Page 48 of The Gentlewoman Companion (The Gentlewoman #4)

Chapter Twenty-Four

J ames and his mother walked a repeated path from one end of the room to the other. The rug would wear thin if Louisa did not return soon. They’d received news from Miss Fischer that Louisa had left hours earlier after being told she could not find refuge at Havenwood.

Delicately worded notes had been dispatched to everyone who might possibly have word of her. James had taken his horse through London, combing the streets with his eyes in search of a donkey cart or a young lady with Louisa’s pert stride. Where could she have gone? Not even Nellie could guess.

The winter sun disappeared, filling the parlor with feeble, depressing light.

The endless possibilities of Louisa’s whereabouts and circumstances haunted James, and he pictured her alone, probably terrified.

After hours of tense debate, James and his mother exhausted their conversation.

What else was there to say? They each blamed themselves, James for speaking harshly, his mother for not accompanying her to the ball.

“Come, let’s sit.” His mother led him to a settee. “I’ve been thinking about the Foundling Hospital.”

“Are you trying to distract me?”

She smiled wanly. “As if that were possible. Louisa told me how you watched women pull their infants from their breasts and push them through a tiny door. They couldn’t even see the faces of the people who took their children.”

“It was horrible. I cannot imagine the desperate circumstances that led them to it.”

“Indeed. Louisa also described how little Tom dropped his sister at your feet and ran away, frantic for his sister to live, knowing she would die without help. And Margaret sells gin from her house to keep a roof over her head.”

“You know that?”

“We are friendly. I saw her leaving the house and inquired after her destination. Don’t panic. I believe she will stop once out of London.”

Yet another reason to take his half-siblings to Stroud. “Why are you telling me this?”

“I have a point. Your father proclaimed fidelity and loyalty while practicing something else. But Louisa may present a different case. Have you ever considered what desperate situation led Louisa to attempt an elopement?”

He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “Don’t say it. I hate to think of it!”

“It must be said. A young lady cannot refuse when her father promises her to a man. She might cry and complain, but she belongs to her father and then to her husband.”

In his heart, he longed to take Louisa in his arms, to comfort and love her, but his mind could not reconcile the story. His chest tightened. “She betrayed me.”

“She did not know you. Don’t compare her to your father.”

Is that what he was doing? His emotions were too diverse and shifting to capture. He was hurt and angry while desperately afraid he may never see Louisa again. She could be lost, hurt, or on her way back to Cornwall.

“We should eat,” his mother said.

“Maybe just tea.”

She rang for it, but the pot lay untouched as the minutes ticked by.

“I should have fetched Mr. Fielding from Bow Street.” He cursed himself for not thinking of it before. “Do you think it’s too late?”

Voices erupted from the direction of the kitchen. James raced down the hall and descended the stairs. Inside the kitchen, a red-faced, bedraggled Louisa was embracing Nellie.

Tension seeped from James’s limbs, leaving him heavy. He rested against the arched doorway.

His mother entered. “Louisa, darling. Are you hurt?”

Nellie released her, and Louisa shook her head.

His mother addressed Cook. “Bring more tea to the parlor—and something fortifying.” She took Louisa’s wilted hand and led her upstairs. “James, find a blanket.”

When James returned, he placed the blanket over a weeping Louisa, who reclined across a settee with her head in his mother’s lap.

“I have done the unforgivable,” Louisa moaned.

“Tosh! I’ll not hear you speak like that.” His mother tucked the blanket around Louisa.

James sat across from them. “Take your tea, Louisa. All is not lost.”

She sat up. “But you don’t know what I did.”

“I believe we do, dear,” his mother said. “Though perhaps not the whole story. We would like to hear it from you.”

“I hired a press-gang to take Charles.”

James gasped. Louisa was barely a lump under the blanket, yet this very young gentlewoman knew how to take matters into her own hands. Hire a press-gang? Pawn her jewelry? Pay off a moneylender? “You are astonishing.”

His mother pressed her hand to her chest. “You what? Impressment is a deplorable practice. How could you?”

Naturally, of all the things his mother could take issue with, it was ridding the streets of a scoundrel.

“How indeed?” Louisa turned watery eyes to his mother. “Because of me, my only sibling is even now locked in a cage!”

