Miss Taygete’s Sweet Sister’s Society

by Charlotte Stone

  The house was quiet, like it had been that first day he’d visited, but he recalled how it had come to life once the family grew used to him. The black dog he’d thought he’d spotted turned out to be Zeus, a Newfoundland with a thick coat of black hair who’d always seemed ready for adventure. The dog had come with him and Maia to the park, and Alcyone had worked him hard, sending him chasing for one stick after another, as far as her thin arms could toss them.

  Hugh walked into the office, and Titan stood from his desk and bowed.

  “My lord.”

  Hugh walked over to him and shook his hand. “It’s been years, Bellenger.”

  Titan, like most of the family, favored both parents. His hair was pale and his eyes nearly translucent gray. He was a handsome man. Always had been.

  “Lord Edvoy, thank you for coming.” He showed Hugh to a chair before saying, “I was glad to receive your letter.” He walked over to his desk and sat down once more. “I would ask you if you were sure, but I’ll not risk you changing your mind.” Titan gave him a pointed look.

  Hugh smiled and chuckled. “I’d not have come all this way to change my mind upon arrival. How are you?”

  Titian frowned. “Not good. I feel terrible that I won’t be able to take my family to London, but there is too much to do here. More accidents than usual are occurring in the mines. It’s starting to agitate the workers. I’ll have to implement new safety measures.”

  Hugh drew his brows together and crossed his arms. “I didn't know it was that bad.”

  Titan held his eyes for a long time. “It’s worse, and the offer I have to sell looks more appealing every day.”

  “Sell?” Hugh’s eyes widened. “You own a mining empire. Surely, you’d not sell your father’s legacy?” He’d known how hard Theodore Bellenger had worked to build the small kingdom. He’d only appeared for two of the dinners Hugh had come to and the longest conversation he’d had with the man had been about the wedding contract. Still, that meeting hadn’t lasted long either.

  Titan leaned back and placed his hands on the table. “I’m sure you know it's said that my father used less than friendly means to acquire all we have.”

  Hugh nodded.

  Titan shrugged. “I’ve been wondering if the accidents are not accidents at all.”

  Hugh stilled. “If you need any assistance, you know I’ll do whatever I can.” Hugh was good at finding things. It had been the case since he was young. He’d been the first to find his wife and child, but he’d been too late. It was part of the reason he’d blamed himself for their deaths.

  Titan leaned forward. “You are helping me greatly. It would be better that my sisters left Southampton for a while, at least until I know what I’m up against.”

  Hugh frowned. “Is there something else you’re not telling me?”

  Titan’s jaw tightened. “While I can’t be sure of what happened to Electra’s first suitor, I know the second one was killed here in England and not in the war like everyone assumed.”

  “You think someone is after your family?” Hugh shook his head. “And you trust me to protect them?” Images of Maia’s lifeless body as it lay in the deserted carriage came to mind.

  Titan shook his head. “I don’t know that for certain, but I want them away from Southampton. There’s too much… death here.”

  Hugh agreed. Maia and his daughter had not died far from here, on the road from London to her home. “If I’d known you were having this issue earlier, I’d not have delayed coming to you.”

  Titan smiled. “You’re a good man, my lord. That’s why I want you to help my sisters.”

  Hugh knew there were other reasons Titan didn’t want to go to London. His fiancée had run off with another gentleman and that woman lived in London. Hugh imagined he not wish to run into her again.

  The story had been mentioned in the papers since Titan was a man of means in England, and the man his wife had run off with was a young lord. It was embarrassing to even read, and Hugh was sure Titan had felt some bit of pain.

  Titan smiled. “I’ve been following the papers. I know your friends are wedding quickly.”

  Hugh rolled his eyes. “Out of the men who are left to choose from, I’d say your sisters would be better off looking elsewhere. Sir William Tift and Lord Julius Hext are not the marrying sort. Lord Aaron Walsh is busy with two young wards who grow more mischievous every day, and Mr. Frank Lockwood is busy with his first love: science. He’s started his studies of doctoring the mind with a professor in London. We see him sparingly now.”

  Titan nodded, knowing every man Hugh mentioned. They’d all attended Oxford together. If Titan hadn’t had his own friends, he could have become one of the Men of Nashwood, the name Hugh’s friends had been given while at Oxford—ten men who had a brotherhood with its own code of honor.

  “Well,” Titan said, “I’m sure you’ll do well by my sisters.”

  “I will try.” Hugh took a breath. “Orion is in the navy. You didn’t mention Miss Taygete… or is it Mrs. Taygete now?”

  Titan grunted and crossed his arms. “If it is left up to her, it will be Sister Taygete.”

  Hugh frowned.

  Titan chuckled. “She’s declared herself a spinster. She helps in the hospitals where the wounded soldiers are brought. She’s been doing it for years. They all but call her a saint, though she tells everyone that she’s not. She’d dedicated to her work and says she has no dreams to ever marry.”

  Hugh didn’t know why, but the thought of Taygete never knowing a man’s touch seemed wrong. She’d been so full of passion that day.

