Chapter 13
As they made their way into the house, Bridget was aware of a hand on her arm. She glanced over and saw that it belonged to Agnes.
“We should leave them be for a while,” Agnes murmured.
Bridget nodded, knowing the other woman was right. There was no denying that today had been a breakthrough for Reeves and Emma, and that was something to celebrate and to honor. It would be best to give them some time together so they could become comfortable with one another once more.
She allowed Agnes to lead her down the hall to a door she hadn’t yet entered.
Agnes pulled it open and ushered Bridget inside.
“We can wait in the library,” she said. “There’s plenty in here to occupy us.
” She went to one of the tall shelves that lined the wall and pulled down a book without bothering to scan the shelves.
Bridget had the feeling she had known exactly what she was looking for when they had come in, and that feeling was reinforced when Agnes sat down in the chair nearest the fire and flipped the book open to the middle instead of starting at the beginning.
“Is that a favorite of yours?” she asked.
“Oh, yes, I’ve read this one dozens of times,” Agnes said.
“My brother says I shouldn’t waste my time reading it again and again, and that he’ll pick me out something good to read if that’s what I want, but…
well, maybe you can understand. You don’t always want to read something that you can say you bettered yourself by.
Sometimes you just want to read a book to enjoy it. ”
“No, I agree completely,” Bridget said. She took the seat opposite Agnes. “Do you mind if I ask you something?”
Agnes let out a short laugh. “I thought you never would.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I knew this was coming, of course,” Agnes said. “You could only be here for so long without wanting to know more about my brother. I was sure you were going to ask me the very first night. But I suppose you needed time to settle in before trying to find out why he is the way he is.”
“Well… to tell you the truth, that wasn’t what I was going to ask,” Bridget said.
Agnes raised an eyebrow. “No?”
“I don’t understand him, don’t get me wrong,” Bridget said.
“But I don’t think I’ll be here long enough for it to matter.
I think he and Emma are on the road to getting along well with each other again.
Once he’s capable of taking care of her and making her feel at ease, he’ll be sending me back to the orphanage, so there’s no need for me to understand very much about him, really. ”
“I suppose you have a point there,” Agnes said. “But what did you want to know?”
“It’s Emma that interests me,” Bridget said. “Specifically, I was wondering what happened the night she went missing, because she hasn’t been able to tell me much, and the duke… well, you know. He’s not the easiest person in the world to talk to.”
“Not by a long shot,” Agnes laughed. Then she sobered slightly. “Unfortunately, I don’t think I can tell you much more than you already know.”
“I don’t know anything,” Bridget said. “Anything you could offer would be helpful.”
“I wasn’t there when it happened,” Agnes said.
“The only thing I know is that Reeves and Emma were making their annual visit to Emma’s mother’s grave.
They go every year on the anniversary of her death.
They were gone longer than I thought they would be, but I didn’t think too much of it until Reeves came back shouting that Emma had been snatched on the road home.
I always expected that those visits might start to take a little longer when Emma got older.
I imagined she would grow more curious about her mother. ”
“What was her mother like?” Bridget asked.
Agnes hesitated. “The truth is, we didn’t know Rosalie that well,” she said.
“Her marriage to my brother was an arrangement. She was a part of the inheritance that was waiting for him after the war, if he wanted her. He was never opposed to the idea of marriage—I think he saw the social benefit—and he wanted an heir, so he went along with it. But Rosalie died only a year later, shortly after Emma’s birth.
She was a good woman, but we didn’t have much time to get to know her, so I couldn’t tell you that much about her.
Not as much as I’d like to. Not as much as I’m sure Emma is going to want to know, one of these days.
” She sighed. “It’s tragic that we can’t give her more than a year of her mother.
I don’t know whether Emma has fully felt that lack yet, but I know that she will. ”
“That is sad,” Bridget said softly. Her little charge’s life had already been full of grief before this kidnapping had even happened.
The two women sat in silence for a moment, but then Bridget spoke again.
“He wanted an heir—but he doesn’t seem disappointed that his child isn’t a boy,” she said. She was thinking of her own parents. They had never been happy with a daughter, her father in particular. It was a fact that had hung like a shadow over her entire life.
“He loves Emma,” Agnes said simply. “She means the world to him, even if she isn’t the heir he once dreamed of.
You may not see it yet, Bridget, but my brother is a good father.
