Chapter Eight #2
Harriet had sat beside Lady Grandison during Carina’s initial interview, when Mrs. Baldeston’s recommendation had been mentioned.
Carina, afraid of being turned away, had not admitted that she’d never met the woman.
Again, confession lurked on the tip of her tongue, but Harriet got distracted by some argument of Alex and Rose and the moment passed.
Now, during their impromptu schoolroom break, Alex called from the window, “It’s Snake!”
Orchid and Rose sprang up and bolted for the door. Before Carina could exert some discipline, Lily cried, “No! Remember?”
Rose sighed. Orchid scowled. But they both trailed reluctantly back.
“Remember what?” Carina asked, bewildered.
Lily’s pale cheeks turned a little pink. “We agreed we should not swamp him as soon as he arrives, so that Harriet may meet him alone first. After all, they are about to marry.”
“That is very understanding of you,” Carina said.
“We thought so,” Alex said proudly. “But we didn’t ban ourselves from waving from the window.”
Rather than calling them back to work, Carina gave in to her own curiosity and joined them at the window for a glimpse of the notorious Snake Sanderly.
Though the children claimed to love very few, they seemed to Carina to be warm and trusting, and open at least to hurt and neglect by an unprincipled man.
Once married, Harriet would have no say in their present or future. ..
“He’s not looking,” said a dementedly waving Orchid, pressing her nose to the glass.
“Give him a chance,” Alex scoffed. “He has to care for his horses.”
The earl appeared to have driven himself in a very smart curricle. His groom had just run to the horses’ heads and his lordship stepped down. Carina’s first glimpse was not encouraging.
Though undeniably a handsome man, dressed in a fashionable driving coat with innumerable shoulder capes, his expression was cold and haughty, as though given to sneering.
“Lord Snake!” Orchid scolded, when he still didn’t glance up to the window.
Carina dreaded the moment he might. How hurt would they be by a grimace, or an expression of complete indifference as he ignored them?
Then, without warning, the man’s whole manner changed. His face relaxed into an unexpectedly brilliant smile, and he moved forward, lifting his arms. An instant later, Harriet Cole landed hard against him, her arms flung around his neck, her face lost in his.
Carina coughed. “Come, children, another quarter hour of work before tea.”
“They are engaged,” Lily said excusingly.
At that moment, the couple broke apart laughing, and Harriet pointed to the upstairs window, where the demented waving recommenced.
The earl swiped up his hat from the curricle seat and waved it at them.
So, not indifferent or at least not unkind. That was a relief.
In the end, Carina only managed to get them settled for five minutes before Harriet stuck her head in the door.
“Miss Jasper, may we interrupt?”
Amid cries of “Snake!” the children erupted across the room.
Orchid, too young for inhibition, seized the earl by the leg and was hauled up in one arm to sit on his hip.
Alex thrust out his hand, grinning and had it solemnly shaken, before the earl turned to the other two girls and bowed over each of their hands, even while they were all chattering at once and Rose tugged him toward Carina.
“So sorry for disrupting your lessons,” Harriet said, her colour heightened.
“We were just finishing,” Carina said tactfully.
“Allow me to introduce you. Serp, this is the children’s new governess, Miss Jasper, who is proving invaluable to both them and Lady G. Miss Jasper, Lord Sanderly.”
Rather than ignoring her, which Carina more than half-expected, his lordship set Orchid on her feet and bowed.
“Miss Jasper! Bravest of governesses. My sympathies.”
“Hoy!” Rose objected with a somewhat unladylike expression. “We’ve been very good, haven’t we, Miss Jasper? Harry?”
“Why, what are you up to?” Lord Sanderly demanded.
“Learning our lessons, of course,” Alex said virtuously. “I say, Snake, can I have another shot at driving your curricle?”
“Yes, but not today, the poor horses are tired and so am I.”
“And Lady Grandison is expecting us for tea,” Harriet added.
“Can we come?” Rose asked.
“I believe she is expecting you—and Miss Jasper, of course.”
“To keep you in order,” Lord Sanderly said. “With sticks, if necessary.”
“He’s teasing,” Orchid said, glancing at Carina in some anxiety, and the others laughed like drains and surged toward the schoolroom door.
It began to strike Carina that she had been as influenced by Sanderly’s reputation as her Harwich neighbours had been by her father’s. He did not seem anything like the monster she had feared on Harriet’s and the children’s behalf.
She spared an anxious thought for Papa as she followed the others downstairs to the drawing room. She had only had one letter from him since her arrival, in which he had claimed to be doing well, and obtaining plenty of work. To her shame, and his, she didn’t know whether or not to believe him.
Sometimes, she lay awake at night, castigating herself for leaving him. She must find a way to visit him. Her Sunday half-day’s leave was not enough to travel to Harwich and back before Monday morning...
The Cole children were lively, but they were not mannerless. They did not barge into the drawing room but entered in good order and remembered to greet Sir John and Lady Grandison who awaited them there.
“Sanderly, pleasure to have you back,” Sir John said, amiably offering his hand. “What news do you bring us?”
“Dull stuff, I’m afraid. I’ll bore you with it later.”
