25. Chapter 25

Nemity smiled, watching Georgette line up the rocks on the flat stone edge of the grand pool at Springfell. Her tiny fingers had set the little pebbles from the walkway all in a perfectly neat line, which was exactly her personality.

She was only four, but already she was attempting to make everything perfect and in line for her younger brother. Entertaining him, watching over him, keeping him quiet. It'd been a heavy load for her tiny shoulders. And Jacob looked up to his sister for everything.

Living through the last year of Susannah's illness as they had was not kind.

Now, at least, she hoped Georgette could let go of the worry constantly in her eyes. Worry that belonged on someone sixty years her senior that had a lifetime of pain to show.

Nemity wanted nothing more than Georgette's lines of rocks to be curving and wild and going nowhere and it wouldn't matter. A year ago, Georgette had been a silly wild hoyden, just like her mama once was when she and Nemity and their band of friends had taken on the ton. Georgette had been destined to be just the same until her father died and Susannah fell ill.

Jacob, the complete opposite of his sister, was busy gleefully tossing handfuls of pebbles into the water like a hatter. Squealing and jumping up and down each time he sent a cascade of ripples across the water. He'd inherited his mama's wild way and his father's roguish handsomeness—something she could already recognize in his cherub face.

She exhaled a long sigh.

This was exactly what she'd needed for the past week—to get Georgette and Jacob here where she could surround them with security and love and fun and happiness.

Watching Callum with them on the ride to Springfell the day before had made her heart twist in a thousand good ways. How understanding he was with them—patient and funny—and he always had room in his lap for both of them, no matter that he was busy driving the wagon.

One night in their new rooms—well, Georgette's new room, because Jacob had wanted to sleep in his sister's bed—and Nemity was already seeing sparks in their eyes that hadn't been there before.

For as much as she was terrified after Thomas kicked them out of the carriage, they had thought all of the journey to the manor was a grand adventure.

"You didn't wake me up."

She smiled to herself and turned around from where she was sitting on the stone ledge of the grand pool. A distance away, Callum stepped off the bottom step of the wide stone stairs embedded into the slope that led up to the manor house. His boots crunched along the cream-colored pebbles lining the walkway as he strolled toward them.

"You looked peaceful."

He chuckled. "That, I don't believe—I haven't had peaceful sleep in…well…forever. If ever."

Her bottom lip jutted upward. "Your brow was furrowed, I suppose. Peaceful or not, you'd been awake for days because of me and I wasn't about to deprive you of a few hours of sleep. Plus, you earned a bit of relaxation after last night." Her look turned utterly carnal as she grinned up at him.

He had. Once they had gotten the children settled and asleep, he had dragged her into her room and stripped her down, twisting her body into all manner of positions that shouldn't have been possible. There was the extra benefit of the long stubble invading his face from the days searching for her—he'd dragged it against almost every inch of her skin, the wantonness of it driving her mad, and she discovered she wouldn't mind if he grew a beard.

And he hadn't slept outside her room in his usual spot.

This time he'd slept in her bed, the length of his body curling around her. Protecting her even in sleep.

He couldn't hide his grin in reply, and with the smooth skin from a fresh shave, it made his face look almost boyish.

"Uncle Cal, Uncle Cal." Jacob ran over to him, both of his fists still full of pebbles. Georgette was quick on his heels, wiping the dust on her hands off on her dress as she ran. Both of them latched onto one of his tree trunk legs, squeezing, and he ruffled their hair. "You both have been good this morning?"

"Oh yes, Uncle Cal." Georgette bobbed her head up and down. "Auntie Nemmy said our eyes are alive with…with…"

She looked over her shoulder to Nemity.

"Mischief," Nemity supplied.

"Mischief," Georgette repeated, nodding her head.

"You look like it, Sprite." He glanced to the side of the pond at her handiwork with the rocks. "That has to be the longest, straightest snake yet."

"It is, it is. And I'm going to make it even longer." With a hop, she ran back to the side of the pond, picking up more pebbles on the way. Jacob followed her back, tossing one of his fistfuls of pebbles into the water and laughing, then looking back at Callum.

Callum laughed. "Like musical droplets."

Nemity stared at him, slightly stunned.

He'd figured out Georgette was actually making a snake, which was obvious once he'd said it, for her love of animals. And Jacob loved anything that made musical sounds.

How he'd determined all of that about each of them in the short time he knew them stunned her. And scared her.

The children were quickly falling in love with him.

She drew in a steadying breath. One problem at a time.

