallis shared a look with him, glad that he'd remembered his dogs-though he looked more than cool to the idea of a new cat about the place. He shrugged as if it were no matter, yet…
Aspinall gently moved Charlotte out of the way and opened the cage. Toulon bounded out, uttering a wary, confused trill, then leapt for the parlour, where he immediately slunk under a settee to fuss.
"Oh, come and see the morning room!" Caroline enthused, as she took Lewrie by the hand to lead him from one wonder to the next. "That particoloured fabric you sent me, darling… two bolts were just enough. See? Much too sheer for dress material, not in England at any rate. Heavens, do Venetian ladies strut about that undressed?"
Aye, they do, Lewrie secretly smirked; an'a damn'fine show they were too!
"… drape this one large window. What do you think?"
He was a bit disappointed. He'd intended that she run up a gown from the fabric-or, as he'd most lasciviously hinted in his letter which had accompanied it, a sheer bed-gown and dressing robe? In his heart-of-hearts fantasy, he'd have loved to see her through both thin layers, every sweet inch of her flame-draped by the subtle, marbley waves of umber, peach, ochre, and burgundy, like one of Lady Emma Hamilton's most pornographic "Attitudes"!
Now that cloth made bright, cheerful drapes for the window in their smaller dining room, where they usually ate enfamille, without houseguests. Caroline had coordinated plush, ochre velvet overdrapes, using the sheer material as gauzy inner drapes, and had tablecloth and napery of peach, with the other colours picked out here and there in the paintings' frames, some fresh paint on the chair rail, but… It wasn't the use he'd wished.
"Here, kitty-kitty!" He could hear Charlotte still coaxing in the salon, and a faint carp from Toulon as he was chivvied from pillar to post in search of a new hidey-hole in a strange, threatening house.
" Charlotte, leave the cat be!" Lewrie called over his shoulder, wearing a supposedly pleased smile of appreciation on his phyz for the drapes. "He's not used to you, and he wants to be left in peace!"
He said it in an exasperated, out-of-his-depth semblance of his best quarterdeck voice, the one he'd use on slow brace-tenders. Which brought forth a whine from Charlotte as she began to blub up, to be so loudly chastised.
"Alan, really…" Caroline gently chid.
"Don't want her eat' half-alive, that's all, dearest," Lewrie tried to quibble. "Aye, they're fetchin' as Hell, aren't they, these drapes? Whatever was I thinkin'… that you'd make a gown of it, in Anglesgreen, and all… "
"Oh, do come out, kitty… Owwwwl Mummy!" was the shriek.
Rrrrowww! It could have been fright; it could have been a glad victory cry. Lewrie could see, once he'd turned his head, his cat making a dash for the stairs, a black-white streak nigh flat to the floor and his legs churning like a Naples centipede. There went another streak in pale blue moire satin and white lace, as Caroline tore off to comfort her "precious little girl." Left with the boys, Lewrie looked over to see Hugh pursing his mouth to blow a fart-like sound with his lips and rolling his eyes. Evidently, Charlotte 's curiosity, and the teary result, wasn't exactly a new thing in their house. And Sewallis surprised him with a world-weary, almost adult sigh of exasperation. And a high-pitched "Hmmpph!" or "Tittch!"
"Girls," Lewrie agreed, hands behind his back, and tipping them both a conspiratorial wink. "They do take a power o' gettin' used to."
Lewrie figured he'd done enough damage indoors for the nonce. It was time to trot, 'til domestic "bliss" was re-established.
"How's your pony farin', lads? And, Sewallis, where're those dogs? Does your mother ever let 'em in the house?"
"Uhm, no… only when they were pups." Sewallis brightened. "We leave them part of the old coach-house. Do you want to see them? Now?"
"Aye, I do. You give your brother, Hugh, one too?" Lewrie joshed, leading them out through the kitchens.
"We share," Sewallis replied most primly.
"No, we don't. They're all his. Don't want a dog anyway. Want a fox kit. Or an otter!" Hugh grumped.
"No you don't, Hugh, not 'round my dogs. Why, they'd tear an otter or a fox to pieces," Sewallis harshly countered as they emerged in the sunshine to walk the old brick path between the kitchen garden and the flower garden. Bustling, careless of where they put their feet, three "men" striving to walk side-by-side… or lead and dominate.
"You'd sic them on 'em," Hugh groused.
"They're beastly… pests and nuisances," Sewallis snapped back. "Would not, but… they're ratty… ugly!"
