Chapter Nine
I t was disconcerting to see—and, yes, to hear—the echoes of the boy she loved in this man in front of her. At fifteen, he had been a wiry youth, inches shorter and more slender than the man in front of her. The face, too, had changed, growing to fit his nose.
But that nose was the same nose she had peppered with kisses the day they had sealed their love.
The eyes were Jacob’s. The voice had long since finished with the unexpected squeaks and squeals that had beleaguered him back in the day.
It was the same voice, though—deep, pleasant, sending a thrill to places that Kat had nearly forgotten in the past eight years.
Those broad shoulders shrugged in the same way as Jacob the youth—one first and then the other.
His muscular buttocks had changed very little—the hard work of the household presumably not much different now in Captain Harraway’s service than it had been back then—but his thighs now stretched the fabric of his pantaloons, and his broad chest did the same for his shirt and coat.
Eight years ago, at fourteen, Kat had reached her adult height and had topped Jacob by a fraction. Now, he had passed her by a good half a head, but not so much he could not easily bend his head to kiss her.
And why was she thinking about kisses when Jacob had set a conundrum before them? Captain Harraway was the true owner of Carr Abbas? Who would have imagined such a coincidence? For that matter, did Mrs. Dove-Lyon know? And had she planned to tell the principals in the marriage she had orchestrated?
She and Jacob needed to settle matters for her lady and his captain. Only then would they be able to consider their own path.
“Very well, Jacob,” she said. “Let us consult with Miss Ellen and Captain Harraway. I need Miss Ellen’s permission to tell you what we have been up to, but I promise I can explain.”
She glanced over at the other couple, who no longer had their head bent over Captain Harraway’s sketch pad, but were talking intently. Perhaps Miss Ellen was already explaining their ruse and the reason for it.
“Let us join our employers, then,” said Jacob.
“Kat,” said Miss Ellen as they approached, “I have been telling Captain Harraway that I am not really the Lady of Carr Abbas.”
“It was my idea, captain,” Kat said.
“But Kat meant it for the best,” Miss Ellen insisted. “She was trying to look after me.”
“She?” asked Captain Harraway. “Kat Fivepence is a woman?” He looked down at Kat’s hand, held firmly in Jacob’s. “Of course. She must be. But that is fast work, Jake.”
“Jacob Flynn used to be our footman,” said Miss Ellen. “He and Kat go back a long way.”
The captain narrowed his eyes, and the look he cast at Jacob was laden with hurt. “You were in on this plot, too, Jake?”
“No, sir,” Jacob said, quickly. “I did wonder when I heard the day before yesterday that the lady calling herself the Lady of Carr Abbas had a servant called Fivepence, and I was almost certain yesterday afternoon when we saw Mrs. Kirby and Kat at the bakers. I didn’t tell you because I wanted to hear what Kat had to say about what was going on.
Sir, I would never plot against you, or agree to cheat you, but now that I’ve met Kat again, my first loyalty is to her. ”
The captain gave a slow nod, and then justified Jacob’s respect for him by saying, “I think I need to hear the whole story from the beginning. Would you care to take a seat on this log, Lady… I mean, Miss Ellen? And Miss Fivepence, will you sit beside her? Jake and I shall sit on the blanket here at your feet. Now. Please explain.”
Miss Ellen and Kat exchanged glances. Miss Ellen, it seemed to Kat, wanted her to take the lead, and so Kat said, “To explain properly, I need to start with Lady Miller. She was the tyrant of the household even before Baron Miller, her husband, went to his reward five years ago. Her favorite daughter was the one most like her, the eldest, and Lord Miller’s favorite was the second.
Miss Ellen, the third, was picked on by her mother and her eldest sister, and ignored by her father and her second sister. ”
“Papa and Clara preferred horses to people,” said Miss Ellen, very kindly and somewhat unexpectedly giving an excuse for her family’s behavior against her.
“When Lady Miller died, six weeks ago, she left the Miller residence to the eldest daughter, her husband’s stables to the second daughter, and to her third daughter, Miss Ellen, she left one guinea and what remained of my indenture.”
“But you passed your twenty-first birthday more than a year ago,” protested Jacob. “Surely nothing remains of your indenture.”
Kat twitched one eyebrow into a quizzical arch. “Precisely,” she said.
Captain Harraway also had an indignant protest. “Only one guinea!” In addition, he reached out one hand, as if to shelter Miss Ellen from harm. Kat was beginning to like Captain Harraway.
