The Companion of Lady Holmeshire (28 page)

***

An English widow had no rights to her husband’s property, or even to her own child, and Alexander had not left a will. Chancery would establish a male guardian for Nicky. Wills had hoped to be that guardian, but he had not brought Chancery into the matter previously, which might now work against him. More than ever, he hoped to find a way to keep Nick at Holmeshire Hall, and he prayed with all his heart that he had. He approached the anxious women at their tea.

“
Hello Mama, Emma, Genny.” Wills asked, and attempted to raise the spirits of the women. “Do you have something here for me to eat? Hmmm, let me see what is on Mama’s plate.” He took all that was on it and left only crumbs.

“
And now you know why gentlemen are not invited to tea,” his mother responded, grateful for his efforts to cheer, but now without a tart.

Wills ignored her. “Ems, or rather, Your Highness, would you be so kind as to come have a walk in the garden with me?”

She promptly set down her china, shook her head at the incorrigible Wills and went with him out the door of the Drawing Room. They left the house through the western door and passed through the wisteria enclosed landing. They walked down the terrace stairs and entered a secluded area surrounded by privet hedges. The garden around them was filled with sweet-smelling, red roses, purple and white petunias and beautifully created animal sculptures. They took the time to breathe deeply and to allow some of nature’s good into their day. Wills seated Emma on a stone bench, and he sat down beside her.

Emma had in her hands a letter that her mother had once written and left with Winnie, to be given to her once her grandfather had died. She shared it with Wills. It explained many things to her, including who her father was. She wrote that she had left the matter in the hands of Helena and Winnie because the Duke of Trent had kindly helped her. She had felt she could entrust all her precious things, most of all the destiny of her newborn daughter, to them. She had written a bit of her own life story to Emma and told her to seek out her Uncle Julian’s help, and to trust him, as soon as she knew of her grandfather’s death.

“
I am so happy for you, dear Emma, and I know you must be eager to see your uncle.”

“
The fact is, Wills, my life has been here, and it has been delightful. I very much wish to continue my life here. I realize well that I have a position in Tremeine, but I hope the King and the people will understand my situation. And I shall surely visit there and spend a good bit of time. My only concern is that Nicky might be taken from me before I can go.

“
Ems,” he suggested, “I am so happy to know that you care to stay here. It would break my heart to see you leave us! That hope expressed, I see a possible solution to the threat of Nicholas being given to the Scotts.” Wills went to his knee on the ground and looked up at Emma with a most devoted expression. “Though it is inappropriate for an earl to propose to a princess, this is a matter of gravest importance. Would you consent to marry me? I do love you, you see, with all my heart. I have loved you for a very long time, even much before I should have.” Hoping to persuade her, he forgot the required position and moved back up to the bench. He took her hands. “As for Nicky, we could prove that I, an earl, would be married to the mother of the child, a princess, and the courts may see fit to leave him with us! That is, dear Emma, should you accept me as your husband, and should the King of Tremeine allow it.”

For a moment, Emma was unable to speak. It seemed as if all the world had been wrapped in pretty fabric, tied with a ribbon and handed to her! She could not discern whether she was happier because of the solution to the custody problem or the hope of a future in Will’s arms!

How many years had she longed to be with Wills? Her infatuation with him had ignited as a child; her regard had developed while she was in service in the house, and it had become devotion and ardor as she had watched him with little Nicholas! Was she, indeed, to have absolutely everything a girl could ever dream of having? She squeezed Wills’ hands and smiling, accepted his proposal. Wills, however, regarded her hesitation as a conflict in her mind.

***

Winnie told the family at dinner that night that the grave of the Princess Emmanuel of Tremeine was sadly common and neglected. She had been laid in her grave with but a small, stone plaque. It was necessary, at the time, she revealed, in order to maintain secrecy, to bury her as a stranger and a pauper. Something should now be done about that.

The following day, they made up floral bouquets. Horses were readied and the group went down the hill to the Village. Emma was led to the grave marker, now nearly hidden under the grass, that read, “A Young Traveler.” She was, at last, knowingly near the remains of her mother, and she stood silently with tearing eyes, breathing thanks for the loving care and wise decisions that had brought her safely to where she was this day. She laid down flowers, followed by each of the others, and stood back. Soon a fine memorial would replace the old stone over the grave of a princess who had been buried in a servant’s dress.

***

Barreby had already counted the silverware that was brought out and had called the family to dinner. They had seated themselves, and were discussing what they might soon do, when Nora came running up the stairs to the dining room door, frantically out of breath.

“
Excuse me, sir, Mr. Barreby, sir, those horrid men are back! They’re at the door, but this time they have come with other people from the village! The people have taken them by the neck!”

Barreby looked astonished! He became concerned as to how to manage this, while trying to serve a comfortable dinner to the family, but he finally threw up his hands and took off down to the kitchen. He was followed by the footmen and then the entire Holmeshire family and Genny. There was hardly room for all those crinolined skirts in that small space, but nobody much cared about creases in the fabric for the moment. The villagers were flooding into the house and yelling out to Wills once they saw him.

“
My Lord, we have a case against this man and his son! They’ve been stealing from us all, and we have finally proved it! They’re a disgrace to the memory of Alexander Scott!” They tried to take turns divulging their sad tales of missing money and stolen goods, how they were finally discovered and how it could be proven, but in the excitement everyone was talking at once. The Scotts’ designs upon the Princess had raised the ire of enough women that they could have hung the thieves themselves! Wills finally called for order and quiet, ascertained some of what had happened and then spoke to the Scott men.

“
How good it is for you tonight that punishment for theft is no longer a capital matter as it was a few years ago. Your lives are spared! However, the good people of Holmeshire have been gravely abused by your short stay in this town, and you must pay the penalty. You shall remain locked up in my dungeon until the police can come for you.”

