28

The next morning dawned, wet and rainy. By the time Emmie awoke, Jeremy had already departed for the stables. She checked with Lottie. The addition of Teddy and Pinky at the breakfast table did nothing to enliven proceedings for both were red-eyed and restrained this morning, speaking mostly to one another in low voices.

After breakfast, Emmie heard a knock on her sitting room door and the pair of them walked in. Teddy presented Emmeline with a picture he had drawn of Heracles and Iphicles with their snakes. No longer represented as infants, both bulged with muscle and wore brightly colored loincloths.

“Thank you, Teddy,” she said, admiring the drawing. “They look a very able pair of heroes.”

“Yes,” he agreed, leaning over her chair. “This one is Iphicles. As you can see, his muscles are slightly smaller than his brother’s, but to make up for it I have given him the bigger of the two snakes.”

“Yes, and you have given Heracles a small beard I see.”

Teddy nodded and looked pleased she had caught his attention to detail. Pinky cleared her throat, giving her charge a significant look. “May I drive Miss Pinson back to Plumtree Cottage this afternoon, Mama?” Teddy asked tentatively.

“No, Teddy,” Emmie responded quietly. “I am afraid not.” Both looked instantly crestfallen. “Pinky will give you your lesson this morning and then one of the grooms will drive her back after lunch. Now you run along to the nursery. I want to have a quick word with Miss Pinson before she joins you there.”

Teddy looked disappointed but resigned as he heaved a heavy sigh and walked out of the room, casting a reproachful look back over his shoulder as he went.

Emmie motioned for Pinky to be seated. “How are you feeling this morning, Hannah?”

“Oh, absolutely recovered!” her friend assured her. “Thank you for letting the dear child see me last night, his lordship explained it was at your insistence.”

“You are more than welcome, and I am very glad to hear you are feeling better.”

“Yes.” Hannah twisted her hands. “I only hope that Teddy’s punishment will not be too severe. We all know he is a delicate child and—”

“Hannah, I must interrupt you there. I believe we must trust my husband’s judgment when it comes to reprimanding Teddy for his misbehavior. After all, he knows him best and it seems this is not the first time his high spirits have led him astray. Although he has been ill, I think he must be practically recovered by now if recent events are to be taken into consideration.”

Pinky pressed her lips together and Emmie continued calmly, “You cannot have forgotten that awful family in Yorkshire, where the children were so indulged and spoiled that you could do nothing with them. We would not want Teddy to end up like that, now, would we?”

Pinky sat wide-eyed for a moment, words clearly struggling to burst from her lips. Finally, she bowed her head. “Yes, perhaps you are right,” she said in a choked voice. “It is just that, well, he has grown very dear to me.”

“I know.” Emmie smiled. “And I am glad for it. But we must not allow our partiality to blind us to the fact he needs firm guidance. You told me yourself that you believe Jeremy to be a good and fond father.”

“Oh yes, I do,” Pinky agreed at once.

“Well, then.”

Her friend sighed. “He was very kind to set my mind at rest. I hope I did not offend him.”

“You did not offend him in any way,” Emmie assured her. “Colfax, however, is a different matter.” Pinky turned rather pink. “I will not say any more on the subject for I know this new friendship is not one you yourself have raised with me.”

Pinky looked alarmed. “Oh! Well…it is so lately sprung up and you have been so busy,” she prevaricated.

“We both have,” Emmie agreed.

Pinky’s eyes met hers. “Do you think I have offended Colfax, then?”

“I think you have hurt his feelings, yes.”

“Hurt his feelings?” She faltered.

“You were rather cutting, dear,” Emmie said gently.

Pinky pressed her hands to her reddening cheeks and did not speak for a moment. “I was so upset, you see,” she said jerkily. “I confess, I do not altogether recall precisely what I said in the heat of the moment.” She lowered her hands. “I was so afraid for Teddy, and I had the greatest conviction that it hardly mattered what I said, for Colfax was not attending a single word.

“I could tell from the look on his face.” She sent a fleeting look at Emmie. “Men have looked at me with that expression all my life,” she said, startling her considerably. “Your father, Mr. Stockton, all of them. I knew Colfax was going to do what he thought was right, and devil take my opinion on the matter.”

Emmie sat back in her seat, quite startled. She had never heard her former governess speak of the devil in anything but biblical settings. “Perhaps you are right,” she heard herself say slowly. “He was certainly very sure of himself.”

“They always are,” Pinky replied with just a hint of bitterness, but it was clear her mind was elsewhere. They sat in silence for a moment. Then Pinky admitted fairly, “Though in this case, it turned out Colfax had good cause.”

“You should have told me Humphrey was dismissive of you, Hannah,” Emmie said, still shocked. She always knew, of course, that her father had thought Pinky a poor, insipid creature, but Humphrey ! That was an altogether different matter.

“Oh, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary.” Pinky shrugged. “You and Teddy and, I think, Lord Faris are the only ones who have ever thought my opinion counts for anything.”

