The Education of Mrs. Brimley (18 page)

“What are you going to do?” Beatrice asked. “The light will be gone in another hour, and there’s not a moon in the sky tonight.”

“We’ll take lanterns and search the back path to Black Oak. The path provides the only break in the trees.” Thank heavens neither sister asked how she had come by that information.

“We know she’s not on the road to town,” Cecilia said. “I’ll take Miss Barnesworth and search the road in the opposite direction. I suspect she has a hand in this.” Cecilia lifted her skirts to hurry up the stairs.

“What should I do? Where should I look?” Beatrice asked, wringing the life out of an unlucky piece of embroidery.

“You have the hardest job of all,” Emma said, anxious to dash outside in search of the missing girl. “You need to stay here in case Charlotte returns on her own. The younger children will need someone in authority to calm them and keep order. That will be your mission. To keep order and to make sure the tea is hot and ready when we return home.”

THE FIERCE DARKNESS CONSUMED THE HEAT AND light like a hungry animal cast out in the wild. Emma and Alice concentrated on remaining upright as the light from their lanterns caught obstacles only moments before they were underfoot. Their throats were hoarse from crying out Charlotte’s name. Even sound disappeared beyond the circle of the lamps, supplanted by the cracking of frozen twigs underfoot and the scurry of unseen feet inches from their own.

“Do you think we’ll find her?” Alice asked after an un-returned volley of calls.

“I hope so.” Emma pulled the wool of her scarf tighter around her neck. “I wouldn’t wish to be out alone on a night like this. I do hope Charlotte thought to dress appropriately.”

“She missed her family. If I had brothers and sisters, I would miss them too.” The longing in the girl’s voice twisted Emma’s heart. “I suppose it would be rude of me to ask if you have brothers and sisters, Mrs. Brimley?”

“Indeed, questions of such a personal nature would be considered intrusive,” Emma replied, ever mindful of her responsibilities to mold the girls to society’s standards. “However, rather recently I have learned that speaking of one’s personal nature can sometimes prove . . . helpful, so I will answer your question. I have neither brothers nor sisters.”

She gazed about into the black void around them and shuddered. She hoped Charlotte had found shelter. On a night like this, the woods was no place to be by oneself.

“The world is a sad place when you are all alone,” Alice lamented with a heavy sigh.

As much as Emma could empathize with that statement, it was not the future she would wish for Alice.

“You are a beautiful young lady,” Emma comforted. “I’m sure you will find a suitable husband and begin a family of your own.”

“I have no prospects, no dowry, and no family to speak of. I’m afraid your special etiquette classes shall be wasted on me,” Alice said with a deep sigh.

“Then I shall be your family, and you shall be mine,” Emma pronounced. “And at the darkest of times, we shall run toward each other, as we pray Charlotte will do to this lantern.” She raised the light high.

Alice smiled. “I shall like that.” She called again for Charlotte, yet received no response.

“Look!” Emma pointed to a spot between the trees. “Those are the lights of Black Oak. We must have traveled the full path. We can stop there and warm our hands a few moments. Perhaps there’s news of the search.”

“Not there.” Alice stopped dead in her tracks, refusing to budge. “Miss Higgins says we are never to visit Black Oak. To do so is to be ruined.”

“That’s ridiculous. I’ve visited numerous times for lessons, and I have always been received with warmth and cordiality.” To say she’d been received warmly did injustice to her elevated temperature whenever she confronted Lord Chambers, but that was an improper subject for Alice’s young ears.

“But you are a widow. I am an innocent.”

That brought a small smile to Emma on such a comfortless night. If only she knew. “Alice,” Emma said, “you are in no danger at Black Oak, especially when accompanied by your family.”

Alice smiled and moved forward.

 
“MRS. BRIMLEY, WE’VE BEEN EXPECTING YOU. AND YOU have brought a visitor.” Thomas greeted them at the door.

“You were expecting us?” Hope blossomed in Emma like a sip of brandy. “Have you found her?”

