by Abby Ayles
Hannah and Grimshaw’s eyes only met once. In the pools of her blue eyes, he saw the disappointment that he had not championed for his children’s cause.
He told himself that it had been unorthodox in the first place. It was also very natural to have changes to routine with the introduction of a new member of the family. He was certain they would understand when they got to know Lady Tara better.
She had assured him over the Season that she found children to be a joy and had spoken often about how she anticipated meeting his girls someday.
It did seem true that her mother had little taste for things out of the ordinary. Grimshaw was sure once he was married and Lord and Lady Waldron were returned back to their own home, things would go back to the way they once were.
A week after the Marlow family arrived at Brighton Abby and just two days before Hannah was required to leave, Lady Tara took her first interest in Lord Grimshaw’s two daughters.
It was as much a surprise to the girls as it was to Hannah when Lady Tara walked into the schoolroom unannounced and informed the children that they would be joining her for tea downstairs.
Though Hannah had yet to find anything to like in Lady Tara during their sparse interactions over the last week, she was sure that there must have been some good for the earl to invite her to his county seat.
For the benefit of the girls, who too got the feeling of something off-putting, Hannah kept on her brave face and did her best to encourage and excite them for their afternoon with Lady Tara.
“I would much rather go to Grannie’s house,” Rebecca moaned.
“I know, dear,” Hannah tried to comfort her by patting the girl’s silky brown hair.
“It’s been weeks since we’ve been to see her. What if she is sick or in need of help?” Caroline chimed in.
“She has Mr. McCarthy to look after her.”
Both girls looked up at their governess with big brown disbelieving eyes.
“I know he is not always the most attentive to her. But I am sure he is there for her when it really counts.”
Hannah had a hard time believing the words she was saying any more than the girls could.
“And anyway, Grannie is in good health and has good strength. She has got along fine for many years without our visits, I am sure she will get on fine a little while longer till you can go see her again.”
“But when will that be? Father is sending you away and we will have no one left to take us. We will lose you and Grannie all at once,” Caroline cried.
“Oh, hush now,” Hannah said, folding the child into her arms. “You will not lose either of us. You are doing so well at your handwriting now that we may write to each other as often as you like.”
“Do you promise?” Caroline asked, looking up at her with a sniff of her nose.
Hannah hesitated. She, of course, would love to correspond with the girl forever. She had grown to love both Caroline and Rebecca as if they were her own girls. Two great problems lay in the way of that, however.
Firstly, there was still the fact that in two days’ time she would leave Brighton Abby and have nowhere to go. How could she promise to correspond with the girl when she would have no address to write to? Secondly was the earl himself. She was sure that he would never let his daughters continue a connection with her after what had transpired between the two of them.
“I will do all that is in my power to make it so,” Hannah finally settled on, before giving the girls a hug and sending them off with Abigail to attend to Lady Tara.
She sat down in the chair by the fire. So much stress had weighed her down these past weeks it was hard for her to keep up the facade of smiles for their sake.
To make matters worse, now that the whole house knew of her termination, Mr. Poole had become an even bigger harassment in her life.
When the earl returned to Brighton Abby, he had limited his nightly visits outside her door to just once or twice a week. She had thought that the earl’s presence in the house had deterred him once and for all.
With the news of her imminent departure, Mr. Poole had moved beyond brazen action. Every night he stood outside her door. Sometimes he would just pull on the handle, hoping that the motion would set the lock free, she supposed. Other nights he would stand there for hours at a time and speak to her.
It was a horrible thing to be woken up to. He would call her name over and over and say horrible foul things he wished to do to her. She was beginning to wonder if her virtue was truly worth the sanity he was slowly wearing down.
It was in this chair that Hannah, most accidentally, slipped off to sleep while the girls were off to their tea.
It was with a sudden jolt that she awoke. So used to the sound rousing her from sleep being a frightening one, she leaped from her chair dazed and confused.
Much to her surprise, she was not alone in her bed with Poole outside as she had imagined in her sudden stirring but instead still in the schoolroom. The sound that roused her was the clicking of the girls’ slippers on the hallway floor hurrying towards her.
“How was it?” Hannah asked, smoothing her hair and skirt.
She had long since removed the cumbersome cap. There was no point for it now.
“Dreadful,” Caroline said, coming to sit in the opposite chair with a fluff of fabric.
“Oh, it couldn’t have been all that bad. Lady Tara seemed very kind to me,” Hannah did her best to say without giving way to her true feelings.
