A Prince for Aunt Hetty (4 page)

“I can hear you creeping around. I'm going to get you!” He heard a rustle near his left side. Rupert lunged quickly and caught someone.

“Ha!” He cried out and the little person squealed in fun. “Who did I catch?”

“It's Stephen! You caught Stephen!” the other children cried out. The little boy squirmed in his arms.

“What shall I do with Stephen? Shall I eat him?”

“Noooo!” the boy yelled in delicious terror.

“Shall I tickle him?”

“Yes!” The children all yelled.

Rupert tickled Stephen until the boy finally wriggled away, laughing and screeching as he went. The game resumed, with Rupert still It. Again he stalked around the clearing, listening for their movements. Every once in awhile they would taunt him by calling out where they were or trying to direct him toward where someone else was. On a lucky chance, Rupert lunged and grabbed someone's arm.

“I've got you!” He yelled and yanked at the arm he had grabbed.

“Oof!”The voice was not a child's and neither was the body now pressed against his.

Rupert let go and whipped off the blindfold. Miss Masters was standing in front of him. She looked discombobulated. This close, he could see the laugh lines on her face and the deep blue of her eyes. Her hair was a silvery gray gathered in a chignon that was starting to fall apart from all of their activity. Rupert itched to touch a strand that had fallen down her neck. She looked up at him as if she knew what he'd been thinking. He blushed and stuttered.

“Are you all right?”

“Fine, thank you.” She looked at him steadily. “You seem to have caught me.”

“Yes.” Rupert was suddenly short of breath. “Have I hurt you?”

“Not at all,” she declared. Rupert breathed out in relief as she continued. “These monkeys climb on me all the time. I doubt you could do me much damage.”

They stood awkwardly together. Rupert didn't know what to say.

“Play! Play!” The children grew impatient.

Rupert shrugged and gave Miss Masters a grin. He pulled the blindfold back on and headed out into the middle of the clearing. For the next half hour, he caught the children one by one, until only the girl Agnes hadn't been caught. She began to crow over her brothers and sisters as soon as she had won.

“Time to get back to the house, children,” Miss Masters announced. Rupert watched as she rounded them up, making sure they had all of their coats and hats on. A twinge of jealousy again... If only someone cared for him like that...

“Mr. H! Come back home with us!”

Rupert raised a questioning eyebrow to Miss Masters, who nodded her assent. They started on their way.

The whole walk to the house, the children fought about who got to hold his hand. Finally, he compromised and said each child who wanted to could hold one of his fingers. And so they arrived in the front hallway of Hayes house.

Mrs. Hayes greeted them with surprise. “Well, my children, I see you have picked up a welcome visitor.”

“He played with us, mama! And put on the blindfold and caught me and then he caught Aunt Hetty --” Stephen gushed to his mother.

“I am sure I want to hear all about it, my darling, but first I want you to wash up for dinner. Mrs. Lowell has made us a fine meal that is getting cold. Upstairs, all of you,” Mrs. Hayes commanded. “And say thank you to Mr. Henderson!” She called after them as they started up the stairs. They turned around and shouted down a chorus of thank yous. Rupert gave them a bow as they disappeared onto the second floor.

Mrs. Hayes turned to him with a broad smile on her kind face. “Thank you, Mr. Henderson, for clearly delighting my children. You have returned from you journey. Was it pleasant?”

“I cannot complain. The weather held and I am back where I want to be now.” Rupert hoped she would leave it at that.

Mrs. Hayes smiled and accepted his answer. He almost sighed with relief.
This is a new place where people do not want or need to know all of your business. Not like London...

“Will you stay for dinner?”

“Dinner!” Rupert recalled himself. “I would love to, Mrs. Hayes, but I have already ordered my own. Mr. Adams is probably wondering where I've got to. And I don't like to make him wonder.”

“Oh yes. Please keep Mr. Adams happy.” She laughed and then added, “I do hope you will be able to attend our card party on Saturday, if no pressing business takes you away again, that is.”

Rupert sighed and said, “God grant that it will not, Mrs. Hayes. I would like to be there.”

“I am counting on you to make my table even, sir, now that my sister is here with us.”

He turned to Miss Masters, who'd gone quiet since they'd entered the house. “I look forward to it.”

“As do we,” Mrs. Hayes nodded.

“Yes, we do,” Miss Masters concurred. Rupert studied her face for a moment, trying to discover if she was only being polite. He certainly hoped she meant it. Their conversation until now had been somewhat limited and the party would be a good way to speak more with her.

Mrs. Hayes stepped away from them, distracted by some loud thumping sounds coming from the floor above.

Miss Masters spoke. “Thank you for this afternoon. I'm sure not even their father could have done more to entertain the children.”

“I have to admit that I probably enjoyed it even more than they did.” He gave her a smile.

“I could have guessed that.” There was a soft teasing in her voice that curled through his insides in an unsettling way.

“I didn't get to play much as a child, so now that I'm a grown man, I think I can take some liberties.” He teased back.

“My thoughts exactly,” she said. “Grown men and women should be able to afford some spirited fun now and again.”

A beat passed between them. Their eyes held in something that might have been more than humor. But the sounds of the children reminded him where he was.

“Until Saturday, then,” Rupert bowed slightly to Miss Masters. He kept his eyes on her face. “Mrs. Hayes,” he caught her attention, “thank you again for the kind offer of dinner. I look forward to seeing you and your lovely children again soon.”

“We would all love that, Mr Henderson.”

Rupert turned toward the door.

“Good evening, Mr. Henderson,” Miss Masters said.

“Good evening, Miss Masters.” The door shut behind him.

