Chapter 35
Thirty-Five
Jewel
EAGER TO GET outdoors for one last snowball fight, the younger generation was rushing through Aunty Violet’s much-anticipated Christmas breakfast when a footman stepped into the room.
“Pray pardon, Lord Lakefield,” he said. “A messenger is wishing to speak with you.”
Uncle Ford rose and left the chamber.
Jewel thought nothing of it. While her cousins resumed shoveling food into their mouths and the rest of the family continued chattering, she savored a bite of panperdy.
Breakfast was proving even more delicious than promised, especially this fine manchet bread fried in eggs and spices.
More to the point, she felt cheerful and full of confidence this morning.
Back to feeling like herself at last.
As she’d climbed into bed last night, a tiny part of her had wondered if perhaps the mulled wine had been speaking when “I’ve decided to accept” came out of her mouth. But she’d awakened completely sober and free of regret.
She’d triumphed over Rowan, and she’d made her decision, and life was grand. If the wine had helped her do all that, perhaps she ought to consider drinking more often.
“I have news,” Uncle Ford announced upon his return. Looking a bit stunned, he plopped back onto his chair. “King James fled the country two days ago. It’s over. William and Mary will be our next king and queen.”
“No war,” Hugh said with what sounded to Jewel like a disappointed sigh.
“What a wonderful Christmas gift!” Mama exclaimed.
“Thank God,” Aunty Violet breathed. “A relatively peaceful revolution. But will we, the people, gain more power? Will our new monarchs sign a Bill of Rights?”
Uncle Jason’s jaw set with resolve. “If we Chases have anything to say about it, they will.”
A great cheer went up. It was a wonderful Christmas gift indeed, and soon they would usher in a glorious new year, with no threat of war.
The chatter resumed in an ebullient tone. Feeling even more lighthearted than before, Jewel toyed with her panperdy while her cousins asked to be excused one after another in a comically clockwork fashion.
“Don’t you want to join them?” Mama asked when she was the only cousin remaining at the table. “The thirteen of you are all together so rarely.”
Jewel shrugged. “I’m not done eating. And childish snow play is not appealing to me this morning. I’m twenty-one and all but betrothed, after all.”
“Ah, I see,” Mama said with a delighted smile that convinced Jewel she had fallen for her excuse.
In truth, Jewel wondered if she’d ever feel too old for snow play, for, betrothed or not, she would have thoroughly enjoyed pelting her kin with snowballs were she not determined to stay indoors.
But the breakfast table offered an even better entertainment, one she’d been looking forward to all morning: the look on Aunty Kendra’s and Uncle Trick’s faces when they learned about her father’s prank.
And even more so: The look on Papa’s face when he learned of her involvement.
All of which seemed imminent now that the children had all left, if she could judge by the look in Papa’s eyes…
“Did you enjoy a pleasant holiday, Kendra?” he asked between bites of buttered eggs.
“Very much so.” Aunty Kendra sipped from her tankard of warm chocolate. “Why do you ask? Haven’t we all had a pleasant holiday?”
He focused on cutting a bite of bacon. “I was just wondering if you might have found the past two days a mite”—he looked up and straight at her—“frustrating.”
Over the tankard’s rim, she slanted him a puzzled glance. “And why would you wonder that?”
“Perhaps because I was keeping you and your husband apart,” he suggested with a raise of one devilish black brow.
“What?” Aunty Kendra’s tankard hit the table. “What did you just say?”
Uncle Trick’s eyes narrowed. “You mean the putrid cheese, the broken hinges, the damned cats—”
“All of it,” Papa cut in proudly. “Don’t forget the posset laced with valerian—”
“Wait,” Aunty Cait interrupted. “You told me the valerian was for Aidan.”
Papa’s expression was all innocence. “I did save some for Aidan. Happily, he no longer needs it.”
“What’s valerian?” Aunty Violet asked.
“A dried root.” Aunty Cait wasn’t one for rolling her eyes, but Jewel thought she looked on the verge of it. “Ground up and mixed into a drink, a small pinch can often help one sleep.”
“Help?” Uncle Trick scoffed. “Those drinks rendered us dead to the world for twelve hours and counting. Had Margaret not awakened us, we might still be sleeping.”
“Margaret?” Aunty Kendra murmured in a contemplative tone. “Margaret…”
Jewel crossed her fingers beneath the table, hoping the maid wouldn’t find herself in trouble.
