Chapter 28 - GEORGINA—BACK TO NORMAL NEVER

Life had settled back to normal on Ground Street. We all sat around the breakfast table eating fresh scones that I baked with the fruits and fresh cream the duke had sent.

Two weeks had passed since we all left Anya House, two weeks since we last saw the duke or Mark.

Lydia was joyful and bouncy and healthy, humming and stuffing her cheeks with bits of bread and cream. “Love this. Can we go see the duke?”

Scarlett looked at me. I glanced at Katherine as she whispered, Never.

Lydia’s eyes became big. “I thought one of you would marry him by now. I gave him up for you.”

Scarlett, who I confirmed hadn’t been asked, stood up. She wore men’s slippers under her long skirt. That meant she had breeches underneath and would be heading to the Royal Society or one of the duke’s meetings. “I’m going to the market,” she said. “Shall I bring anything back?”

I wanted to say no new trouble but that would be hard for Scarlett.

“Just be home before sunset,” Katherine said. “We need to discuss the offer I have on the table. I’ve found a buyer for Wilcox Coal.”

“What?” I shook my head. “You were supposed to get a loan. Not sell.”

“No banker wants to extend credit. It’s a fair offer. We can pay off Tavis’s debts. The house would be unencumbered. I could invest the rest to support us and offer dowries—”

“For Lydia. That’s how long it will take to earn something sizable.” Scarlett went to the door. “I don’t want to run the business, but if you think it’s best, then do it. I want to be free of everything Tavis touched.”

She ran out the door. Katherine looked as if she’d been kicked in the face.

Lydia went to her and hugged her neck. “Tavis was funny. I wished he liked you more. He might’ve taken better care of us.”

The little girl took another nip of her scone and dashed upstairs.

Katherine folded her arms and rocked in the chair. “Come on, Georgina. Tell me how terrible this is for you, how terrible Tavis was, or how terrible I am.”

I lifted from my chair, went to my sister, and kissed her brow. “There’s nothing any one of us can say to you that you haven’t already said to yourself. You know what you did, you know what Tavis did. None of that is your fault. You were married, you didn’t have a choice. Marriage takes it all away.”

She reached out and grabbed my hand. “I did have a choice. Wilcox Coal was ours, not mine, and I gave Tavis full control, trying to prove to him that I loved him. That he had my respect. Then he proved over and over that he wasn’t worth any of it—the love or the respect. I will never forgive myself. For what could’ve happened with Lydia, I’m just happy Mr. Carew has promised to always be available to us.”

Katherine rarely admitted that she made a mistake. I didn’t know what to say or do with that. I looked at her and wondered if this was defeat talking. There had to be a way to save everything.

Then I knew there was a way. “Katherine, have you thought about asking the duke for help? I’m sure he would give us a loan. I know he’d do it on good terms. Then, we could truly make a new start.”

She folded her arms. “He’s still here. The food on the table. The rug that he sent to Lydia.”

“Katherine, she likes the rug. It’s warm and cozy for her feet. He even got her to promise to keep her socks on when walking over the carpet. The duke will do anything to make sure she doesn’t get sick again.”

She covered her eyes with her hand. The only thing stopping my sister from seeing the good the man did was her pride.

Katherine rubbed her temples. “I can’t ask.” She groaned and shook her head, and then stopped. “We just have to get through the ball in a few weeks and remain respectable. I don’t have to make a decision on selling until then. If I can find a way to stomach asking, I’ll do it for you girls because you deserve me trying everything. Asking a favor of Torrance would be everything.”

With a good day, I left the table and headed to the parlor. My debut singing with Mark still had to happen. I still had to pretend to choose a new suitor to break off with him or something. That part of the plan was fuzzy.

Nonetheless, the Post had a new Gilroy cartoon, a party with abolitionists and more comically drawn mixed couples. The scandal hadn’t died.

Fingers in position like Mama taught us, I began to play and sing my hymn.

Our little pianoforte didn’t sound as strong as the duke’s, but it was a lot safer than practicing with Mark.

The urge to send Mr. Thom with a note to apologize. With Mark, I’d found a new way of running away from pain. All I had to do was dredge up every potential problem and all his and my flaws and that was enough. I made Mark as bad as Tavis. I even sounded like Katherine in doing so.

At least I had run from heartbreak.

Mark wasn’t Tavis, but I couldn’t take the risk. We Wilcoxes had been through enough.