She stood up, moving toward Callum like a cat after a mouse, stealth in her eyes. She didn't want to barrage him with this first thing in the morning, but she knew as well as he did what he was really distracting her from last night.

She lauded him for managing to avoid the argument, but he didn't realize her capacity for tenacity. Their difference of opinion on Charley had been a festering wound, itching at her since they'd first argued about it.

He was avoiding the topic while all she wanted to do was convince him he was wrong about Charley. She had to make him see that.

The best chance she had to force him to have this conversation again was in front of the children. Georgette and Jacob wouldn't know what they were talking about and Callum couldn't just strip her clothes off her to make her shut up on the matter.

She ran her fingertips up along the front line of his waistcoat. He hadn't bothered with a coat this morning, merely rolled up the sleeves of his lawn shirt. Her fingers stopped, thrumming on his chest through his shirt as she looked up at him. "We have to talk about Charley."

"Nemity—"

"No. I know exactly what you were doing last night, avoiding the topic in the best way you knew how."

He had enough sense to look rebuked. "You think me that devious? Can't I just want to enjoy your body?"

She grinned. "You can. Anytime. Just don't think it got you out of the conversation."

"Or we could just foist the children off onto Mrs. Jorge and I can drag you back into bed."

"See? Devious." Her forefinger tapped on his chest. "I am asking you to rethink all of the suspect thoughts you've had about Charley. You have been listening to Thomas and not to reality. Charley is not a threat to anyone."

His lips pulled tight, his chest lifting under her hand as he drew in a long breath. "You don't know that."

"Except I do. You have spent eight months in his presence—carousing with him and I imagine spying on him when you weren't in his company." She stopped, her eyes going huge. "Wait. Did you ever spy on Charlie when he was with me? In London? Months ago?"

He winced. "Maybe?" His shoulders lifted. "I am not sure. He talks to so many people when he is in the park, and I do remember him spending time one afternoon with a woman with two small children, six or seven months ago. But I couldn't say for certain if that was you or not." He looked past her to the children. "I was a distance away, but judging by the hair color of the children alone, yes, it was Georgette and Jacob. The woman had a bonnet on covering the whole of her hair and she never turned my way."

She nodded slowly, slightly unnerved. She still had to settle in her mind the fact that he'd been in Charley's life all this time, spying on him.

His fingers lifted, tracing down the side of her waist as his voice dipped. "You…you I would have remembered seeing with him."

Her look narrowed at him. He wasn't about to distract her again. "Fine. So you spied on him a lot. And in that time, have you ever—ever—even seen him angry? Much less so angry he would try to kill his own flesh and blood?"

Callum's mouth clamped closed, his nostrils flaring. "No."

She nodded. "He doesn't have it in him. So maybe, just maybe, you have it wrong. Thomas has it wrong. Just because Thomas hired you, it doesn't mean he's right—it doesn't mean that he isn't the one actually trying to hurt Charley."

His brow furrowed. "Why would you say that? That doesn't make any sense."

A splattering of pebbles tinkled into the water and she glanced over her shoulder to check on Jacob. A wild grin cut across his cherub face as he glanced to his sister. Georgette was still busy lining her little matching pebbles onto the end of her snake.

Nemity looked back to Callum. "Does it make any sense that Thomas kicked me out of his carriage with two defenseless children?"

His jaw tightened, flexing. "No."

"No." She shook her head. "Thomas has not been right since he came back. That is something I know. I also know that Charley has been my friend my entire life. He got me through two broken engagements and the scandal of them. He made me hold my head up high after the scandals, showed me how to move forward. You are wrong about him. Thomas is wrong about him. If someone was trying to hurt Thomas, you need to start looking elsewhere. There must be something else, someone else to start looking at. Or maybe all of this is in Thomas's head. Maybe your entire time working for him has been a waste."

The side of his mouth quirked up. "I wouldn't call it a complete waste, because it brought me to you."

She smiled. "It did do that. And while I may have regretted your initial intrusion into my life, I don't regret for one instant what it has turned into."

He stepped in closer to her, his hand moving up so he could slide his fingers into her upsweep. Her breath caught in her throat.

Holy sin. When he looked at her like that, her thighs had to clamp together just to remain standing.

"Miss Wheldon, Miss Wheldon." Mrs. Jorge called out to her from the wide stone steps that led down into the gardens from the main house. Mrs. Jorge was running—running when her crooked gait shouldn't allow her to do so.

Nemity stepped to the side of Callum and hurried toward her, if only to slow Mrs. Jorge down so she didn't trip on the stairs and crack her head wide open on the stones. "Mrs. Jorge, what is it?"