  He stopped his thoughts there.

  He was inside the house of his dead wife and, according to English law, Taygete was his sister. He could never think of her that way.

  But she’d never married. He wondered why. Surely, she could work in a hospital and have a husband.

  He put his wandering thoughts aside and listened to Titan speak.

  “How soon do you wish to leave?” Titan asked.

  “I’ll visit my home a few miles away and then return for your sisters tomorrow. If you think there is any danger here, I’d like to get them to London soon.” Hugh stood.

  “Thank you.” Titian shook Hugh’s hand. “You’re more than welcome to stay for dinner. I know my mother would be delighted to see you.”

  “Thank you, but I must be off. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He left quickly, his thoughts everywhere all at once. His sisters could be in danger and though he’d let Maia down a long time ago, he would not let down who was left. He’d find them men to wed. Powerful men a criminal would think better than to test.

  It might mean calling in a few of the favors he’d collected over the years, but he was not afraid to do so under the circumstances.

  He left the Bellenger house and headed for his family estate.

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  CHAPTER FOUR

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  Taygete walked into the next room on her list and smiled at the soldier who was now sitting up in bed, but then frowned when she saw what he was up to. His hand rested over the bandage on his other arm, scratching furiously.

  “Stop it,” she hissed.

  The sailor looked up with blue eyes that showed his surprise at getting caught. He slowly colored and dropped his hand.

  A chuckle rose from the other bunk. “I told you Angel would catch you.”

  Taygete turned to smile at the warrant officer. He’d been with her for the last two weeks due to a broken leg. Though his pain had been great, she’d found that she liked him. He usually found a way to make the men around him laugh, and even herself.

  Acting Lieutenant Harris was young with angled features that softened when he smiled. He had dark eyes and dark hair and was a shameless flirt, though he never made Taygete uncomfortable like many of the other soldiers had ov
er the years.

  When she’d first come on, the surgeon’s mate in charge of the hospital had made her wear a ring in order to fool the men into believing she was married, but that illusion had been ruined when a friend had come in and outed her. But she’d already been counted as an asset to the staff that made up the hospital, so they’d allowed her to stay.

  Though she also thought it helped that she was only a volunteer and thus did not receive any sort of payment for her service.

  Either way, in the last seven years she’d learned plenty, which allowed the surgeon to leave her with more responsibility and more freedom. For her hard work and from the men she saw to, she’d earned something else. A new name.

  Angel.

  Sadly, however, the name did not mean that she brought only good things. She was an angel of light when she soothed one’s pains and an angel of darkness when she was forced to cause the men pain in order to fix broken bones or help hold them down when it was time for them to lose an infected limb. She didn’t see many of the latter, thank the heavens. Since war did not take place in Southampton, the only limbs removed were the ones men had tried to save but had gotten infected and would soon threaten the rest of their bodies if they weren’t cut away.

  Those cases always broke her heart, but she’d rather they live than die and tried finding ways to make them smile before they left the hospital.

  In the beginning, her work had been very draining, and she’d had to learn not to let every horror story she heard break her heart. Even now, she still felt for every soul she encountered, but the pain was less, which made her a better nurse.

  She walked over to the soldier and said, “Itching is good. It means you’re healing.”

  “And I’ll be able to return to the field as soon as it is,” the young man told her with a lift of his chin. “I’ll be needed if rebels don’t wish to kneel.” And his eyes said he would make them if he had to push every man, woman, and child down to the ground himself. She’d seen many brave men like him, and she hoped his courage saw him to old age.

  The war was slowly coming to an end. Napoleon had abdicated his rule only a month ago. The news had spread wide that he was now in exile at Elba.

  Still, it seemed that the sailor was not ready to see the war’s end. “Is it not over?” she asked.

  “It’s not over until that man is dead.” This came from the door.

  Taygete straightened, and her eyes widened at the sight before her.

  Dressed in his blue frock coat and white waistcoat, Master and Commander Nicholson had never looked weak a day that she knew him, not even when she’d been called to his home to assist in aiding the surgeon who’d seen to a wound in his hip.

  Her gaze went there before lifting to meet his smiling golden eyes.

  “I’m all right,” he told her, as if reading her mind.

  But they’d both already known the answer to that question. Taygete had seen him after the day they’d met… and then she’d seen more of him.

  “Back away, Commander,” Harris said. “I’ve already proposed.”

  The sailor gasped. It was unheard of for Harris, even as a ship’s captain, to speak to a commander that way. The only two ranks higher than Nicholson were captains and commodores.

  Commander Nicholson looked over at Harris and grinned. “I just came to see how you’re faring. You should have been home by now. Elizabeth has threatened not to feed me if I let you see battle again.”

  Taygete had heard about Elizabeth. She was Harris’ younger sister, and he’d told her that she was a cook in a big house at a large estate and married with two children. She’d not known that Harris and Nicholas knew one another until that very moment, but it seemed they knew one another very well. She guessed that Elizabeth was Nicholson’s cook and smiled at the familiarity in the room. It was rare to have such lively conversation in the hospital… unless one were in Harris’ room, because the man rarely seemed to take anything seriously, though she’d heard he was fierce when he needed to be.

