The Traveling Teacher

by Kirsten Osbourne

  “Your house can’t be as big as mine, James. I’m going to be the earl, not you.”

  Taylor bit back a laugh. “I guess they know who inherits and who doesn’t.”

  “It doesn’t ever escape young boys. I promise.” Harry shook his head.

  She went into teaching mode and talked about the supplies they would need for the kind of house James wanted. They talked about how many bedrooms were necessary for a family. James thought he needed no less than thirty bedrooms.

  Taylor blinked a few times. “Who will stay in those thirty rooms?”

  “Well, I need a room for you and Father to share, and I need one for Henry when he comes to visit, and I think I need one for me and my wife . . . and one for each of my children, and each of Henry’s children.” James ticked everyone off on his fingers as he counted.

  “And how many children will you and Henry have?” Taylor asked, wondering if he’d be able to handle the math.

  “Well, there will be twenty-seven rooms left, so I’ll have twenty children, and Henry can have seven.”

  Taylor smiled. “Good mathing!” She put her fist out, and James automatically fist-bumped her. When she saw the strange look on Harry’s face, she wondered if she was changing the future by teaching little boys to fist bump in Regency times.

  Henry frowned at James. “What if I want twenty children, and I want you to have seven.”

  “Then you do that. Whatever makes you happy, Henry. You’ll be the earl after all. I’ll take your leftovers.” James bowed to his brother, causing Harry and Taylor to laugh.

  “Does it ever seem to bother James that he’s the second born?”

  “Not at all. They both know they’re loved equally.” Harry smiled. “And now that you’re here, it’s so much easier to show them that love, because they’re not constantly being mischievous.”

  “They were trying to keep your attention on them,” Taylor said softly.

  “No we weren’t. We didn’t like our nurses or the governesses Father choose. If we ever get another governess, we want you to choose who she will be,” Henry said. “Father makes a muck of it.”

  “Well, then if we need to hire another, I’ll be certain to do the hiring for you.” Taylor grinned over at Harry. “No more mucks will be made of anything around here.”

  “I wish you’d come to live with us years ago,” James said, hugging her.

  “I do, too, sweetheart.” Taylor couldn’t imagine having to go back to her time now. The big vehicles and the pollution. The overcrowding in New York. No, she wanted to stay here in the country with her new family forever. She just wished the other women didn’t believe terrible things of her.

  On the way back to the house, the boys once again skipped ahead. “Mother, can we work on our structure today?” Henry asked as they reached their project.

  “I think that would be perfectly fine.” She walked over and sat down on the fallen log.

  “I think one of the grooms can supervise you today,” Harry said, walking to her and whispering in her ear. What he whispered was meant for her ears alone. She blushed and nodded. “We’ll send a groom back in a few moments.”

  He took her hand and led her toward the house. “I’ll get the groom to go mind the boys, and I’ll meet you upstairs.”

  “Sounds good to me.” She kissed him quickly. “You don’t mind if I get undressed before you get up there, do you?”

  He just laughed and waved her away. “I’ll be there just as quickly as I can be, love.”

  The whole way up to their room, Taylor thought about his use of the word love. He couldn’t mean he loved her, could he? She wanted his love more than anything, but she didn’t think he was going to give it so quickly or easily. She sighed, going into their room and shutting the door. Love would be harder than that. Everything was.

  When Harry had to make a second trip to London a few weeks later, Taylor wondered if she should go. She was already losing her breakfast on a regular basis, and she wasn’t sure travel in a stagecoach was something that would be good for her. When Harry made it clear he wanted them to go alone together without the boys, she knew it was time to tell him.

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to go to London with you. I need to stay here with the boys.”

  Harry frowned. “Why not?” Was she already tired of being married to him? She certainly acted as if she enjoyed her time with him—in and out of the bedchamber—but this made him feel that she didn’t want him around.

  “Because I’m expecting a baby. I’ve been sick a lot, and I don’t think a ride in a stagecoach is what I need. I think it would be best for me to stay in the country at least for this first little bit of the pregnancy while I’m so sick.”

  Harry sat down on the edge of their bed and stared at her for a moment. “You’re already expecting?”

  Taylor nodded. “It can’t be that much of a surprise.”

  “No, it’s not, it’s just . . . I was hoping for a little more time with you before you had to stop . . . having fun with me.”

  “We can make love throughout the pregnancy.” Taylor shrugged. “I just don’t think this trip is a good idea because of the nausea.”

  He frowned at her. “Are you sure it’s all right?”

  She nodded emphatically. “I’m sure. Trust me in this. I’ve had enough friends and sisters pregnant that openly talk about these things that there’s no doubt in my mind.”

  “I do wish we could have a little more time with just the boys.”

  “We will. About eight months.” She walked to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, leaning down to kiss him. “It’s all going to be fine.”

  “I want you to have a physician and a midwife present when you deliver the baby.”

  “That’s fine. Whatever makes you feel better. All I care about is that they wash their hands properly.”

