Chapter 51
‘You can’t hide from me forever.’
Agnes looked up from the book she had been reading and jumped to her feet as Thamsine Granville swept into the room.
Henry and Elizabeth were happy in the nursery with the young Thorntons and with the men gone on to London, she found herself adrift in the large and noisy household and had retreated to the library. ‘I wasn’t hiding. I … ’
Thamsine smiled. ‘It must be completely overwhelming to find yourself in the company of so many people. I quite understand. Now, let us get down to the important matter at hand. We have a wedding to plan.’ She clapped her hands. ‘Ladies?’
The door opened to admit Frances Lovell. Frances was much Agnes’s age, not as tall as Thamsine, but slender, with her brother’s dark hair and grey eyes.
She took Agnes’s hands in her own. ‘We have endured so many long, bleak years. We yearn for some fun and something to celebrate so I, for one, am delighted. Now, what are you doing for a dress?’
‘I haven’t thought … ’ Agnes began.
‘I have that in hand.’ Nell now entered the room, carrying a gown of gold satin bundled in her arms. ‘I am afraid it is my wedding gown, so somewhat out of the current fashion, but as Agnes lacks my height there is plenty of material to allow for some remodelling.’
Agnes felt the heat rushing to her cheeks as Nell set the petticoats and bodice out on the table. It was a simple cut with soft lace at the elbows, and to Agnes’s eyes quite the most beautiful gown she had ever seen.
‘I wasn’t expecting any fuss or bother.’
‘Nonsense,’ Thamsine said. ‘We have much to celebrate. A lost brother returned, a new sister found … a King returned, or about to be returned. Stand up, Agnes, and let us try this dress on and see what needs to be done.’
‘It is too good for me … ’ Agnes began.
Thamsine laughed. ‘You should have seen what I wore to my wedding. Pretty enough but I am sure it had belonged to a courtesan of the first order. Now, up on that footstool.’
‘But … ’ Agnes began to protest, but with three other women all talking at the same time as they pinched, pleated, and pinned the gold fabric around her, she could do nothing but stand meekly and let them have their way.
Margaret Lovell swept into the room accompanied by Kate Thornton.
‘Quite lovely, my dear,’ Margaret said. ‘I forgive my son for springing yet another surprise on me. I’m not sure at my age I should be subject to such torture, but I have interrogated my stepson thoroughly, and as he is incapable of hiding anything from me he has appraised me of your circumstances and character, young lady. Come here.’
Tripping over the excess fabric in the petticoats of the gown, Agnes tottered toward her future mother-in-law.
The older woman clasped her forearms, forcing her to meet her eyes.
‘Agnes Fletcher, if half of what Kit tells me is true, you are a remarkable young woman who risked her life for two defenceless children. I will be proud to have you as my daughter.’
Agnes glanced around the circle of women, seeing only love and acceptance, and found her eyes beginning to fill.
She had been without the love of a mother, sister, or family for so long and yet here were these women, strangers to her but determined to accept her unconditionally for herself and not for what she could do for them. She dashed at the tears.
‘Stupid,’ she said. ‘Stupid … ’
‘Not at all,’ Kate Thornton said. ‘Entirely human.’
Margaret folded Agnes in her arms, and the tears Agnes wept into the woman’s bony shoulder were tears of happiness and belonging.