Chapter 5
Chapter Five
“All is in order for tomorrow,” Benedict reported to Lady Esher as he returned to the table and sat down in his place again, pleased to see a good serving of ham steaming before him and a full glass of wine too.
“There was a message about some delay with horses for our next change, but we shall just stop for a longer luncheon tomorrow and rest these ones.”
The elderly lady nodded, looking a little distracted but still seemingly pleased to have someone else handle these minor niggles.
Benedict supposed that Lady Esher must deal with all practical issues herself when she travelled, calling only on the assistance of her servants.
Sweet though she was, he did not imagine that Lady Louisa could be of much help, with her head so firmly in the clouds.
Where was the dreamy Lady Louisa? Realizing her absence, he frowned slightly and looked about the room as though she might be under the table with Fanny and her dolls. The only sign of her was the faint scent of woodland violets in the air.
“Where is your niece, Lady Esher?” he inquired, refusing to let his mind dwell on the moment he had first registered that floral perfume, when he had briefly gathered Lady Louisa and Ezra into his arms as shelter from a coach crash.
It had been an emergency measure rather than any kind of embrace and there had been no coach crash in the end. There was no reason to think of it now.
“I would be grateful if you could find her, Your Grace,” admitted the elderly dowager. “Ezra wanted warm milk and there was no answer when we rang. Louisa went out to find milk five minutes ago and has not returned. I had no chance to stop her.”
Cursing under his breath, Benedict was instantly on his feet.
“I shall find her,” he told Lady Esher. “This inn is no place for a young lady to be wandering alone tonight. Yet another group of young gentlemen with too much drink taken were arriving as I walked through the bar. I doubt their conversation would be fit for your niece’s ears.”
Striding back into the public rooms, he looked about the tables and then pushed his way through to the busy bar.
“Have you seen the young lady from our party?” he called to the harassed-looking innkeeper, presently filling ale tankards as fast as he could.
“Over there, Your Grace,” the man answered, nodding his head towards a cluster of people at the end of the bar, including the tipsy youths he had noticed earlier.
A flash of honey-colored curls among the taller men and capped-heads of serving girls confirmed Lady Louisa’s presence.
Was he going to find her trembling and desperate for rescue, cornered by the attentions some over-amorous university boy.
Damned fool woman! What did she think she was doing?
Lady Louisa Ascot seemed to have no more sense than Fanny sometimes.
As he elbowed his way into the group ready to retrieve her, however, Benedict received a beaming smile from Lady Louisa that threw him completely off his guard. He could not immediately tell what was happening but she was evidently in no danger.
“Your Grace, Mr. Elton here is just helping me to cool Ezra’s milk,” Lady Louisa told him, as though it was the most natural thing in the world to be standing at a tray while a slightly disheveled young man poured milk repeatedly between three mugs before holding it up to his cheek.
Those who were sober enough to understand her address to Benedict, bowed their heads respectfully.
“Perfect, Lady Louisa,” said the youth with the mugs after a few further sallies, looking very pleased with himself before his audience of his drunken friends, maids and Lady Louisa Ascot. “This is just how my old nurse used to cool my milk in the nursery when it was too hot.”
“I am so sorry for overheating it,” apologized one of the maids. “I didn’t realize it was for the little one. We have been run off our feet tonight, Lady Louisa. Forgive me, I must go…”
Beckoned by the innkeeper, the two maids departed to distribute the various tankards of ale and plates of food now sitting on the bar.
“Thank you, Mr. Elton,” Lady Louisa said with a nod of her head. “You have been most kind. Thank you to Lord Petchworth for the bird whistle too. Ezra will be very happy with his new toy.”
“You are more than welcome to it,” volunteered another of the merry young men. “It will save us all from Petchworth’s da—“
To the Duke of Northwick’s surprise, the other young fellows hushed their friend who had almost uttered an oath and he looked down, immediately chastened.
“I mean, we have heard enough of Petchworth’s whistling today and can take no more on the road to his family’s estate tomorrow,” the youth explained more civilly.
“You all have my thanks,” Lady Louisa replied, smiling around the group. “Well, as I’ve lost the maid again, I suppose shall take this tray back to our dining room myself.”
