‘I like horses,’ Andrew said.
Louisa found her tongue. ‘Before you go, Lord Cheswick, would you and Mantheria escort me to my Uncle and Aunt Rockingham’s house? I have some unfinished business there.’
Mantheria set down her son with a kiss on top of his head. ‘Andrew, can you keep an eye on your aunts whilst I am gone? And will you promise not to let them get into any mischief?’
The little boy sniggered, nodding. ‘I will.’
‘Oh, Mrs May, please allow me to introduce you to my new friend,’ she said, as Mary got out of the carriage. ‘This is Miss Perkins, and she will be the new governess. She likes snakes.’
Helen’s eyes widened and she bounded towards Mary. ‘Really? Which is your favourite type?’
‘A grass snake.’
Frederica and Becca crowded around the new governess too, asking Mary questions faster than she could possibly answer them. Louisa saw that Andrew was in the capable hands of Mrs May.
Mantheria touched her elbow and a groom helped them back into the carriage. Louisa was sorry to ask her friend to travel farther, but she needed to confront her aunt and uncle once and for all.
Mantheria took Louisa’s hand in hers. ‘I know this interview will be unpleasant for you. If there is anything I can do or say to help you, please let me know.’
She squeezed her hand back. ‘Thank you, dearest friend. Just having you there with me will make all the difference.’
And it was true. Mantheria held her hand until they arrived at her aunt and uncle’s London house. Wick assisted them both out of the carriage and they were escorted into a parlour. Her aunt and uncle were both there. Her uncle was reading and her aunt was doing needlework.
Her Uncle Rockingham stood and walked towards her, hands outstretched, when she entered the room. ‘My dear niece, you are safe. Lord Sunderland has been claiming the most outrageous things about my son abducting you. Has it all been an unfortunate misunderstanding?’
Louisa half wanted to say that it had. But Barnabas’s actions had not been a misunderstanding. He had meant to force her into a hateful marriage.
‘It has not. Barnabas hit me on the head in the park and dragged me all the way to Cookham, where he locked me in his mistress’s cellar without food or water.’
Her uncle recoiled. ‘It can’t be true.’
‘I wish it were not, Uncle,’ Louisa said. ‘However, from today I shall have nothing to do with any of you again—familial or financial. I won’t sue you for the misspent funds of my allowance, but nor will I help you pay Barnabas’s debts.’
‘All we need is a brief loan to meet his most pressing creditors,’ Uncle Rockingham said. ‘We have cared for you for these last ten years, and I am sure your father would have wanted you to help his only brother.’
Wick grunted, but didn’t say a word. Mantheria gritted her teeth. Louisa was in no doubt of their feelings on the matter.
Aunt Rockingham clasped her hands together beseechingly. ‘How can you be so heartless to your own family? We will be ruined. Ruined!’
Louisa straightened to her full height. ‘Icouldruin you. I could press kidnapping charges against your son and have him hung or transported. But I will not. As long as you leave me alone. If you so much as speak to me again, I will be forced to take legal action... Come, Your Grace...my lord. It is time to leave.’
Louisa was grateful to be sandwiched between them as she left her aunt and uncle’s house on her own two feet. For the first time she had no desire for their approval.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Wick could hardly believe that a week had passed since he’d left London for Hampford Castle with his little sisters and Miss Perkins. It had been the longest seven days of his life, and perhaps the most transformative. He felt like a new man. A lighter one.
One day, after his sisters’ lessons, they had insisted he go with them to pick flowers and place them on Charles and Elizabeth’s names in the crypt.
Wick had expected it to be a solemn outpouring of mutual grief.
It was not.
Somehow his little sisters had made it a celebration of their lost siblings’ lives. They’d laughed, cried and shared stories. Frederica and Helen remembered things that he did not. Like the fact that Elizabeth had been a champion pincher and had been able to leave bruises. Or that it had been Charles and not Frederica who had broken a bottle of his mother’s perfume in one his few temper tantrums. He’d felt so sorry that his little sister had happily taken the blame. Frederica had always been getting into trouble anyway.
Becca had asked Wick to tell the ‘plate in the face’ story again and he did, as well as sharing a dozen other reminiscences. Including one about a large swan that had chased poor Charles all around Animal Island, trying to peck him.
On the walk back to the castle Becca and Helen had each taken one of his hands, and Frederica had looped her arm to Helen’s. And in that moment he couldn’t help but think of Louisa and her wise words about sharing burdens to make them light.