Emmie’s shoulders relaxed slightly. She remembered the flash of hurt in Colfax’s eyes before he had rushed from the room. “I think perhaps that Colfax cares about your opinion too,” she said carefully. “He has known Teddy far longer than us, and you have to admit his instincts were right in this instance. His reaction was likely so strong because he did not like seeing you so upset over it. He, well, my husband has mentioned to me previously that Colfax holds you in high regard.”

“Lord Faris said that?” Pinky asked, looking flattered. “Well, in that case, I will have to think of some way of making amends. It is true he has given up his precious leave to help tame my garden,” she added guiltily. “And I did berate and scold him as though he was one of my charges.”

Emmie gave a weak laugh. “You have never scolded me in anything but the mildest of tones, Hannah dear, and I’ll wager Teddy has never been berated by you in such a fashion either!”

Pinky blinked. “No, I suppose not,” she conceded sheepishly. “I can’t think what came over me.”

“Your protective instincts maybe,” Emmie suggested. “And perhaps you felt comfortable enough to give vent to your feelings with Colfax.”

Hannah smoothed her skirts but made no comment. “I should probably go and find him,” she said, “and get my apology out of the way before I start on Teddy’s lessons.”

“He’s not here this week, remember?”

“Oh, but surely he won’t have gone to work on the cottage after the way I treated him!” Pinky cried.

“I think you’ll find he has.”

“Oh! Oh dear…” her friend fretted.

“I am sure he will still be there this afternoon,” Emmie said with a smile. “And by then, you may have decided how to make it up to him.” For a moment she thought of the ghost in the red dress but pushed it from her mind. “Perhaps you could make him your famous seed cake?” she suggested. “Jeremy enjoyed it very much.”

Pinky brightened. “Yes, I could certainly try that,” she agreed. She cast a distracted eye over the painting Teddy had gifted to Emmie. “I must ask his lordship if he would lend me one of his books on ancient mythology,” she muttered. “Really, I am terribly ignorant on the subject. Do you know, the other day, Teddy charged across my lawn, launched himself into a pile of grass cuttings and yelled ‘I’m a snake-taming baby called Sophocles!’ I hardly knew how to respond.”

“Iphicles,” Emmie corrected her automatically.

“I beg your pardon?”

“The snake-taming baby. Its name was Iphicles, not Sophocles. Well,” she added conscientiously, “he didn’t tame them precisely.”

“What did he do, then?” Poor Pinky asked, looking quite bewildered.

“As I understand it, he cried.”

“Well, I must say, that seems a good deal more typical behavior for a baby.”

Emmie laughed; she couldn’t help it. After a moment, a little uncertainly, Pinky joined in.

Her friend had not long left her for the nursery when the maid Bridget tapped on the sitting room door. Emmie had just started on her second letter to the Hardimans and set this aside as the maid approached with a folded letter.

“This was sent over from the inn, milady.”

“The inn?”

“The Prizefighter,” she elaborated, naming her in-law’s coaching inn.

Emmie took it, wondering if it was a note from her sister-in-law encouraging her to stop by. She had never taken her up on her previous offer to call on them. Turning it over, she suffered a nasty shock, for the handwriting was horribly familiar. Humphrey! What on earth could he be doing at Mina and Nye’s inn? And why would he be writing to her? Her heart thumping in her breast, she thanked Bridget, opened the envelope, and smoothed out the page.

Dear Emmeline,

I hope you will believe me when I write that in spite of everything, I devoutly hope this letter finds you well. I have found it incumbent upon me, for several reasons, to travel down to this part of the world and seek out assurance on this matter.

You cannot possibly know the agonies of remorse that I have suffered these past three months, how much I have reproached myself with, and how racked I have been by guilt for the role I played in the situation in which you now find yourself.

Needless to say, shame has dogged my every step since I last saw you. As you know, the sad demise of Ballentine Trading has left me without occupation, so you may picture how I have trudged the streets ever since looking for suitable employment.

You may imagine my surprise when bumping into one of the old clerks, Harold Hillman, I learned that he and the other employees had received a sizeable sum by way of reparation for the abrupt loss of their income. Not only this, but that some mysterious nobleman had involved himself in the affair.

I expressed my astonishment, but Harold would not, or could not, tell me anything more on the matter. Instead, I was forced to seek out one John Hardiman, who I knew you always held in some regard. You may think this a strange thing to do, but there was some other matter I had with the man, namely the need for a character reference.

However, once I had gone to the trouble to arrange this interview, instead of shedding light on the matter, Hardiman turned around and demanded a series of answers to such extraordinary questions that I hardly knew where to put myself!

From his discourse, I gathered that you had subsequently rushed into marriage with none other than a peer of the realm! However, I could find out nothing further, for when I could offer no explanation for the turn of events, he became outraged with me, refused to write me my reference, and ordered me from his presence!