“His lordship is waiting for you. This way, please.” Thomas led them round to the back of the manor house and pointed the way to the stables. Emma and Alice grabbed fistfuls of skirts and ran the short distance to the brick and wood structure. Leaving their lanterns outside the stable doors, they ventured in, drawn by voices and a light in one of the back stalls.

“That one, I think, has a special affinity for you.” Chambers’s deep voice drew Emma like a bee to honey. “I can’t even entice this one to—oh, there he goes.”

Emma peered around the stall to see Chambers lying on a bale of hay, his head propped by a bent elbow, trying to lure a tiny gray kitten to jump at a dried wheat sprig. Charlotte sat in one corner, a fuzzy ball of gray and white fur curled contentedly in her lap, laughing at the resulting flurry of tiny paw pats. A third kitten crouched by her knees, preparing to lunge at the tip of the twitching tail of Chambers’s pet.

“Charlotte Hawkins!” Alice charged into the tranquil scene. “We’ve been worried ill.” Emma noted the accurate imitation of Cecilia’s censure, complete with her hands on her hips.

Chambers looked up at precisely the same time the kitten leapt for the dangling stalk, missed, and landed on Chambers’s face. Everyone laughed except Alice. Chambers removed the gray furry mass and returned it to the curve of its mother’s swollen belly before crossing the stall to stand next to Emma.

“Come see the babies, Alice,” Charlotte called. “They’re barely four weeks old and they’re ever so tiny.”

“It seems I’ve found one of your strays,” Chambers murmured to Emma. The delicious warmth of his breath swirled in her ear. Indeed she wasn’t sure what pleasured her more: finding Charlotte or watching the impervious Lord Chambers playing with kittens in a cozy, fragrant stall.

“We found her half-frozen in the back garden. I couldn’t convince her to come inside the manor, so we compromised on the stable. She looked at me like I was the devil incarnate.”

He scowled as if offended, although she knew he enjoyed the role well enough when she stood half-naked in his studio. However, after seeing him with the kittens, she supposed she would have difficulty thinking of him in such evil terms in the future.

“She said she was making her way to the train station.” He crossed his arms, watching the girls play with the future mousers. “Thomas warmed her up with tea and biscuits.” Chambers lifted an eyebrow in her direction. “Do they not feed you women at that school?”

Emma was so thrilled to find Charlotte that words managed to swell in her throat and render her mute.

“And who is this young lady who has chosen to join our party?” He smiled at Alice, who looked at him somewhat circumspect.

“Lord Nicholas Chambers, may I present Miss Darlington,” Emma managed to say around the lump in her throat. Alice rose to her feet and curtsied on cue, but still gazed in fear and awe at their host. Not surprising. Emma had had a similar reaction to Chambers after listening to the tales of the Higgins sisters.

“Miss Darlington?” Chambers’s eyes narrowed slightly as he studied her face. “Could that be Miss Alice Darlington?”

“Have we met before, your lordship?” Alice asked.

“I believe I knew your mother many, many years ago,” he said in a wistful tone.

“You knew my mother?” Alice’s eyes grew as wide as saucers. “Please, sir, I know so little. Would you tell me about her?”

Chambers gently cupped her chin and smiled into her hopeful eyes. “She was very beautiful and very talented. You look exactly like her when she was your age.”

Any fear or apprehension on Alice’s part apparently evaporated at his touch. “Did you know my father? Were they from around here? In what way was she talented?” Questions long suppressed quickly bubbled to the surface.

Chambers’s gaze slipped to Emma. Something akin to pain flashed in his eyes. “I imagine you are anxious to return the girls to the school.”

Although puzzled by his reaction, Emma recognized the cue. They had overstayed their welcome. “Girls, the hour grows late. We must return to Pettibone.” Charlotte protested, wishing to spend more time with the kitten.

“When it is old enough, and as long as the headmistress allows it”—he winked in Emma’s direction—“you may take her back with you to the school.