“
You will have some dinner this time, young man,” Barreby scorned, “and you will be allowed inside this house. But you will, neither one of you, step foot in here again.”

***

The Marquess, as of yet unaware of Nicky’s parentage, had already gone to Chancery Court (on behalf of the good people of England, as he was trying to rebuild his reputation) to have the child, probably an urchin from the streets of London, taken through proper channels in Chancery. He had tried to have him identified as a pauper, but establishing his parentage seemed to be impossible. He had wanted Nicholas raised in a workhouse where he would be “with people of his own class and learn to be a hard worker“.

Breyton’s solicitor had been told to find the best barrister in the land to manage this case in court. This was no ordinary Chancery case, he was told, but an affront against the Crown, with raising such children into the society of courtiers. He had even tried to move the case from Chancery into common law for the sake of the future of social class structure.

The barrister who had received the case to argue “for the Crown,” as it turned out, was a “stray kitten on the streets” himself at one time, unbeknownst to Breyton and his solicitor. He had known the boy’s identity, as it was once revealed in whispers by his mother. And he had chosen to legally identify the child, before the hearings, by the word of the delivering doctor, and by telegraphing Wills.

The Lord Holmeshire, of course, had been more than willing to provide proof of the identity of the child to win his case. This would work to the benefit of the people of England even better, he had said, as public funds would not be required to provide for him. The barrister, now
Sir
Gabriel Hughes, had provided the information to a second barrister and then refused the case, arguing that this was, in fact a Chancery case, that he was no Chancery lawyer and that he was, in fact, a friend of the child’s mother!

Lord Breyton’s new barrister now lost his argument to the defense before a packed court, and it was there publicly exposed that the child the Marquess was trying to ruin was the one and only heir to his own title and fortune! Even Breyton’s dream of a legacy was greatly compromised, for though Nicky inherited the title The 2nd Marquess of Breyton, he was widely known as Nicholas, Prince of Tremeine, and he and his sons would be thought of as that, first and foremost, forever.

***

Wills was reading a London newspaper in his wool and leather furnished study when he saw Emma’s slender form pass by down the stone hallway. He had, for some time, postponed the discussion that he felt they must have, and even now he hesitated, but finally he rose to his feet and called out to her.

She stood in the arched doorway to hear his thoughts, concerned about his sad countenance. “Emma, I received a telegram from my solicitor, and he has been able to ascertain from Chancery that it was indeed the Scotts that were trying to take Nicholas. They are, of course, no longer a threat. The threat from Lord Breyton is also ended.”

He walked over to the door where she stood. “I mean to say, Emma, should you wish to be freed from our engagement, which you hesitated to agree to, the danger to Nicholas is past. I did not mean to take advantage of the situation, if it seemed to be so. I truly meant only to help. But now, as a princess, perhaps you wish to find an alliance through your uncle the King.”

Emma moved into the study and pushed the door shut behind her. “Dear Wills,” she poured out her heart, distressed that she had not replied more clearly before. “I assumed that you knew how I felt! I adore you! I had always fancied you. But my feelings for you grew so very much deeper after Alexander’s accident, when I saw how you were afflicted. And you so worried about how I would be affected by his death. You worked diligently to give a poor, grieving girl comfort and security! Even without knowing your mother’s secret, you were willing to raise my son as your own, and to keep him near me! The day you came to take Nicholas from me, and bring him to Holmeshire, I knew that he was in the most loving hands on earth. It made me love you dearly, and I longed to tell you how I felt. But life was quite twisted about, and you were engaged to another. Thinking at the time that I was a commoner, I could not speak of it.” She reached out to Wills. “I believe, though, that I see love for me in your expression, and I wish to know, by your own words again, if that should be true.”

Wills reached back to Emma, putting an arm around her waist. “I have, indeed, long had the deepest, most wishful, loving feelings for you! It seemed that Mr. Gabriel Hughes might someday have what I desired most, while I was to be married to someone else. I was terribly saddened by it, but I did not wish to interfere with your happiness, or Genny’s. Now, however, you cannot marry a commoner, should you have ever hoped to, which I believe that Mr. Hughes has realized. And it is you who are above me now, in station, and you must say, but nothing could make me happier than if you should wish to be my wife.”

Emma pulled him nearer. “Dearest Wills, I am convinced that I have been more fortunate than any other and have somehow captured the hearts of the best of the men in this world, one of whom I married, and another I refused. But now, a life with you is all that I long for. Married to you, I would truly have all the treasures of the world. I would have the man I loved for many years as my adored husband. I would have the most caring father for my dear son. So, yes, please, I would very much like to marry you!”

The Happiest of Men wrapped his arms around the beautiful Emmauelle of Tremaine and tenderly kissed her.

***

Emma was greatly relieved at the rapid conclusion of the matter in Chancery. “It is now possible for us to do something that I have wanted to do for many months,” she told Wills.

***

Genevieve having said, “I must away,” had returned to her work at Chenbury. Wills, Winnie and Emma went up to the sparsely decorated nursery area to see how their little lad was doing. Barreby was there, talking to Gwyn, and they backed away and stood silent. Nicky had been readied for bed and was having a look at a book of drawings in his room. Emma sat down on his bed to have a serious talk with him.

“
Nicky, I have something that I wish to tell you,” she began, and she declared to him the secret that she had once shared with Mr. Gabriel Hughes. “Nicky, I am your Mummy.”

“
I know,” he said, and turned another page.

“
Look at me; you do? You know?”

He looked up. “Yes. I know. Nanny Bowen told the nursery maid.” All faces showed surprise, and Gwyn cringed.