Chapter Eight
“Right, so remembering back to when my sister was younger. Your niece—”
“Florence,” Toby added. “Do you think they call her Flo or Florence? What is her favorite food? Does she—”
“Stop now,” Jamie said. “Let Anthony continue.”
“She will need a nanny if she doesn’t come with one, which she possibly will. Also, rooms made into a nursery. Is there a nursery somewhere in your townhouse, Toby?” Anthony asked.
“Yes. I haven’t been into it for years. Surely I am not fit to have a small girl child in my house. She will be mourning the loss of her parents. How can I care for her?” The panic coursing through his body had words pouring out of Toby’s mouth. “I am not fit for a child to live with.”
“Why?” Jamie demanded. “You’re a good and fair man. You have questionable waistcoat habits, but other than that, you are normal.”
He didn’t acknowledge the waistcoat comment. His mind was working through and discarding thoughts with the speed of a runaway carriage.
“We need Evie. You must bring her and her sister to my house at once. I need to find someone to take the child, but until then, I will have to care for her,” Toby said.
“You cannot toss her into an orphanage surely?” Anthony said.
“Or send her away to a school,” Jamie added.
“Hell no,” Toby said. “Our school life was enough to cure me of sending any child associated with me to one.”
“Hello!”
They turned at the greeting to find Anthony’s three aunts on the opposite side of the road.
“We could make a run for it. We’re faster than them,” Anthony said.
“But we all know that they’d make us pay,” Jamie said.
“True,” Anthony added. “But talking to them will take precious time away from the discussion we need to have over food.”
“You’ve done nothing to deserve food like Toby and me,” Jamie protested.
“I can’t believe you’re talking about food after what I’ve just learned,” Toby said.
“It will be all right, Toby,” Anthony said.
“How?”
“Anthony!” one of his aunts called.
“We can’t discuss this with your aunts or anyone yet,” Toby said quickly. “I want to keep it quiet until… Christ I have no idea what I’m saying. It’s like throwing a lamb among the wolves handing a child into my care. How is it my cousin never realized this could be a possibility?”
“Or he did, and believed you a good man who was more than up to the task of raising his child,” Anthony said solemnly as they crossed the street.
“Ladies, how wonderful to see you,” Jamie said.
Toby, Jamie, and Anthony owed these three women a great deal, because it had been they who saved the three boys from the hell they’d been living, and they would never forget that.
For now, he would put his impending guardianship to one side and force down the panic. Later he would allow it back out.
“I do believe that you get more handsome every time I see you, Tobias,” Lady Petunia said, patting his cheek. “Although I do believe you look a little tight around the eyes today. Is something amiss, dear?”
Toby thought of her as the leader of the three sisters. Lavender was her color, and she always spoke the loudest. “I stayed up too late last night and have not had enough sleep,” he lied.
Next came Agatha, whose dresses were always apricot. Lastly was Lavinia, who favored the colors of green.
Older now, they had silver hair, and soft paper-thin skin, and smelled of a potpourri of scents that were as familiar to Toby as any others in his life. They were to Jamie and him the aunts they’d never had, and he loved them very much.
“And you ladies just get more beautiful,” Jamie said, dragging the conversation away from Toby. “Where are you off to?”
“To the lending library. We have book club tomorrow and the selection is ours, so we are going to try to agree on something,” Agatha said.
“I didn’t know you belonged to a book club.” Anthony frowned. “How is it I have never been told this?”
“We don’t tell you everything, nephew,” Lavinia said fussing with the lapels on Anthony’s jacket. “It’s quite fun.”
“Who is hosting this book club?” Anthony demanded.
“It will be at our place this time,” Petunia said.
“And who is in attendance?”
“Well,” Agatha said. “There is Lady Sowter, and Miss Hamner. The Duchess of Talbot and her daughter Lady Liberty. Plus, Miss Williams. Have I missed anyone?” she then asked her sisters.
“No,” Lavinia said. “Although sometimes Mrs. Little comes with her niece, but only if she has the time.”
“Why wouldn’t she have the time?” Anthony asked.
“Apparently, she and her husband play chess most evenings. And their niece, Miss Hamner, said sometimes well into the night. If a match has started, neither will leave until it is completed,” Petunia added.
Liberty went to a book club with Anthony’s aunts. On the heels of that thought came another one. She would know how to take care of a child because he’d seen her with her little brother.
Dear Christ, he was going to be guardian to a five-year-old girl. This cannot be happening.
“I believe the Duke and Duchess of Talbot have their estate close to yours, Tobias?” Lavinia asked.
“They do, yes.”
“Then you must know their lovely daughter well,” Petunia added. “Wonderful gal. Forthright and sweet natured.”
“I do, yes,” he said, still working through the problem that had just landed in his lap.
Petunia frowned. “I don’t believe I’ve even seen you dance with Lady Liberty, Tobias. Why is that if she is your neighbor?”
