“For two years now, the two of you have been…” Her cheeks reddened. “…intimate,” she whispered. “How is it marriage never came up in conversation?”
He combed fingers through his hair. “Because I feared she would...”
“Refuse the idea,” Sunny interrupted.
He nodded.
“And if she were so in love with you, why do you think she would do that?”
He reclaimed his seat and rested his head back, closing his eyes. “Point taken.”
Her voice softened. “I cannot tell you how much I hate being right about this. But I knew from the start Collette Halston is a woman who lives like a man. She wants no binds, loves adventure in different countries, and will not be tied down to a family. Children are something she would detest. Is that the sort of mate you deserve?”
He opened his eyes to search her sapphire orbs. “We do not always get what we deserve.”
“You speak the truth, but in this case you already know the outcome, so why put yourself through more pain?”
He leaned forward in his seat. “I have only surmised the outcome because I have been influenced by what you and others see and say about Collette. Perhaps I should let Collette speak for herself.”
Sunny frowned. “Then you plan on asking her to marry you?”
“It seems I have waited too long already,” he said.
She sighed. “Well then, when do you plan to leave for London?”
He stood, hope welling in his heart. “The first thing tomorrow, on the morning train.”
Chapter Three
On the ride back to her residence in Glenshire Sussex, the lovely hamlet about three quarters of an hour from London, Riley Flanders’ thoughts raced. What had Lady Collins kept from her all these years that Top Hat Tom had privilege to?
Once at Collins Stead, she escaped to her room, a sanctuary at the rear of the mansion, decorated in a soft rose shade with cream accents. A tranquil chamber which was perfect to sort out the sullen and confused mood she harbored.
Her gaze drifted to the vase of flowers that rested beside her toilet table. For a moment the weekly cornucopia of fresh roses, arranged painstakingly by Betsy, had her thinking. How pertinent was it to have a fresh bouquet each day when the money could be better spent helping others? Yet this arrangement became the several important trivialities that made up the sum of the upstairs maid’s day.
When Jane entered the room, she helped to remove Riley’s dress and clicked her tongue in reproach. “Look ’ere now, miss, traipsin’ around the seedy side o’ town’s dirtied the ’em o’ yer dress.” The attendant forced a smile. “But never fear; there’s not a stain around that I can’t wipe out.”
“I’m sorry to drag you along with me on these outings. I know how much you hate going to that part of town.” She sighed, sitting on the edge of the bed clad in only a chemise. “But I made a promise to myself that if and when I ever made it out of the tunnels and had the means to help the others still there, I would. And since Auntie Cinda forbids me to wander around town unescorted, I have no choice but to have you accompany me.”
“Ye’re not one o’ them. Ye ’eard what Tom said; ye were born o’ proud blood.”
“My mother is the reason for the proud blood that courses through my veins. Not from whence she comes.”
“But ’er father was the ’onorable Judge Forester Noble,” Jane said.
“And how much of an upstanding man did he turn out to be? He disinherited his daughter because she followed her heart? He had no qualms about letting her and the child she bore starve for a matter of principle. Then upon his death bed, he wills all his money to charity...helping feed strangers, instead of his own flesh and blood.”
“Power makes some do strange things. I coome from poor folks myself, but I thank the sweet Lord I was more fortunate then the poor souls livin’ in the gutter.”
“Society has forgotten them. They’re treated less than human.”
“No one should be ’urt in such a way. But ’tis not yer responsibility to ’elp them all.” Jane readied Riley’s toilettes for a bath.
Riley took another audible breath. “I know I can’t help them all, but I can help some, and I won’t stop until I make a difference...even if it’s in a small way. Do you hear me, Jane?”
“Aye, I ’ear ye.” Jane placed a chubby hand on Riley’s cheek. “Now, off with yer chemise and into the tub with ye.” She covered Riley’s nakedness with a silk robe. “At least I can wash away the grime o’ that place from yer flesh, even if I can’t wash it from yer ’eart.”