As it closed, Rupert heard Mrs. Hayes call up the stairs. “I hope that my children are washing themselves for dinner and
not
playing
!” Rupert smiled to himself. Being around spirited children was invigorating. And more than a little exhausting.

He slowly wended his way home, stopping frequently to gaze at the fading winter light as it hit the tree branches. The woods were silent now, no shrieking or sounds of children playing. Not that he minded their noise. There was a kind of healing in it that replenished his spirit. In fact, after his dinner, Rupert thought he might just sit down and do some work. And he knew exactly what his subject would be.

Chapter Three

H
ETTY'S WEEK PASSED
in happy merriment. In the mornings she aided her sister with lessons for the children, a duty Agatha had assumed while their governess was visiting her family. Then the afternoons were full of games and laughter.

The weather began to worsen, keeping the children inside far more than their mother or father wished them to be. To help, Hetty tried to devise clever games to keep their minds and bodies occupied. They loved to play hide-and-seek, though the oldest, Vanessa, was the only one who could keep from laughing while she was hidden.

Hetty knew that Agatha was glad of the respite her sister provided. Hetty loved her nieces and nephews, but she did not know exactly how her sister could stand upright at the end of each long day. Hetty fell exhausted into bed each night and slept like the dead until the noise of the children woke her again the next morning.

One night, Hetty had even fallen asleep in Stephen and Vincent's bed while reading them one of the fairy tales they loved so well. She'd settled in, one boy tucked under each arm, and begun one of her favorites about a beautiful princess and a handsome prince. An hour later, she'd been shaken gently awake by Agatha, who had come to kiss her children good night and found her slumbering sister instead.

And so the week went. Play during the day, sound slumber at night, and lots of laughter in between. Hetty enjoyed the freedom of it all. She loved her life in London and she had been happy to help arrange her eldest niece Isobel's recent wedding. But being a responsible adult had its burdens. Here with the children she could forget that she was now supposed to be on the downhill slope of life.

On Saturday, this comfortable routine was interrupted by the preparations for the dinner and card party the Hayes' were hosting. Though Hetty could very happily have spent all of her visit with the children, she was rather excited to spend time with some adults besides Agatha and Jonathan.

It had been nearly a year since she'd visited this area and she was filled with the excitement that attends meeting people whom one has met only a handful of times in life but who one likes very well. There would be lots of new stories to share. Hetty knew that Lathrop and Mariel Howett, the nearest neighbors besides Mr. Henderson at Armstrong house, had recently been to the Continent. In the fall of the last year, they had married off the final one of their three children and then taken themselves on a months-long anniversary trip.

Hetty wondered what their travels had been like. For much of her life, the Continent had been embroiled in a war that made traveling a difficult and sometimes dangerous proposition. But now that things were settling down, she thought she might finally take the extended trip she'd longed for. She might as well do it soon. Who knew what conflicts waited around the corner or even how much time she had left to enjoy such a trip?

The excitement built throughout the day as the entire household was scrubbed and rearranged. Agatha put the children to work dusting. They managed to knock over only one valuable item, so the task was considered a success. Hetty helped her sister arrange and rearrange the parlor. Her excitement mounted, too, though she convinced herself it was because of the prospect of good conversation with seldom-met friends and certainly did not have anything to do with the fact that she would be seeing Mr. Rupert Henderson again.

The extra care she took to choose her best dress and have Annabella – nearly recovered from her cold now and insistent on proving herself to her mistress – style her hair in the most flattering style had only to do with the fact that Hetty enjoyed dressing up and had not had occasion to do so for some time.

As the guests arrived, there was a whirlwind of sending carriages off to the stables and taking off coats and ushering guests into the drawing room and offering them drinks and introducing them again to Hetty and to each other. There was a happy rumble in the house much different than the usual peal of childish laughter.

Hetty knew nearly everyone who made up the small party. There were Sanderson and Caroline Wythe, a long-married couple with the habit of finishing each other's sentences. The Wythe family went back generations in this area and were still some of the wealthiest landowners around. They employed much of the village to run their house and farm their land. They acted as the sage grandparents for everyone in the neighborhood.

Less well-liked was Ramsey Brindley who Hetty had met only two or three times over the years. Until two years ago, the man had been a bachelor with a somewhat dubious reputation. But his wife Brianne, a startlingly beautiful blonde-haired woman, seemed to have brought him into line. Hetty smiled to see them together. It was amazing what falling in love – and it was plain to see that theirs, no matter how it had started, was a love match – could do to reform a person. Love could help them write a happily ever after.

Then there were the Howetts, who greeted everyone as if they were the most important people in the entire world. It was nice to feel that someone was excited to see you. It made you just as excited to see them.

Hetty had just begun to converse with Mrs. Howett, eager to ask her about her trip, when her attention was drawn by Jonathan's booming voice in the hallway.

“Henderson! We had nearly given up on you,” Jonathan said, still out of sight.

Hetty sat up straighter in her chair and smoothed her hands over her dress. Her heart beat a little faster, but the door remained frustratingly empty. How long did it take to remove a coat? Hetty clenched her hands in her lap to keep from tapping her fingers impatiently. She physically turned her head in order to concentrate to Mrs. Howett, who was saying something about the current spell of cold weather. But everyone's attention turned to the last guest as soon as he and Jonathan entered.

“That must be Mr. Henderson, our new neighbor,” Mrs. Howett said.

“It is.”

“Oh!” A sly smile came over her face. “He is quite a handsome gentleman. Agatha's letters did not communicate everything about him, I see.”

Hetty watched him move gracefully and bow low to the women. His appearance tonight was very elegant in a finely tailored suit, much too fine for a country dinner, in fact...