A Night of Angels

by Andersen, Maggi

  The innocent interrogation threatened to bring every raw emotion to the surface. Among the ebullient Sicilians, Kit was happy to give in to it. But here, in England, with people who were familiar and yet still strangers, he could not.

  “It was,” he said evenly. “In fact, so much of a surprise, I didn’t know he had…”

  … other children. Kit swallowed the last two words and came up with two others.

  “… two daughters.”

  “I’m Charlotte!” announced the youngest one. Her sister nudged her shoulder, and Charlotte bobbed an awkward curtsy.

  “My name is Julia,” the eldest said, and she, too, gave a curtsy. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Captain Hardacre.”

  He straightened in his chair, feeling more sober and much more like his normal self.

  “Since we’re family, you’ll have to call me Kit,” he replied.

  Julia looked uncertain; Charlotte was in awe. “I can call you by your first name?”

  He exaggerated a frown which sent the young girl into giggles. “Hmmm, your papa may not like that. How about we compromise and you call me Uncle Kit, instead.”

  He leaned forward and shook hands with Julia first and then Charlotte.

  “You have a gold earring!” she exclaimed. “Like a pirate!”

  Kit put a hand over one eye like a patch and pushed forward in the chair. “Arrrgghhh!”

  A squeal of surprise was rapidly followed by giggles. Adam’s daughters were charming and, moreover, they seemed to like him. The black mantle of depression lifted from Kit’s shoulders.

  His half-sisters. He had half-sisters! Restless energy returned and the thought of drowning his sorrows fled. Kit leapt to his feet.

  “Why don’t we find your parents, and I’ll introduce you to your Aunt Sophia? They’ve got to be around here somewhere. Do you know where the gardens are? I haven’t a clue!”

  Chapter Nine

  Olivia took one look at Adam and steered him away from Sophia and the Ridgeways, taking a different turn down a path where the formal gardens gave way to a wildflower garden.

  “I take it didn’t go well?”

  “He got defensive when I asked him what happened after the Pendragon, and he accused me of deserting Constance when she was with child.”

  “Give him time to know the truth.”

  Adam tucked Olivia’s arm in his.

  “I know. The whole thing is just…” Adam shrugged his shoulders, unable to find the right word to describe how he felt.

  “He was ten years a captive of the corsairs.”

  “I feared as much when we found out all those years ago. At least then, I could tell myself he’d died at sea and been spared such a fate – and now, to know the truth…”

  “In the years afterwards, he turned his pain into vengeance,” Olivia added. “That’s how he damaged his leg, according to Sophia.”

  Adam was helpless to fix the past and he sure as hell didn’t know how to repair the present, either. He let go of Olivia’s arm and bent down to pick up a pebble from the path. He hurled it with all the strength he had.

  “My son hates me.”

  “I’m sure that’s not true.”

  He fixed Olivia with an exasperated look which she returned with hands raised in mock surrender. “Have it your way, but we’re all under the same roof until New Year’s.”

  He shrugged a silent apology, which Olivia accepted by taking his hand. They strolled on in quiet reflection, down the path that followed the gully leading to the lake and the little summer house.

  “Have you thought of taking him to Ponsnowyth and Kenstec House?” Olivia asked. “He’s come all this way to learn about his mother and who better to show him than the man who knew her best – who loved her as much as anyone could? If he knows, I’m sure he’ll understand. Will you promise me at least that much?”

  “We will show him. Together.” said Adam, placing emphasis on the last word.

  Olivia squeezed his hand in silent agreement and they continued the walk in silence. His wife had been Constance’s champion when even her father ordered every trace of her erased.

  What a hard, unbending man – and where did it get him in the end? Adam mused. Squire Denton’s second wife and their daughter moved to London, never to return. The squire himself passed unmourned; his legacy and influence long gone.

  His pride, Kenstec House, once the centerpiece of Ponsnowyth was now uninhabited, in the ownership of a distant cousin from Canada who’d been through its doors exactly once.

