Mariel (10 page)

Mariel noticed all of that in the second before she looked at Rosie's face. Her own disquiet was reflected there. Suddenly she knew any fear she felt would be diminished by the fright suffered by this child, who was leaving the only home she had known.

Kneeling, she held out her hands to Rosie. Without her normal vitality, the child walked toward her. She took the little girl's trembling hands in hers and smiled.

“Rosie, has Mrs. Parnell told you that I would like you to come to Foxbridge Cloister for a visit?”

She nodded mutely. Eyes too big for her elfin face were bright with tears.

“Tell me,” urged Mariel. “If you don't want to go with me, tell me. I don't want you to be unhappy, Rosie.”

The words jolted the child out of her uncharacteristic quiet. “I want to come with you, Lady Mariel.” She paused, then blurted, “I just don't want you to make me come back here. Then they will send me away, and I will never see you again.”

Sweeping Rosie into her arms, Mariel looked up at Mrs. Parnell. Both women ached with sympathy for the child, but knew they could make no promises before this trial was completed. The board of directors had been emphatic on that point. Lady Mariel and Rosie would have a month to decide if they wished to live as a family. If Lady Mariel did not start adoption proceedings at that point, the child would go to her uncle, who stubbornly continued to demand Rosie come to live with him. How Mrs. Parnell had convinced the board to allow this unprecedented arrangement, Mariel did not ask. She was not sure if she wanted to know.

Mariel tipped back the youngster's tear-dampened face and said, “I want to work hard to be a family with you, Rosie. You must, too. It won't be easy, for the Cloister is different from here. There will be days when I get angry very quickly. I shout a lot, but that does not change my love for you. Shall we try?”

Rosie nodded, watching as Mariel stood. The child slipped her small hand into her friend's and did not release it even when she kissed Mrs. Parnell farewell. A small bag of her few personal possessions waited in the hallway.

Mrs. Parnell said quietly, “If you need any help, Lady Mariel …”

“I think we will be fine.” She grinned at the child, who smiled tentatively. “At least, I hope so. Rosie needs to be patient with me while I learn to be a mother.”

Many of the children were waiting by the automobile when they emerged from the main house of the orphanage. Mariel urged Rosie to go and tell her housemates that she would be returning for visits when Mariel came to do business. The child shook her head, refusing to let go of the woman's hand.

Understanding what the little girl could not verbalize, Mariel lifted her to the seat of the automobile. She placed the too-small satchel in the back, wondering if any of her childish clothes remained in the attics of the Cloister. They might do until she could have proper things made for Rosie.

She climbed into her own seat. Picking up her goggles from the floor, she pulled them over her head and tied her hat's veiling under her chin. With a smile at Rosie, she said, “We will have to get you some driving clothes soon. All set?”

“Yes, Lady Mariel,” she answered too politely. That perfectly correct expression disappeared as Rosie flashed a superior smile at her friends while Mariel was turning the automobile to drive through the gate. She crowed with delight, “They all wish they were me!”

“Because you are riding in the automobile?”

“No, because I am going home with you.”

She risked a grin in the child's direction. “I thought you might want to sleep in the room next to mine instead of in the nursery. The nursery is on the third floor. No one goes up there anymore.” She laughed. “Besides, there is plumbing in a few rooms on the second floor. I don't want you coming down those steep stairs in the night to find the bathroom.”

“Bathroom?” The little girl's eyes widened until Mariel feared they would pop out of her head. “You have bathrooms at Foxbridge Cloister?”

“We have many things I think you will enjoy,” she promised. “Shall I take you on a tour when we get home?”

Overwhelmed, Rosie simply nodded. She shyly placed her hand in Mariel's. With a smile, Mariel urged the automobile faster along the road. For the first time, she believed this could be successful. It had been years since she had experienced this sense of being part of a family. She savored that feeling as she allowed it to soothe some of the pain she could not let anyone see.

Not even Ian.

Chapter Five

Rosie's eyes grew wide again as Mariel drove the automobile through the front gate of Foxbridge Cloister. On the few occasions when the orphans came into the town of Foxbridge, the little girl had seen the impressive house crouched like a sleeping giant at the edge of the marsh. Only knowing her beloved Lady Mariel lived there kept her from being frightened by the gray monster overlooking the village. Now she would live there. The thought seemed too preposterous to be real.