“We went down to the drawing room, Mother’s drawing room,” Caroline explained. “She was sitting in Mother’s chair. Rebecca told her that was where our mother sat and she said,” tears began to well in her eyes, “she said that it was the right place for her then because she was to be our mother now.”
Hannah held the child to her while she cried yet again. The poor dears were having such a hard run at life these days that it made Hannah ache and wish she could take it all away.
“Perhaps she meant it in a happy way and you only misunderstood. Perhaps she was trying to say that she would be happy to love and look after such beautiful girls.”
“I don’t think so,” Rebecca cried, clinging to Hannah’s skirts with her own tears. “She even yelled at me.”
“Whatever for?” Hannah asked, not knowing these girls to do anything to cause a harsh reprimand, well except for the Mr. Whiskers incident.
“I brought my doll with me and sat her down to tea with us. She said that it was babyish and that proper little girls left their toys in the nursery,” Rebecca half-muffled into Hannah’s skirts.
That was quite the last straw for Hannah as far as Lady Tara was concerned. How that woman could say such cruel things to two little angels who were already in a delicate condition was beyond her understanding.
No matter her personal feelings however, she would not share them with the girls. There was a very good chance that no matter their feelings towards Lady Tara or Lady Tara’s feelings towards them, she was going to be the future lady of this house.
The sooner they found a way to endure her, the better. Hannah would not fuel their dislike of the lady, no matter how justified it was.
“I am sure she was only nervous to spend time with the two of you. Give Lady Tara a chance and perhaps you will find that you like her very much.”
“I don’t want to give her a chance! I will never like her! I don’t want to see her ever again!” Caroline burst out before running from the room in a fit of tears to her bed in the nursery.
Chapter 23
The Earl of Grimshaw was beside himself with grief and confusion. The whole purpose of bringing Lady Tara into his life was for the benefit of his children.
Now he was receiving news that after an afternoon together Caroline was inconsolably upset and Rebecca had been reduced to tears.
“Did something go wrong?” Grimshaw asked Lady Tara.
“No, my dear,” she said in her high voice. He really didn’t like it when she used such a term of endearment.
Grimshaw perked up and bristled all at once at the mention of Miss Jacobson. The only way he had gotten through these last two weeks was to not think about her as much as could be helped.
“I don’t want to presume anything of course, but you did mention her termination was due to trust issues. Is it really wise to continue to have her teach the girls in such a situation? Who knows what thoughts she could be putting in their head.”
“No,” Grimshaw waved his hand in dismissal. “Her termination has no bearing on her ability to teach the girls. She cares for them deeply and would never do anything that might upset them.”
“But she can’t be happy having lost this position. Perhaps she is influencing them against me as a way to get back at you,” Lady Tara droned on as if the idea was positively horrible to her.
Grimshaw rose from his seat and paced the room as he thought the matter over. A stray dark lock of hair fell in his face and he pushed it away in irritation. He was sure there was no way that Hannah Jacobson would do such a dirty underhanded thing to the girls, even if it was to punish him.
“I will go talk to Caroline,” he said finally. “I am sure it is all just a big misunderstanding that will be sorted out by dinner.”
“Oh, I am relieved to hear that,” Lady Tara said with a whoosh of breath. “I would hate to think that your girls did not like me.”
“They do like you,” Grimshaw insisted. “How could they not?”
“Perhaps if things were made official, they would not be so confused with this visit,” Lady Tara said as she picked a thread off of the top of her linen dress.
Grimshaw hesitated. He was not used to women being so forward nor was he ready to make anything official.
“Let me go talk to Caroline,” he reassured the lady before excusing himself from the drawing room.
Grimshaw bounded the stairs two at a time and went straight for the nursery. There he found Caroline lying on her bed, red-eyed and still sniffling.
“What happened today?” Grimshaw asked softly as he came to sit next to his daughter on her trundle bed.
“She is horrible, Father,” Caroline said between sniffs.
“Is she? Or did someone tell you that she was?” he added rather reluctantly.
Caroline rolled over in her bed and sat up, looking her father straight in the eyes. Though she had the soft features of her mother Grimshaw could clearly see his own face in hers.
“No one needed to tell me. She was mean and cruel and she made Rebecca cry.”
“I think you should just give her another chance,” Grimshaw retorted.
He was relieved to hear that Miss Jacobson wasn’t turning their minds against his prospective wife. He hadn’t put much stock in the idea but had to ask nonetheless.
“She doesn’t have any children of her own,” he tried to explain, “nor was she lucky enough to have a sibling like you. She may be new to being around children and not always say the right thing. But I promise you she is trying.”