  It was not the first time Harris had appeared in the hospital. During her first year there, he’d been present. One reckless night, she’d made a mistake that she’d remember forever. Since then, she’d become strict.

  Nicholson looked back at her and arched a dark brow. “Did you accept this man’s proposal?”

  “No,” she said before she could think better of her words. The men were known to flirt with her, but she never flirted with anyone in return. She knew better than to think about catching the eye of a sailor. Maia had taught her to guard her heart against them.

  And since most of the men she’d encountered since her sister’s death had been sailors, she’d denied them all easily.

  And those she couldn’t deny easily, like Nicholson, she simply stayed away from.

  She never planned to marry.

  Only Nicholson had ever made her wonder what it would be like to let a man hold her at night, until finally she’d let him. Shamefully, she admitted to finding him captivating even while he’d been wounded. It had been hard not to stare at the beautiful man. His shirt had been removed while the surgeon worked on him, and after noticing the wound had not been terrible, she’d looked at the rest of him… until he’d caught her looking.

  He’d grinned at her.

  And like a fool, she’d returned to his home under the guise of seeing whether or not he’d recovered.

  He had, and he’d expertly proven it over the next week, teaching Taygete about pleasure and allowing her to forget about her life whenever they touched.

  Taygete had sent a letter to her family, telling them that the surgeon had sent her away with a few others to look at a patient. In reality, she’d been with Nicholson. It was the only affair she’d ever had and ever would.

  He’d been sent back to France after that week and though she’d received letters, Taygete had only written him once, telling him that she had no plans to marry or to continue their affair. He’d not believed her and vowed to prove it upon his return.

  He’d returned days ago and had tried calling on her, but since Taygete all but ran the other nurses in the hospital, she’d found ways to avoid him.

  Until now.

  “Excellent,” he said in response to her saying she’d not marry Harris. His eyes were soft on her.

  Excellent?

  She cleared her throat and looked around the room before turning her gaze to the door, looking past Nicholson’s broad shoulders. “Well, since everyone is fine in this room, I’ll depart.”

  She was glad when her feet took her in the direction she needed to go and didn’t give out upon passing Nicholson. She was also glad he didn’t reach out to touch her, but she jumped slightly as the sound of the door closing behind her.

  “Angel,” he called.

  She spun and saw Nicholson following her. He looked large in a hallway that Taygete had always thought rather big, but with him in it, the walls seemed to close in.

  “I have rounds to make,” she informed him.

  “You work too hard.” He moved closer, taking one steady step after another until he was but a foot away. “I know you work too hard because I’m never able to find you outside of these walls.”

  Her stomach flipped. “You've tried to find me?”

  He nodded. The gesture, which should have been stiff coming from a man like him, was instead done with the grace and ease of an aristocrat.

  But then she recalled that he was an aristocrat. His family, the Nicholsons, were very wealthy. His brother was Lord Chief Justice of England, the second highest judge in the kingdom after Lord Chancellor. Their father had been part of the king’s privy council and had risen to the peerage as Baron Nicholas before taking the position of Lord Chancellor.

  She’d learned all of this after meeting Commander Nicholson, compelled to understand that man who everyone adored… and the first man to make her heart flutter since Hugh Vance, the Marquess of Edvoy.

  “Yes,” he whispered. “I have been look
ing for you, hoping to catch you at a place that was more convenient for us both, but it seems this is all I have.”

  “Why would you be looking for me?”

  He stepped closer and bent his head. She could see the glory of the gold threaded in his eyes. “I think you know.”

  She did. She knew. She’d seen it in his eyes that first day they’d met and every day after. Some sort of connection had been made. She wanted desperately to avoid it.

  “I want you court you.”

  Breath left her, though how it managed to escape her closing throat, she didn’t know. Neither did she know how she managed to get out a single word. “No.”

  He took her hand. “Don’t tell me no.”

  She felt the command course through her. The want to obey was overwhelming.

  She closed her eyes and shook her head.

  “Angel…”

  She didn’t move. Didn’t look at him. She only prayed he’d go again. Vanish.

  He let go of her hand, and she opened her eyes to witness him take a step back. When he spoke again, his voice was casual. “I thought I might compel you and your family to join me for dinner,” he said, bringing her mind back around.

  “No.” She looked down. “I’m sorry, but… I don’t have time.”

  “I’ve not even given you a date.” She could hear the confusion in his voice. He obviously didn’t hear ‘no’ very often.

  His next words were even more startling than the others. “I know I’m not the first man to propose to you, but I plan to be the last.” His eyes asked her to challenge him.

  Rushing feet made her turn, glad for the distraction. She looked down the hall and blinked and then blinked again when she realized who was coming after her.

  Electra didn’t stop until she was right upon Taygete, and even then, she didn’t stop. Her arms wrapped around her sister. She leaned back and smiled wildly. “He said yes.”