Chapter 9
THE NEXT DAY…
Gertie found her breath was rather short as she approached Potter’s Boardinghouse. She did not bear good news, and it wasn’t simply that snow had fallen, ending their short idyl of warm weather. She knocked on the front door of the boardinghouse and waited.
The landlady answered the door with a look of strong disapproval at finding her standing there—did she remember her from before? Gertie’s question was almost immediately answered.
“What can I do for you this time?” The landlady was brisk, though not outright rude.
“I am here to see Mr. Goodman.” Gertie tried to offer a pleasant smile, but between her own worry and the silent castigation of the other woman, it was a strained stretching of her lips into a grimace.
“I don’t run that type of establishment, I’ll have you know.” She looked down at Gertie, her face sullen.
“And I am not the type of woman you are insinuating. I own the Sutton Bakery and I have news to share with Mr. Goodman. Would you please ask him if I may have a word.” Despite standing lower down on the stoop than the woman, Gertie glared right back at her. She would not be cowed.
“I’ll be just a moment.” The woman harumphed and closed the door.
At least last time she had allowed her to wait inside. Apparently she was already pushing the limits of propriety, with a second visit to a man in a boardinghouse.
A few minutes later, Archie appeared. “Gertie, what are you doing here?”
“Is there somewhere we can speak privately? I think it’s finally turned cold enough even I don’t wish to go for a walk today.”
Archie nodded and stepped back from the doorway.
“Come inside.” He led her to the sitting room of the boardinghouse, which was empty.
Once they stepped inside, he closed the door and locked it, surely transgressing Mrs. Potter’s rules.
“That should provide a little privacy for the next few minutes, though I suspect we should be quick about our business.”
“Very well.” Gertie took in a deep breath. “I went to Papa yesterday, but I am afraid I was too late. It seems Reverend Mason heard just enough of your conversation that he went by the cottage to learn more. I suspect you will be receiving a visit from him.”
Archie turned white as he dropped into a nearby chair, letting his head fall back as his eyes slid closed. “Bloody hell. I’ll be ruined.”
“I know Archie, and I am so very sorry he’s done this.” Gertie rushed to his side and dropped to her knees. She took his hand in hers and pressed it to her chest. “I don’t know how we can correct this, but I swear to you I shall go to the Reverend and plead our case.”
The handle of the door clicked, as though someone had attempted to enter.
Before Gertie could panic about being discovered, Archie sat forward and tipped her chin up with his other hand. “This is my issue to straighten out. I shall go to the Reverend and at least ask him to send me off with a reference so I may find work again.”
“What if he refuses?” Gertie’s heart squeezed at the thought of him leaving, but more so at his leaving with a shadow hanging over his future employment.
“Then I shall simply leave and hope I can find work somewhere else.” He shrugged, his gaze fixed on hers.
No! Gertie’s heart screamed out. But instead of saying the words, she swallowed hard.
“Perhaps we can find a solution together? Something that doesn’t require you to leave again?
” She hesitated, uncomfortable with the strange mix of guilt and longing churning inside her.
“I feel responsible for your predicament. Had my father not pushed in where he was not needed, you wouldn’t be at risk of losing your position. ”
The doorknob turned fruitlessly once more.
Archie snorted and whispered so only she could hear, “That may be true, but if I hadn’t given you a child twenty years ago, we wouldn’t be here now. You wouldn’t have had to marry Thomas Sutton, and I wouldn’t still—”
“Mr. Goodman? Mr. Goodman, you unlock this door immediately.” Mrs. Potter’s strident tones shattered the moment, leaving Gertie desperate to know what Archie was still…well, whatever he had been about to say.
Archie smiled ruefully at her as he moved to unlock the door. “As promised, we didn’t have long to speak in private.”
As the portal swung open to reveal an extremely displeased Mrs. Potter along with two other male guests, Gertie sighed internally, resigning herself to never knowing what Archie had been about to say.
“Mr. Goodman, I do not run a loose establishment.” The landlady glared at Gertie as if she were the problem. “And if you are going to conduct that type of personal business, I shall have to insist you do so at a different boardinghouse.”
Archie merely chuckled and smiled affably. “Mrs. Potter, Mrs. Sutton and I are simply old friends who needed a moment to discuss a sensitive issue. I apologize if I disrupted your schedule today.”
Mrs. Potter’s scowl softened ever so slightly. Ha! The woman was soft on Archie. He’d always been a charmer, which was why Gertie had gotten into trouble with him.