Immediately, every young man tried to offer himself as assistant but Benedict himself stepped forward and took charge of the tray holding the milk and a wooden bird whistle.
“Lady Louisa is with my party and I shall escort her back to her aunt now,” Benedict told them in tones that were not to be challenged any more than his nod to the young woman that instructed her to follow him. “Goodnight gentlemen.”
“Your aunt was worried about you,” Benedict told Lady Louisa sternly as they walked back together. “She was right to be worried. Why on earth didn’t you wait?”
“Ezra needed his milk,” replied Lady Louisa looking surprised and confused by his reaction. “I saw no reason to wait…”
“No reason? This inn is full of drunken men of every class and character tonight and the public rooms are no place for you…”
“Mr. Elton and his friends were most helpful,” she objected. “It would have taken far longer to resolve things without their assistance. I found them entirely civil and polite.”
“Yes, you were lucky,” Benedict snapped at her. “That little gang were gentlemen, regardless of drink taken, and barely out of the nursery themselves. But they might have been another kind of man entirely. What would you have done then?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Lady Louisa threw back crossly, looking every bit as annoyed with him now as that first morning they met when his horse had accidentally thrown dust into everyone’ faces.
“That’s the problem,” he replied, scowling, and then they both fell silent as they reentered the private dining room.
“I know His Grace was displeased with me tonight, Aunt Beatrice,” Lady Louisa said to her aunt as they prepared themselves for bed later that night.
“I cannot help feeling there must be some misunderstanding I should address. I was only getting milk for Ezra but the duke seemed to think the inn was full of villains. The staff and guests seemed kind and goodhearted to me.”
While he had kept up a steady conversation with Lady Esher over dinner, the Duke of Northwick had barely exchanged two words with Louisa. This treatment further roused the resentment she felt on having been scolded by him like a child.
Lady Esher came over and put an arm around Louisa’s shoulders where she sat at the dressing table in her nightgown.
“You inspire kindness and goodheartedness in the people you meet, Louisa,” replied her aunt. “It is your own nature that calls it out in others, a little like magic, although entirely natural. My Reginald had something similar in him, although he was not half so pretty as you.”
At this, they both laughed and then the older woman took up a hairbrush to brush out Louisa’s curls.
“I am not completely naive, Aunt Beatrice. It is only that I do believe most people are good, and I must treat them so, unless they behave in a way that shows their character otherwise. I have never been wrong yet, have I?”
“Do not blame the duke,” Lady Esher urged her niece.
"There are some people in in the world who are immune to goodness, and I dare say he has met as many as I. I also admit to being afraid when you did not come back directly and likely I transmitted my concerns to His Grace. Perhaps there are also other reasons for his reactions that we cannot know.”
Louisa considered this for a minute as Aunt Beatrice brushed her hair, something that she had done daily in Louisa’s childhood. At this moment Louisa did not find it as soothing as usual. She looked at her aunt in the glass.
“In that case, he might have apologized to me. He has never once apologized for anything, Aunt Beatrice. Not once! Not for making you cough with all that dust when you arrived, not for losing Ezra on the first day, which was his fault just as much as mine, and not for treating me like a naughty child tonight.”
Lady Esher looked taken aback by this rather impassioned declaration but then smiled at Louisa in the glass.
“Well, speaking of naughty children, you do look and sound just like Fanny right now,” her aunt observed and Louisa had to laugh too, seeing her own stubborn expression and pouting lower lip.
“Am I being foolish?” Louisa enquired with a sigh, turning to face her aunt. “I know you told me to avoid personal conversations with the Duke of Northwick and I suppose I fell into one when I argued with him.”
“You are being young, my sweet Louisa. Likely you are also tired from the journey. All will look rosier after a good night’s sleep.”
Louisa nodded and rose, kissing her aunt goodnight and going to the smaller of the two beds in the large room.
“I shall start over with the duke tomorrow, Aunt Beatrice, and soon we will be at Rosemere Hall and all will be well with everything.”
“I trust it will always be so,” replied Lady Esher. “Goodnight, Louisa.”
Lying in bed, Louisa thought happily about their home at Rosemere Hall. It had always been a sanctuary, both for Aunt Beatrice and for Louisa. Once they arrived back there with the children, nothing wrong or bad could ever happen. Could it..?