Chapter 1 #2
When the cabby turned a corner, I craned to peer back to the street we’d left. Daniel and Mr. Grimes were gone, leaving no trace of which direction they’d taken.
* * *
Grace remained silent on the ride home. She neither peppered me with questions about where the two men might have been going nor speculated on what Mr. Grimes had told Daniel, which was unusual for her. She rode in silence, occasionally flicking those unreadable glances at me.
James, on the other hand, was restless. He knew his father had walked off into some intrigue—how dire it was remained to be seen. James continually leaned out of the cab to study the road behind us and gazed down the side streets as though expecting to find Daniel in one.
Once we reached Cheapside, James helped Grace and me to the pavement, handing me the basket while Grace folded the blanket over her arm.
Refusing my invitation to take tea in Joanna’s home, James touched his cap and sprinted away along the road toward St. Paul’s before I could even utter a good-bye.
Daniel had paid the cabby in advance, I learned when I fumbled in my coin purse for the shillings. The cabby shook his head at me, touched his horse with his long whip, and clattered the hansom back into the road’s traffic.
Grace hastened ahead of me the short distance along Clover Lane and flung open the door to the small house near the end, announcing we’d returned.
I was breathless when I caught up to her but gladly entered Joanna and Sam Millburn’s welcoming home.
Joanna served tea and treats to me, Grace, and the Millburns’ two daughters in the sitting room.
The boys rarely joined us, and they did not today.
Matthew, who was now fifteen, was in the school in Dulwich where he’d gone on a scholarship, and Mark was upstairs studying hard so that he too might enter a school that would help him on his way.
I made myself relax in the familiar sitting room, which was cluttered with baskets of knitting and mending, books and slates on a table where the children did lessons, and now the tea things. A true home, I observed with envy as I sipped from my cup. I longed for it.
I might have such a thing within the year, I reminded myself. Daniel and I had come to an agreement to wed, though we were waiting to iron out the direction our lives would take.
Some nights, though, I woke with my impatience raging, urging me to rush out of the house, find Daniel, and elope with him, to settle the matter once and for all. Today that wish came back to me as I stewed and wondered what troubles might threaten to take Daniel away from me this time.
“Thank you, Grace,” Joanna said to my daughter.
I came out of my woolgathering to find that Grace and Joanna’s oldest daughter, Jane, were strolling out of the room, encouraging ten-year-old Mabel to come with them. Mabel clearly did not want to, scowling her displeasure.
“Where are they going?” I asked in surprise. Tea with Aunt Kat was a weekly event Joanna’s girls looked forward to most assiduously.
Instead of answering, Joanna rose and closed the door behind them.
“I wished to speak to you privately,” Joanna said, resuming her seat.
We faced each other over the tea table, me on the small sofa I’d shared with Grace, Joanna on an upholstered chair.
A chill seeped through me. “What about? Is everything all right? Is anyone ill?” Fever could so easily carry anyone off, and it was a constant worry underlying all our lives.
“No, no,” Joanna answered quickly, relieving me somewhat. “Sam and the lads are right as rain. As are the girls, as you could see. But…” She lifted her teacup but only held it nervously and did not drink.
“Do tell me, Joanna, please. You are making me ever so anxious.”
Joanna quickly set down the cup, which clattered into its saucer.
“Forgive me, my friend. It is actually good news. Sam has been offered a position connected with the solicitor who employs him. They are expanding one of their offices and wish Sam to be head clerk there. To run the nuts and bolts of the business for them, in other words,” she finished proudly.
My spirits lifted. “That is wonderful.” I rid myself of my cup and nearly bounded around the table to drop into the chair next to Joanna’s. “What a fine reward for Sam and all his years of hard work. I hope they intend to give him a good rise in wages.”
“They are.” Joanna beamed at me a moment before her smile faded. “A house as well.”
“Oh, my.” I cast my gaze around the comfortable room. “I love this house, but I do understand how cramped it is with your big family. A larger place would be welcome for you. What street are you to live in? Is it nearby?”
Though I’d miss this cozy abode, I grew excited at the thought of Joanna and Sam moving into a new home. I could help Joanna fix it up just right, and perhaps Grace would have a room of her own we could decorate.
“Kat.” Joanna’s tone cut through my exuberance.
I blinked at the sorrow in her eyes. “Good heavens, Joanna. What about this marvelous news has you so sad?”
“The office will be in Basingstoke,” Joanna answered. “As will be the house. We are to move there, the entire family, leaving London for good.”