"They're not; they're not!" Hugh shouted, in full cry by then. "They're pretty! So red and fluffy… or so sleek. An otter could be a playmate, slide into the creek with me…"
"Oh, wager yer mother'd love you slidin' down mud. into creeks," Lewrie scoffed, ruffling Hugh's hair.
"He does already, and Mummy doesn't like it. He knows, but…"
"Boys," Lewrie cautioned. Away so long, he hadn't known they could be at each other's throats. And within a quarter-hour of his return too! And where'd prim little Sewallis, within a quim-hair of being dour as a parson, find bottom enough to boss Hugh about? Or try to anyway. Though Hugh was only eight, he was more than ready for a scrap to the knife-hilt! "Lookee here, lads… let's not you quarrel… my first day home, at any rate. Christ, you two go at each other like this all the time?"
"I'm sorry, Father," Sewallis muttered, much abashed.
"Well, he started it…"
"Ahem?" Lewrie barked, glaring.
"I know where there's an earth, where there's a mother fox, Daddy," Hugh wheedled. "And I've seen otters in the creek, up on Grandfather's new land. By the old tower? We could ride up… oh, once I show you them, you'd let me have a…"
There came a clatter of hooves from the farm lane which straggled off between the new brick barn and the old wattle-and-daub one they had turned into a coach-house. Coming into the stableyard, past their white-railed paddock where the children's pony trotted in excitement…
"Grandfather said I could have one, so…" Hugh prattled on.
Lewrie sighed. Rather heavily, it must be noted.
For here came two riders, back from a morning canter over their modest acreage, drawing the pony to extend his head over the railings and whicker at them, drawing a pack of spotted setters from the older barn, jog-trotting and yipping, with their tails lashing most gaily.
In the lead was a female… his ward since Toulon fell in '93, the Vicomtesse Sophie de Maubeuge, last of her noble line. No longer a frail, tremulous waif, he noted. She rode with an easy confidence, beaming a smile at him… at the world in general… and over her back to the second rider. No longer a delicate little fifteen-year-old, new-come from a convent, Sophie had turned into a spritely eighteen-year-old beauty, with rich red-auburn hair glowing in the spring sunshine, her green eyes alight with an impatient, girlish delight.
Astern, though… in the full fig of his regimentals from the old 19th Native Infantry of the East India Company army, was his own father,… Sir Hugo Saint George Willoughby. Brigadier Sir Hugo!
"Haw, the house! Haw, the new-come!" his father cried, waving his egret-feathered, heavily gold-laced cocked hat in the air. "Alan, my boy! Home at last! Give ye joy!"
"Mademeoiselle Sophie
… enchantй! Lewrie called out as she rode up to him.
"Commander Lewrie, enchantй, aussi." She laughed, as he offered to take her reins and a hand to steady her. She swung off of her side-saddle, slipped her stirrup-foot, to jump-slide to the ground as graceful as a landing dove, almost squealing with glee. "You are home at last, m'sieur. La, the house has been on the pins and needles for the first sign of your coming. Welcome home, good sir! Welcome home!"
He embraced her, accepted a chaste peck on his cheek.
Three years has done her wonders, he thought. When he'd left, there'd been a girl bereft of fortune, title, family, her intended, and his own family, so sunk in grief that she could barely raise her voice above a mournful whisper, and possessed of the most fractured English. Now, though… but for a lilt, a turn of phrase, there was a girl who had the confidence, the poise and grace, and the easy, unaffected joy of any country-raised young English lady of the squirearchy who never had known any other style of living, or country.
The groomsman, a new face to Lewrie after the old one, Bodkins, was taking the reins from him, reaching out for the reins of the other horse. Then down sprang his father.
Shorter than he'd remembered from the Far East. How odd, Lewrie thought. White-haired now, thinner on top. Liver-spotted, by a dissolute youth. Damme, a dissolute bloody life! Yet still erect as a gun's ramrod, with the Damme-Boy twinkle of old in his eyes.
"My boy! My dearest boy!" Sir Hugo crowded, offering his arms for a paternal hug. "Ten damn' years it's been! Come ye here!"
And a very merry hello t'you too, Lewrie thought, with a weary sigh; you wicked old fart! He plastered a glad grin on his countenance and suffered to be embraced. Embraced his father in return, wondering all the while if Sir Hugo's elation to see him was a ruse… that he secretly was poor as a church-mouse, and this was the last port of refuge for a scoundrel.
Damme, never knew him t'be gladsome…'cept when he was needy o' something! Lewrie thought, as he was pounded on the back most heartily.
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