Page 10 of The Honorable Rogue (The Notorious Nightingales #5)

CHAPTER TEN

C harles refused to stay in bed while convalescing, which Mr. Greedy said he must do for at least two weeks to let his shoulder heal. He was also told that if he was upright, he was to wear his sling.

Cambridge had come, and they had spent hours discussing plans and expectations over a huge tea tray that had been replenished twice. He would step in to run the Tuba in two months, as that was when Cam took ownership. But until then, he had much to do and learn. Charles had to say he was excited about the prospect.

“You lot, your lessons are soon!” Mungo bellowed from the doorway, as some of the children were in Charles’s room playing cards.

“Thank you for the reminder, Mungo,” Anna replied.

Charles was nervous about tomorrow, as Cam had mentioned that the first installment of The Adventures of Mr. Salvador would be in the morning’s edition of the Trumpeter . If Cam thought it was worthy of printing, then maybe it was also worthy of being read.

“Focus, Charles! ”

“Right, sorry,” he said to the girl sprawled across the bottom of his bed. “That’s cheating, Fred,” he added, looking at the cards she was laying down.

She was the second-eldest Nightingale sister, and next to her was Matilda. They were versions of their older siblings, with differing eye color or shade of hair. But all had the wicked humor and sharp intellect that needed challenging daily.

He’d spent a lot of time with them over the last two weeks playing cards or being read to. They had a tutor, who had Charles’s sympathy. The man was a saint for what he put up with. His little cousins were fiendishly clever.

“I would never cheat,” Fred protested, outraged.

“You always cheat,” Anna said from her position on the floor beside Charles. “We all do.”

“Play that card, Fred,” Lottie said, jabbing her pudgy finger on a card. She sat on Fred’s back. The youngest in the family, she had them all wrapped tight around her finger, including Charles, who sometimes put her to bed and ended up falling asleep reading her stories.

“But I will not win if I play that one, Lottie,” Fred said.

“Excellent, play it then,” Anna said. She was the only one in the room who did not carry Nightingale blood. She’d come to the family unwell when Harriet rescued her from an orphanage and stayed and was now a happy, healthy little girl.

His family’s capacity for love and acceptance often humbled Charles. He and Flora had just stepped into their life and instantly been accepted.

“Did you know that Clemmie had a beautiful singing voice?” Charles asked.

“Of course. We sit and listen in his front garden, and he doesn’t know we’re there,” Fred said. “Tabitha brings up food and sits with us. ”

This street, Charles thought. They constantly surprised him.

He’d walked around Crabbett Close each day so he stayed strong, which in turn helped him stay healthy. He stopped to chat with anyone he saw, and several residents invited him into their houses for tea and whatever baked goods they had that day.

He’d even received an invite from Mavis and had sat in her small front parlor, which was ruthlessly clean and sparse, drinking tea and eating sugar biscuits. His first surprise had come when he’d learned Mavis enjoyed drizzling, which he’d not even known existed. She found tassels, fringes, tapestries, and other textiles and extracted gold and silver threads to sell from them. He’d found that intriguing and a small window into the woman he knew so little about.

He’d heard Clemmie Acton singing in his back garden and been shocked by how good he was.

“I’m sure you’re cheating, Anna,” Matilda muttered.

“That will do,” he said before the argument escalated.

Charles thought about Miss Althorp a great deal and had to admit, if only to himself, that he wanted to see her again. He wondered if she still wept for the man, Tobias, who she’d loved and lost.

“Lesson!” Theo bellowed from the door. He was built like Leo. A young man now, he would soon be breaking hearts in society.

“Hurry it along,” he added, looking at his sisters.

“There is no need for that testy tone, Theo,” Matilda said, getting off the bed.

“It was not testy. I just told you it is time for lessons.” Theo sounded testy now.

“He always talks like that because he believes he is better than us,” Fred said as Matilda lifted Lottie off her.

“I do not believe I am better than you. I know I am,” Theo said. He then left the room at a run with his outraged sisters and Lottie on his heels.

Charles rose from his chair and stretched. Moving to the window, he looked out and saw a nice day awaited him. He would go for a walk.

