Susan Spencer Paul (25 page)

“T
here was a time,” Aunt Leta began, speaking each word with care, “many, many years ago, when your father and my brother were very good friends. In truth, they were the best of friends, for they were as close as brothers. In those days there was a good understanding between Gyer and Wellewyn. Dunsted, of course, was already a thorn in my father’s side because of the issue of the land, but with Wellewyn we were on good terms, mostly because of the friendship between my brother and your father. My brother, whose Christian name was Charles, and Jaward were fostered together when they were boys, long before either of them had to take up the responsibility of their estates. Wellewyn was always quite poor, but that made little difference to Charles and Jaward. They had been friends since their earliest days and grew to be even closer during their years of fostering.

“There was a great deal of visiting between the two families then.” Aunt Leta smiled in memory. “I remember celebrating many holidays with the Ryon family. One Christmas Eve in particular I remember. Jaward and Charles brought home a yule log that was more tree than anything else. My father had to put six of his strongest men to work just to fit it into the fireplace.” She laughed and shook her head. “I never have been able to figure out how those two sixteen-year-old boys were able to drag home that enormous thing.” She sighed, smiling. “Oh, well, those were such good times, back then.”

“And Jaward,” she said his name wistfully, “he was such a handsome young man. I was quite in love with him, I fear, strange as that may seem.” Aunt Leta blushed and inspected her hands minutely. “Mayhap you’ll not believe this, but I was thought by many to be more than a little beautiful when I was a girl, and he was—Jaward was—so often at Gyer—being such good friends with Charles. There was a time when I thought—” She stopped, shaking her head. “But that doesn’t matter now. Nothing ever came of it. But he
did
kiss me in the gardens once,” she added as an afterthought, finally looking at Lillis.

Lillis smiled and nodded at her encouragingly. “I’m sure he must have, Aunt Leta, and you are still a very beautiful woman. I’ve always thought so. You must have been quite lovely when you were a girl.”

Aunt Leta lowered her eyes and smiled. “Well, I did have many suitors, and more than a few who were eligible. But Father died when I was sixteen years of age, and Charles never allowed any of the men who requested permission to court me to do so. By the time I was your age suitors stopped coming to ask. I think perhaps they realized naught would come of it.” She seemed rather sad as she spoke. “But Charles was always very good to me, and he did need me so much, especially after Father died. I managed the household then, just as I do now. Even when he brought Elizabeth Caldwell home as his wife, I continued to manage everything.”

“But, once he had a wife to care for him, why did your brother not let you marry?” Lillis asked.

Aunt Leta shrugged. “I don’t know. I was only five and twenty when they wed, and I did think for a time that he might allow me to go to court and seek a husband, but he always turned the subject whenever I tried to speak with him about it. He said he needed me, and I imagine that was true. Elizabeth was a beautiful young woman from a very good family, but she was younger than I and not much interested in taking on the responsibilities of running such a large household. You mustn’t think she was lazy, though,” Aunt Leta stated quite firmly. “She was nothing of the sort. Elizabeth was a wonderful person, full of life and happiness and beauty. Everyone loved her. Especially Charles. Oh, they were so much in love in those days. You should have seen them together, behaving more like two silly children than a married couple. Elizabeth became pregnant very quickly and soon Alexander arrived, and then, two years later, Willem was born. Charles was never an easy man to live with, but during those years he did seemed happier and more content than I had ever known him to be.”

“And what of my father and mother during these years?” Lillis asked.

“Your father continued to visit us often at Gyer. His own parents had died shortly after Alexander was born and he became the Lord of Wellewyn. He was a good lord in those days, though Wellewyn continued poor, as always. But Jaward did work very hard at trying to bring things about. I remember whenever he came to spend a few days with us at Gyer, he and Charles would speak of nothing but crops and plantings and animal stock. Elizabeth and I used to think we would go mad if we had to hear one more word about soil drainage on those occasions,” she said with a laugh.

