“I will.” John was feeling uncomfortable. He realized he’d offended Susan.
“And as for the playhouse, I thought if the two of you began planning it now, as she got older the two of you could build it together, and I believe the both of you would benefit greatly from that.
“And I would also like your permission to take her on some walks with me in the mornings. Not the extended walks I take for myself but, again, just to introduce her to exercise and the joys of nature.”
John added, “All of those are excellent ideas, Miss Susan. And it occurred to me as you spoke that a tree swing might also be enjoyable for her.”
“Oh, most certainly, John. I am so happy you agree.”
John smiled and nodded. And once again he found himself greatly enjoying looking at the beautiful woman before him. It had been a long time—far too long, in fact, since he had sincerely appreciated such a lovely lady.
“Miss Susan, you have my permission to do as you like with Elizabeth, and I shall make arrangements for a pony, a swing, and, if you remind me, I’ll find some time to begin treehouse discussions with my daughter. How does that sound?”
“Most excellent,” Susan said as she rose to leave.
John held up his hand to stop her. “Miss Susan, forgive me for my earlier comments on the workers’ children. I don’t mean to sound as if I find them inferior; it’s just that I need to keep a separation from my work life and my private life. Can you understand that?”
Susan seemed to consider that. “Yes, Your Grace, I can.”
Uh oh, John thought, she’s used ‘Your Grace’ again. She’s definitely not happy with me.
But she was so damningly appealing he could not be angry with her for even one minute.
Elizabeth had taken to walking in the morning with Susan like a bee to a flower. But there was much more stooping to examine something new, or picking a small bouquet of flowers, than actual walking. It was not unlike taking a puppy for a walk that needed to stop and smell everything, tugging at the lead every five seconds.
One morning Elizabeth discovered a mushroom, and like so many children decided to taste it. Unfortunately, Susan’s attention was diverted by seeing John approaching with his dogs.
“Good morning, John,” Susan called out as he neared. The sun was shining in her face and she put up her hand to her eyes.
“Susan, lovely morning, is it not?”
“Yes, lovely.”
John arrived and the dogs, seeing Elizabeth ran over to her, circling and sniffing. One of the dogs barked and looked over at John. He looked over at the dog and froze and blanched.
“What?” Susan cried out and turned to where John was looking.
Elizabeth was sitting on the ground eating what both she and John instantly recognized as a poisonous mushroom.
John raced over, knocked the fungus from her hand, as she looked up startled and began to cry. He kneeled down and stuck his finger down her throat and she began gagging and then threw up what she’d just eaten.
John looked up at Susan who had come over.
“Hopefully she won’t have ingested any of this, but take her to her room, put her to bed, and watch her. I’m going to ride for the doctor. Make her drink lots of water and let her vomit if she can.”
John picked Elizabeth up and he began running toward the house with the dogs at his heels. Susan ran after and as they neared the house, John handed Elizabeth over to Susan and he ran to the stable.
Susan ran into the house and told a kitchen maid, “Please find Aunt Clarissa and have her come to the child’s room immediately.”
“Yes, Miss,” the maid said, scampering off to alert Aunt.
Elizabeth was still crying as Susan put her on the child’s bed.
“It’s going to be all right,” Susan assured Elizabeth.
“Was I bad?” Elizabeth asked.
“No, honey, not bad, but you may have made your tummy a little sick. Your father’s gone to get the doctor and he’ll make you all better.”
Aunt Clarissa burst into the room.
“What happened?” she asked coming over to the bedside.
“Bad mushrooms. I’m afraid it’s entirely my fault. I wasn’t watching. John’s gone to fetch for the doctor.”
“Has she vomited,” Clarissa asked.
“Yes.”
“And do you have any idea how long she had it in her stomach?”
“Not long at all. I had only just looked away as John was approaching.”
Clarissa felt the girl’s forehead for fever. “She seems to be running a light temperature. Hopefully, you caught it quickly enough. Let’s get her drinking water.”
Clarissa went to the bedside table and poured a glass of water from a pitcher. She gave Elizabeth the glass.
“Here, my dear, drink as much as you can.”
Elizabeth took the glass in both hands and began drinking the water.
“I feel terrible, Clarissa. I should have been watching her more closely.”
“Susan, these things happen. She’s young and doesn’t know the danger.”
After emptying the glass Elizabeth said, “I don’t feel very well. My tummy hurts.”
“Lie back, honey,” Clarissa said.
Elizabeth lay back and Clarissa began to massage her abdomen.
“Does that feel any better?”
“A little.”
“How can I help?” Susan asked, obviously shaken by the experience.
“Let’s just sit with her. Maybe you could read to her until the doctor arrives.”
“That’s a good idea,” Susan said, finding one of Elizabeth’s favorite books and bringing it over, and sitting on the side of the bed to begin reading to her.