“Please allow Henry to return you to Pettibone,” he added to Emma. “He’s waiting inside, I’ll warrant.”

“HE’S NOT AT ALL WHAT I EXPECTED,” ALICE CONFIDED the moment the carriage door shut and the horses began the long walk back to the school. Due to the moonless night, Henry walked in front of the horses with a lantern to light the way.

“I like him,” Charlotte said, with a loud yawn. “May we come back to visit?”

“Yes, we must come back,” Alice pleaded. “Please?”

“We will discuss the matter with Miss Higgins,” Emma replied, pleased that Chambers had made a good impression on the girls. “I expect she won’t be inclined to allow you, Miss Hawkins, to go visiting anywhere for quite a while.”

Charlotte hung her head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to worry.”

Emma patted Charlotte’s hand. “Everyone was worried, not just me. The whole school turned all topsy-turvy when you were discovered missing. But you’re safe now.” She squeezed her hand. “That is what is important. I suggest the both of you close your eyes and attempt to get some sleep. At this pace we shall arrive back at Pettibone long past your bedtime.”

 
IT TOOK SEVERAL DAYS FOR THE SCHOOL TO RETURN TO normal. Emma heard Lord Chambers’s name mentioned in hushed whispers in corners and alcoves throughout the school.

Although visits by the girls to Black Oak continued to be strictly forbidden, the furrows in Cecilia’s brow no longer touched the bridge of her nose at the very mention of Chambers’s name.

A week passed before Emma could return to Black Oak. The carriage body rocked from side to side, tossed by the howling winds that carried a fresh layer of snow to coat the sleeping countryside. The time spent negotiating the distance from the school to Chambers’s residence doubled. Poor Henry, she thought of the bundle of wool coaxing the pair of horses onward. Perhaps she should have listened to Cecilia’s suggestion that she miss another art lesson.

Beatrice went so far as to volunteer to accompany Emma to Black Oak to personally thank his lordship for his role in Charlotte’s recovery. Before Emma could think of an appropriate protest, Cecilia nay-sayed the idea. “Mrs. Brimley is capable of extending our gratitude under the circumstances.”

Although Emma insisted it was the courtesy of conveying those sentiments that drew her to Black Oak in such adverse weather, she knew another deeper desire spurred her action. She needed to see him again and would have braved rain, hail, and ice to return to Black Oak.

Thomas allowed Emma access into the studio even though Chambers had not yet arrived. She gazed about the room, sensing a change in the atmosphere, a shift in some basic fundamental. The room still overwhelmed her with light and color; the scent of oils, turpentine, and pure creative energy continued to dominate. Freshly painted canvases leaned against the wall, though she detected a change in subject matter. The landscapes had slipped into the minority compared to some studies of clothed human figures and even a painting of kittens in the straw.

The mirror that had telegraphed her artless removal of garments hung in the same place on the wall, but the addition of a three-paneled screen in the corner caught her attention. She smiled, feeling almost comfortable in her surroundings. The room no longer terrified or intimidated her. She amended that thought. The room itself had never threatened; it was the absent master. Coming here today still set her heart to pounding, but her palms remained dry beneath her gloves, and her throat retained some semblance of moisture.

“I had thought you would have arrived earlier,” Chambers said, joining her. “How am I expected to paint without a subject?”

“I am here now, sir.” She smiled, appreciating the fashionable waistcoat that spanned his chest. Something else was different about him, she thought. A new vitality, a restlessness, seemed to vibrate the air around him.

“Did you notice I added a screened panel for your comfort?” He pointed toward the back corner of the room. “I ordered it after you modeled last.”

Emma wondered at his chattiness. He fidgeted with his brushes, selecting one and testing it against the palm of his hand.

“I was most disappointed when it arrived yesterday. Not only because I find it totally unnecessary, but because the unannounced delivery was an innate object”—he glanced up, tapping out a rhythm in his palm—“and not a certain ladies’ English teacher.”