Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Mungo!” Lottie, Bram and Ivy’s daughter, ran to him.
He bent to let her little arms wrap around his neck. She then kissed his cheek as she released him.
“It’s all right, Lottie. I’m here and not going anywhere.” He placed a hand on her head, nearly cupping it completely. She in turn cupped his cheeks and smiled. Then with a final kiss, she returned to her mother on the sofa.
He wasn’t good with hugging or kissing. Mungo didn’t share his feelings easily, but with the children in this household, he made an exception. Bram had told him that he must.
“They’re broken,” his friend had said to him the night they’d taken them from London many years ago.
They’d stopped at a posting house, and he’d found Bram drinking brandy outside in the garden.
Mungo had felt the man’s anger and despair.
“They need us to heal them, Mungo, and to do that, we have to love them.”
They’d talked, and he’d made Bram a promise to do what was needed from him to heal the Nightingale siblings, and it had turned out to be a great deal easier than he’d thought it would.
Perhaps he’d needed that contact too. So, he’d slowly let the distraught and wounded children of the late Lord Seddon know he was there for him by patting a shoulder or kissing the top of a head.
Over time they’d reciprocated, and his first real hug had come from Theo, the youngest brother in the Nightingale family.
He’d thanked Mungo for helping him with his necktie, and then he’d stepped closer and hugged him.
It had been brief, over in seconds, but it had been the beginning of what Mungo thought of as the change.
“I’m pleased you are back, Mungo.” Ivy was the next to hug him, and the others all followed. He allowed it, and patted shoulders and heads, until there was only one left.
“Hello, Mungo.”
“Hello, Anna,” he said as she stopped before him.
Unlike the Nightingales, Anna was blond with blue eyes, and she now glowed with good health. That had not been the case when he’d first seen her, pale and near death.
“Are you all right?”
“I am,” Mungo said, placing his hand on the top of her head too. “Don’t fash, lassie,” he added to make her smile, which she always did when he spoke like that. “I’m not leaving you.”
Her smile was small, but it was still a smile. She hugged him tight and then returned to the fire.
“We are to meet the new governess soon,” Theo said. “She is going to get my sisters ready to attend society functions.” His tone was pompous to annoy his sisters.
The boy looked identical to Leo, with a few touches of Alex thrown in. He had attended a few society events, but as yet no balls, and while Mungo wanted him to stay here, where he could protect him, at least when he wasn’t with him, he was with one of his family members.
“Society functions,” Frederica, next in line, mimicked her brother.
Theo bared his teeth at her. “She is not here to aid me, but you rabble, as you will surely take the most work to bring up to scratch.”
“It’s fair to say Miss Downing will have her hands full,” Ram drawled as the argument erupted.
“I thought you were going home,” Mungo said to him.
“I heard Mr. Dumple excelled at gingerbread cake, and of course there are the apricotines I must sample that we purchased on our return journey.”
“Ah, there you are, Miss Downing.”
He fought the need to look behind him as his back stiffened, but instead, Mungo took a wedge of gingerbread cake and walked past the new governess to his place on the wall.
She didn’t glance his way, and he didn’t focus on her, but he saw the tightening of her mouth.
Eliza Downing was not happy with him after what he’d said to her.
Too bad. These people are mine, and I’ll protect them as I see fit.
“Miss Downing, we are extremely grateful to you,” Ivy said. “It was brave to do what you did today.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Nightingale.” She spoke softly, but he knew she could shriek and cuss because he’d heard her that night.
He watched as she was introduced to everyone she hadn’t met earlier. Mungo observed closely to ensure she was polite, especially to Anna, and she was. He couldn’t fault her, even as he wanted to.
She’d removed her bonnet but not her gloves and was still buttoned up to the neck and cuffs in that hideous dress. It should make her look like a mouse—it didn’t.
“Greetings.” Gray wandered in with his daughter Olivia. “I hear we have another convict in the family.”
The little girl gave Mungo a wide smile, then dropped her father’s hand and headed for him. She held out her hands, and Mungo bent to pick her up and then set her on his hip.
“I wonder what her secret is?” Ram asked. “He even smiles at your daughter, Gray.”
“They are natured alike in the morning. Olivia is a demon until she’s ready to face the day,” Gray said.