“Margaret.” Aunty Kendra shot Papa an accusatory glare. “My maid Margaret brought us those drinks, not you.”
Papa shrugged. “Your maid Margaret might have done so at my direction.”
“Might have?” Her eyes widened. “What is that supposed to mean? Margaret is the most loyal—”
“Margaret was bribed,” Jewel piped up, unable to help herself.
Her father’s gaze snapped to her. “How would you know that?”
She flipped her long hair over her shoulder. “I might have been helping Margaret.”
A mix of astonishment and pride filled his eyes. “How the hell did that happen?”
“You know how much I enjoy a good prank,” she said blithely while her insides danced with delight. “I figured out what you and Margaret were doing and wanted in.”
“You figured it out, yet they didn’t,” he crowed, a flick of one hand indicating his sister and Uncle Trick. “That’s my girl.”
Wait till he hears the rest, Jewel thought with a secret smile.
Aunty Kendra speared another sugary bite. “You’re not as smart as you think you are, Colin Chase.”
“No?”
“The wet bed didn’t keep us apart.”
“What wet bed?” Papa’s puzzled frown made Jewel stifle a giggle. “What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean,” Kendra said without elaborating further. “Note that it didn’t work, which makes your prank an unqualified failure, would you not agree?”
The pout on Papa’s face would have better fit a toddling two-year-old. “What wet bed?”
Jewel couldn’t draw it out any longer. “Margaret and I spilled water on their bed last night.” The grin she’d been hiding broke free. “A lot of water. And we stole all their blankets and pillows.”
“I was finished!” he burst out.
She feigned a nonchalant shrug. “I wasn’t.”
While Papa’s mouth hung open, Kendra pointed a forkful of sugared pan cakes at him. “I cannot believe you managed to bribe that sweet girl.”
He didn’t look the least bit sorry—for bribing Aunty Kendra’s maid, anyway. “Everyone has a price,” he informed her.
“What was hers?”
“Twenty pounds,” Jewel said. “But I think we should make him give her thirty, so she can marry her love immediately.”
Aunty Kendra dropped the fork. “Margaret has a love?”
“A grand love, from what she’s told me. His name is Richard, and he’s a footman at Foxbow Manor,” Jewel began, then regaled them with Margaret’s sad tale.
Kendra remained rapt throughout the whole story. “No wonder Margaret has been so upset about leaving Amberley,” she said once Jewel had finished. “That would also mean leaving her young man.” She turned to Jewel’s father. “Give me thirty pounds.”
“If you insist,” he said with a mock sigh. He pulled out his heavy pouch and counted out twenty-nine gold guineas, each worth a pound and a shilling, then shoved them toward her on the table. “Keep the change.”
“Margaret will keep the change—what little will be left after settling the debt with Richard’s odious employers.” She looked to Jewel. “I understand you’re in need of a maid. What do you think of Margaret?”
“I like her.” In fact, Jewel more than liked her—she felt a kinship with Margaret, having teamed up with her to play the prank. Lydia had never been willing to help her play pranks. “But surely you wouldn’t dismiss her over a prank?”
“Of course not. She’s a lovely girl and a fine maid. It’s just that I feel she’s ready to go out in the world, and I’d like to train another girl from the orphanage.”
“I’d be pleased to have Margaret for my maid,” Jewel said. “And Papa will also hire her love, so the two of them can marry and live together.”
“I will?” her father said.
“You will. At least until I’m wed, at which point Henry will hire them both.”
He only grunted.
“She always has had you wrapped around her little finger,” Mama pointed out to him as though Jewel weren’t there. “Is it any surprise she thinks she’ll be able to control her husband as easily?”
“I wish the young man luck,” Papa said dryly.
TWO HOURS later, six empty carriages were queued up in front of Lakefield House, awaiting their occupants.
Uncle Jason’s family had left immediately after breakfast, anxious to attend to their annual Cainewood community Christmas.
The rest of the family were still inside the house, sorting out last-minute details for their journeys home.
Well, except for Uncle Ford and Aunty Violet, who were preparing to travel the mile to Trentingham for their Ashcroft holiday gathering, a week-long family tradition that would last till the new year.
Jewel left the house first, in search of Margaret. She’d been told she could find her directing the placement of Aunty Kendra’s luggage on Amberley’s baggage cart, and it looked as though she’d just finished.
