Blackhaven Brides (Books 5–8)

by Lancaster, Mary

  With a kind smile, Lady Tamar held out her hand, and Rosa curtsied slightly grudgingly.

  Miss Benedict, meanwhile, was sipping her tea, watching Rosa in a worried kind of way. In Caroline’s experience, children were better sorting out their own relationships, so she merely said lightly, “Don’t overwhelm Rosa all at once. And she does not speak, so you must observe how she does communicate.”

  With that, Caroline crossed to Miss Benedict and thanked her for the opportunity to meet her old pupils.

  “Well, I can see how fond you are of each other,” Miss Benedict said sadly. “Tea, Miss Grey?”

  Caroline accepted a cup and sat opposite Miss Benedict and Serena, who occupied the sofa.

  “How is Lord Tamar?” Caroline asked politely and was touched to see a hint of color tinge Serena’s creamy skin.

  “He is very well and sends his regards.”

  “And your lady mother and his lordship?”

  “Ah, they are well, too, and set off yesterday for London at last.”

  “Ah.” So, she’d simply been abandoned to her fate after all. Curiously, it didn’t hurt as much as she’d expected it to.

  “But he has not forgotten his obligation to you,” Serena said hastily. “In fact, that is one reason I came to call on Miss Benedict. We would very much like you to return to Braithwaite Castle at your earliest convenience.”

  Caroline’s eyebrows flew up. This was not how she’d expected things to happen. She searched Lady Serena’s open face. “Ah. I think this is your idea and not Lady Braithwaite’s.”

  “Miss Grey, Braithwaite and I both know my mother will relent in the end. In fact, if my brother chose to lay down the law, he could—and will if it becomes necessary. My sisters need you.”

  Serena knew how to tug her heart. She glanced to the other side of the room where the girls, kneeling on the Turkish carpet, were trying to teach a slightly bewildered Rosa a clapping game. The Conway sisters were all bright, lively, and good-natured. And Caroline missed them. She even missed Serena’s company, for she had become almost a friend in the month or so before her wedding.

  Here, she had a troubled pupil who would not speak and the company of a slightly dotty, middle-aged lady who occasionally lost her temper and threw cake at her brother. And as for that brother…he was nothing but mystery and danger. And whenever she thought about it—which was often—she could still feel last night’s kiss upon her lips, his powerful arms clasping her close to his hard, wet body…

  But Javan Benedict was not the issue here. Rosa was. Rosa, so isolated that she was lost in the company of other children, and terrified of being abandoned by the adults in her life.

  “Please come back,” Serena pleaded.

  Caroline drew in her breath. “I don’t believe I can. Certainly not on our old terms. My first duty is here.”

  Miss Benedict’s face split into smiles.

  Lady Tamar, whose will was not often crossed, looked flabbergasted. “But I will be going to Tamar Abbey quite soon, now. Someone needs to care for the girls.”

  How about their mother? She who was so quick to judge and dispose of me? She bit back the ill-natured taunt. None of this was Serena’s fault. In fact, to some degree, it was Caroline’s. Concerned for own position and her family, she hadn’t truly considered the effect of her arrangement with Lord Braithwaite on either her old pupils or her new.

  “I’m sorry, my lady,” she apologized. “I may be able to help in some way… Allow me to speak with Mr. Benedict.”

  “Now?” Serena said hopefully.

  Caroline blinked. “No, not now.” A memory came to her. “But it seems I have a day to myself on Saturday and was planning to be in Blackhaven. I could call at the castle—”

  “I shall meet you in town,” Serena said firmly, appearing to see nothing outlandish in consorting with a governess. She sat back a little, including Miss Benedict in the conversation. “I have been telling Miss Benedict that Tamar and I are planning to hold some kind of party before we leave. I’ll send cards and hope to see all of you there.”

  Serena stayed only a little longer, making civil conversation while her sisters did their best to include Rosa in their chatter and games. For most of the time, Rosa looked more bewildered than happy, but Caroline felt her heart contract when Rosa returned Helen’s grin with a tentative but sweet smile.