“I won’t take such a long soak tonight. I want to speak with Auntie Cinda before she has her dinner and retires for the evening. It’s about time I found out the truth, and I’m determined not to walk away without it.”
****
Riley found her aunt propped up on the library divan reading a book, legs covered with a quilt, shoulders wrapped in a shawl, a fire burning in the fireplace.
“Are you feeling any better this evening?” She sat in a nearby chair.
Lucinda looked out from atop the rim of her spectacles, a small smile curving her thin lips. “At the age of seventy, my dear, one is happy to just be able to move their bowels. And since I accomplished that task quite successfully today, then I am much better off this evening then I was the last.”
She giggled at her aunt’s humor. Lady Lucinda Collins was an outspoken woman, holding back none of what she thought and little of what she felt on most occasions. Tonight Riley would challenge that forth-righteousness.
She sat back in her seat and took an audible breath. “Do you remember, once I hit the teen years, all the questions I’d ask?”
Lady Collins chuckled. “You were a well-spring of curiosity, if I recollect.”
“Most times you answered them quite to my satisfaction,” she confessed.
“I am pleased to hear that, my dear.”
“But there was one you were completely vague about explaining, and I believe it is time for you to indulge me with the details.” Riley sat forward.
Lady Collin’s smile fell, and her mouth tensed. The wrinkles framing her lips puckered like material pulled taunt by a threaded needle. “I should be happy to, if I can.”
“There are certain facts about my mother’s age in prospective to my birth that doesn’t make sense.”
Lucinda’s expression grew stern, reminding Riley of the times she was about to be chastised and disciplined for being disobedient. Though her aunt doled out punishments with a fair and considerate hand, the outcome was never pleasant to endure.
Not waiting for a reply, she continued to speak her mind. “Correct me, my lady, if I am wrong, but wasn’t my mother your childhood friend?”
“Aye, there were three of us girls who were very close, Anita Noble, Amelia Bentley, and myself.” She chuckled. “We were as tight as herrings in a barrel.”
“And you were all the same age?”
“Nay, I was the eldest, five years older than Anita and a year older than Amelia,” Lucinda explained. She marked the page of the book by creasing a corner, before closing the cover, then slipped off her specs and frowned. “What troubles you, Riley?”
She returned the frown. “I was just thinking if Anita ran away at the age of twenty-two to marry the gardener’s son, Eugene Flanders, as I am told, she would have had to live twenty more years as his wife before I was born. Why would a man, so many years married and loving the same woman, decide to abandon her when she finally becomes expectant with his child?”
Lucinda fidgeted with her shawl before answering. “You did know your father was several years older than your mother?”
“Aye, twelve years her senior, I’ve been told.”
Lucinda nodded. “I believe, after so many years childless, the stress of a newborn at the age of fifty-two was too much for Eugene. He wasn’t a skilled man in anything but gardening, and his love for a mug of ale made his work ethics unreliable, thus the household was ru
nning on debt at it was. A drunk is bad enough to cope with, but an overwhelmed drunk is impossible.”
“So he becomes overwhelmed, and instead of working with my mother to make the household solvent, he decides to abandon his wife and daughter?”
“Aye, that’s the way of it. As I said, he was a drunk. There is no reasoning to what they will or won’t do. And Anita, after a decade of cleaning mansions and taking in laundry to keep food on the table, grew too old and ill herself for such strenuous work. You were eleven at the time she died, thus becoming my ward, at her request.”
“As I calculate the math, Eugene would have to be going into his seventy-fifth year of life at this point in time...truly an old man.”
“Aye, if he were still alive.” Lucinda shook her head. “But a man who drank as much as Eugene did is probably long dead by now.”
“Then what I learned today, while taking Top Hat Tom blankets, is truly strange.”
Lucinda frowned. “You know I don’t like you hanging about in that part of town.”
“Putting that aside, I am much more troubled about what Naomi said.”
