by Merry Farmer
“It makes me happy,” Aggie said with a smile.
They reached the hospital and walked through the front door, which was held open by a young, African boy. Aggie rewarded him with a smile, and was charmed by his toothy grin in return.
“We’re here to see Col. Montgomery,” Andrew told the man behind the front desk. “He’s expecting us.”
“Yes, sir. Just one moment.” The man nodded to them, then slipped away, down a back corridor.
Andrew leaned against the counter as they waited, smiling at Aggie as though she were the most beautiful part of the stunning view. She blushed at his attention, surprised at how calm she felt, all things considered.
“I know we’ve only been here a week,” Andrew began, a dreamy look in his eyes, “but what would you think about staying in Cape Town?”
“Staying?” Aggie blinked. “Forever?”
Andrew shrugged. “Assuming I can find employment. I’m sure there’s a bookshop that needs minding around here somewhere.”
Aggie laughed. “You could do so much more than running a bookshop. You could do anything you wanted to.”
His smile widened. “With you by my side, I’m sure I could.”
“And I think I could be happy here,” she said. “Africa is exciting, and it’s so beautiful.”
“Col. Montgomery will see you now,” the hospital employee interrupted them before Aggie could elaborate. A thrill of excitement zipped through her, and she reached for Andrew’s hand.
A change came over Andrew as the hospital employee led them back through a series of whitewashed corridors and up a flight of stairs to a comfortable-looking wing of the hospital. Aggie watched as his eyes filled with hope and expectation. He seemed younger somehow, as if any information he might learn about his past would lift the burden of years of not knowing from his shoulders.
The hospital employee showed them into a space that looked more like a sitting room than a hospital. There, sitting in a lounge chair by an open window, was a wizened old man wrapped in a crisp, white robe, striped pajamas showing underneath.
“Col. Montgomery, your guests are here,” the hospital employee introduced them.
Andrew tensed and Aggie squeezed his hand as the old man looked up. Aggie could tell in an instant that his eyesight wasn’t good, but he managed to smile in Andrew’s direction all the same.
“Andrew Noble?” he asked. “Is that you?”
“Yes, sir.” Andrew let go of her hand and crossed the room to sit in the chair by Col. Montgomery’s side. When Col. Montgomery raised a shaking hand spotted with age, Andrew took it in both of his. “It’s a pleasure to meet you at last, sir.”
“The pleasure is all mine, my boy,” Col. Montgomery said. He glanced past Andrew to Aggie. “And who is this?”
Aggie came forward as Andrew said, “This is my wife, sir. Agatha Noble.”
“Oh?” Col. Montgomery’s brow went up for a moment before his expression settled into a smile. “She’s a beauty.”
“Thank you, sir,” Aggie replied, seating herself on the edge of his lounge chair when he gestured.
“I’m a very lucky man,” Andrew said, sending Aggie a fond smile. He turned back to Col. Montgomery. “But I’m curious to know why you asked me to come.”
“Ah.” Col. Montgomery let out a long sigh. “I guess it’s only right to get straight to the point. I’m dying, my boy.”
“Don’t say that, sir,” Aggie rushed to comfort him, resting a hand on his knee.
Col. Montgomery laughed. “There’s no point in denying the inevitable, my dear. But I have long desired to relieve myself of a particular burden before I go.” He turned to Andrew. “That burden involves you, son. You and your mother.”
“My mother?” Andrew shook his head in confusion and shrugged. “She’s been gone these past five years, sir. Surely you must have heard.”
“No, no.” Col. Montgomery shook his head. “Not Margaret Noble.” He let out another long sigh and winced as he shifted his position. Aggie took the pause to glance at Andrew. An intense light filled Andrew’s face. “No,” Col. Montgomery went on. “I mean your true mother.”
“My mother abandoned me under a bush when I was an infant,” Andrew said, his voice hoarse and laden with emotion.
Col. Montgomery shook his head. “That is what has always burdened me. It did not happen that way. I’m afraid I was complicit in a deceit that may have brought happiness to some, but misery to others.”
Aggie’s heart raced. She reached for Andrew’s hand as he said, “Please explain, sir.”
Col. Montgomery settled himself in his chair, fixing Andrew with an apologetic smile. “Your dear mother, and by that I mean Margaret Noble, was desperate for a child. And your father, my friend, was desperate to give her one. They tried and tried for years to have a child of their own, but God does not always grant the wishes of those who appeal to him.”
He paused as if contemplating the past. Aggie and Andrew waited patiently for him to go on.
“It is true that you were found abandoned under a bush,” Col. Montgomery went on. “Although, as it turns out, you were not as abandoned as was first thought.”
“How so?” Andrew asked with a frown.
“Your mother by birth was a Xhosa woman and a member of a tribe that lived a few miles away. They were a well-known tribe that sometimes helped the British Army with manual labor and such, although relations were tense. There had been a famine, you know, and many of the poor blighters were starving.”
Aggie caught her breath in sympathy, but kept silent, eager for Col. Montgomery to go on.
“Your mother was out searching for food. She figured it would be easier to hunt and gather without a babe strapped to her, as women often did. Unfortunately, she paid for that lack of judgement. Your father, John Noble, that is, found you under the bush while your mother by birth was gathering food. It was three days before the woman came to the fort, desperate for any word that you had been found.”
“My true mother came searching for me?” Andrew asked, eyes wide, a flush darkening his cheeks.