She did not fire her normal barrage of questions while Lady Mariel pointed out the various buildings connected to life in the Cloister. The little girl had not guessed so much was hidden behind the walls of the Cloister. It was bigger than the grounds of the orphanage. When the car stopped in its private barn, she found herself frozen to the seat. A man stepped out of the shadows, and she squealed with heartfelt terror.

Mariel chuckled. “Rosie, this is Walter Collins who tends to my car. Walter, Rosamunde Varney. She will be staying with us at the Cloister for a few weeks.” Taking Rosie by the hand, she withdrew the small bag from behind the seat. “Shall we go up to the Cloister, Rosie?”

Keeping her eyes on the strange man, the child nodded. She did not like this man who gazed at her so strangely. She risked a glance at Lady Mariel and saw she was still smiling. There must be nothing wrong with this man, because Lady Mariel treated him with kindness. She tried to shake off her instinctive distrust of him, but was glad when they stepped out into the spring sunshine and away from his glowing eyes.

“Go ahead,” urged Mariel when they paused before a clump of exultantly yellow daffodils. “You may pick one, if you wish. Just don't take too many of them. The gardeners get cranky if we take all the blossoms. They like to enjoy the beauty of their labors as well.”

“I think I will leave them,” Rosie said regretfully. “They are so pretty here. If I take one, it will die too quickly.”

“Shall we come back tomorrow on our way to Foxbridge and see them again?”

“We are going to Foxbridge tomorrow?” the child asked enthusiastically. “In the automobile?”

With a smile, Mariel began to walk toward the house. “Tomorrow is a school day. I think it would be best if you attended at the village school.” This was one point Ian had been emphatic on when they discussed Rosie coming to Foxbridge Cloister. He felt the child must be with others her own age instead of imprisoned with only adults at the Cloister.

“School? Do I have to go to school?”

“Of course.” She laughed. “Don't worry about it now. Shall we go inside?”

Mariel felt Rosie tighten her grip on her hand as they entered the Cloister. Briefly Mariel wondered what it would be like to be entering this impressive house for the first time. She no longer noticed the plastic scallops edging the ceiling or the silk wallcovering glistening in the gas lights.

Only Phipps and the butler stood in the expansive foyer. Mariel appreciated the thoughtfulness of the staff in not overwhelming the child on her arrival. Calmly, she introduced the two adults to the wide-eyed child.

“Rosie?” asked Phipps. “What is your full name, child?”

“Rosamunde Varney, but everyone has always called me Rosie … ma'am.” She added the last as an afterthought.

“Then that is what we shall call you here also.” Phipps smiled, and her stern demeanor vanished.

Although she had done all she could to talk Lady Mariel out of involving herself in this crazy plan, Phipps welcomed the idea of a child in Foxbridge Cloister again. In the past year, she had shunted aside her dreams of staying on at the Cloister as the nanny of the children Lady Mariel would have. When the young woman showed no inclinations toward marriage, she had resigned herself to the solitary life of growing old with her charge.

She followed as Lady Mariel led the child up the stairs. Her lips pursed in disapproval as she saw the woman allow the little girl to touch the stained glass window on the landing. The expression softened as she heard Lady Mariel proudly explain that this was the crest of the Wythe family. She began to smile as Rosie exclaimed over the two wolves holding up the herald flag.

Phipps was sure neither Lady Mariel nor Mrs. Parnell had paused to consider the impact of this adoption on the community. Lady Mariel was the sole heir to the wealth of the Wythe family. When her uncle died, the Cloister would come to her to be passed on to this orphan.

As the two raced up the few stairs from the landing to the second floor, the older woman paused by the window. Undimmed by the centuries of sunlight which had passed through its light green glass, the family motto written in Latin wafted on a scarlet banner beneath the flag.
Always Prepared, Truth's Champion
, she translated mentally. Phipps often wondered if the creator of that phrase could have guessed Lady Mariel Wythe would embody it four hundred years later. When she heard the giggling from the second floor, she hurried after the others.