Lucinda gave a sardonic laugh. “That little twit. She was always making trouble for your mother. Why would you take stock in anything she had to say?”
“Because her words were quite compelling,” she admitted.
“I find it difficult to believe anything compelling could come from Naomi’s mouth,” Lucinda retorted.
“Well then, I’ll let you be the judge. Naomi said she met a man who claims to be my father. The strange thing is, Auntie, he is just entering his forties. Something doesn’t figure correctly here,” Riley said. “And I think it’s time I get to the bottom of it all immediately. Tom suggested I talk with you on the matter first.”
“He did, did he?”
Riley nodded.
Lucinda placed a hand on her chest. “Must we go through this all now, my dear?”
“Aye, right now,” she said.
“Well then, since you are that determined to wake a sleeping dog...”
“I am very determined,” she interrupted.
Lucinda folded her bony white hands in her lap. “Eugene Flanders isn’t your father. The truth is,” she said, clearing her throat, “Anita isn’t your mother either.”
Riley drew a deep breath punctuated with several gasps and forbade her body to tremble. Meeting Lucinda’s gaze, she answered in a rush of words. “I woke this morning Riley Gretchen Flanders, and by this evening I am not sure who I am.”
“You are Riley Gretchen Flanders Delaney,” was Lucinda’s soft reply.
Defiance as well as a subtle challenge laced Riley’s tone. “And who the bloody hell are my parents?”
Lucinda seemed startled by Riley’s harsh response. Yet, she uttered no rebuttal or objection. Instead, a hand reached out to draw Riley near.
She shifted to sit on the edge of the divan, gripping the elder woman’s hand like it was a lifeline. “Tell me the truth.”
“Aye, I would say it is about time for you to know your birthright,” Lucinda whispered, suddenly looking more frail than when the conversation began. “Your mathematical calculations are accurate.” She laughed sardonically. “My fault, I suppose, for insisting you become accomplished in your schoolwork.”
“Please, go on,” she prodded, her patience hanging by a thin thread.
Lady Collins cleared her throat. “Anita Noble did indeed run off with the gardener’s son, Eugene Flanders. She was twenty, and he was thirty-two. But that is where the truth ends.”
“Then tell me where it continues,” she demanded.
“Anita became with child within a matter of months after her elopement but had a miscarriage. Then, about five years later she gave birth to another babe, a daughter, given the name Mavis. Anita loved her deeply, wanting all the best life could offer the child. But that wasn’t to be. With Eugene losing every job due to his drinking, the couple became more and more destitute. And then, when Mavis was only three years old, Eugene abandoned his family and was never heard from again.”
“Did Anita’s family really disown her?” Riley probed.
“Aye, cut her off from their love as well as their money,” Lucinda said. “I did what I could for her, when I could. But my father, a friend himself of Judge Noble, didn’t want to get in the middle of their family’s affairs. So, he forbade my donations to Anita. Since I never liked going against my father, my contributions soon became far and few between.”
“Definitely not enough to really sustain them,” she added.
Lucinda shook her head. “It then became necessary for Anita to seek her own employment, thus her cleaning and laundry business began.”
“And what of Mavis?” she said.
“The child, with a rich crop of auburn curls upon her head, was smart and resourceful,” Lucinda explained. “But unfortunately, she was left way too much to her own devices, due to her mother needing to work. At the tender age of fourteen, Mavis cavorted with a young chap who came by way of a town called Limerick in Ireland. His name was Kevin Delaney. By the time Mavis was fifteen, she bore him a daughter.”
“And she named the babe Riley Gretchen,” Riley added.
“Aye, that she did,” Lucinda confirmed.
Her voice shook with emotion. “Where is Mavis now, my lady?”
Lucinda paused. “She is dead.”
She stood and made her way to the fireplace, looking down at the flames burning the logs. It wasn’t the cool autumn evening that chilled her bones. “How did she die?”
“Giving life to you,” Lady Collins said.