Wandering downstairs, he made for the front door.

“Where are you going?” Mungo demanded, appearing.

“For a walk, as I have most days.”

Mungo grunted, and Charles thought again about what he’d seen that day.

“Do you have blood family in London, Mungo?”

“No.”

“Friends?”

“No. Why?” His brows tipped down as his mouth drew into a fierce frown.

“It’s called conversing,” Charles said. “You should give it a go.”

“Eejit.”

“Charming,” Charles said.

“Don’t fall and hurt your shoulder, as the recovery will be harder, and at least you are wearing your sling.”

“Your concern warms me, Mungo. Thank you.”

“If you fear illness, then you must not willingly seek it.” The Scotsman gave him a hard look.

“I do not fear it. It is just something I, like many, dislike.”

Mungo then gave him one of those stares that saw right through him and stomped away, leaving Charles shaking his head.

All right, so he did fear illness, but he was getting better at it.

Charles could fight someone to survive, had stepped in when his family needed him to do just that. He could conduct business and would in his new position. He made decisions on behalf of his family, but the first sign of a sniffle, and he became a weak-kneed babe.

“Which is stopping now,” he muttered.

Stepping out the front door, he dismissed the dour Scotsman from his thoughts. He would purchase some apricotines from Appleblossoms Bakers. The family would enjoy them, as would he. He’d eat two on the return journey because Ram had a way of knowing when anyone purchased them and usually appeared when the tea tray arrived.

“Oh hello, Mr. Thomas.”

He stopped to look at the gaggle of women standing in the Greedy front garden. All appeared to be holding placards.

“Good day to you all,” he said, reading the words on the signs. Equality for women and women’s suffrage movement.

Mavis was there, and Flora. Harriet, his cousin’s wife, was seated in a chair, looking tired, her hands stacked on top of her large stomach.

“What are you about?” he asked Flora.

“Why are you out of the house? Is your shoulder up to that?” she demanded.

“I do not walk using my shoulder, and it is better, so stop fussing,” Charles said.

“But will need time to heal,” she snapped back.

Charles rolled his eyes. She glared.

“And I repeat, what are you about, Sister?”

“We’re marching today, Brother. I would ask you to come, but there could be jostling, and you’d not tell me if you were hurting.”

Flora was a very different woman to the one who had been destroyed by their father’s perfidy. She smiled more, and he’d not realized that she had lost that ability until Ram came into her life.

He’d drawn closer to this sister when the older one had married and their father plunged them into financial hardship. Between them, he and Flora had rebuilt their finances.

“There will be a lot of emotion out there, Flora,” he cautioned her.

“I know and will block it out.”

Like their Nightingale cousins and Charles, Flora had clairvoyant abilities. His sister felt people’s emotions. Fear, anger, and despair—she felt it all.

“Hello, Charles,” Ram said, arriving. He entered the Greedy front yard and went to his wife, leaning down to kiss her cheek.

His family were constantly touching and kissing those they loved.

Mr. Greedy staggered out his front door with a tray of glasses in one hand and his cane in the other. Charles thought that may be for effect because he’d seen the man getting about the place when he was treating a patient without it.

Ram sneezed loudly, and Charles instinctively took a step back.

“Allergies,” he said with a sniff.

“Oh, for pity’s sake, Charles, you are quite healthy now, and it was merely your shoulder you hurt. Ram will not give you something that will send you back to bed,” Flora said.

He glared back. “It’s instinctive, as you bloody well know.”

“Well un-instinctive it,” she hissed.

“For an intelligent person, your vocabulary is shocking,” Charles taunted her. Because when there was an opportunity to goad a sibling, one always took it. “That has never been a word and never will be. Really, Ram, I don’t know how you put up with her. Aren’t you worried your progeny will be?—”

“Shut up,” Flora snapped.

Job done, he thought as she turned to speak to the other women milling about in the front yard. Most were now drinking whatever was in those glasses.

“I have something that will help you with those allergies,” Mr. Greedy said when Ram had taken a glass off the tray.

“I’ll take one of those,” Charles said loudly.