“Miss Jasper is our news,” Lady Grandison said, going to him and allowing him to kiss her cheek. “And she has agreed to stay until you and Harriet return from your wedding journey, so neither of you need worry about the children at all.”
“I still think it would be better if we came too,” Orchid muttered, wrinkling her nose. “Miss Jasper could look after us there just as well.”
“Sadly, the wedding journey is something grown-ups have to do alone,” Sanderly said smoothly. “But Harriet will write and we’ll bring presents from everywhere we visit.”
“Since we are discussing the wedding, or at least its aftermath,” Lady Grandison said, settling into her usual chair as three footmen carried in several trays, “have you decided yet upon your groomsman?”
“I thought I’d ask Durward since I hear Foster is likely to recover after all.”
Carina felt the name pierce her like a spear. She had tried so very hard not to think of him since leaving home, and the casual throwing of his name into the conversation paralyzed her.
The footmen pottered, setting the tray bearing the tea pot before Lady Grandison while his fellows arranged a vast array of sandwiches, savoury tarts, scones, biscuits, and cakes on the table. Orchid, on the sofa between Alex and Lily, bounced with excitement.
“So we hear, Sanderly,” said Lady Grandison. “But where does one reach the scamp?”
“Bethany Baldeston will know,” Sanderly said and unexpectedly turned his compelling blue eyes on Carina, who froze all over again. “Isn’t she a friend of yours, Miss Jasper?”
Heat surged into Carina’s cheeks. “I would not presume to claim friendship.”
“I would,” Lady Grandison said wryly. “I have already invited her to the wedding, but I’m not sure she’s at home for purposes of tracing her brother.” She frowned at Carina. “Was she not going to some party or other?”
Carina swallowed. “I believe she was going to Lady Hawthorn’s for a couple of weeks, but since then I have no idea.”
Sanderly shrugged. “Oh well, if he shows up, I’ll ask him. If not, Jon Berry will do it, I’m sure. Or Wolf—I know he and his wife will be here.”
Rousing herself, Carina began distributing cups of tea from Lady Grandison to the others, while Lily and Rose offered plates around.
Lady Grandison said, “What do you think of inviting the Duke of Death? I hear he was at Lady Hawthorn’s and I must admit I cursed myself for missing the event, but she informed me he is betrothed to the Dowager Lady Sark. We could invite them both.”
“Tabitha’s fine but her family is awful. Sark is—”
“Oh, haven’t you heard? Sark is no longer Sark! The real Sark is some American or Canadian or something. It was quite the on-dit of the country.”
Carina, bewildered, felt relieved she wasn’t expected to contribute in any way.
Sanderly himself looked entirely uninterested. “By all means, invite Isbourne—I knew him when we were boys—and Tabitha Sark and anyone else you wish. We’re already in your debt for hosting this here.”
“You do have the special license?” Sir John asked.
“I do.”
As the conversation jumped around, with frequent contributions from the children which did not seem to be discouraged, Carina noticed that Sanderly’s gaze was frequently on his betrothed.
They exchanged glances and fugitive smiles, and brushed hands as they stood up to walk in the garden.
Carina suspected a genuine love match, quite against the odds, and was relieved for Harriet’s sake.
Along with that gladness, however, came an unexpected surge of longing.
She hated this weakness, this foolish yearning for the impossible.
But she could not help worrying about Durward.
Would he take advantage of this second chance he’d been given, and stop duelling, risking his life and others’?
Would he settle down and marry? She had the feeling he should, yet the pain of it made her fingers curl into fists.
He said he would come back, a plaintive, pleading little voice kept whispering in her mind, but his rejection made a mockery of that. It had been said to make her feel better, a sop to her pride. Not as a promise, not as a desire.
Viscounts did not marry the daughters of merchant sea captains, especially not captains reduced by drink to jobbing tugboat pilots. She had been seduced, not by Durward but by her own silly imagination.
“Are you betrothed, Miss Jasper?” Rose asked her suddenly as they returned to the schoolroom to put everything away.
Carina started, flushing, as though the child had somehow read her thoughts. “No, of course not. Why should you think so?”
“Everyone we know or hear of these days is either betrothed or married,” Orchid said on her other side with some disapproval. “At least those who are pretty and not old. Like you.”
“Thank you,” Carina said. “I think.”
“Don’t you want to be married?” Rose asked.
“I couldn’t be your governess if I was married,” Carina pointed out.
Orchid looked much struck.
But Lily, who was observant as well as a few years older, turned her head and smiled. “But that is not your reason.”
Carina sailed into the schoolroom ahead of them. “No, but it is a fact. I am glad to be your governess.” She even hoped Harriet might keep her on when the children went to live with her and Sanderly. Only Sanderly did seem to be rather closely associated with Lord Durward...
Her stomach dived. She might see him if and when he arrived at Grand Court for the wedding. But she would make sure he did not see her.
The children were all anxious to go about their own free time and the conversation mercifully moved on. But later on that evening, after she had read a story to Orchid that they all listened to, Rose returned to the subject.
“Is there no one you would like to be married to?”
“No,” Carina said repressively. “Are you so anxious to be rid of me so soon?”
Orchid jumped up to give her a fierce hug, for which, in her sudden desolation, Carina was ridiculously glad.