  *

  Before she and Rosa began their customary afternoon walk, which was generally in the company of Mr. Benedict, Caroline took her courage in both hands and decided to beard the lion in his den.

  A knock on his study door elicited no response. Since she could hear no movement inside, she assumed he must be elsewhere, so her second knock was half-hearted and purely token.

  “Blast you, come in,” his voice growled from beyond the door. It did not bode well, but she could hardly run now.

  Drawing a breath, she opened the door and entered.

  Javan Benedict sat at his desk in his shirt sleeves, a magnifying glass in one hand and several plant specimens laid out in front of him. A notebook to his right displayed drawings and writings. All this, she took in at a glance before he stood up and reached for the coat on the back of his chair.

  “I beg your pardon,” he said. “I assumed it was Williams.” He did not, however, sound terribly apologetic, more irritated. And his frown seemed chasm-deep. Any illusions she had harbored about a new closeness between them were being quickly eroded.

  “I apologize for the interruption,” she said stiffly. “I merely wished to speak to you before I mention the scheme to Rosa.”

  His frown deepened impossibly. “What scheme?”

  “You suggested I go to Blackhaven on Saturday to buy new boots.”

  The frown eased slightly. Beneath it, something flared in his grey eyes that caught at her breath. “I remember.”

  “With your permission I would like to take Rosa with me, let her—”

  “Out of the question,” he barked.

  Caroline blinked. “I’m sure she would enjoy a day out, looking at shops and such, and there is an ice parlor in—”

  “I said, it is out of the question.” He sat back down at his desk and picked up his pen.

  Caroline struggled to control her indignation. “May I know why?” she managed.

  He stared at her. “No. It is not your concern.”

  Common sense dictated she leave it there but she couldn’t. “I beg your pardon,” she retorted. “I understood care of Rosa was specifically my concern!”

  “Teaching Rosa is your concern. Her care is mine and mine alone.”

  “Then I take leave to tell you, sir, you need to do better,” Caroline burst out. “The child does not speak and she is so isolated she does not even know how to play with others. How do you expect her to grow into a happy, responsible adult?”

  He shot to his feet, his face white, his eyes blazing with fury—and behind that some awful pain that doused her temper like a bucket of water.

  “Forgive me,” she muttered. “I know there are circumstances of which I have no knowledge and have no right to speak. But please, believe I wish to help.”

  His lips twisted. “By taking her shopping?”

  “Yes, and other mundane and hopefully amusing pastimes. I believe she should be allowed to grow used to people, to be with other children. You may not be aware that Lady Tamar called this afternoon with her young sisters—”

  “I am well aware.”

  Then he had merely lacked the civility to greet them.

  He pushed the book across the desk, crushing papers in the process. “I am also aware you cannot…fix Rosa in whatever few days you have left here.”

  “I do not claim to—” She broke off, searching his face with a first hint of understanding. “Are you dismissing me?”

  “You are on loan, are you not?” he snapped. “I presume Lady Tamar came to take you back. I’m only surprised you didn’t jump in her carriage at once.”

  Caroline flush
ed under the contempt in his voice. “If it weren’t for Rosa, I would have. It is certainly not the courtesies of my employer which keep me.”

  “Then it must be the boots.”

  She frowned. “The boots? I—” She met his suddenly tranquil gaze, and in spite of everything, had to bite back a surge of laughter. “Yes, of course it is the boots.”

  “You’re not going back to them, are you? And yet I heard her—Lady Tamar—ask you to.”

  He had been as close to the drawing room as that, and yet he had not come in? Because Lady Tamar had asked her to go back.

  “I find I cannot go back,” she said now with difficulty. “Not until it might be possible to teach Rosa along with the Braithwaite girls.” She raised her hands to prevent the inevitable outburst. “Please don’t bite my head off, I am well aware that time is not yet, and is not my decision to make either.”

  “You are a very managing female,” he observed.

  “It is a useful quality in a governess,” she replied with dignity.

  “Do you normally feel called upon to manage the families of your charges, too?”

  “Frequently.”