“Your father was a little jealous over Charles’s marriage, I think. He got along well enough with Elizabeth, but there were times when I thought perhaps he disliked having to share his good friend with another, even though Charles was as devoted to him as he ever had been. Your father was Alexander’s godfather, which I’m sure you never knew. Alexander never knew it, either, of course. When Charles and Jaward had their falling out Charles made certain that Jaward’s name was erased from the church records.

“Well, enough about that. Let me tell you of how your father and mother met. When Charles and Elizabeth had been married for nearly four years, and when Alexander was close to three, we received news that one of our distant cousins, John Baldwin, was to be married. Now, John had been fostered together with Charles and Jaward, so your father was a very close acquaintance of his. Naturally, he was invited to the marriage celebration, as well, and it was decided between Charles and Jaward that we should all travel to the event together. It was going to be a very important occasion, you see, because the bride was one of the Huntington Denys.

“We arrived in good time for the wedding, coming, as we did, four days before the actual ceremony was to be held. Our cousin received us just exactly as he should have, and with great honor, as my brother was the head of the Baldwin family. The evening of the day we arrived, John held a very fine feast in honor of his bride and her family, who had arrived the same day. I shall never forget how lovely it was. The whole next week was wonderful, of course, but that night was particularly nice. Not many of the wedding guests had arrived as of yet and there was plenty of food and wine. The entertainments John provided were splendid! And the bride was so beautiful! All of the Huntington family are perfectly beautiful, even the men. I must have fallen in love with every single one of them, I vow! But, as lovely as the bride was, and as handsome as the men were, and as fantastic as the feast and entertainments were, there was a single woman present who caused everything and everyone else to appear dim in contrast to her extraordinary beauty. She looked exactly like an angel.”

“My mother,” Lillis whispered.

Aunt Leta nodded. “Your mother. The most beautiful creature I have ever seen. I’ve not lied when I’ve said that you are very much like her, but there was something in her that set her apart from the mortal beauty that you possess. She was radiant, perfect in every feature. Her whiteness, like yours, stood out against the ordinary coloring of other people. All of the men at the celebration, of course, were fighting for her favors, but her father had set four very strong men to guard and accompany her wherever she went, and so she was quite protected. I don’t know if she was her father’s favorite, but I suspect she was. He is the Earl of Saint Vincent, her father, and he is also your grandfather. He’s still alive from what I hear, and just as wretched as ever. I wonder if he would be glad to know that he has a granddaughter who is a replica of his own perfect daughter, even though he so humiliatingly set her aside.”

“Set her aside?” Lillis repeated. “I have always wondered why I knew nothing of my mother’s family. My father never spoke of them, and he grew angry if I asked. Why did my grandfather set my mother aside?”

“She was from the Huntington line, my dear, and she was a very beautiful woman. Can you not imagine how valuable such a daughter would be to a father who might wish to mate her with an equally valuable husband? Why, he could have allied himself with any of the richest and most powerful men in England through her. But she chose your father, girl. Your poor and thoroughly unimportant father. Do you not understand, Lillis? Eleanor chose Jaward for her husband and gave herself to him so that her father would have no choice but to let them marry.”

Lillis stared at her in disbelief.

Aunt Leta nodded. “Yes, and I never was able to understand how she managed to get away from those guards of hers to do it. Nevertheless, she was quite thoroughly ruined after that, and they were quietly married in the family chapel two days after Cousin John and your Aunt Madelyne were.”

“Oh, my!”

“It is quite true, my dear, though I can certainly understand your surprise. But you mustn’t be disgusted, Lillis, for I truly believe that your parents loved each other just exactly as they should have. If only you could have seen the way Eleanor looked at your father on their wedding day! I don’t believe I have ever seen a more loving and radiant expression in my whole life. And your father! He was like a man walking on clouds! Yes, Lillis, they did love each other. You must never have any doubts about that.

