Chapter Eleven
Dear Grace,
Thank you for your last letter. You asked what I am working on.
My friends inform me my bill to improve the roads in London’s too dull to bother writing to you about, so I will tell you that I am also currently working on a bill that will allow for the forward march of industry without depriving workers of their livelihoods.
I believe it may come to pass that soon machines will do the work of many people, but until that happens, perhaps we can help the workers.
There is resistance to this idea in Parliament, but the case in favor is that if we allow men to make an honest living, they are less likely to riot.
You may have read in the newspapers that there has been armed resistance to the proliferation of these machines to make textiles and other products, but one thing I believe some of my fellow Lords have yet to fully appreciate is that the reason these men are resisting is that the machines are taking their jobs from them.
I do not wish to stand in the way of industrial progress, as these machines can make fabric much faster than a weaver can, but at the same time, I pity the workers who have been replaced…
Owen’s latest letter, while not overtly emotional or intimate, did reveal the inner workings of his brain in a way he might not have even realized he’d shared.
Grace particularly liked this letter and tucked it away in the trunk where she’d been storing all of his correspondence.
There was an inherent kindness in his work in Parliament, like he genuinely wanted to make British society better, betraying that he wanted to help people rather than—as Grace was certain was true for most members of the House of Lords—lining his own pockets.
Usually, his letters were just as to-the-point as hers had been, but often he finished his letter with a bit of sentimentality. In this letter, he said:
Although I am keeping busy, I find that I am missing you.
Not exactly a love confession, but Grace treasured it.
He missed her! Hopefully that meant he was not pursuing affairs across London—Grace’s heart would shatter if that turned out to be the case—and that he was being honest. It was hard to know.
Grace felt like she knew her husband, but they’d barely spent a month together before he left for London again.
But perhaps she should set a model. Rather than simply telling him what work she had completed in his absence, she should tell him more about how she felt.
That she was thriving. She found herself well-suited to the work of running an estate.
She was good enough at sums to do some simple bookkeeping, and she like having several large projects to oversee.
In addition to the Williams family, Owen had staff that saw to his other business ventures.
Those businesses mostly ran themselves, but every now and then they needed someone to make a quick decision.
There was no time to write to Owen in London and wait for a reply.
Owen’s advisers were good men who gave solid advice, so she found that if she listened to them and applied her own logic, she was able to answer those questions.
She’d had no idea she could manage any of it.
That she seemed to be good at the work came at something of a surprise.
That Owen’s staff was so competent gave her time to pursue her own interests as well, so she was getting the pottery studio up and running, and taking the liberty of redecorating the parts of Owen’s house she didn’t care for, making it more her home.
In short, she had everything she’d wanted when she left her parents’ home.
Except she did not have her husband, and it often took as long as a week for her letters to reach him and for him to write back.
She was surprised by how much she missed him, although the reminders of him everywhere in the house certainly contributed to that.
She couldn’t dwell on it, though, because Penelope was due at any moment.
Indeed, she arrived within the hour, with her old friends Elizabeth and Helena Hastings and a small staff in tow.
Naturally, unmarried ladies couldn’t travel great distances unchaperoned, so the Hastings matriarch—Lady Lenora Hastings—and a small cadre of footmen had come along as well.
They pulled into the drive, in front of Caer Newydd in a caravan of three carriages.
Goodness.
The rest of the day was a whirlwind of getting the guests settled and issuing instructions to the staff, and by the time they settled down to dinner, Grace was feeling overwhelmed and a little nauseous.
“The staff here has such charming accents,” Elizabeth said over their second course.
“It is the native accent,” Grace said. “Most of the folk I’ve met here sound like that. A few don’t even speak much English.”
“Is it true your husband owns a castle?” asked Helena.
“He does. We can visit it this week, if you like. It’s not really habitable, but the family is repairing it. The earl’s aunt can take us on a tour of the grounds, perhaps.”
“I had no idea the earl was so wealthy,” said Lady Lenora.
