Chapter Twenty-Three
Before dawn on Wednesday of the following week, Benjamin assisted Miss Whitchurch, the boy, and Mrs. Sullivan into his traveling coach. They were off to Kent, east of Richmond, to his estate. He had sent messages ahead to his staff and to his mother.
He had written his mother a lengthy letter—a very honest letter—regarding his relationship with Miss Whitchurch and his sincere hopes that his mother would welcome the woman he intended to marry, as well as to learn to care for the boy.
Therefore, Benjamin was excessively pleased to discover his mother at Thom Manor when his party arrived. “Mother,” he said with a smile and ready embrace, “I did not expect to find you here, but I am so pleased.”
“I came to take the acquaintance of the woman who has won your heart,” his mother declared as she looked upon Miss Whitchurch. “She is quite beautiful, Benjamin,” she said as she extended her hands to Miss Whitchurch.
“Mother,” Benjamin said with pride, “this is Miss Victoria Whitchurch.” He liked the sound of his betrothed’s name on his tongue. “Victoria, my mother, Mrs. Helen Thompson.”
Miss Whitchurch curtseyed, but his mother was having none of it. She caught Victoria in a welcoming embrace. “I have prayed that someone would catch the eye of my dear boy.” His mother held onto Victoria’s hands as she turned to him. “How did you meet?”
“In a London rain,” Victoria said with a grin. “We shared his lordship’s umbrella.”
“And this is…?” his mother asked, though Benjamin had already explained the child’s relationship to Miss Whitchurch.
“My nephew, Ethan David Chase,” Victoria said, “It is the child’s mother’s service we attend today.” Benjamin knew Miss Whitchurch stiffened: She thought his mother would condemn her and the boy.
Instead, his incomparable mother smiled largely.
“Yes, Benjamin has told me how the boy’s father is considered lost among those for whom there is no accounting on the Continent with Wellsley’s forces, and his mother lost her life giving birth to him.
I think it is quite admirable how both you and my son mean to provide for him. ”
“Yes.” Victoria looked at him with both understanding and affection. “His lordship and Lord Duncan have been beyond all that is kind in opening their hearts to me and the boy.”
Though he would have preferred to be studying the perfection of Miss Whitchurch’s features, Benjamin was again in his carriage.
This time he traveled to Hampshire. It would take two days of steady travel to reach Victoria’s home shire and her father’s house, some seventy miles removed from London.
Benjamin was not happy with this task, but, if Victoria wished it, he would attempt to please her, though he suspected he would not be welcomed by her parents.
Duncan had had Braun prepare two copies of the records for Miss Cassandra and Lieutenant Chase’s marriage and of the child’s christening.
At Victoria’s request, Benjamin would present the Whitchurches with one of them.
Part of his rigid nature had wished not to “forgive” Victoria’s parents for their part in the disaster that nearly destroyed the woman he loved, but as Miss Whitchurch had begged for his reason, Benjamin would do as she asked.
At the very least, he could offer a bit of civility.
When Victoria had confided how her mother had initially pushed her eldest daughter in Jonas Betts’s way and how young Betts’s foul nature had the man exposing himself to her whenever he encountered Victoria alone, Benjamin did not know who he should pound into the ground first—Mrs. Whitchurch or young Betts?
He was glad he had not been aware of Jonas Betts’s sin when he had encountered the man at Macalhey House.
Otherwise, no one could have prevented Benjamin’s revenge.
He had taken Aaran Graham into his confidence regarding all that occurred, and Graham had thought he might be able to discover a position in a Church of England parish for Mr. Whitchurch, though it would be in Scotland, but not until Benjamin gave his approval of the man.
“I would prefer a man who could control his wife’s ambitions.
I will not permit those on my southern estates to be subjected to such pettiness as Mrs. Whitchurch has demonstrated.
I understand aspirations, but not to the detriment of others,” Graham declared.
Midafternoon of the second day, Benjamin stepped down from his coach to view a midsized cottage on the outskirts of the village of Andover. A man was in the garden tilling around a variety of vegetables. He looked up as Benjamin approached. “May I be of assistance, sir?” he asked.
“I am seeking Mr. Whitchurch,” Benjamin said and waited outside the fence to be welcomed inside.
“I be Whitchurch,” the man said in caution.
Benjamin made himself smile, though he remained as aloof as the man standing before him. He bowed. “I am Lord Benjamin Thompson, Miss Whitchurch’s betrothed. Your eldest daughter has asked me to seek you out and explain what we have executed to save your grandchild.”
