Chapter 6 #2
It was dark and cool when Mary woke up crying.
Her sisters did not know what was wrong, as they had no way of knowing their sister needed to have her napkin changed and she needed to be fed.
Neither had ever seen Mamma feed Mary, and they certainly did not remember how they gained sustenance in their first months of life.
Jane felt guilty that she and Lizzy had consumed the biscuits and milk, so there was no more for them or for Mary.
By the time the sky began to lighten in the east, all three girls were crying.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Holder House was in Park Lane. It was the house closest to the Grosvenor gate, which led into the park.
It was the London residence of Paul and Edith Carrington, the Earl and Countess of Holder.
They had only one child, a son, Jamey, who was eight, and would turn nine on the final day of April.
His title was Viscount Hadlock. Their primary estate, Holder Heights, was in Staffordshire, and the estate, which was attached to Jamey’s title, Hadlock, was in Derbyshire.
As much as they loved their son, no matter how much they had tried, Lady Edith had never fallen with child again after bearing Jamey. They poured all of their parental love into him but did not over-indulge him.
In this the countess was similar to her two best friends, Lady Elaine Fitzwilliam, the Countess of Matlock, and Lady Anne Darcy.
Anne was the younger sister of Elaine’s husband.
The former had two sons, Andrew, Viscount Hilldale, who was eleven, and Richard, nine.
The latter had William, who was eight. Try as Elaine had, like Edith, she never increased again after Richard.
Anne had done so twice. One was a miscarriage and the other a stillbirth.
It always made Edith consider how it was that all three families had all the material wealth in the world, but while others were so very fecund, between them they had four sons and no more children.
Edith supposed it was true that God giveth and God taketh away.
Her lack of additional children had not shaken her faith, and neither had it made her question God.
The Carringtons belonged to the Ton, however, they were not slaves to the mores of the society they inhabited.
For instance, they rejected the practice of promenading in Hyde Park at the fashionable hour to see and be seen.
Rather, the three Carringtons would either walk or ride in Hyde Park at dawn, before practically any other was in the park.
Sometimes they walked or rode with the Fitzwilliams, Darcys, or both of them.
However, this morning their friends were not in London.
The Fitzwilliams were in fact in Kent at Rosings Park, the estate of Sir Lewis and Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
The latter was sister to Lord Matlock, younger by three years, and five years Anne’s senior.
The Darcys had needed to be at Pemberley before Easter, so they would arrive at Rosings Park after the Fitzwilliams.
Lady Catherine was somewhat of a termagant who thought she knew everything about everything when the opposite was true, she was uneducated and knew almost nothing about anything.
Even with that, the families spent the time around Easter at the de Bourgh Estate in spite of Lady Catherine and her nonsensical pronouncements.
The de Bourghs were the only ones with a daughter, Anne, who recently turned five.
Lady Catherine had tried to browbeat her younger sister into agreeing to betroth William and Anne.
Her younger sister had roundly refused, and the termagant had only ceased when both Anne Darcy’s husband and her own had told her in no uncertain terms to desist.
The Carringtons had decided to remain in London for Easter. They planned to depart for Staffordshire the Monday after the holy day.
Friday morning, the sixth day of April, seemed like any other day; the family went to exercise in the park. This day they chose to walk, not ride. As the sky was lightening, they left their house with one footman walking at a distance behind them.
As was their wont, Holder and his beloved walked together, her forearm wrapped around his, while Jamey skipped and ran ahead and would come back to them, only to repeat what he had done before. They walked across the grass to Rotten Row and then turned toward the Serpentine.
At first as Jamey went ahead of his parents towards one of the many stone benches lining the row, he thought he imagined the sounds of crying children. He stopped and cocked his head. No, that was crying.
He slowly walked forward until he was almost at the bench when the sight which met him stopped him in his tracks. “Papa, Mamma,” Jamey called out.
Holder and Lady Edith were concerned something ailed their son, so they ran forward, the footman close on their heels. Like Jamey had when he saw what lay beyond the bench, the Carrington parents froze, almost causing the footman to run into his master’s back.
Sitting on a blanket between some shrubs were two very young girls, both sobbing piteously. The larger girl with golden-blonde hair was holding a young babe with short, light-blonde hair so there was no knowing the sex.