Mariel pointed out the door to her uncle's now unused rooms and the suite where she slept. Pausing by her door, she opened it. Out burst a dark brown blur. She grasped Muffin's collar just as he was about to put his nose directly into Rosie's face. The little girl was staring at the springer spaniel as if he was a monster.

“Rosie, this is Muffin,” she said as she dragged the dog back from the child. “She's just enthusiastic. She loves children.”

Regarding the dog's brown eyes and the full coat covering its chest, she whispered, “To eat?”

Mariel laughed and shook her head. “To play with. Do you want me to put her back in my room?”

“You sleep with her in your room?” she asked incredulously.

“Yes.”

“Oh.” For some reason that Mariel could not decipher, that fact seemed to change Rosie's mind. She held out a tentative hand and stroked the dog's head along the white stripe between its eyes and along its wide nose. Suddenly she grinned. “She's soft.”

“Just like butter melting on a muffin.” Mariel chuckled again. “That's how she got her name. Now would you like to see your room?”

“Do I have a Muffin, too?”

Taken aback by the abrupt reversal, Mariel glanced at Phipps. The older woman was trying not to smile at the odd request. Mariel answered honestly, “No, there's only one Muffin, but I'm sure you can convince her to sleep with you sometimes.”

Rosie's smile broadened as she patted the dog before skipping after the others. Opening the heavy door next to hers, Mariel ushered the child into the spacious room. It was a simple room, once a servant's quarters, but the single room and attached bath would be perfect for Rosie. A chair and a small table would provide space for school work. Books clustered on the shelves, and a well-used dollhouse waited in one corner beneath a window overlooking the ocean. A jumbled selection of stuffed animals and dolls sat on a chest at one edge of the slightly worn Oriental rug.

“For me?” cried the little girl. She ran to the tester bed and threw herself on its neat covers.

Mariel laughed until she heard Phipps's outwardly outraged sniff. Hating to dampen the child's excitement, Mariel went to the bed. In a stage whisper, she warned, “We don't jump on beds with our shoes on, Rosie.” Her voice dropped as she added, “Only with them off, and when Miss Phipps is not around.”

Rosie giggled, but slid off the now-rumpled bed. Her eyes were caught by the toys, which she had not seen in the first moments of discovering this luxury of having a massive room for her own use. Awed, she approached a doll dressed in a creamy white nightdress. Her fingers reached out to touch the china curls, but hesitated.

“Go ahead,” urged Mariel when the child looked over her shoulder for permission. “She endured my kisses when I was your age. I think she will enjoy being played with again.”

Dropping to the floor, the little girl pulled the doll into her lap. Gently she examined every inch of the eyelet gown and the tiny leather shoes. Her face beamed with happiness as she asked, “Can she sleep with me? Can I name her?”

“Of course. I called her Alice, but you may name her whatever you please.”

“I like Alice.”

“I did too.” Mariel sat on the small chair, savoring the joy of having a child in the house again. She pointed to the chest. “She has more clothes in there. Uncle Wilford always had a dress made for her each time he had one made for me.”

“So you and Alice could be twins?”

Mariel's smile vanished. Rosie looked from her suddenly shattered features to the shocked expression on Miss Phipps's face. Something she had said was horribly wrong, but she could not guess what it was. A wave of homesickness washed over her. At the orphanage, she knew everyone well. She did not have to worry about every word she spoke.

Struggling to escape the horror such innocent words allowed to run free in her mind, Mariel forced a fake smile on her too-tight lips. “Yes, so we could always look alike.” She took a deep breath. “Phipps will unpack for you. I have some work to do. Why don't you play here? I will be back in a few minutes.”

Rosie watched, disconcerted, as the woman walked out of the room without further explanation. Needing to know the truth, she turned to Miss Phipps and asked bluntly, “What did I say wrong?”

With a sigh, the older woman looked back at the unhappy little girl. She had thought Lady Mariel had put that sorrow behind her, but it appeared the lady simply had fooled everyone into believing she had accepted her past. The truth was not for this youngster on her first day at the Cloister.