“Oh.” Grace had no idea how to respond to that. “Well, I—”
“Let us not be so frank with Grace.” Penny rolled her eyes. “Discussing the earl’s finances without his presence here is gauche, don’t you think?”
Lady Lenora bristled. “I suppose.”
When the time to retire finally arrived, Grace was exhausted.
When Penny inquired about how she was feeling, she said, “I am fine, but I had become accustomed to my solitude here, I suppose. I’m finding all the company a bit overwhelming.
Not that you aren’t welcome. I am enormously happy that you—and everyone—are here.
I am truly happy to see you, Penny. I just need a little time to adjust to hosting. ”
They were seated in the drawing room, just the two of them after the Hastings ladies went to bed.
“Do not worry about anything,” Penny said.
“You’re a fine hostess. Maybe we can find something to occupy Lady Lenora’s time so she is not so…
blunt. Honestly, though, she has been like this for the entire week it took to get here, and I am quite ready to throw her into the sea. Just give the word if she bothers you.”
“Oh, she’s fine. No worse than my mother.”
“True.”
“Penny, I am grateful to see you. Although I am happy to say that I am not as lonely here as I expected. Owen’s aunt, who runs the castle, comes for dinner once a week and is delightful company.
I’ve befriended a few of the women in the family that runs the wool operation.
And Owen has a cottage a couple hours ride from here where I’ve set up my pottery studio, and I’ve made a few friends in the town there.
The people here are kind and friendly, and the sea air is refreshing. ”
“So you are happy here, is what you are saying.”
“I missed you! I would not have invited you to visit if I didn’t. But yes, I am actually happy here. I love it here in a way I do not love London. And there’s so much to do that I am rarely bored.”
“I am glad to hear it. I worried about you being so far from home.”
“I’ve missed you, my friend, but I feel content here.”
“And how was your husband while he was here?”
“Nothing but pleasant. He’s given me permission to style the cottage however I like and to make a few changes here.
Most of the furnishings are things he chose and I haven’t really felt inclined to change them, but I think he believed that he was stranding me here, and thus gave me permission to do whatever I needed to feel at home here, cost being no object.
I just bought those blue chairs. Do you like them? ”
“I do. A handsome addition to the room.”
“It’s everything I always wanted. I just wish my husband were here, too. I find some days that I miss him.”
“He’s been busy at Parliament, I hear,” said Penny. “Peter keeps mentioning seeing the earl there.” Peter was Penny’s older brother.
“Tell me about what’s going on in London. Have you any suitors yet?”
“I’ve done a bit of promenading,” Penny said with a wink. “Actually, Baron Beckwith has shown some interest.”
“He is a handsome fellow.” It was largely agreed by the young women of London that Baron Theodore Beckwith was the best-looking eligible bachelor in London. “How do you feel about him?”
“I certainly would not turn away his affections. I just hope he does not meet someone new before I return to London.”
“You are beautiful and charming, Penny. How dare he look at anyone else.”
Penny smiled at that.
“Anyway, perhaps it is for the best that my husband is in London. He spent a month with me here before returning to the city, and it was lovely, but sometimes I worry our relationship may sour.”
“In what way?”
“Well, I can’t help thinking of my parents. After many years of marriage, they loathe each other.”
Penny nodded knowingly. “But then, I have doubts they ever liked each other. There’s no reason to think you and the earl will end up like that.
My parents are quite fond of each other, even after all these years.
Why, just before I left London, they celebrated their anniversary, and it was quite a fete.
Father could hardly keep his hands off Mother, and she giggled the whole time.
Embarrassing, if you ask me, but nice in its way.
It’s honestly given me some hope that if I find the right man, I can be happy well into my old age, just as they are. ”
Grace supposed that was something. She still felt she’d made the right decision, that it could be that once the initial euphoria of the wedding wore off, she might grow tired and annoyed with Owen—she had always assumed this was what would happen in a marriage.
But she hadn’t anticipated the pleasure Owen had shown her, nor had she expected to like his company so much.
She supposed Penny was right that not all couples succumbed to the fate that her parents had.