Soon, Elizabeth began to drift off to sleep.
“Is it all right if she sleeps?” Susan asked.
Clarissa felt Elizabeth’s forehead again. “She’s not getting any hotter. I think it might do her good.” She turned to leave. “I’ll be in my room if you need me.”
Within the hour, Doctor Hilliard and John arrived. The Doctor immediately went to the bedside and began examining the girl.
John stood back to watch. Susan went over to him.
“How’s she doing?” John asked her.
“She complains of a stomach ache and she’s running a low fever, but there have not been any signs she’s worsening.”
“Good.”
John kept staring as the doctor worked with her.
Susan put her hand on John’s arm. “I feel terrible. I feel this is my fault.”
“How could you say that?” J0hn asked turning to her.
“I wasn’t watching her closely enough.”
“Nonsense, you only turned away for a moment. I saw you watching her before you turned to look at me coming toward you.”
“But she was under my watch. She was my responsibility. If anything happens to her…” Susan began to tear up.
John put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her to him.
Doctor Hilliard turned to John. “I think she’s going to be fine. You were very quick acting and I don’t believe there will be any lasting damage beyond feeling bad for a few days. Let her sleep as much as she wants, and let her up when she wants to.” He stood up and went over to John and Susan. “Monitor her and let me know if anything changes.”
“We will, and thank you, Doctor,” Susan said.
Standish was standing at the door.
“He’ll show you out,” John said, and the doctor left with the butler.
Susan gave a sigh of relief and rested her head against John’s shoulder. He put his arm around her.
“It’s fine. Everything will be just fine.”
John had invited Susan to visit him in the library at three o’clock to discuss plans for the new school. And Elizabeth, now fully recovered from what was being called the mushroom incident, was taking her afternoon nap.
John was putting a book into its slot on one of the library shelves a
s Susan entered.
“There you are. Good,” John greeted. “Where would you like to start?”
“Where would you like to start? This is primarily your project. You must have some ideas about what you want,” Susan asked.
John walked to the library window that had his favorite view of the park and stood looking out with his hands clasped behind his back.
“I’m not an educator. I know very little about how a school is organized and run. All I want is what is best for my workers’ children.”
“Both boys and girls?” she asked.
“Of course,” John said turning to face Susan. “Why would I not?”
“I’ve found that most parents value a better education for their boys who must go out into the world to work. Many feel an education for a girl is a waste of time and money. Best just keep them in the house tending to the babies and making dinner.”
“That’s rubbish, and you know it,” John said a little sternly.
“Of course, I know it. But I needed to see what your outlook was. Thank you for clarifying that for me.” She gave him a teasing smile.
John wagged his finger at her. “You’re being naughty with me. Huh?”
“Only for the sake of the children.”
“Very well. Now that you have that out of your system, tell me about your teaching philosophy.”
“Where I was teaching before, the classes were organized boys of all ages in one class and girls of all ages in another. It is not a very efficient way of teaching, because no matter what level you are teaching at, there are always going to be older or younger children who are being left out of the lesson.
My idea is to have both boys and girls in a single class—only the classes will be organized by age groups so that you are teaching at the level of the class. It’s simple but it’s also revolutionary in today’s thoughts on education.”
“Hmm. Might that not be distracting to have boys and girls in the same class?”
“Are you suggesting the boys and girls are not at the same level of learning ability?”
“Not at all. I’m suggesting rowdiness and distraction. How can boys and girls study together without there being sexual distraction?”
“I agree there might be some distraction at first, but once the children get used to the idea, I believe that will disappear. And it might even stimulate healthy competition between the sexes to see who might be the superior students.”
John paced the library and thought about this proposal.
“Most interesting. But how many teachers would that require? I can see one teacher teaching a single sex class in the morning and the other sex in an afternoon class. But if you have the children separated out by age groups how would that work? Would there need to be a teacher for each one of those groups?”
“Yes, but the quality of education would be far superior. The teacher would have the class for a whole day, and without the distraction of having to be concerned with students outside the age group.”
“And how many of these classes do you propose?”
“Three—beginning, intermediate, and advanced.”
“So, there would need to be three teachers?”
“Yes.”
“That’s a much greater expense.”
“It is. But the children would benefit greatly.”
“Hmm. I will need to give this some thought.”
“Let me ask you, do you have a budget for the school?” Susan asked as she was becoming excited by the prospect of the school.
“Not yet. That is what I would like us to work on together.”
“Then would it be possible for me to see Hollyoak, now that there is no longer a possibility of losing it? It would help me think about the physical makeup of the school rooms. There may need to be changes and we would need to consider the cost of those changes.”
“Excellent idea. Why don’t we drive over there tomorrow afternoon, if you can arrange care for Elizabeth at about this same time?”
“What if we take Elizabeth with us? I think she would enjoy the outing. And might this not one day also be Elizabeth’s school?