She turned to face her aunt. “And what happened to Kevin Delaney?”
“He brought you to Anita after Mavis died, told her he needed to travel to Ireland’s shores to look for work. He asked that she care for you until he could get on his feet financially, and she didn’t deny him.”
“Then he planned on returning for me?”
“Aye, I think that was his honest intention since he wrote to Anita throughout the first year of your childhood, sending money he earned while working as a chimney-sweep. Then one day, the letters and funds ceased, and Kevin Delaney was never heard from again. Years passed; you grew older...so did Anita. And well, you know the rest.”
“So Anita Flanders is my grandmother,” Riley mumbled.
Lady Collins nodded.
“And this chap Naomi claims is looking for me could very well be my father,” she added with a slight frown.
“Aye, but then again, as I’ve said previously, it is hard to believe anything Naomi says,” Lucinda confirmed.
“I believe this time Naomi is telling the truth.”
“I suppose it is your right to meet him.”
She lifted her chin. “Aye, I would reproach myself forever if I didn’t take this opportunity. Besides, he has much to explain.”
“Very well, but you will take along Jane and Charles,” Lucinda demanded.
“Aye, you have my word,” Riley agreed.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you all this sooner. But it was your grandmother’s request upon her deathbed that you never learn of your illegitimate birth,” Lucinda said.
“Who else knows I’m not Anita’s daughter?”
“As far as I know, only the man you call Top Hat Tom. But I would assume he’s confided in Naomi, since she’s brought this to your attention,” Lucinda said.
“If he did, then he had good reason as Tom would never do anything to hurt me.”
Lucinda nodded. “He stuck by Anita through all her trials. And thank the good Lord he did, as I was unable to do much for her.”
“Tom always brought us food just when we needed it,” she remembered. “This is the reason I won’t let him down. I truly want to help him and all the others he tries to help. There isn’t a selfish bone in that man’s body.”
Lucinda frowned. “I still don’t like you in that part of town.”
“I know, and I’m sorry to worry you. But
Tom was there for me, and I won’t forget that.”
Lucinda reluctantly nodded. “Then are we settled on this matter, my dear? Am I forgiven for hiding the truth from you all these years?”
Riley smiled. “All is well between us, Auntie Cinda. Besides, I can’t be too harsh on you now, can I?”
Lucinda chuckled. “I’m hoping you can’t.”
“You were only keeping a death bed promise to your dearest friend. I cannot fault you for that.” She made her way to the divan, laid her aunt’s book and spectacles on a nearby table, and pushed aside the quilt. Riley grasped the elder woman’s hand. “Now, let me help you in to dinner.”
Chapter Four
Gabriel should have headed back to Brighton on the next available train once he had left Collette’s mansion. But his unexpected visit found her preparing to leave for Egypt with a shady looking character by the name of Jackson Hodge. The whole episode upset him so much that he had the carriage driver drop him in town. With a knapsack across one shoulder, he walked into a pub and ordered a mug of ale. Sitting alone at a corner table, sipping the cold brew, he mentally rehashed his conversation with Collette.
She did not hesitate to tell him exactly what he meant, or in this case what he did not mean to her. Perhaps he should have spoken of love?
Yes, how foolish of me. One does not propose marriage without mentioning love. But deep inside he had a strong inkling words of love would have only made the situation worse. And he was ashamed to admit, he had none to speak.
Could it be that deep down I also realized, as did Collette, the bond we shared was only a physical one, and not strong enough for marriage?
Embarrassed for his lustful actions void of the marriage vows, he pushed aside a lock of hair from his forehead before taking another swig of the ale.
“And so, who have we here,” a familiar voice boomed.
Gabriel glanced up to see Captain Simon Canvendish, Sunny’s brother-in-law, standing over him with a wide grin.
Simon looked around the pub. “Is my brother with you?”
Gabriel shook his head and laughed. “You could not pry Rafe from my sister’s side. Every move she makes, every groan she utters, he believes the baby comes.”
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