“What possessed you to do such a thing?” his mother asked.

“Need I explain what a buffoon my brother is? Have you not heard it all? But I thought if I did not get rid of him permanently, he would never stop petitioning me for funds. I cannot be responsible for him as well as myself. But my mother is probably dying a second death now Charles is imprisoned. At my hand! They would not let him go.”

“Nor should they,” James said.

“James!” his mother said. “How unfeeling. They might let him go, if you asked.”

“I won’t,” James said. “From what I’ve heard, Mr. Thorpe is a prime candidate for the navy. I say, well done.” While he could not justify all of Louisa’s actions, the military was a perfect solution for such a depraved young man.

“Why not start from the beginning, love? Tell us what happened,” Lady Halverton said.

Louisa sighed. “I do not want to let these things fester, but I beg a little time to collect my thoughts and courage. Then, I will be ready to tell you all.”

A change of subject was in order. James said, “Tom was found.”

She wiped her face. “Was he? How?”

James told her that Mr. Fielding had appeared with the boy in hand. “He and Susan are asleep in the nursery even now.”

“Let’s go look at them,” his mother said.

They went to the third floor, each with a candle, and tiptoed into the nursery, where three beds made a row. One lay empty. Tom and Susan snuggled in one tiny cot.

Louisa sniffled. “Charles and I—” She broke off in a fresh flood of tears. His mother took Louisa by the arm and led her out.

“You need sleep,” his mother said. “I will send Nellie.”

His mother guided Louisa out of the room.

James, left alone, retreated to his study, aware he would not sleep despite worry-wrought exhaustion.

His emotions vacillated between relief, anger, and awe.

He was curious to hear Louisa’s side of the story one moment and ready to consign the bewitching, puzzling lady to his mother the next.

Hours later, Louisa slipped in. She was still dressed.

“My lord,” she said, her eyes dejected. “I have no right to ask, and you have no obligation. But you did say to come to you should I need anything. And, well, I cannot complete this task myself. I would understand if you?—”

“Yes, Louisa?” His heart quickened. He had been waiting for this. Even if she still could not tell him about her past, this was progress.

“Will you help me ensure Charles’s good treatment on the HMS Frolic ?”

“ Frolic ?”

“I know.” Half her mouth curved upward. “If you send word to the captain, he might heed the request of an earl.”

“I could purchase him a commission.” The words spoken without hesitation showed him he was not ready to abandon Louisa.

“You could not! He does not deserve so much.” She paused.

“That sounds pitiless, but he is lazy and selfish and a liar. He’s never applied himself to anything.

When I first thought of him in the navy, I imagined him in a handsome uniform doing something worthwhile, becoming someone good.

But the press-gang told me he was locked in a cage, and it struck me that he could die at war. ”

“Do not worry about a fate you cannot control. It is true the navy could be very good for him. Does he have any skills? Tomorrow, I will walk onto the HMS Frolic and speak to the captain myself.”

Her face softened. “Even after everything?”

“Even after everything.” He said it without effort or thought and found it true. He would do anything for Louisa.

“Ask the captain to keep him from gin and cards.”

“You have my word.”

She moved as if to embrace him, then hugged herself. “Thank you.”

“Sit with me for a while,” James said. “I am going to Lundbrooke the day after tomorrow.”

“I am leaving as well.”

“What? My mother will not have that.”

“I have depended on her reputation and charity to guide public opinion in my favor. I need to find my own way.”

“If you intend to strengthen your resilience, London is the best place for that.” He hated the suggestion, anticipated the discomfort she would meet the moment she stepped into society, but the idea that she might slip beyond the edges of his life felt like watching the sun set without knowing if he would ever feel its warmth again.

“It’s more than that.” She studied her palms as if searching for the answer.

“There is something inside me. I don’t know what to call it.

Determination? Untried competence? Maybe it’s simply a question.

Can I survive on my own? Can I accept the consequences of my actions?

Can I keep pressing forward when difficulties arise? ”

“You can do all that here, with my mother.” Though perhaps his argument was selfish, he wanted her someplace safe, where he could find her should he decide to continue pursuing her. A life in which he was not connected with her, even through his mother, chilled him.