“Yes, I think she would enjoy that. And maybe we could stop by the village and introduce her to some children of her age?” John added.
“You’d consider that? Children of another class?” she asked remembering their previous conversation on suitable playmates for her.
“Even I am susceptible to change.”
“Then I’ll be ready,” Susan said smiling.
Chapter 15
It had been difficult for Elizabeth to concentrate on her studies the next morning. She was looking forward to their journey to the school and she kept asking if it was time to go yet.
Susan was much relieved when it finally was time to go. She bundled Elizabeth up as it was a blustery October day.
John had arranged for a closed carriage to take them to Hollyoak. Elizabeth was so excited she could barely sit still as the carriage got underway. She looked out the window and pointed to a field of grazing sheep. She carried on a running conversation with herself as she commented on what she was seeing.
Then John said to Susan, “It’s the perfect time for this inspection because we’re going to be starting the sheering in two days and I’ll be tied up until the wool is finally shipped to market.”
“Won’t it be nice to have your own shipping station once the railway is built?” Susan asked.
“It’ll be a great added benefit. And I’ve begun to think about how else I might use that train stop. Perhaps I could invite other wool producers to form a co-op and we could ship together and lower the shipping costs for all of us.”
Susan turned to John. “Most ingenious. And what if you wanted to take a passenger train to London? Could you use the stop for that?”
“Good idea. I’ll need to find out about that.”
The carriage soon arrived at the Hollyoak house. It was about half a mile from the worker’s village, so it would be easy for the children to walk to school. The three emerged from the carriage and studied the house. It had been constructed as a simple country home. It was of brick construction with two stories and a slate roof. The front had not been landscaped yet, but Annabel’s holly bushes were clustered behind the house.
“I’m sorry it’s not very inviting,” John said. “It would look a lot better with roses, some nice bushes, and a flower garden.”
“That might be a nice project for the school children to tackle at some point,” Susan suggested.
“Can we go inside?” Elizabeth asked, pulling at John’s arm.
“We certainly can. Come.”
John led the way to the front door. He unlocked it and they went inside the empty house. It had never been furnished, and it smelled a bit musty, even though it had never been lived in.
“It needs airing out,” Susan said.
“Yes, it’s been closed up a long time. But what do you think? Would this work as your school?”
“We’ll need at least three school rooms. Some office space, perhaps a nap room for the younger children, and a working kitchen so we can make lunches. Let me just walk around and inspect the rooms.”
“I think the downstairs sitting room could work as one class room and the master bedroom upstairs as well. And perhaps the dining room, although it would need to be fitted with doors.”
Elizabeth took Susan’s hand. “Can I go see with you?”
“Of course.”
Susan and Elizabeth wandered the house, upstairs and down and finally returned to where John was examining a cupboard in the kitchen that had a loose door.
“What do you think?” John asked. “Any thoughts on what needs to be done to the house before we open as a school?”
“I think it could be used pretty much as it is. But it would be nice to have some fresh paint, don’t you think? Maybe some brighter colors would be more welcoming for the children. However, we’re also going to need some furniture—school desks, chalkboards, teacher�
��s desks, office furniture, school books—the usual.
“Any idea what all that might cost?”
“No idea. But I can find out.”
“Then let’s make it your next task to put together a proposal for what you’ll need and the costs. Then I think we can move forward.”
“And when do you think we might open?” she asked.
“It’s a bit late for this school year. But we could be ready to start classes next autumn, I should say.”
“What do you want to name it?” Susan asked.
“Why, the Annabel Chamberlain School, don’t you think?” John said smiling.
“It couldn’t be more perfect.”
“Will this be my school?” Elizabeth asked.
“We’ll need to decide that later,” John said. “You’re still a little too young for school yet.”
“But I want to play with other children,” Elizabeth said.
“And so you shall. In fact, we’re going to meet some children this very minute.”
“We are?” Elizabeth was excited.
John turned to Susan. “Are you ready to go?”
Susan nodded, and John ushered them outside and locked up the house. They got into the carriage and drove over to the worker’s village.
It was late afternoon and different groups of children were playing in the central square, around which the village was constructed. As the Duke’s carriage drew to a stop, curious children came running over to see who was visiting their tiny village. And as the mothers and fathers were always watchful of their children, they too came out to see who had arrived.
As most of the men were out with the sheep, the women stood at their doorsteps, arms folded, observing—reluctant to intrude upon the Duke unless he spoke to them first.
The Duke, Susan, and his daughter got out of the carriage. Susan had not been here before and she was a little shocked by the obvious poverty of the village inhabitants.
Several of the younger children came over to greet Elizabeth, and she seemed to be delighted.
“How many children will the school be serving?” Susan asked John, as she surveyed the playing children.
“Perhaps fifty or so.”
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