All he wants is for Emma to be happy. But it’s difficult for a man raising a little girl on his own in the best of circumstances—and these are hardly the best of circumstances. ”
Bridget nodded slowly. She could see what Agnes meant.
And she did believe that the duke cared for his daughter.
It was obvious that he did, and it was obvious that the current situation caused him a great deal of pain and suffering.
She couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for him to lose Emma, to have to wonder where she was, if she were safe, whether he would ever see her again.
Bridget wasn’t a parent herself, so she could only guess at the feelings, but she had cared for many children in her time, so she thought her guess was probably pretty good.
The door to the library opened. The duke stood there, his hands on his daughter’s shoulders. “Agnes,” he said, “I wonder if you might take Emma to bed for me so that I can speak with Bridget for a moment.”
“Of course.” Agnes held out her hand to Emma, who took it. She glanced back at Bridget. “You know,” she said, “if you want to borrow that book I was reading… I’ve read it many times, and I think you might enjoy it.”
She winked at Bridget, then led Emma from the room.
The duke had left the door open, probably for the sake of propriety, and he watched as his sister and daughter disappeared down the hall before turning back to Bridget. “What book was she talking about?”
“I don’t know what it was,” Bridget confessed. She pointed to the table where Agnes had left the book she’d been reading. “I didn’t get a look at it. It’s nice of her to offer it to me, though.”
The duke gave a snort. “She’s teasing you. That’s one of her romances. My sister loves those books.”
“Oh,” Bridget felt heat rush into her face. “I thought… well, I thought she was just being kind.”
“I’m sure she meant it kindly, but she also meant to have a bit of a laugh. You, being a young, single lady, coming from that orphanage… I’m sure she thinks you haven’t been exposed to anything.”
I haven’t. Bridget didn’t say that aloud, though. This was embarrassing enough. “Your Grace…”
“You can call me Reeves,” the duke interjected.
“No, I couldn’t.”
“Yes, you can. If you’re going to have me call you by your name, you should call me by mine. Otherwise, Emma will get the wrong idea.”
“The wrong idea?”
“She’ll think you work for me,” the duke explained.
“People who address me formally but permit me to address them informally are members of our staff. And I don’t want her to think of you as that, because then she’ll expect you to stay.
She won’t be expecting the fact that you’re going to leave.
I want her to know that you won’t be with us forever.
I want her to think of you as a guest, not as someone with a permanent position here. ”
Bridget nodded slowly. “All right, Reeves,” she said. “I think that’s wise.”
He barked out a laugh. “You think something I want to do is wise?”
“Don’t get too used to it,” she said with a small smile. “Is that what you came in here to tell me?”
“That, and one thing more,” he said. “I’ve decided to have a ball.”
“A ball?”
“Yes, as a way of celebrating the fact that Emma is home safe. Just a small celebration with some close friends. I wanted to make sure you didn’t think that was a terrible idea.
I’d like to think that Emma would be able to handle it, if only for a few short hours—she won’t have to remain down at the party the whole time.
But if you think it would cause a setback, I don’t want to push her. ”
“You’re asking my opinion?”
“That is why you came here, isn’t it? To give me your opinions on what would be best for Emma?”
“More or less,” she agreed. “Well, I don’t think there’s any serious harm in it, if that’s what you want to do. Emma will have to be around people eventually, and it might be good for her to do it in a controlled way. If it’s too much for her, she can just go up to her room early—I can take her.”
“I’m hoping for you to be at the ball at least some of the time, though,” Reeves said. “I’m planning to invite your cousin, of course. Prudence.”
“Well, it will be nice to see her,” Bridget said. “It’s kind of you to invite her.”
“Don’t think I’m just doing it for you. She is married to one of my closest friends, after all.” Reeves folded his arms. “So, in your judgment, the ball wouldn’t be a bad decision for Emma?”
“No, I don’t think so. And I think it will be easy enough to remove her from the situation if she finds it too stressful or unpleasant.
It’s a good, controlled way to try to reintegrate her back into everyday life,” Bridget said.
“And who knows? Maybe being around other people will be the thing that encourages her to start speaking again—although you shouldn’t do anything about that.
Don’t put pressure on her if she turns out not to be ready. ”
Reeves glowered. “I don’t know why you think you have to keep telling me the same thing over and over.”
Maybe because you don’t seem to hear it?
She went to the chair Agnes had vacated as Reeves left the room and picked up the romance book. Shaking her head, she returned it to the shelf.