  Had the new owner finished the long-abandoned widow’s walk? Or had it been removed completely and the original roofline restored? Perhaps, it would be interesting to go back again after all these years.

  Adam looked at his wife in profile. They were dangerous times when they first met and they both nearly lost their lives up there on that widow’s walk. After fourteen years, those memories had been replaced with better ones – filled with laughter, love, home, and family. He wished the same for Kit. He wished the same for all his children.

  The sound of giggles and hoots of laughter reached him first. Adam and Olivia emerged from the woods. Thirty yards away was the lake and the summer house, and marching around to it was Kit Hardacre like some kind of enchanted pied piper with Julia, Charlotte, and several of the estate’s children following him.

  He paused with Olivia beside him, watching as Kit entertained the children, playing some game he didn’t recognize. There he was – his son in his natural habitat, his face youthful and animated. Adam didn’t move, afraid if he did they would be spotted and the cold, bitter wall between them would re-emerge.

  He watched his daughters take to this man, who ought to be a stranger to them, as though they had known him all their lives. Perhaps there was hope for him as well.

  “There you are!” Daniel called out. “I thought you two had gotten lost!”

  He, Abigail and Sophia emerged from the wooded path behind them.

  The call alerted Kit. He glanced up at them, then spoke to the eldest child of the group, the stable boy – Ross, Adam’s memory supplied – and appeared to be instructing him to carry on the game in his stead.

  As Kit approached, his smile fell somewhat.

  Adam felt himself watched closely, as though Kit were trying to gauge his mood.

  “Julia and Charlotte were showing me their favorite parts of the garden,” said Kit, smiling at Olivia. But he addressed his next words to Adam. “You have two lovely daughters.”

  It wasn’t much as olive branches go, but there it was. Message received and understood.

  “Thank you.” There was a moment’s hesitation before Adam continued. “I imagine you have a lot of questions about Constance, so I thought tomorrow you might like to go out to Kenstec House and see where she grew up.”

  Something like relief lit the younger man’s eyes.

  “Thank you. I’d be indebted to you.”

  “Since we don’t know how many fine days we’ll get until Christmas,” suggested Abigail, “we should make the most of the afternoon and take the forest path back. Perhaps the girls would like to join us and collect pine cones to decorate for Christmas.”

  Before too long, Adam and Daniel had their arms laden with pine cones, as two children forged for foliage. Kit delighted the girls by revealing that his walking cane was, in fact a sword stick, which he used to slash away a length of holly and to reach up to pick some mistletoe from the fork of an apple tree.

  It made him even more like a pirate in Charlotte’s eyes – not that she was frightened of pirates, she told him, not when there were good pirates like him.

  Her remark touched something in Kit. He wanted to be a good man – a good pirate – just as he tried to be a good husband and, one day perhaps, a good father. The fact that a child saw there was good in him fostered hope.

  In the company of the girls, everyone seemed to relax, even Adam. Well, that was easy, Kit thought to himself. All he had to do was to make sure he
only spent time with his father in the company of his half-sisters.

  Sadly, that ploy only worked until their bedtime and, after supper, when the ladies adjourned to the drawing room, he was alone with Adam and Daniel. What Kit wouldn’t have given to be around a dining table with Jonathan and Elias right now – three thousand miles away might as well be the other side of the planet. But they knew him. They had a history together.

  What would these men know about going to war and fighting to protect the very lives of the women they loved?

  Fortunately, Daniel kept port and cigars of short duration, and it wasn’t too long before Sophia offered him a tired smile, and begged her host’s indulgence to retire early.

  Kit accompanied her to their room. The fire was already lit and the maid who had just finished lighting the lamps offered her services to aid madam, but she was dismissed with thanks. Kit helped Sophia undress.

  “You’re looking tired,” he said, sweeping tumbled masses of jet black hair over her shoulder as he undid the buttons on the top of her dress. He dropped a kiss on the nape even as he heard her stifle a yawn.