She coughed to cover her smile. “Please, Mrs. Potter, let me make up for our inconsiderate commandeering of your sitting area. If Mr. Goodman will escort me safely back to my bakery, I shall ensure he returns with a lovely basket of cakes for you and your guests.”
Mrs. Potter had sucked in a breath to launch into a further scolding, Gertie assumed, but stopped short at her offer.
“Oh, well then. I suppose in light of such a generous offer we could all overlook any inconvenience experienced by your brief conversation.” She still didn’t look completely appeased, but then Archie took over.
“As always, you are the most gracious of hostesses.” He bowed to Mrs. Potter. When he straightened up, he turned politely to Gertie. “Well, I suppose I should see Mrs. Sutton on her way so that I can collect that bounty of cake she has promised.”
Mrs. Potter’s cheeks pinkened ever so faintly before she smiled. “Of course you need to see her safely home. Ever the gentlemen, our Mr. Goodman.”
“Indeed he is. Ever the gentleman.” Gertie agreed politely.
Except when he’s rolling you in the hay.
She suppressed her chuckle at her own thoughts and swept through the door, past Mrs. Potter and the two other guests who lingered in the hallway while attempting to see what had occurred, likely hoping for some salacious gossip to share with the other boardinghouse guests.
As Archie walked her home in the biting cold, she couldn’t help but notice his threadbare scarf that was surely doing little to keep him warm.
Men never took note of such things. Pushing the distracting thought aside, Gertie decided to renew their earlier conversation, despite the flutterings of nerves in her chest. “You were interrupted by Mrs. Potter back there. Was there something you wanted to say?”
Archie coughed lightly and smiled. “Only that this is not your problem. You need not concern yourself with what happens to me. I see it as my penance for failing you twenty years ago.”
“Oh Archie, no.” She stopped to face him on the pavement and gazed up into his eyes.
“I’ve had a good life. A happy one, if not the one I had once imagined.
And Sam was safe, and loved.” She turned and resumed their walk.
“If things occurred as I suspect they did, the only person responsible for how things occurred is Reverend Goodman. He orchestrated our separation, starting with helping you enroll for your training far away in Newcastle upon Tyne, and not only withheld my letter to you, but read it and ensnared my father in his plot to permanently part us. I do not understand why he held such disdain for me, but I feel certain I could have walked on water and he would have found me lacking.”
Archie snorted. “I feel quite certain that you did in fact walk on water, and he still found you lacking. I owe you an apology for not truly seeing how much he abhorred our relationship. I could never have believed he would pass along a letter from you. I should have told you how to contact me.”
“I hadn’t believed he would ensure the delivery of any correspondence, so I never wrote after we broke things off.
Even when I missed you terribly.” She stared straight ahead, unable to bear looking at him while resisting the urge to rub her hand over her heart—it meant nothing.
It couldn’t. While trying to ignore the persistent pang in her heart, she pressed on.
“I suppose I was foolish in thinking he would have delivered the most important letter I had ever needed to send. I should have found another way to contact you.”
“Well, perhaps we were both a bit young and foolish then. But that is no longer the case. I shall go straight to Reverend Mason and tackle this issue directly with him. Perhaps if I can explain the circumstances, he can see fit to at least provide me with a reference.” Archie shrugged, and they both fell silent for the latter half of the walk to her bakery.
As they approached her shop, she summoned the courage to do the one thing she knew she must before Archie had to leave Rivenhall.
Before she could be filled with even deeper regrets where this man was concerned.
“Please, come inside and meet your son. And I mean truly meet him. We should tell him who you are together.”
She remained worried about her son’s well-being, his ability to process such momentous news, yet she was sure this was the right thing.
She could no longer deny her son the father he never knew.
She could hear Thomas telling her, your son needs a father, even if he’s a grown man, and she believed that was true.
There were things Sam couldn’t come to her about.
It would be good if he had a father he could go to for such things.
It would be even better if that father was close by. But that was an issue for later.
“Are you certain?” Archie hesitated. “I wouldn’t want to upset him, only to be forced to leave Rivenhall immediately.”
“I am positive. He needs to know his father. As for you leaving Rivenhall, I am sure we shall find a way for you to stay. It is the festive season, after all. How can we not have a Christmas miracle?” Gertie smiled at him, trying to hide her sadness about the entire situation.
Based on his own returned smile, she expected she’d failed to sound as encouraging as she’d hoped.
“Very well then. Let’s go meet my son.” Archie opened the door to the bakery and they stepped inside together.