  He stood, put his arms around her, and just held her. All he could think was that he was going to lose his wife when this baby was born. How could he think of anything else? “I still need to make the trip. Are you sure you’ll be all right here alone with the boys?”

  “Of course, I will. Why wouldn’t I? You’ve left them here alone with Maude many times over the years. Maude will be here to help me.”

  He kissed the top of her head and pulled back. “I’ll be leaving on Monday.”

  “That’s fine.” It was Friday afternoon, and she’d finished teaching the boys for the week. “We’ll have a couple of days together before your trip and years and years together after.”

  “Promise me you won’t die?” he said, looking at her as if she was about to slip from his grasp.

  “I promise. I’m very healthy, and I’ll have the woman who sent me back in time bring me some prenatal vitamins. I’ll be the healthiest pregnant woman you’ve ever seen.”

  “You can do that?”

  Taylor shrugged. “Honestly, I have no idea. Let me see.” She closed her eyes and concentrated really hard on wishing she had enough prenatal vitamins to last until the baby was born. “Please Dr. Lachele. It would make Harry feel so much better about this pregnancy.”

  Harry pointed to the bed, where a box had appeared. “Where did that come from?”

  Taylor laughed. “I guess it worked.” She walked over to the cardboard box on the bed, and she tore open the top of the box. Inside were several bottles of prenatal vitamins and a little baby quilt. “See? Here are the vitamins I needed.” She pulled the quilt out to see if Dr. Lachele had sent her anything else. There were three bags of Dove chocolates underneath the quilt, and Taylor grinned. “My favorite chocolate.” She unwrapped a piece and stuck it in her mouth, doing the same with a second piece and popping that into Harry’s mouth. “Yummy, huh?”

  “Someone could make a great deal of money selling chocolates this good!”

  “Someone does. I promise.” She grinned and put the bottles of vitamins and the box with the quilt under the bed, pushing it clear to the middle.


  “That’s going to make it hard to get out,” he said, frowning at her.

  “Better than one of the servants finding it. There’s plastic in there, and that wasn’t invented until the 1930s. We don’t want to mess with people’s heads now, do we?”

  “Probably not.” He looked at her. “Did you get the vitamins you needed?”

  “I did. I kept one bottle of them out, and I’ll hide them somewhere. I’m not going to feel like climbing under the bed every day to get more.” Taylor looked around the room for a place to hide them, and she decided on the back corner of the bureau, where things would only be piled on top of it. “I think that’ll be good there.”

  “How sick are you now?” he asked, still looking very concerned.

  “I’m fine. I do better in the afternoons than I do in the mornings. Mornings are hard.”

  “You could teach the boys later in the day. Or we could get a new governess who could take over those duties, and you could be just the lady of the house. I never really thought you’d still be teaching them after a couple of months of marriage.”

  She shook her head. “I enjoy teaching them, so I’ll do that. If I need to make it later in the day, I will. I’m not going to do anything to endanger my life or the life of the baby I’m carrying. I promise.”

  He put his arms around her and held her tight again. He couldn’t imagine life without this woman, even if she really was from the future.

  Nine

  Taylor and the boys had a good couple of weeks while Harry was gone. She didn’t tell them about the baby, because so many things could go wrong this early in a pregnancy. Even in the twenty-first century, lots of things went wrong with pregnancies, and with as worried as Harry was, she thought it was best if she just waited to tell the boys until he was ready.

  On the day he arrived home, she heard the boys screaming that he was there, and they ran to the front of the house, where the coach would drop him. She ran with them, stopping right in front of him, a big grin on her face. “You came back to me!”

  “I told you I would!” He jumped down and hugged the boys, then walked to her, wrapping his arms around her and just holding her tightly. “How are you feeling? Are the vitamins helping you?”

  “They are. I really feel like I’m going to be just fine. Stop worrying so much.”

  They walked toward the house, and he had his arm around her. “I got my business taken care of in London, and the land is going to be cleared for the house on the new land next week. I have an architect working on the design, but he’s just changing what you and the boys did, using your ideas as his groundwork.”

  “Wonderful. I’m sure James will be excited to have his own place so soon. Do you think he’ll try to live there when it’s finished?”

  “A huge building project like that will take years. Hopefully by the time it’s done, the boys will be off at Eton and there will be no question of whether or not they will want to live there.”

  Once inside, she hurried to the kitchens. “The master’s home. Can we get him something to eat and drink? Just enough to keep him until suppertime.”

  Maude nodded immediately. “Do you want to eat with him? The baby needs to eat on a regular basis.”

  “I think I can handle food now.” She had lost the little lunch she’d eaten, but her stomach was feeling much calmer now than it had been then.

  “Good. I’ll bring you something bland.”

  Taylor went out and sat at the table with Harry. “I’m going to eat with you because I lost my lunch.”

  “How did you lose it?”

  “It didn’t want to stay in my stomach.” She was trying to put things delicately, but he was having a hard time catching her meaning.

  “I’m sorry you’re so sick.”

  She shrugged. “It’s part of having a baby, and I’m thrilled that I’m having your baby. I think I want a girl.”

  He smiled. “What would you name her?”