  “I haven’t slept well since leaving London,” she said.

  “Is that all it is? I’d hoped that after leaving London for the cleaner air here you’d start getting some color back, but you’re still pale.”

  Sophia turned back to him and smiled before slipping the fire-warmed nightdress over her head while he finished drawing the copper warming pan over the sheets.

  “I’m fine,” she told him before yawning once more, putting a hand to her mouth to cover it as she slipped under the covers.

  “You’d tell me, wouldn’t you? If anything was amiss?” Kit asked as he tucked her in. He dropped a kiss on her forehead and sat on the edge of the bed.

  “Nothing is amiss that a good night’s sleep won’t cure,” she said. She snaked her hand out from under the blankets and found his. Kit took a deep breath and asked the question that had been nagging at him for a couple of days, ever since the visit to the church.

  “You would know, and I can only guess at it, but do you… do you suppose you might be with child?”

  “It’s possible,” she replied thoughtfully, “but it’s too early to know.”

  Kit tamped down a mix of panic and elation. “Is there a way to be sure?”

  “Other than waiting nine months?” she teased. Kit grinned back.

  “Yes, I think there is,” she said. “But it will take several days to be certain.

  She squeezed his hand. “Are you ready to be a father? You’ve seen how it has changed Elias’ life. Jonathan’s, too.”

  He stroked her brow tenderly. “I’m more ready than I’ve ever been, my love. We promised to share a life together, and we will, whether we’re blessed with children or not.”

  Kit watched Sophia’s eyelids become heavy with sleep. “Shall I stay with you?”

  “No. You have an opportunity to talk with your father – your new family,” she said, keeping her eyes closed. “I know what it is to be orphaned. Every day I remember my mother and father in my prayers and now you have the chance to know your own father in life.” She paused a moment. “He seems like a nice man, Kit. Give him the chance to know you, too. Will you do that for me?”

  “Anything in my power to give is yours, carissima.”

  Chapter Ten

  It was only the Hardacres who took the eleven mile journey down to Ponsnowyth. The Ridgeways remained at Bishop’s Wood on receiving word their daughter, Marie, and her family would be arriving that day.

  Adam watched his daughters regale Kit and Sophia on the journey, pointing out places of interest along the way, and the attention they received in return was generous as well as genuine.

  “You called Julia passarotta. What does that mean?” asked Charlotte.

  Kit and Sophia exchanged a smile. Sophia answered. “It’s a term of endearment. It means ‘little sparrow’ in Italian.”

  Charlotte looked to her sister and then back at the couple whom Adam observed she had called “Uncle Kit” and “Aunt Sophia”.

  “If Julia gets a pet name, why can’t I have one?”

  Kit laughed and pulled Charlotte to him in a sideways hug. “We can call you passarotta, too, if you’d like.”

  “No!”

  “Charlotte… your manners,” Olivia admonished.

  The little girl lowered her head in shame. “I only meant if Julia is little sparrow, then I can’t be little sparrow, too.”

  Kit threw a wink in Adam and Olivia’s direction.

  “Hmmm,” he said. “I understand how that might be a problem. We need to find you a name of your own, don’t we?”

  With her head still down, Charlotte nodded.

  “How about…” Kit made a great exaggeration of thinking, putting a finger to his chin and pausing. Julia stifled giggles and Charlotte looked up wanting to be in on the joke. “How about… gattina? It means kitten.”

  “Then I get to be a ‘Kit’ like you!” Charlotte clapped with delight.

  “I suppose you do. But I’m not sure if your father would really want you to be like me.”

  Adam felt the full weight of Kit’s words however lightly they were spoken.

  “Why not?” Julia asked, thankfully oblivious to the undercurrent of tension between her father and her “uncle”.

  “Because I had a very misspent youth,” Kit answered.