* * *

After leaving Scarlett and Lydia at home to do chores, my sister dragged me to Wilcox Coal. It was Friday. The Duke of Torrance had sent word that he’d visit at the house today.

I had a feeling Katherine purposely left to avoid seeing him. I wanted to see the duke and make sure that it was meetings keeping him busy these past two weeks, the two weeks since we left Anya House.

Didn’t want him to be sick.

After Lydia, being ill had a whole new terror associated with it.

Katherine was a good sister, a good person. But like our father, she was loath to apologize. She needed to say those words to the duke. He’d been sweet to us and continued to be. If she asked, he’d definitely give her a loan to keep Wilcox Coal and be rid of the creditors.

Mr. Thom came in from the last run of the day. “Got a new coal customer.” His tone was bubbly, but his hands and face bore black dust. “Another one of the duke’s neighbors wants us.”

“Excellent,” I said.

“Soon, ladies, we’ll have all of James Street. Next, his entire neighborhood.”

He doffed his jet hat to me, and then Katherine. “Your papa would be very proud. You’re growing this business again. Girls can do better at the runnin’ and the mathin’.”

After wiping his hands clean, he took off his fine red coat that matched the color of our company’s painted wood sign and left.

The door rattled shut and it was just me and Katherine again.

“Don’t start saying what I know you’re thinking.”

I brought my fingers to my chest. “Me? What could I know?”

She balled her hands, and then dropped into the chair behind our father’s old desk.

For a few minutes, I could see him there with his quill in one hand and ledger book in the other.

“Since you don’t want to talk about the obvious, why did you bring me down here?”

Katherine glanced at me. “I’d love for you to get inspired by these walls. I’d love for you to love this place like I love it, like our father loved it. That’s why he sent me away to finishing school to learn accounting.”

“I admire the business. It puts a roof over our heads. It once employed a lot of folks on this side of the Thames. But it’s not what I want to do with my life, Katherine.” And from what I remembered, Katherine being sent away for schooling didn’t add to her happiness.

Her great adventure, which caused Tavis and the duke to fall in love with her, she never talked about. Maybe today was the day.

I moved about the creaking wood floors and went to the other desk on the other side of the room, a smaller desk. One where Katherine had often sat as Papa worked.

“Kitty, this place is you. Being in business was your dream. What happened the summer of your great adventure? When did you meet the Duke of Torrance?”

My sister winced like I’d poked her. “I don’t feel like talking about the past.”

I tapped the desk. “Then I’m going back to the house. I’ll get Lydia to ask him for a loan.”

“He wasn’t a duke yet. I didn’t know that he’d be one. He was plain ole Jahleel Charles, but there has never been anything plain about him.”

Spinning around, I couldn’t believe my ears. “Keep talking, Kitty.”

Her mouth opened wide. Then she snapped her lips closed.

I waited but she started looking at ledger books.

“You tried, Kitty. Try again tomorrow.”

When my fingers clasped the doorlatch, she said, “Don’t go back. He’s bringing Lord Mark Sebastian with him.”

My feet froze. “What?”

“The duke’s note said he would bring Lord Mark with him. I didn’t think you wanted to see the composer. So I brought you here to—”

“To run?”

She looked away, then reared back in the chair, putting her short boots along the desk’s blotter. “Papa would have made things easier for you. He would tell Lord Mark to stick to the plan and not confuse you. Since our father’s not here, I have to step in and help.”

“So instead of teaching me to stand up for myself, you want me to hide. Somehow, that doesn’t sound like you or Papa.”

While we both fumed, the door opened. Mr. Thom returned and ushered in the duke and Mark. “See, they are both here, your lordship, your dukeship.”

Our man-of-all-work made an exaggerated bow, then strutted from the office.

“So this is the famed Wilcox Coal office,” the duke said. He again had the cane with the African-looking carvings. Though he looked fit and healthy, I wondered if he’d been sick. Yet, I’d ask about that another time when my hands weren’t sweaty.

Mark presented himself to me. “Shall we take a walk, Miss Wilcox? I’d like you to show me your favorite spots to walk along this side of the river. That will give Torrance and Lady Hampton a chance to clear the air between them.”

Not wanting to be rude, not ready to admit that I’d missed him, I agreed. “Yes, that will give the duke and my sister a chance to talk about Wilcox Coal and other important things.”

I gave Katherine the evil eye or my pushy one. This was our opportunity to save Wilcox Coal. All she had to do was overcome her pride and ask the duke for a loan.

Mark held out his arm to me and we proceeded out the office, leaving two grimacing individuals to battle.