Mr. Whitchurch looked as if he might collapse, but he set his hoe aside and hustled to the gate to open it.
“Please come in, my lord. I have been praying for news from Victoria, though I could never have expected that my sweet girl would send me a lord of the Realm as her messenger. She was always an outstanding child.”
Benjamin followed as Mr. Whitchurch led the way into the house. “Mrs. McFadden, tea, if you please, ma’am. Would you like something else, my lord?”
“Tea will be adequate, sir,” Benjamin said as he glanced around the house. It was not very large, but it was clean and well maintained.
“Come,” Mr. Whitchurch instructed. “I have a fine sitting room this way, though it does not receive as much use as it should.” When Benjamin was settled, Mr. Whitchurch sat across from him and said, “Please tell me my Victoria is well. I have received no news from her in several months. I have feared the worst for both of my daughters.”
Benjamin adjusted his chair, just as Lord Duncan had taught him in order to maintain dominance in a conversation.
“Miss Whitchurch is safe. She and the boy are together in a comfortable dwelling, where your daughter oversees several other women who are employed by Mr. Sustar. Sustar is developing a line of custom-made drapes and household linens. Victoria has done all this while caring for her sister’s child. ”
“I thought Cassandra and Victoria were together,” Mr. Whitchurch said through trembling lips. “I did not know it was so bad.”
“Miss Whitchurch says she has written of her search for her sister,” Benjamin said in hard tones, despite his attempt to hide his desire for accusations.
Mr. Whitchurch slumped back in his chair. “Another thing my dear wife hid from me. My Frances always was the one our girls confided in. I failed them all, my lord.”
Benjamin glanced about him. Something was not right. “Where, may I ask, is Mrs. Whitchurch? Perhaps I should speak of it all to both of you to assure you are fully informed on how Miss Whitchurch and I intend to proceed.”
“My wife has returned to her family’s estate. I have had a letter from her elder brother that he will establish a temporary residence for his sister in Scotland so she might seek a divorce there, and, later, Mrs. Whitchurch will travel to America, where her family has extensive banking interests.”
“You did not think to write to Victoria regarding this change in your life?” Benjamin accused.
“I did write,” Whitchurch claimed. “To the boarding house.”
“Miss Whitchurch has not lived at the boarding house since the last week of June. Mrs. Holland would not permit her to stay after Miss Cassandra left the boy for Victoria to tend. Mrs. Holland does not permit children. Your eldest daughter, at the time, was working overnight for Mr. Sustar and tending the child, who was barely from his mother’s womb and, as far as Victoria could tell, had not known his mother’s milk.
Mayhap for a week or so, but no more. We are not confident where Miss Cassandra was staying.
Likely not in the best of conditions. Miss Whitchurch was out every day searching some of the worst parts of London for the boy’s mother. ”
Tears formed in Mr. Whitchurch’s eyes. “I surely deserve your anger, Lord Thompson. However, I must be made knowledgeable of all that has occurred, for, if I am to ask God’s forgiveness, I do not wish to omit any of my sins in my accounting.”
Benjamin spent the rest of the daylight hours and a good portion of the evening explaining and reexplaining all that had occurred since Miss Whitchurch had been made to leave her home and take a position as a teacher in Bath in order to avoid Mr. Betts’s depravity to when they had recently reburied Miss Cassandra Whitchurch in Kent.
At times Mr. Whitchurch cried. At times, he praised God’s intervention in keeping Victoria safe throughout this ordeal.
The man knew shock at Cassandra joining Mrs. Dove-Lyon’s staff.
“Where did we go wrong in raising her?” he murmured several times.
Mr. Whitchurch also praised God for protecting Victoria upon several occasions, from placing Benjamin in the Lyon’s Den’s garden when she collapsed to arriving in time to prevent whatever mischief Jonas Betts meant to enact against her and the child.
In the end, Benjamin explained the lengths to which Lord Duncan had gone to save Miss Cassandra’s reputation and the future for the child. He presented Mr. Whitchurch with copies of his youngest daughter’s marriage registration and a christening certificate for the boy.
“Would Lord Duncan permit me to speak my gratitude?” Whitchurch asked. “I do not know the man, but I have read his name often in the newsprints.”
“I am blessed to be one of those who Lord Duncan brought under his care. His lordship acted because he wishes for my happiness, which means protecting Victoria and Ethan.”