“The difficulty that troubled their marriage was that so many men were in love with your beautiful mother and couldn’t let their desire for her go. One of those men was my brother, Charles. He loved Elizabeth deeply, with his heart, but from the moment he set eyes on your mother he could not desire any other woman with his body. That’s a terrible thing to say of one’s brother, I know, but it is God’s own truth. Charles made no secret of his desire for Eleanor, and even poor Elizabeth knew of it. Of course, it was the end of his friendship with Jaward. For years they neither spoke to nor saw one another. It was a dreadfully unpleasant time, and Charles, especially, was very hard to live with. He and Elizabeth fought constantly and for two years Elizabeth kept to her own chamber, refusing to have anything to do with him. In time they came to an understanding and resumed their relationship as man and wife, but matters between them weren’t easy. Elizabeth suffered two miscarriages during the next four years, and when Charles heard that Eleanor had been successfully delivered of a child he was angry and said some terrible things about Elizabeth’s inability to give him any more children.

“Six years after your parents’ marriage, both families unwittingly went to court at the same time. I didn’t attend because it was my custom to stay home with Alexander and Willem whenever my brother and Elizabeth went away, so the facts of what happened in London came to me secondhand, though I’m certain they are true.

“It seems that, during their stay in London, Charles succeeded in seducing your mother. At least, he succeeded in getting her into a chamber alone. I never was certain about whether he raped her or whether she gave in to him willingly or whether anything actually occurred at all. What I do know is that Elizabeth walked into the chamber and found them together and became thoroughly enraged. Your father must not have been far away, for Jaward, and many others, too, came running at the sound of Elizabeth’s screams, and there he found his wife and Charles together in what looked like very damning circumstances. Charles laughed at your father, quite openly, and loudly announced to one and all that he had finally enjoyed the object of his greatest desire. Your poor mother only stood there and cried. If she was innocent in what had happened she must not have been able defend herself. Jaward certainly gave her no opportunity to explain. He and Elizabeth left court almost at once to journey back to Gyer and Wellewyn. Somewhere along the journey they—comforted each other.”

“And the twins were conceived,” Lillis said bluntly.

Aunt Leta nodded. “Yes, although no one knew they were twins at the time. But Charles and Elizabeth hadn’t enjoyed their conjugal rights for some time, and Elizabeth insisted that Jaward was the father of her unborn child. She had him sign a paper stating that fact and gave it into the keeping of one of her more powerful relatives as proof against any future punishment Charles might mete out to her or the child. Her belief was that if my brother ever dared to abuse her or her children she would make the document public so that he would be shamed. My brother’s pride was a terrible thing. He never could have borne others knowing he’d been cuckolded, even though he’d publicly humiliated your father in exactly that way.”

The thought filled Lillis with rage, and with hatred for a man she’d never even known.

“What happened to my mother?” she whispered.

Aunt Leta took a long drink of wine, then clasped her shaking hands tightly together. She didn’t look at Lillis.

“Eleanor finally made her way home after what had happened at court,” she said quietly. “Charles didn’t bring her. He would have, I think, if she had let him, but of course she wanted nothing to do with him.

“There was a very kind man who was at court at that time, Sir Terence Simonton, who had once been my most favored suitor. Terence had always been the finest of men. I believed him when he said he loved me, though Charles would never receive him when he tried to speak to him of courting me.” She glanced at Lillis. “I would have married Terence if I could have. I truly would.”

Lillis neither moved nor responded to Aunt Leta’s words, but only stared at her.

“Well,” said Aunt Leta, looking away again, “Terence brought your mother home. He was perfectly proper, of course, and made certain that several acceptable women from court accompanied them the entire way, and never once mentioned the disgraceful episode at court.”

“What happened to my mother?” Lillis pressed.

Aunt Leta fell quiet for a moment, then at last continued. “Your father would not receive her,” she said in a voice thick with emotion. “She tried to speak with him and your father would not accept her. I have been told that she pleaded and pleaded with him and that he would not look at her, or speak to her, or even acknowledge her presence. Perhaps there was more to it. I don’t know. Now that your father has died, none of us will ever know what truly happened between them on that day.” Uncontrolled tears escaped her eyes. She wiped them away and cleared her throat. “Finally she—your mother—gave up trying to reason with him and went up to your nursery. From what I have heard she stayed there with you for many hours, holding and singing to you.”