Col. Montgomery nodded sadly. “Only by that point, Margaret had become attached to you. She and John argued, but in the end Margaret argued that any woman who would leave her baby unattended for so long didn’t deserve to be a mother. John gave in to her in the end. Your mother by birth was told that you were not found.” Col. Montgomery shook his head, old sadness in his eyes. “I spoke the Xhosa language, and I was the one who had to lie to her. I’ll never forget the grief in that poor woman’s eyes. She believed you must have been eaten by wild dogs. I’ll never forget the sound of her keening.”
“But….” Andrew began, barely able to hold himself still. Aggie watched his breath come in shallow gasps, watched his expression pinch with emotion. “But is she still alive? Is she still nearby?”
Col. Montgomery shrugged. “I don’t know. The natives move around a lot, and relations with the Xhosa and the Zulu are not good right now. But yes, I suppose she could still be living.”
“I have to find her,” Andrew breathed, squeezing Aggie’s hand. “If there’s any chance she still lives, I have to find her.”
“We will,” Aggie assured him. “No matter how long it takes, we’ll stay here and find her and the rest of your people.”
He smiled at her, and a strange sense of completeness filled her, even as she could see the growing sense of incompleteness in Andrew’s eyes. She had lost her family, the world she’d known, by marrying Andrew and coming with him on this quest. But that whole time, he had stood by her. He had pledged to be her family. Now here they were, a new world opening to him, and she was determined to stay by his side.
“I’m sure there are records in the regimental office that would help you begin your search,” Col. Montgomery said. “I only wish I wasn’t so frail, or I’d help you.”
“You’ve been a great help, sir,” Andrew said, patting the man’s shoulder. “More than you could ever imagin
e.”
Aggie and Andrew stayed with him for a while longer, listening as the old man recounted stories of his youth and of Andrew’s father. But even as she listened, Aggie was planning ways they could continue the search for Andrew’s true family.
“I’m willing to stay in South Africa for as long as it takes,” she told Andrew when they finally left the hospital that evening. “I’ll use all of my power and influence, if I have any, to search for your mother.”
“Thank you,” Andrew said. In spite of the fact that they were on a public street, he raised her hand to his lips to kiss it. They knew far better than to engage in any deeper show of affection in public by now, though Aggie was still frustrated that they were hampered that way. “Like I’m always saying, as long as we’re together, everything will be all right.”
“And I believe that with my whole heart,” she answered, squeezing his hand and smiling at him with the fullness of the love she felt for him.
Okay, I’ll admit, I totally ended Aggie and Andrew’s story by starting a whole other story. I want to read about their search for Andrew’s mother and tribe as much as you do! But I’ll admit that I need to do a lot more research before I tackle a story of that depth and importance. I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as I’m ready to continue the journey.
But I did want to share a quick note about my inspiration for this story. Victorian England was a lot more racially diverse than a lot of us might think. The British Empire stretched around the globe, and people of all nations, colors, and religions routinely traveled in and out of the British Isles. Queen Victoria famously had an adopted foster daughter who was the daughter of an African prince. But the character of Andrew Noble was specifically inspired by a man named Christian Cole, who was the first black man to graduate from Oxford University. Like Andrew, Christian was adopted by a British man and educated in England. Unlike what you might expect, while Christian did experience some prejudice, he was incredibly well-liked by his Oxford classmates, who paid for him to finish his degree after his adopted father died. In fact, Christian Cole’s lectures while he served as what we would call a TA these days were some of the most popular and well-attended at Oxford.
I was also inspired by the fact that there were, in fact, large interracial communities throughout the seaside towns of Britain all through the 19th century. This was mostly because foreign sailors would stick around and marry the local population. And the other fascinating fact I discovered for this story was that in 19th century South Africa, interracial marriages were far more prevalent than you’d think. It was only as the 20th century dawned and as South Africa grew closer to the era of Apartheid that they were made illegal. It’s amazing the things you learn with a little historical digging.
I hope you’ve enjoyed Brynthwaite Summer! Get ready for more fun, adventure, and heartache in September with the fourth book in The Silver Foxes of Westminster series, September Awakening! And if you’ve like to discover more about what happens to Jason Throckmorton and whether he makes a name for himself (spoiler alert, he does!) and what happens to him when he returns to Brynthwaite in 1895, be sure to read The Brynthwaite Boys, a serial romance series, available now!
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About the Author
I hope you have enjoyed Brynthwaite Summer. If you’d like to be the first to learn about when new books in the series come out and more, please sign up for my newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/cbaVMH And remember, Read it, Review it, Share it! For a complete list of works by Merry Farmer with links, please visit http://wp.me/P5ttjb-14F.
Merry Farmer is an award-winning novelist who lives in suburban Philadelphia with her cats, Torpedo, her grumpy old man, and Justine, her hyperactive new baby. She has been writing since she was ten years old and realized one day that she didn't have to wait for the teacher to assign a creative writing project to write something. It was the best day of her life. She then went on to earn not one but two degrees in History so that she would always have something to write about. Her books have reached the Top 100 at Amazon, iBooks, and Barnes & Noble, and have been named finalists in the prestigious RONE and Rom Com Reader’s Crown awards.
Acknowledgments
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my awesome beta-readers, Caroline Lee and Jolene Stewart, for their suggestions and advice. And double thanks to Julie Tague, for being a truly excellent editor and assistant!
Click here for a complete list of other works by Merry Farmer.