“Aunt Petunia, Toby—”
“I’m speaking to Tobias not you, nephew.”
“Hardly neighbors,” Toby said. “And I do not dance with everyone.”
“Have any of you seen them talking?” Petunia then asked.
“I do not speak with everyone all the time,” Toby said, feeling his necktie tighten.
“Just because our estates are close, does not mean we are,” he said hoping that stopped further conversation, because he really had no time for this.
He needed to get home and open the doors to his nursery and hope a flock of bats did not fly out.
Did bats live as a flock? Such was the state of his mind this bothered him.
Lavinia leaned closer to Toby, her face now inches from his. “Why are you sweating profusely?”
“I’ve just exercised.” At least that was the truth.
“No, I think talking about Lady Liberty has you unsettled.”
All three women were now staring at him.
“Leave him alone please,” Anthony said. “He is not himself today.”
“So it would seem,” Petunia said. She then patted Toby’s cheek. “A good night’s sleep will fix that, and a dance with your old friend, Lady Liberty.”
Like hell.
“Excellent. Well then come along, Lavinia, Aggie. We have a book to select, and perhaps we shall have a wee chat with Lady Liberty at the book club.”
“There is nothing to talk about. She and I are very different people, thus we were never friends,” Toby lied, but they ignored him and wandered away.
“That went well,” Jamie said. “I find I’m famished. Come along and we will put our heads together and work through the problem of your niece’s impending arrival.” He then walked in the opposite direction with Anthony.
“Hurry it along, Toby, as I cannot discount they will not return,” Anthony said, sounding testy now. “Put your cousin to one side, as you still have five days to work through what is to be done.”
“My life is about to change beyond recognition. How is it you expect me to put things to one side?” Toby thought about just going home and locking the door but knew his friends would follow and demand he open it.
“Is that cart selling spiced cake?” Jamie said, veering left. “It smells like it.”
Minutes later, with large wedges of delicious cake, they continued walking. Yes, his insides felt like a butter churn, but he could still eat.
“So, Lady Liberty,” Anthony said.
“We are not discussing Lady Liberty now,” Toby snapped.
“We’re taking your mind off your niece until we sit down and work things through,” Anthony said. “Lady Liberty is an excellent topic to do that as clearly she unsettles you with that history between you.”
“She does not unsettle me, and there is nothing further to discuss. Now there is something else I need to ask your advice on,” Toby said. “It is to do with Bidham.”
“The little village close to your estate?” Jamie asked.
“Yes. I have not been there for many years.”
“For so long, it was Jamie, or me, that had a problem we needed help with. It seems that is all about to change, along with your life, Toby,” Anthony said.
“I am going to be the guardian of a five-year-old girl. I doubt anything either of you do could improve on that for a problem.”
“True,” his friends both agreed.
Toby explained what his butler had told him, and then what he’d seen in the village. Lastly, he spoke of what happened in that tavern he’d spent the night in with Liberty. He didn’t mention the fact she was there, however.
“So, finally, we have the reason for those bruises you returned to London with,” Jamie said.
“Why have you stayed away from Bidham for so long?” Anthony asked.
“And why did you not take us there when we visited Hawthorne years ago?” Jamie added.
“Are you sending someone to investigate what is going on in the village?” Anthony said.
“Which of those questions do you want me to answer first?”
“Mine,” Anthony said before Jamie spoke.
“I am sending someone to the village to investigate, and had planned to go back in a few weeks for the Bidham festival, but now that is uncertain because of Florence.” Silence greeted these words, so he took another large bite of spiced cake.
“Bidham festival?” Anthony asked with his mouth full of food.
“You should swallow that before you choke. And you’re only eating like a barbarian because your wife is not here,” Toby said.
“True. But we digress. There is a Bidham festival?”
Toby nodded. “It has been going for many years.”
“Do they have sweet foods there?” Jamie demanded.
“Of course.”
“I’m exceedingly vexed that you never told us about this, Toby, or for that matter, took us to this festival. That will change this year, as Florence will wish to go, and we will accompany you,” Anthony said.
“I don’t think so, and you make that sound like she already knows you, or for that matter will like you.”
“She will. We’re likeable, and there are always sweets to bribe her with,” Jamie said.
Did Florence like sweets? He didn’t know a child who wouldn’t, but then Toby didn’t know any children, so there was that. Would Liberty be attending the festival, and if so, did he want to?
“A Corbyn has opened that festival for hundreds of years,” Toby added softly.
“And that stopped when you refused to go?” Anthony asked.
“The year I returned from Blackwood, I refused the three years following. They never asked me again.”
“Your mother—”
“Couldn’t make herself go there after my father’s death,” Toby said.
“I feel like Lady Liberty plays a bigger part in all of this. However, as you have more than enough to deal with considering Florence is arriving shortly, I will leave that for now,” Anthony said.
“There is nothing to discuss. Now shut up. Look, it is the chocolate house.” If there was anything that could distract his friends, it was food, drink, and most especially chocolate.