The Carringtons had heard of children getting lost in the park, but never had they imagined stumbling across some who had obviously been abandoned. Given the time of the morning and the flattened vegetation around them, it was clear that they had been here overnight.
Edith approached the crying girls. The two older ones looked rather frightened, and the volume of crying increased, which caused the babe to also increase the volume of noise.
She crouched down to be as non-threatening as she could.
“My name is Edith; the man is my husband, Paul, and that is Jamey, our son.” She inclined her head to the boy.
“The man is Peters; he works for us.” She paused seeing that the older two girls were now sniffling instead of sobbing. “Why are you here?”
“Mamma tell us we get supwise; she not came back,” Jane managed before crying harder once more.
“What are your names, dears?” Edith asked gently.
“I Janey, she Wizzy, and I hold Mawy. Whewe Papa? Whewe Nuwce? No Mamma?”
Three girls. At that instant, Lady Edith Carrington made a decision, and she dared her husband to gainsay her.
“Paul, we are taking these girls home; you can see the two older ones, Jane and Elizabeth, are dressed like they are gently born, and Jane mentioned a nursemaid. We will find a wet nurse as soon as may be; in the meantime, I will drip milk into Mary’s mouth from a cloth. ”
Holder knew that look in his wife’s eye. Even had he wanted to refuse her, he could not.
“Paul, take Mary,” Edith commanded. She saw Jane flinch and the fear on her face. “Jane dear, you and Lizzy will come with us, too. We will look after you and try to find Mamma and Papa.”
Feeling like she could trust this kind lady, Jane allowed the man to take Mary from her arms. When the lady reached her hands out, she stood and took one, and Lizzy took the other. She watched as the other man took the valise and rolled up the blanket.
It was not a long walk to Holder House. If the staff and servants were shocked to see the family return with two little girls and a babe, none showed it.
“Mrs Fenster, please notify the nursery staff they will have three more with them and that Miss Mary needs to have her napkin changed as soon as possible. Misses Jane and Elizabeth must be bathed and fed forthwith.” Edith turned to the butler.
“Mr Fenster, send out as many men as needed. Miss Mary needs a wet nurse as soon as may be. We will pay very well for someone at such short notice.” She turned back to her housekeeper.
“Until that lady arrives, have Cook prepare some milk, only lukewarm. As soon as it is ready and Miss Mary is changed and dry, I will require a cloth so I may drip milk into her mouth. I have no idea when the poor dear ate last, as she seems a little lethargic to me.”
The housekeeper nodded to a maid who took Miss Mary from the mistress and made her way up to the nursery.
Only once she had issued her orders was Edith able to relax a little. She did not miss how the two girls held her hands tighter as if from fear when two nursemaids approached. She crouched again. “Jane and Lizzy, at your home you had nursemaids, did you not?”
Both girls nodded.
The affirmative reply firmed Edith’s opinion that the girls had been gently born. “That is what these two kind ladies are. They will take you to the nursery, wash you, put you in something clean, and feed you. Would you like to eat?” Edith asked both gently and kindly.
Again, there were two nods. Tentatively at first, Jane took the nursemaid’s hand while the other one lifted Elizabeth up. Elizabeth rested her head on the woman’s shoulder, and her thumb was inserted into her mouth for comfort.
“What sort of mother abandons her daughters in the park in that way? It is pure evil!” Edith exclaimed once the girls were up the stairs and out of earshot.
“She never deserves to see these girls again.” Her protective motherly instincts had been aroused.
If she ever had the displeasure of meeting the mother, she would issue her a set-down for the ages.
“I agree about the mother, but when Jane spoke of her father, it was with warmth. We need to do everything we are able to in order to locate their family,” Holder stated.
He had not missed the way his love had looked at the girls; the longing for more children she had tamped down over the years was plain to see.
“In the meanwhile, I have instructed Fenster to post a footman near where the girls were, just in case the mother regrets what she has done and comes back looking for her daughters.” Holder placed his one finger on his wife’s lips as he saw a protest about to explode from her.
“Yes, my darling wife, I know; she does not deserve them, but my honour demands that I do no less.”
As much as she wanted to rail about the girls ever going back to the despicable mother, Edith knew that her husband was correct. She simply nodded. After her husband kissed her cheek, she made her way up to the nursery.