Her hand flat on her chest, Mrs. Jorge panted, slowing her steps as Nemity rushed toward her. "You have a visitor—an unexpected one and one you need to see right away."

Dread flooded her chest, flipping her stomach. "Who?"

"Lady Agnes, she?—"

"Lady Agnes? What? Here?"

"Yes. Lady Agnes. She just arrived and she pushed her way into the house. Poor Mr. Flourin, she hit him with her cane when he opened the door. I heard the commotion and I intervened and I showed her to the Yellow drawing room. I told her I would get you directly."

Nemity's head fell, her eyes closing. It took her a long moment before she could even draw a breath, and when she did so, it was a long one meant to fortify, but it only made her stomach churn all the more.

She opened her eyes and looked at Mrs. Jorge. "The Yellow drawing room, you said?"

"Yes."

Nemity looked over her shoulder at Callum. He gave her a nod.

"Mrs. Jorge, can you please look after the children while we go in to greet Lady Agnes?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Thank you. I promise I have already sent word to Lord Hedstrom's man that I will need to hire a governess as soon as possible for the children."

Mrs. Jorge's gaze shifted to Georgette and Jacob. "I do not mind, ma'am. I have always liked these two muffins."

"Thank you."

Turning from the children, Nemity clutched her skirts, and she and Callum moved quickly up the wide stairs on the slope and into the manor house.

Smoothing the front of her peach day dress outside of the drawing room, Nemity tried to calm herself. No matter how she spun it in her mind, Lady Agnes wouldn't be here for any good reason.

"No use putting it off, Nem." Callum's low voice whispered into her ear. "Avoiding it only shows weakness and you can bet Lady Agnes has been watching us come up from the gardens through the windows."

Nemity nodded and opened the door to the drawing room.

Sure enough, Lady Agnes was standing in front of the window that looked out upon the gardens.

She and Callum moved into the room. "Lady Agnes, what a pleasant surprise. I never would have imagined you would make the trip all the way north. Whatever you needed, you could have sent word and I would have come to you."

"Would you have? I doubt that, child." Lady Agnes's lips pursed as she turned from the window and jabbed her cane into the wooden floorboards. "Nowhere is too far to go to protect the reputation of my kin."

"Reputation? What are talking about, Lady Agnes?" Nemity gestured toward the window. "As I am sure you can see, the children are well and happy."

"Hmmph. Playing with rocks is not becoming, but that is the least of my worries at the moment."

"Please, sit." Nemity motioned to the yellow silk damask chair next to Lady Agnes. She looked to the round rosewood table in the corner of the room. "Good, I see tea was brought in. May I pour?"

Lady Agnes shook her head, her mouth still pinched. "I will stand for the moment."

Nemity nodded, remaining standing. Lady Agnes was the most direct person she'd ever encountered, so she may as well dive into it with her. "What is your worry?"

"You left London abruptly with the children." Lady Agnes's nose turned up, shaming all the better at that angle. "I rather believed you were to stay in London until banns were posted and you were married before you travelled north."

"That…" Nemity nodded, clasping her hands in front of her belly. "Yes, my cousin, Lord Hedstrom, needed to leave London and he has the best travelling carriage with space for the children, so I thought it best that we travel with him."

"So you took the children and yet you are not married?" Her look flickered back and forth between Nemity and Callum.

"I did." Nemity inclined her head toward Callum. "I apologize. I have just been overwhelmed by Susannah's death, and then thinking of the children and that it would be best to get them settled as quickly as possible away from where their mother passed on."

"Is that so?" Her shrewd eyes locked onto Callum and she stared at him for a long moment. "Mr. Lonstrick, would you please excuse us? Nemity and I have some things to discuss in private."

Callum looked to Nemity and all she could offer him was weak smile and a nod.

"As you wish, Lady Agnes." He gave a quick bow to her and exited the room, closing the door behind him.

The click of the latch had barely echoed into the room and Lady Agnes advanced on her, her cane clunking into the floor with each step, her lips drawing into a tight line.

"A gardener, Miss Wheldon?" The words spit like little spikes of hot iron at Nemity. "A philandering gardener? That is who you think to marry?"

Dammit all to hell.

Her heart stopped in her chest. Lady Agnes was going to take Georgette and Jacob from her.

Frozen for a long second, she suddenly heard Callum's voice in her mind. Avoidance equals weakness.

Exactly what she needed to spur herself into motion. For weakness was something that Lady Agnes sniffed out and feasted upon.