“It was more than one guinea, though,” Miss Ellen said, frowning. “Kat, it was one hundred and fifty pounds.”
Oops . Something must have showed on her face.
Miss Ellen’s eyes widened. “Kat! You did something, didn’t you?”
Jacob chuckled.
“One guinea was grossly unfair,” Kat pointed out.
“Miss Miller and Miss Francine both received valuable estates, and Lady Miller didn’t even leave you enough to quit the house where you were hated and bullied.
Let alone enough to live independently or for a dowry, which either she or Miss Miller could certainly have afforded. ”
“You did something,” Miss Ellen repeated, this time nodding her head, as if it was no surprise to her, and certainly she knew Kat well enough not to be surprised. “You robbed the safe,” she surmised.
Kat nodded. “There was more than four hundred pounds in the safe, but I needed to leave enough money for the servants to get their share.”
“You robbed the safe?” Captain Harraway sounded shocked but with a hint of something else. Laughter, perhaps?
There was no doubt about Jacob’s laughter, since he was almost choking with it as he said the same words. “You robbed the safe? Of course, you did. You always did your best to protect Miss Ellen. Captain, sir, remember we did something similar recently, also on the side of the angels.”
“Point taken,” said the captain. “Carry on, Miss Fivepence. You robbed the safe, and I suppose you and Miss Ellen left home before you were caught. How did you come to be here?”
“Mother’s will said I was to have the contents of the purse in the safe. I take it Kat swapped purses,” said Miss Ellen. “No one at home could have known, but after the solicitor had given me the purse, my sister demanded that Kat and I leave.”
Kat picked up the tale, explaining how she disguised herself as a man to offer Miss Ellen greater protection, how she chose to bring them to Ealing because she had heard from Mrs. Kirby that Carr Abbas had an absent owner, and how she had wooed Mrs. Dove-Lyon with game and produce .
By the time she had brought her story up to the present day, Captain Harraway was shaking his head, but he was smiling.
Jacob was grinning openly. “What a grand plot, Kat,” he said. “The only thing that went wrong was that Miss Ellen’s betrothed is the actual owner of this place, and you could never have expected that.”
“I would have told you before we married,” Miss Ellen said to Captain Harraway. “In fact, I am already part way through writing you a letter.”
“Miss Ellen doesn’t like lying,” Kat explained. “I did point out that I was the one telling lies, but she insisted that she cannot marry you without explaining the… um… measures we had taken.”
The measures they had taken. That was one way of describing it.
But in Jake’s view, the powerless ought not to be punished or criticized for making what shifts they could to survive.
And in terms of powerlessness, a pair of unmarried women cast out of their home might not be the worst on the scale, but they were certainly up against a huge number of dangers and barriers.
Captain Harraway changed the subject. “I suppose I am to take it that Fivepence comes with you when you marry.”
Her chin lifted imperiously, Miss Ellen declared, “I would not have survived without Kat. She can stay with me for as long as she wishes to remain in my employ. If you have a problem with that, then I suppose I must call off.”
“I am happy to have your champion under my roof,” said Captain Harraway. “Fivepence, I have one condition, though. I shall need your promise to discuss any further schemes with me before you carry them out.”
Impressive. Anyone else would have demanded no further schemes, which would have been hypocritical, for the captain had benefited from Jake’s ideas and actions often enough, and—given the doe-eyes he and Miss Ellen were casting at one another—was currently benefitting from Kat’s measures , as she called them.
Kat was regarding the man with narrowed eyes. “You still plan to marry Miss Ellen?” she asked.
“If she will have me,” said the captain, capturing the lady’s hand and raising it to his lips.
Miss Ellen blushed and murmured, “I will.”
“In that case,” said Kat, cheekily, “calling her the Lady of Carr Abass was just a little premature.”
There was an important question Jake needed to ask before he could make any plans of his own. “Miss Ellen, do you allow married servants to remain in their positions?”
Miss Ellen frowned at him but then her expression cleared and her eyes widened. “Do you wish to marry my Kat?” she asked.
“I have always wanted to marry Kat Fivepence,” Jake said. “If she’ll have me.”
“I shall,” said Kat.
“Heaven help us all,” said Captain Harraway, in mock despair. “Two tricksters in the one household.”
“Your household?” Miss Ellen asked him.
“Our household, darling Ellen,” Captain Harraway corrected. He stood and offered her his hand. “My dearest Ellen, will you become the Lady of Carr Abbas in truth? My wife, and my love?”
“I shall,” said Miss Ellen.