  A faint smile played about his lips. “You made a poor job of it with the Braithwaites.”

  “On the contrary, I made an excellent job of it, up until a rare moment of weakness. It won’t happen again.”

  “We’ll see.” He moved from behind the desk, advancing upon her. For a moment she couldn’t breathe, until he walked past her toward the door. “Fetch your cloak, Miss Grey, I believe it’s time for Tiny’s walk.”

  Chapter Seven

  The following afternoon, as part of the music lesson, Caroline sang out a note, and Rosa had to find the corresponding key on the piano. Rosa became adept at this very quickly. She seemed to like the way the human voice blended with the piano and urged Caroline to sing along to the scales she was practicing, which became amusing when Rosa’s finger slipped, and Caroline mimicked the corresponding discord.

  Caroline was just calling things back to order when something made her glance at the doorway to the drawing room. Javan Benedict stood there, leaning against the door, his face inscrutable as he watched them. Her heart gave the funny little leap it always seemed to when she saw him.

  Rosa immediately showed off her scales with more care and received her father’s as well as Caroline’s approval.

  “Go and find Tiny,” he told his daughter. “I want a word with Miss Grey.”

  Rosa, like any child, looked delighted that lessons were finishing early and skipped off with great glee.

  “It gets dark so early now,” Mr. Benedict remarked in an excusing kind of way. To her surprise, he moved to the piano. “I’ve been thinking about what you said.” He depressed the last key and wrinkled his nose before sinking down onto Rosa’s vacated stool. If Caroline had moved, she’d have touched him. As it was, his warmth radiated through her.

  “I shall accompany Rosa,” he said abruptly.

  Caroline smiled. “Tomorrow?”

  “Yes, tomorrow. But I don’t care to spend my day in a lady’s shoe shop. Besides, it would cause talk, and it is your day off. We shall all go in the carriage to Blackhaven, and you may go off and do as you wish, and then return with us. Or the carriage can come back for you.”

  Caroline murmured her thanks and waited.

  He continued to stare at his large hand, his fingers moving silently back and forth across the same keys. “You are right,” he said. “She is too little with other people, especially children, but it must be done gradually so as not to overwhelm her.”

  “That seems a very sensible course,” she allowed.

  His lips curved as he cast her a caustic glance. “Careful, Miss Grey. Agreeing with me might become a habit.”

  She raised her brows. “I thought, sir, that you were agreeing with me.”

  The smile in his eyes deepened, which did strange things to her breathing. “You are an insolent baggage, and I shall probably dismiss you tomorrow.”

  Surprised laughter spilled from her lips, but footsteps sounded in the drawing room beyond the open door, and he rose as quickly as he’d sat down.

  “Sir?” came the voice of Williams the manservant.

  Mr. Benedict strode into the drawing room. “I’m here, what is it?”

  “Miss Rosa opened the door and the dog’s off on his own,” Williams said apologetically.

  “Well, he won’t go far without us. Come along, Miss Grey, time for some more managing.”

  Obediently, she hurried after him. At the drawing room door, he paused and glanced back at her over his shoulder. “It was a joke, before you go running back to Braithwaite Castle.”

  “Ah,” she retorted. “I thought you were merely keeping me up to scratch.”

  “Both.” He walked out of the room. “Though I trust you don’t use such cant to my daughter.”

  “Oh no, sir. My position is too valuable to me.”

  He glanced at her as she caught up with him. “Then why do I get the feeling you are mocking me?”

  “I expect you have a guilty conscience about mocking the governess.”

  The laughter was back in his eyes. Butterflies fluttered in her stomach.

  “I expect I have,” he agreed. “You really aren’t afraid of me, are you, Miss Grey?”

  “Should I be?” she countered, as they came to the stairs.

  A quick, almost savage laugh broke from him. “Oh yes.”

  Her foot faltered for the barest instant, and he ran downstairs ahead of her. When he moved like that, there was no sign of lameness.