Setting her countenance to indifferent regard, she smiled at Lady Agnes, unflustered. "You have spoken to my friend, Lady Cladwell, I presume?"

"That little minx tried to avoid me for days and then I cornered her at the opera house. Lady Turgh witnessed you at Vauxhall getting swooped away by Lord and Lady Cladwell. You left Mr. Lonstrick searching for you in the crowd. Lady Turgh said it did not amount to a happy couple looking forward to upcoming nuptials. And then you disappeared from London with my niece and nephew not but a day after. All that, and you think I would allow you to keep my niece and nephew?"

Her gut dropping, Nemity needed to sit, but her smile stayed serene, not widening, not dissolving. Fortitude. Fortitude in her spine if she was to get through this. "I would like some tea, Lady Agnes, are you sure you will not join me?"

"I will not. I am waiting for answers."

Nemity nodded, then moved to the teapot on the serving table at the side of the room. She took her time pouring, then dropping one teaspoon of sugar into the cup. Not that she liked sugar in her tea, she more just needed the extra time to stir.

Methodically, she stirred until the sugar dissolved, then moved to sit on the chaise lounge that faced Lady Agnes. She took a sip of the tea, then looked up at the elderly woman.

So righteous. So very righteous in every move she made, every edict she flung out to society. Holding on so tightly to her punctilious judgements because they were the only thing she had in life.

Georgette and Jacob were Nemity's insurance in not ending up like Lady Agnes. A family. A family so she didn't end up a shriveled old pernicious witch with nothing better to do than make everyone around her as miserable as she was.

She wasn't about to let this crone take Georgette and Jacob from her.

Setting the tea cup on the plate, she leaned forward and placed it on the low rosewood inlaid table in front of her and took her time smoothing her skirts as her look lifted to Lady Agnes.

"Lady Cladwell is correct. Mr. Lonstrick was a gardener, though his fortunes have changed since that time, years ago, when he was doing honest work for an upstanding member of society, Vanessa's father. Mr. Lonstrick was merely trying to make an honest way in the world and he was not lying about his lineage, of which you assessed and approved of. I think someone with your knowledge of society knows very well how far-flung members of nobility can come into poverty."

Lady Agnes jabbed a step forward, her wrinkled face stretching tight as her lips pursed to an even tighter hole. "And it is exactly that, the taint of poverty on the man you think to help raise these children. To discipline them. It is unthinkable."

"Yet it was that very discipline that allowed Mr. Lonstrick to pull himself out of poverty." Nemity paused, picking up her tea and taking another sip. "If anything, I believe it shows the true character of the man. That he is willing to look hardship directly in the eye and overcome it with a keen mind, hard work, and an unbending will. Those are traits that would be good to instill in any child, do you not agree?"

Lady Agnes's thin nostrils flared, yet she didn't argue the point. "Miss Wheldon, be that as it may, the fact remains that you fled north with the children before you were married."

Nemity nodded, the serene smile still plastered on her face. "Again, I wanted to see the children settled as soon as possible, instead of living in one home, then moving to another only weeks later. They have just lost their mother and I want to make this time as easy as possible for them. Indeed, it was Mr. Lonstrick that insisted my own desires to be wed quickly be overridden in order to make Georgette and Jacob feel secure in their new home. The delay would show a remarkable fortitude of restraint, I believe were his exact words. The wedding is still planned—though a Scottish one at that—as soon as we can arrange my cousins and the vicar to come here to the manor."

Lady Agnes's eyes narrowed on Nemity. "It will happen soon, then?"

"It will." Nemity set the tea cup and plate back onto the table. Only by the grace of the heavens did the shake in her hands not transfer into the cup clinking on the plate.

"Good." Both of her withered hands grabbed the top of her cane and she clunked the tip of it into the carpet. "Then you will not mind me staying until the nuptials are complete."

Nemity's look snapped up to Lady Agnes. "Stay here at Springfell? It may be days. A week even before all the arrangements can be made."

"Then it is a good thing I have no pressing engagements in London." Lady Agnes's mouth pulled back in a straight line that may have been a smile, Nemity couldn't tell for sure.

"We are happy to have you here." Nemity swooped her hand into the air. "You are always welcome at Springfell, whether you are here for a wedding or to see the children."

Lady Agnes's hawk eyes cut into her, and then she harrumphed and moved to the settee by the fire and sat down. "You may serve me that tea, now."

Nemity nodded and stood, going to the teapot on the table. Her stare fixed out on the children by the pond, wondering what in the hell she'd just done.

And how in the hell she could make it out of this predicament.