  Adam braced himself for the avalanche of questions from Julia, who was always insatiably curious. Before they could start, he tapped the roof of the carriage. It rolled to a stop.

  While he helped Olivia and the girls disembark, Adam caught Kit’s look of surprise before he and Sophia followed.

  “We’ll walk the rest of the way to the village,” Adam instructed the driver. “We’ll see you at the Angler’s Arms.”

  Little wonder Kit was surprised. With fields on one side and woods on the other, it would appear they were in the middle of nowhere. Even Olivia looked at him curiously.

  “I thought we’d begin our journey at the beginning,” he said directly to Kit.

  “The woods!” Julia exclaimed. “The woods where you met Mama!”

  Olivia covered her surprise before favoring Adam with a look that told him she followed his thinking.

  “It’s an enchanted wood. Shall we show Aunt Sophia where the fairies live?”

  Adam watched Kit and Sophia exchange a glances before Julia latched on to Sophia’s hand, tugging at it to join Olivia and Charlotte. He waited until they were just out of earshot before addressing Kit.

  “This isn’t just the place I first saw Olivia. This is where I met your mother all those years ago,” he said. “Shall we?” He gestured to follow the women and children. Kit nodded.

  The two men fell in step, both Olivia and Sophia walking ahead, occupying the girls to give Adam time to tell his son things which were for his ears only.

  “This is a story of two parts,” Adam began. “I would not have known the whole of it if not for Olivia. She was the governess for Squire Denton’s daughter by his second marriage. After his death, Olivia came across Constance’s diaries and sought me out. I was thirty-six then. I’d just quit the Royal Navy and started work with Ridgeway.”

  “Remind me to ask you more about that,” said Kit. “But tell me first about my mother and how you met her.”

  They trudged along the overgrown path. Kit picked his way carefully, using his cane to steady his footing.

  “I was barely sixteen,” Adam continued. “Constance was two years older. I admired her from afar – as everyone did. But because of her station, we local boys knew she was destined to marry better than us. Then, one day in early summer, I found her weeping in these woods. She was upset that her debut Season in Bath had not gone well.”

  They emerged into an opening through which a small creek wended its way. To the left were the moss-covered stones of a structure, the walled ruins of a small Medieval priory.

  “I spoke
to her and the unlikeliest romance started. I loved her in the way only a passionate, idolizing youth does and she loved me passionately, too. But, before the end of August, it was over. She no longer kept our assignations and ceased to reply to the notes I hid in a crack in one of those walls.”

  Ahead of them, the girls crossed the creek over a low, wooden planked bridge. Olivia and Sophia followed after them.

  “Late in August, I returned here hoping to see her, to beg her to continue our affair, when I was set upon. I didn’t know by who at the time, but I suspect it was her father and others. I was held and beaten until I signed the indenture papers pressing me into the Navy, then beaten some more.”

  Adam crossed the creek and watched Kit follow with a sudden surefootedness that belied his need for the cane.

  “I could barely think straight until I was weeks at sea. I heard nothing more of Constance and, as the years went on, I imagined her wed and hoped her happy.” Adam looked down at the ground. “It never occurred to me I had left her pregnant.”

  “You knew nothing for twenty years…” said Kit quietly.

  “Not a thing. And I would have remained ignorant still if Olivia had not doggedly pursued the history of it. But, believe me, if I had known…”

  Adam left the sentence unfinished. They walked on.

  “It couldn’t have made any difference, even if you had,” Kit offered. “Not under the circumstances you’ve just described.”

  “I didn’t want you to think I deliberately left her.”

  Kit paused at the edge of the woods where the trees thinned out, giving a hint of a lawn beyond. “Thank you, Adam,” he said. “You don’t know how much it means to hear you say that.”

  Adam met the hazel eyes of his son, their color so much like his own, and saw another thought occurring to him in them.

  “The plaque at the church – to Constance and Christopher. You put that there.”

  Adam’s jaw tightened as fought for composure. He took a deep breath before answering.