  “I don’t know. Most of the names I like are way too modern to name a girl now. What do you like for a name?”

  He frowned, thinking about it. “Maybe something like Josephine?”

  “I like that. If you want to, we can name her Mary.”

  He made a face. “Why would I want to name her Mary?”

  “After your first wife. I know you loved her a great deal.”

  “What makes you think that?” he asked, truly not understanding what she was talking about. He’d had no real feelings for her one way or the other.

  “Well, you always look sad when you talk about her.” Taylor frowned at him. “That’s why I think that.”

  “Mary and I had an arranged marriage. Our fathers were friends, and she was in love with another man. He didn’t have money, though, and her family needed financial help, so she went through with the marriage even though she didn’t want to. She refused me on our wedding night and for more than a month after. The marriage . . . it was a disaster. I was thrilled when she got pregnant, because it meant we could stop our weekly visits with one another.”

  Taylor’s jaw dropped. With as healthy as Harry was, she couldn’t imagine him in that kind of marriage. “Then why do you always look so sad when she’s mentioned?”

  “Because I feel like she deserved more than what she had in our marriage. I should have loved her. Everyone needs love, and she never received it from me in any way.”

  “But you waited six years after her death to marry again, even with two small boys to take care of. You have honored her memory, and your boys have no idea that you didn’t love their mother.”

  He sighed. “I suppose. I feel guilt every time she’s mentioned. Not sadness.”

  Her hand covered his. “I hope if anything happened to me, you would have better memories, but if not, it would be up to me not you.”

  “I already have a lifetime full of memories with you. I can’t imagine anything happening to you. I’m still very worried about this pregnancy.”

  “I know you are, but I’m not. As long as the doctors and midwives wash their hands, I’m going to do just fine.”

  “You are obsessed with hand washing.”

  She shook her head. “I just know it causes a lot of deaths during childbirth.”

  Harry nodded. “I will see to it that everyone washes their hands.”

  Maude came in then with their meal. It wasn’t much, but Taylor was certain she couldn’t eat much. “Thank you, Maude.”

  He frowned at his wife. “I noticed you always thank the servants. Do you not think that paying them their wages is enough?”

  She shrugged. “I think that everyone deserves thanks for everything they do for you.”

  “I think the servants like it.”

  “Has the gossip about me calmed down in London?”

  He shook his head. “I had several people ask me about it. I told them you were a good woman and that the rumors were a lie, but no one seemed to believe me.”

  “No one will believe you unless Jane admits to having lied, and I really don’t think that will happen. Eventually I’ll be accepted by society, or I’ll spend all my time in the country ignoring society. Either way. I’m happy being married to you, and I love our sons. Things will work out fine, whether she stops talking about me or not.”

  He leaned forward and kissed her before picking up his fork to start his meal. “I can’t wait to be greeted properly later.”

  She laughed. “You’ll get the best greeting I know how to give.”

  “Then I’m in for a pretty incredible greeting.”

  Harry became more withdrawn from Taylor as the months went on. Taylor worried that he was losing interest in her, and she tried to talk to him, but he said very little.

  Taylor was eight-and-a-half-months pregnant and it was early spring when she went into labor. There was a local midwife, who Harry rode for immediately, and he sent one of the grooms for the local doctor.

  Maude sat with Taylor in the master bedchamber, looking worried. “How are you
feeling?”

  “I think we need to open the window in here. I’m too hot.” Taylor swung her legs out of bed and got to her feet, walking over and opening the windows herself. “I want you to keep an eye on the boys until the baby is born.”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “But more importantly, I want you to keep an eye on Harry. He’s absolutely beside himself with worry and has been for my entire pregnancy. He thinks I’m going to die because Mary did, but I’m not.”

  “You’re not?” Maude looked at her with a big smile.

  “I’m not. Everyone will wash their hands, and I will be just fine. This baby will be fine as well.” Secretly, she thought she was expecting twins. She could feel more movements all at once than could be attributed to one child.

  “All right.” Maude was pleased she was so positive. Mary had thrown a fit when she’d gone into labor, screaming over and over that she was dying and the babe was going to kill her. It was a welcome change to have a mistress who was so calm and easily dealt with during her childbirth.

  When Harry got back, he found Taylor walking up and down the hall. “No! You need to stay in bed!”

  “Your baby will not be born on its head.”

  “I’m not worried about the babe. I’m worried about you!” He took her arm and tried to pull her back into their bedchamber.

  “No! Walking is good when you are in labor. I promise you this. It’s good for me to keep moving.”

  “You should have stayed in bed for the past six months. This is making me crazy. You’ve never been a mother, but I’ve been a father!” He stood toe to toe with her, yelling at her for the first time since they’d met.

  “I know you think you know all about childbirth, but there have been a lot of advancements in understanding in two hundred years. I may have never been through it, but I know this is what is best for me, so calm your butt down!”

  His eyes narrowed. “Did you just tell me to calm my butt down?”

  “Sure did. Now do it!” She walked around him, resuming her pacing of the long hallway. She wanted the baby to come as fast as possible.