“I don’t think so,” Caroline said, laying back down on the bed. “She despises us.”
“Not at all,” Grimshaw countered. “She has told me herself how excited she was to meet the two of you. She has high hopes that you all will someday be great friends.”
“I don’t want to,” Caroline said like a petulant child.
Grimshaw rose his voice to the tone that told his children that he meant business, “Caroline, there is a very good chance that we will be seeing a lot more of Lady Tara so I suggest you resign yourself to that fact. She is trying to be your friend; I don’t think it is asking too much of you to do the same.”
Caroline buried her head in her pillow and cried tears of frustration as her father stormed out of the room.
He couldn’t understand what had gotten into the child for her to be so stubbornly against Lady Tara. Perhaps the lady had said something wrong, some sort of misunderstanding.
Children were literal creatures; a simple phrase may have put Caroline off and upset Rebecca.
As he strolled down the hall and to his own room to change for dinner, he reassured himself for the millionth time that this was the right course to take.
Caroline and Rebecca were going to need a motherly figure. Someone who could help them navigate society. Lady Tara had been a very involved member of the ton and her connections would be to his girls’ benefit when they were older.
Perhaps Caroline was just upset now because she worried that he was replacing the mother she lost. If he could only find a way to explain to his daughter that he would never allow another woman into his heart as Ann had been to him.
Even when one had somehow found a way in, he had fought it off. After all, that was why Lady Tara was here in the first place. With the lady at his side, Ann’s place would be secured and he could forget all about Hannah Jacobson.
***
Hannah had chosen to take all her meals either with the girls in the schoolroom or in her own room. It was not hard to do so with the arrival of Lord Grimshaw’s guests. With the girls banished from his dining table, there was no point to her presence.
She was just coming up the stairs with a tray in hand from the kitchen below when a loud raucous noise caught her attention.
Setting down her tray on a hall table, she walked towards the front of the house where the frantic cries came from.
“Lord Grimshaw!” Mrs. Brennon said, bursting into the drawing room.
Grimshaw who had been standing by the piano to listen to Lady Tara play before dinner looked to his housekeeper in shock.
“Forgive the intrusion but you must see this right away,” Mrs. Brennon said, completely frazzled and waving a parchment in her hand.
“Alright,” he said, trying to infuse some calm into the woman. “Let’s take it out here,” he motioned for her to step outside the drawing room.
Lady Waldron was already fanning herself from the shock of the rude entry and Lord Waldron had the smelling salts at the ready should any other improper occurrence send his wife into fits.
In the hall, he was greeted by Abigail who was beside herself.
“What is ever the matter?”
Abigail tried to speak but nothing but choked sobs escaped her lips.
“It’s Caroline,” Mrs. Brennon said. “She is missing.”
Hannah entered the foyer just as these words were spoken. Her heart instantly jumped into her throat and she rushed forward, forgetting all the enmity between her and the earl.
“Caroline is what?” Hannah asked in a panicked tone.
“Give me that letter,” Grimshaw demanded, his own fear showing on his face.
“Dear Father,
I am sorry to inform you that I have run away.
Most sincerely yours,
Lady Caroline Blackburn.”
The earl read the short note out loud before looking to Hannah in worry.
“I would not doubt that she put the idea in Lady Caroline’s head,” Lady Tara’s voice called from behind the earl.
All parties turned to see that she had followed Grimshaw out of the drawing room and was accusing Hannah of Caroline’s disappearance.
“I would never condone a child to leave her home. Especially in the dark and cold. Oh, Lord Grimshaw,” Hannah said as the worries came flooding over her. “What if she got lost on her way?”
“On her way? On her way to where?”
“See,” Lady Tara said smugly, “she knows where the child is because she was the one to give her the idea.”
“I know where she is because I know where she would go being this upset.”
“Where?” Lord Grimshaw urged, reaching forward to gently grasp Hannah’s elbow.
He looked deep into her eyes with the plea of a worr
ied father. She shared his concern and dismissed all anger from Lady Tara’s accusations.
“To Grannie’s of course,” Hannah said softly. “I will go and fetch her,” she added more determinedly.
“No, I will go,” Grimshaw said now that he had a destination in mind. “Mrs. Brennon, go and tell the stable boy to ready my horse.”
“Forgive me, Lord Grimshaw, but it would be better if I go,” Hannah said softly. “She will be upset. I will stay the night with her at Grannie’s and talk things over with her. Eight years old is the start of a very emotional age in her life. I think this matter should be handled delicately.”