I need hardly say how truly astounded I was to learn you had married so precipitately, without taking counsel from your friends. Much shocked and mortified by Hardiman’s conduct, I was left with no other recourse but to travel to your former address in Bath to beg a forwarding address from your old landlady who I had met on one or two occasions. She coldly refused my request, doubting you would welcome further communication from me and moreover claiming she had no information to impart!

Her callous attitude quite shocked me, and sadly, I had no option but to encourage the confidences of that impertinent maid of hers, who, at considerable cost to my pocketbook, showed to me an extravagant wedding cake box embossed with a crest and the names of Lord and Lady Faris of Vance Park in Penarth, Cornwall.

Finally, I had your direction, however unlikely it sounded, and you may be sure that I deliberated a good deal on the proper way to proceed. Only after consulting my dear Clara did I feel emboldened to pursue a course of action which culminated in my traveling all the way to Cornwall to secure my peace of mind. The dear helpmeet of my life agreed that it was only right that I assured myself of your subsequent safety and well-being.

Will you meet with me, Emmeline? I have taken a room at a coaching inn which I understand to be a mere matter of miles from your new residence. I can stay three days. Despite some initial misgivings, the place seems to be moderately respectable, and I can hire a private parlor for our meeting.

I apologize for the suddenness of my request and hope you will not be too surprised by my appearance in the locality. I wronged you, I know, but is it too much to hope that you might absolve me of some of this grievous burden I bear and set my mind to rest?

I will wait with much anxiety of spirit to hear back from you.

Yours respectfully,

Humphrey Stockton

Emmie lowered the page, her mouth dry and her heart racing. She could not believe Humphrey was here in Penarth! That he had traveled all this way, and to what purpose! She could not make it out precisely from his long-winded letter. To secure her forgiveness? For her to absolve him of any wrongdoing? Either would be absurd, it could not be so.

She read it a second time and could not help but decide his purpose was twofold. He wanted for her to both appease his own conscience, and to assuage his vulgar curiosity. She shook her head with disbelief. On top of that, she had a sneaking suspicion that if he had heard she was still living on a pittance in Bath she would not have heard one word from the man!

She sat there a moment, deep in thought. What if Humphrey should ask one of the staff at The Prizefighter if they knew anyone from Vance Park? Would they tell him of the proprietor’s connection to Jeremy? That could be awkward. She would not really want her in-laws to know she was formerly engaged for ten years to another man.

Her blood ran cold when she remembered how Jeremy flew off the handle when even the subject of Humphrey was raised. How awkward this all was! She could hardly dash off a clandestine note to Humphrey and arrange to meet him at her own sister-in-law’s establishment. Even writing to refuse such a meeting seemed fraught with difficulty.

What if he should show up here, demanding an interview with her? After traveling such a distance, it seemed unlikely that he would meekly turn about and leave with his tail tucked between his legs. She started out of her chair, then sat back down again. Should she consult Pinky? She at least knew Humphrey and could perhaps offer some impartial advice.

Then she remembered what Pinky had told her that very morning. That Humphrey had treated her greatest friend dismissively and she felt even more indignant that he should show up now, demanding answers about her own conduct. The nerve of the man!

What to do though? That was the quandary. Only last night, Jeremy had asked her to promise there would be no more talk of Humphrey between them for at least a month. And here she was today, in receipt of a letter from him, no less. She bit her thumbnail, frozen with indecision. Drat the man!

She stood and walked to the connecting door, knocking on it tentatively. There was no answer. He must be at the stables as was his habit. After a pause, she opened the door and walked through into Jeremy’s bedchamber. She was practically tiptoeing, which was ridiculous, but she could not help but think herself something of an intruder.

All was as she remembered it from that awful night. The bronze horse figurines, the painting of Venus, lots of dark wood. This time, she ventured further than his bedroom, into the adjoining room which contained a desk and several sitting chairs. Making for his desk, she picked up a pen and wrote him a note on his own headed paper.

Dear Jeremy,

Please see the enclosed letter from Mr. Stockton. I am setting out now for Mina’s inn and will take Lottie with me to act as chaperone. I will meet with him as he suggests in one of the downstairs rooms. If you return at lunchtime perhaps you will come and join us? If it is not too late, that is.

Please be assured that as soon as I have dismissed Humph Mr. Stockton’s concerns, and sent him on his way, I will return home. Please do not worry. I will see you soon.

Your ever-loving wife,

Emmeline

Folding Humphrey’s letter inside her covering note, she stuffed both inside an envelope and addressed it simply “Jeremy.” Then she stood for a moment, unsure where best to put it so that it would catch his attention. After all, he might not venture as far as his desk.

Wandering back through to his bedroom, she debated setting it on his pillow. Then again, when he returned for lunch, he never took a nap. His purpose, after all, was to change out of his riding clothes. Inspiration struck, and she tried a door which led to his dressing room and propped the envelope on his dresser.

Then she escaped back into her own room to track down Lottie and explain their errand.