“How is your shoulder?” Mr. Greedy brought him a glass.

“Much better, thank you.”

“And have you other health concerns you wish to discuss with me, Mr. Thomas?”

“I haven’t, no.”

“I wondered, as your sister?—”

“He was very sick as a child. In fact, Charles nearly died,” Flora said loud enough for everyone within five miles to hear.

“Yes, thank you for sharing that, Sister. I wonder if they all know you used to….”

She glared at him, so he fell silent, smirking.

“What were you going to say?” Ram asked. “Does she have a secret I don’t know about?”

“Oh, she hasn’t told you?” Charles said.

“Never,” Flora snapped.

“Well, onward, my love,” Ram said to his wife. “Go out there and show those men you mean business.”

“And if we strike trouble?—”

“I beg your pardon?” Ram said to Mavis, who had spoken.

“Oh yes, we often have things thrown at us, and Miss Marble was taken to the watchhouse for her rousing words.”

“You’re not going,” Ram said to Flora.

She patted his chest. “I most certainly am.”

“I’ll watch them,” Mavis said.

“There, you see?” Flora said. “We are not going far, as Harriet is with us, just a little march around the surrounding streets. It will not be a big protest. That is for next week.”

The women then all handed Mr. Greedy his glasses back and gathered their placards. Soon they were all filing out of the gate. Charles threw his glass of whisky down and enjoyed the burn as his sister passed him. He grabbed a handful of her dress and hauled her back.

“You will behave and stay safe, Sister.”

“You will be careful with your shoulder, Brother.” She kissed his cheek and then was off, marching down the street, placard raised, chanting, “Women have rights too!”

“I should follow.” Ram looked worried.

“They need to do this, Ram. I may mock and tease, but this is a serious cause they believe in.” He had a feeling Miss Althorp would agree with this wholeheartedly. How would her family react if she wished to march? Charles doubted they would be happy.

“I know.” Ram sighed.

“We cannot stop them, but only be there if they need us,” Charles added.

“Few will feel as we do, Charles.”

“Agreed, but then we are not like many other families.”

“Also true,” Ram said, watching his wife disappear from his sight.

Ramsey Hellion had been a man who loved the company of women before he met Flora but now had eyes only for her. Charles couldn’t be happier that Flora was now under Ram’s protective cloak, even if he felt slightly adrift without her to care for.

“Flora had word that your sister is coming to London soon and bringing your brother with her,” Ram said. “They are going to stay with us.”

Charles felt that jolt he always got when he heard the word brother in connection with him. The shock of discovering their father’s double life and secret son had hit the three Thomas siblings hard. However, the boy wasn’t to blame—his father was, and he wasn’t sure he’d ever forgive him for that.

“Well then, I’ll be off, as they’ve already started without me,” Mr. Greedy said, stepping back out his front door carrying a large bag.

“Where are you off to?”

“A few of us are taking knitting lessons in the park today. It was Miss Althorp’s idea. She said she’d always wanted to learn to knit.”

Charles guessed this was because it was on her list.

“We put out pamphlets, and today is our first group meeting,” Mr. Greedy said.

“You’re not serious? Who attends knitting lessons in the park?” Charles asked instead of “Are you sure Miss Althorp will be there?” He was absolutely not saying that.

“Well now, from the response, I’d say plenty. I’m going along to help, as Mrs. Greedy was unsure of how many would turn up.”

“Is there anything you can’t do?” Ram asked.

“I’ve never mastered socks, but give me time, and I’ll knit a pair,” Mr. Greedy said.

“Would you like us to take you? I feel the need to go for a drive and have called for the carriage.”

“You planned all the time to drive past Flora marching, didn’t you?” Charles asked.

“Not at all,” Ram lied to his face. “I enjoy driving around London and thought to take you for an ice from Gunter’s.”

“Because I am a good boy?” Charles said, refusing to acknowledge how much the prospect of seeing Miss Althorp again excited him.

“Excellent,” Mr. Greedy said.

They were soon in Ram’s carriage heading out of Crabbett Close to the park, and Charles felt more alive than he had in days.