Chapter Fifteen
OUTSIDE JANE’S WINDOW, the formal garden with its ornate birdbath lay topped by thick snow. Jane sighed with relief at the sight. The heavy snowstorm of the previous afternoon had been followed by extreme cold. This snow wasn’t going to melt quickly. Charlotte was safe for now.
Jane went to check whether her sister was still sleeping.
They hadn’t talked much yesterday. Charlotte had seemed lost and bewildered. Instead, Jane had concentrated on getting her sister bathed, fed, and into bed so sleep could start the healing process.
As Jane had moved to extinguish the candle by the bed, her sister exclaimed, “No, don’t!”
Jane sat on the side of the bed and stroked soothing circles on her back until she thought Charlotte was asleep. As Jane was about to leave the room a few minutes later, she heard her sister’s whispered, “Thank you.”
Now, Dr. Logan examined her with gentle fingers while Jane held her hand.
Afterward, he drew Jane aside. “No permanent damage seems to have been done,” he said.
“There is a lot of bruising. The physical signs of abuse will disappear with time, but I suspect the scars to her mind will heal less quickly. She needs rest, good food, and no concerns.” He smiled reassuringly and patted Jane’s shoulder.
“I think she will get that here with her family. She will be fine in time.”
Charlotte sat in the window seat looking out upon the winter fairyland the park had become. She smiled as Jane returned to the room and greeted her. “I haven’t seen so much snow for years. Remember sledding in the gardens that winter before Mother got sick?”
“I do. Perhaps there’s a good slope for it here. If you feel up to it?”
Before Charlotte could answer, Anna let herself into the room, and they included her in the discussion of a possible sledding trip.
Jane agreed to ask Jonathan and organize the equipment. She left her sisters to talk. They were close in age, so hopefully Charlotte would tell Anna more than she had revealed to her.
Jane tracked Jonathan to the breakfast room where he sat alone, reading.
He welcomed her warmly. “I’m just reading old newspapers I missed. Care to join me or shall I put them away so we may talk?”
She smiled. “I have a small request to make and then we can delve into the papers.”
He looked at her with polite interest. “Ask away.”
“My sisters and I wish to know if there is a good slope at Everslie Park and do you have sleds we could use?”
He laughed, a deep harmonious sound. “Indeed, we do. There is a marvelous slope a short walk from the house. Elizabeth and I used to spend hours there, until our feet hurt so much we had to go indoors to defrost. I expect the old sleds are about, maybe in the attic. I’ll have them brought down directly.
” He stood and rang the bell for his butler.
“I’m sure Elizabeth and Dr. Logan will join us also. ”
Jane was pleased that the expedition would take place, hoping that it would raise Charlotte’s spirits. “Where are Elizabeth and Dr. Logan, by the way?”
“I believe Elizabeth is showing Logan the rare editions of Latin scholars that I have in the library. I intended to join them after breakfast, unless you wish me to take you for the guided tour of the house.”
“Let’s do both,” Jane suggested.
He nodded. “By the bye, I have written to my friend in the foreign office. He should have a good idea of regimental movements and will let me know when they get off. I’ve sent the letter with one of my stablehands. A single horseman with local knowledge may get through the snow to the main road.”
Jane thanked him and told him of Charlotte’s improvement. For the next half hour they ate toast and drank tea while reading papers and magazines in companionable silence.
Jonathan escorted Jane to the library. They found Dr. Logan up a ladder reaching for a book on the highest shelf of the large book-lined room. Elizabeth sat on a sofa in front of a bow window, her book angled to catch the winter sunlight.
Jonathan strode over to the doctor and began discussing the merits of different translations and interpretations by Latin scholars.
Jane joined Elizabeth in the window enclosure. She whispered, “I did not know the good doctor had been invited here for Christmas. Did you know?”
“I was so surprised when Jonathan ordered that we collect Marcus from his home. I had no idea that he had been invited for Christmas. Marcus took the invitation as an act of charity for a middle-aged man with no family. On the face of it, that is what it appeared to be. He initially refused his invitation, citing work commitments at the home, but Jonathan was insistent. Marcus found another doctor to take over his cases while he was away.”
“And has Dr. Logan thawed toward you?”
Lady Elizabeth laughed softly. “It appears that absence does make the heart grow fonder.”
Jane smiled at the good news. “Tell me everything.”