  *

  Saturday dawned bright and fair with a hint of frost still on the ground as the Benedicts’ carriage bowled out of the overgrown drive and along the road to Blackhaven. Since Miss Benedict also accompanied them, the carriage was cramped, with the excited Rosa and her aunt facing the direction of travel, and Caroline and Mr. Benedict seated opposite.

  Caroline could not but be aware of his presence beside her, his arm brushing against her shoulder with the lurching of the carriage. It gave her a secret, wicked pleasure.

  “So what diversions do you recommend, Miss Grey?” Mr. Benedict inquired.

  “The ice parlor at the top of High Street,” Caroline replied promptly and won a huge grin from Rosa. “There are shops selling just about everything, and an art gallery with a mixed selection of paintings. And you might like to visit the circulating library, where they have a surprisingly good collection. Also, the harbor is very pretty, and the beaches pleasant if the tide is far enough out. The church is several centuries old and very picturesque. The vicar, Mr. Grant, welcomes visitors, whether he is there at the time or not.”

  Miss Benedict beamed. “Why, you are as good as a guide book, Miss Grey. How long were you at the castle with the Braithwaites?”

  “A few weeks only,” Caroline admitted. “But they are lively girls.”

  “Well, we’ve told Williams to come back for us at one o’clock,” Miss Benedict said. “He’ll wait for us in front of the church. If you aren’t there, then, we’ll send him back for you at, when? Four o’clock?”

  “That would be most kind,” Caroline said. “Thank you.”

  Williams halted the horses opposite the church, and Mr. Benedict immediately pushed open the door and climbed out to let down the steps. He swung Rosa out in a large spin that made her smile and clutch on to him, and then, more civilly, handed out his sister and Caroline.

  “Off you go, then,” he said to her. “Enjoy your liberty.”

  Rosa, who showed a tendency to cling to her father as people passed in the street, reached out and seized Caroline’s hand.

  Caroline clasped her fingers with what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “I shall see you again this afternoon—at the latest. For the town is so small we may well bump into each other again at any time.”

  Rosa released her reluctantly and with a jaunty wave, Caroline walked away toward High Street. Today would surely
be good for Rosa, moving among people, seeing other children. And she would see also that adults who left her came back again.

  When she reached the shoemaker’s shop, she was surprised to find Lady Tamar already there.

  “Tamar is painting sunrises,” she explained. “So, I was abroad early. And look, I have found you the sweetest little boots ever!”

  They were indeed beautiful, made of soft kid and almost as dainty as dancing slippers.

  “They are delightful,” Caroline allowed. “But they would not last one muddy day at Haven Hall. I need something much stouter!”

  “But not hideous,” Serena insisted, pulling her past a display of plain, solid boots. “Let us speak to Mr. Nulty.”

  In the end, Caroline settled for something both pretty and comfortable, and Mr. Nulty the shoemaker promised to send them up to Haven Hall on Monday.

  “Excellent,” Serena approved. “Have you breakfasted, Miss Grey? For I’m famished! Let’s go to the hotel.”

  Caroline accompanied her willingly enough. “Will people not think you very odd for being so much in the governess’s company?”

  “Well, they already think me odd for my marriage, and I can’t say I care about that either. Besides, apparently you’re not our governess anymore.”

  “I’m sorry,” Caroline said with genuine contrition. “If I could continue teaching your sisters, I would.”

  “Is that what you intended to speak to Mr. Benedict about?”

  “Yes, and perhaps by the time the countess relents, the time will be right.”

  “But the girls miss you now.”

  “As I miss them.” Caroline hesitated. “I love your sisters, my lady, but Rosa needs me more. I hope to coax her back into the way of company, and maybe even a return to speech. I would love to find a way to teach them all together. I believe that would be best of all for Rosa. But I do understand that you want a governess now. I shall quite understand if you engage another.”

  Serena smiled wryly and sailed through the door of the hotel. “That is my lady mother’s concern, not mine. But I don’t like to leave them with only Mrs. Gaskell.”

  “Could you take them with you to Tamar Abbey?” Caroline asked once they were seated at a table in the quiet dining room and had ordered coffee and breakfast.