When Margaret saw her approach, her big blue eyes filled with tears again.
Jewel hoped they were happy tears. “Did my aunt tell you the news?”
“Oh, my lady,” Margaret gushed, “I’ll be forever grateful. For my new position, for your father’s offer to employ Richard, and especially for the extra funds that will free the two of us to wed. Her grace told me you’d suggested that. It all feels like a Christmas miracle.”
“I’m so glad you’re pleased,” Jewel told her. “Happy Christmas. And my thanks for your assistance with our, um…escapades.”
The tears disappeared, and a little laugh bubbled up in their stead. “Anytime, my lady. I’d enjoy more escapades. You’ve only to ask.”
“I’ll be asking, I assure you.” Jewel could tell they would get on like a house on fire. Overcome with good Christmas feelings, she impulsively gave her new maid a hug.
The rest of the family began straggling outdoors, Papa and Aunty Kendra in the lead.
“Your grace?” Margaret bobbed a curtsy to get Aunty Kendra’s attention. “Is there anything else you need?”
“I believe that’s it. Run along and fetch your own things.” Aunty Kendra looked to Papa. “Wait till Friday to send a carriage for Margaret and her love, will you? That will give them time to settle their debt while I select a new maid from the orphanage.”
“Will do,” he said, opening their carriage door to put Mama’s new book inside.
Five cats bounded out.
“What the devil?”
“Is there a problem?” Aunty Kendra asked sweetly.
Too sweetly.
He stuck his head inside and waved the book to shoo one last cat from the compartment. “How did these creatures get in here?”
Jewel was surprised to find herself quicker on the uptake than her father.
“How should I know?” Aunty Kendra asked him with a shrug. “But there’s no reason to be upset about it. It’s not as though cats make you sneeze.”
“Lord Greystone, we have a mishap,” Papa’s man Benchley called out, approaching with two footmen carrying his trunk. “The hinges on this seem to be malfunctioning.”
Jewel stifled a laugh.
Papa frowned. “In what way?”
“Oh, my,” Aunty Kendra said although he hadn’t been asking her. “I’m sure I don’t know how that happened, either.”
Perhaps finally catching on, he shot her a suspicious glance before beckoning to the footmen. “Let me see.”
The two men lowered the trunk to the graveled drive. Papa bent and threw open the lid to investigate—only to watch it fly off. It landed with a bang and a spray of tiny gray stones, which thankfully missed everyone.
Jewel burst out laughing.
“I should have guessed the pins would be missing,” Papa announced with a good-natured snort, then straightened and backed up, coughing. Or maybe choking. “God’s blood,” he grated out.
Aunty Kendra grinned. “Problem, Colin? A noxious scent, perhaps? Could there be…cheese in your trunk?” She lifted one of his shirts with two fingertips, holding it as far from herself as possible.
Smeared with cheese, it dripped copiously onto the gravel.
“Oh, and it seems a pitcher of water may have ended up in your trunk too, poor you. Or two or three pitchers. Or maybe four.”
The rest of the family dissolved in laughter a moment after Papa did. “The water was her fault,” he chortled, indicating Jewel.
“I’ll get her another time,” Kendra said with a wave of her free hand. She dropped the shirt back in the trunk, where it landed with a splash. “I win.”
“No,” he declared between chuckles, “you lose. You failed to slip me some valerian. And now you’re leaving.”
“The day’s not over yet,” she shot back with an arch smile. “Just remember the next time you’re given something to eat or drink: everyone has a price.”
Aunty Kendra winked at Jewel, and Jewel grinned back, unworried about any retribution from her aunt at all.
“Happy Christmas, dear brother,” Aunty Kendra said with all good humor. Then she glanced around before adding, “Happy Christmas to all my dear family!”
“Happy Christmas!” fifteen Chases returned in unison, Jewel among them.
What a Christmas this had turned out to be, she mused with a satisfied sigh.
As much as her last few days had been dominated by her big decision, they had also been filled with love and joy, fun and laughter.
And now she had her wedding and Aunty Caithren’s new baby to look forward to before next Christmas at Cainewood. And a whole new life ahead of her.
She hugged herself, thinking she had never been happier.
Surrounded by her loving family, she was certain 1689 was going to be her best year yet, the year she’d see all her hopes and dreams fulfilled.
Nothing—and no one—would stand in her way.