Elizabeth leaned toward her to whisper. “I was extremely embarrassed at first. We had agreed weeks ago not to see each other again. I took your advice and gave Marcus an ultimatum about either seeking my brother’s permission to court me or ending any contact with me.”
“But he changed his mind?”
Elizabeth watched Jonathan draw Dr. Logan to the far end of the library, where he said a first edition of the title they were discussing was kept.
“I was heartbroken when Marcus wouldn’t relent.
However, the fact that he agreed to come here for Christmas and had arranged to travel with Jonathan was a heartening sign that he had had a change of mind. ”
“And has he?” Jane enquired.
Elizabeth smirked in triumph. “Yes, he has proposed at last! I am the happiest of women.”
Jane couldn’t be more pleased for her friend. “Wonderful! What made him change his mind?”
Elizabeth grinned. “Sheer desperation, I believe. It appears that I am as essential for his future happiness as he is for mine.”
“Have you any idea what Jonathan’s reaction might be when Dr. Logan speaks with him?” Jane asked.
Elizabeth’s look turned sober. “None. Jonathan appears oblivious of our attachment. I am so very glad that Aunt Lucinda could not travel here for Christmas. She would not be so blind.”
“Jonathan may not be as unaware as you think. Not that he has said anything to me, though.”
“Marcus has decided to speak with him at the end of the holiday, probably Boxing Day, as he leaves the next day for London. That way the week will not be ruined by an unfavorable decision by Jonathan, should he be so disobliging as to refuse.”
Jane squeezed her hand. “I hope he agrees, Elizabeth. I really do.”
“If not, there are only a few more months before I am of age and I can marry without his approval. However, my money is under his trusteeship until I am twenty-five. We would have to live on Marcus’s income until that time.
He is not a poor man, but my money would make life simpler, especially if we have a large family, which I am hoping for. ”
“Does Dr. Logan also want a large family?” Jane raised an eyebrow in question.
“He is willing to leave that up to me. He says there are ways to limit the number of babies a woman bears.”
“You have found a very free-thinking man, Elizabeth. You are to be congratulated. If only there were more of them, so many women would be happier and healthier.”
“Don’t tell Jonathan though, Jane, I don’t think he would approve. He is a traditionalist, believing we should be grateful for all the children God brings us and not try to limit family size.”
Dread hit Jane like an elbow to the stomach. That was her worst fear for the future. Jonathan sounded like he would be a husband like many others. Not for her the broad-minded stance of Dr. Logan. She must change that. “Well then, I will have to alter his opinion.”
“Yes, you shall,” Elizabeth said.
The gentlemen approached, ending their private conversation.
“Jane, I believe we are engaged to view the house.” His eyebrows quirked upward, making his statement an enquiry.
She glanced over her shoulder as she accompanied Jonathan from the room. Dr. Logan had taken her place on the sofa and was in earnest discussion with Elizabeth. How she envied their closeness and ease with each other.
Their tour of the house began with introductions to the housekeeper and butler, followed by a purposeful walk through the ground and first floor rooms, some of which Jane had already seen since her arrival.
A visit to the long gallery followed, where Jonathan showed Jane the family portraits of his ancestors.
The predominance of female antecedents as aunts and great-aunts was obvious.
“The family curse—not enough male descendants,” Jonathan explained.
“That’s why I’m so beloved by my family.
I had only to be male to achieve it,” he quipped.
Jane smiled. Turning, she saw a more recent painting of a quite beautiful woman wearing a fashionable evening dress from the turn of the century. “Is this your mother?” Jane asked.
“Yes.”
“She was quite exquisite. I can see the resemblance between you and her. How did she die?”
“Childbirth with Elizabeth. I was ten at the time.”
“How awful for you both... and your father. Did he suffer afterward, as mine did? Tell me about your childhood,” Jane prompted.
A bitter smile played across Jonathan’s mouth.
“He suffered very much...” He hesitated, then continued, “And withdrew from us children completely. He began to drink heavily and gamble. He never returned to his former self... the person I remembered from my early childhood, who was always with his family.”
Empathy for him suffused her. “How did that affect you?”
“I wanted to be nothing like him. I was sent away to school soon after our mother’s death. Elizabeth was raised with Aunt Lucinda’s daughters. I spent my holidays with my uncle and aunt’s family.”
“What happened to your father?”