“Where is your wife?” Bram asked. “In fact, where are all the women? Except for you, my sweet,” he said to Ivy.
“They are making signs in preparation for another women’s rights march,” Gray said.
Mungo kept his eyes on Miss Downing as she interacted with Fred, Anna, and Charlotte. He watched as they began to relax and even smile as she talked to them.
The governess shot him a quick look, and he saw the frown on her face as her eyes went from him to Olivia. Did she think him capable of hurting the child? The thought annoyed him, but then, what did he expect after the way he’d spoken to her in her room?
“So, tell me exactly what happened in detail,” Gray said. “And why you didn’t send word to me sooner. I would have come to the watchhouse and helped with his release.”
“No need. We used your name, and that of the Duke of Raven, which helped. Then Leo did his best pompous Lord Seddon voice, and they capitulated like a house of cards,” Alex said.
“I love that voice,” Anna said, which made Leo smile.
“I’ll have the tea replenished.” Mungo lowered Olivia to the floor and left the parlor to head to the kitchens.
The tea did not need replenishing, but he wanted to get out of that room, refusing to acknowledge that it was because she was in here. The governess was going to disrupt life in number 11 Crabbett Close—he just knew it.
“Are you all right, Mungo?”
Gray had followed him out the door. As a detective at Scotland Yard, of course he’d want to discuss every detail of what happened.
“I am, thank you,” he replied, remembering his manners, which he forgot most of the time.
“I will be calling on the magistrate.”
“No, Gray. Leave well enough alone. It’s done and I am freed.”
“Bram will be coming with me, Mungo. It needs to be done. What if it were Theo, or one of the others this happened to? Would you still wish me to leave well enough alone?”
He wouldn’t. In fact, he’d probably be the first person to confront the magistrate on the charges.
“This was not right, Mungo. Therefore I will be speaking with him. You were innocent and in fact saved Miss Downing from a heinous crime. Ellington has gone too far this time.”
“I’ll be coming with you, then.”
Gray nodded. “If that is your wish.”
“Plummy told me the Baddon Boys are up to something again,” Mungo said, wanting to change the subject.
“When aren’t they?” Gray said. “And Plummy should have kept his mouth shut about what he heard.”
“When has he ever done that?”
“Never from memory.”
“Watch yourself, Gray, some of those Baddon Boys will remember you.”
The detective’s smile was small, and mean, and very unlike him. He was usually casting devoted looks at Ellen and Olivia.
“I can look after myself, Mungo, but thank you for your concern.”
“I’m worried about Ellen and the babe,” he said.
Gray’s smile grew. “Now we both know that for a lie. I’m your favorite.”
Mungo ignored that comment.
“I will be in touch when I know more about Ellington, and the charges laid against you. I will also speak with Miss Downing when a suitable time arises about what happened to her.”
Mungo nodded, wondering when there would ever be a suitable time to discuss what had happened to Eliza Downing. Did she relive that moment constantly and wake bathed in sweat from nightmares? He’d had a few of those in his lifetime too.
He felt the burning need then to find Parson and punch him until he’d learned his lesson about treating staff the way he had Eliza Downing. Instead, he made for the kitchens, having no wish to be hauled to the watchhouse ever again.
“You’ll never guess what’s happened!” Matilda said, running in the front door.
“What is it, Matilda?” Gray asked the girl who was the youngest blood sibling in the Nightingale family.
Peas in a pod, he thought. Each Nightingale had the look of the other in the shape of their jaw or coloring.
“What’s going on? I’m not entirely sure I can take much more today,” Bram said, arriving with Ivy, who slipped her arm through his.
The love between these two was a wonderful thing. Not that he’d ever say that out loud, but he’d been happy for his friend when Bram had met Ivy. Happy—and jealous, as before her, it had just been the two friends, which had been an ugly reaction, but there had been little he could do about it.
“The Douglases are leaving Crabbett Close and moving to be close to their family,” Matilda said.
“Oh, now that’s sad,” Ivy said.
“And who will make the treacle cake?” Alex added.
Mungo knew how to laugh, obviously, but it wasn’t something he did freely or often, but clearly right then, the day had caught up with him.
“Do you think he has finally fallen into madness?” Alex asked as Mungo snorted.
“What amazes me is that we’ve not driven him there before now,” Leo added, which made him snort again.