Page 80 of The Undaunted

For all the noise, chaos, and hijinks that went on, Richard was determined that his children never live the life he had lived with his rash and careless parents.Thesechildren were provided a steady home with sensible routines and they flourished. Their father might always retain a bit of stickiness in him, but he was a stick the household could rely on.

Though she would not own it publicly, it had taken Lady Easton a number of years to thoroughly approve of the match and to get used to her nephew’s new, and rather more relaxed, habits. Over time, though, she did get used to it.

She particularly found herself approving of Richard’s good influence on his wife, as she noticed when she visited that Caroline’s attention to clocks was vastly improved, though she remained unaware of how this was accomplished. Lady Bertridge was invariably running behind, but rather than stew while he paced the drawing room, Lord Bertridge changed the clock in their bedchamber so that when she came flying down the stairs ten minutes late she was precisely on time.

Lady Easton did also, over those years, become rather more fond of Caroline herself. After all, the dear girl seemed to be able to provide her with no end of grandnieces. These young ladies always found it a special treat to come to London and stay with their great-aunt. It became a wonderful game among them to try to make each other late to the drawing room and the excitement of getting there with just seconds to spare was thrilling.

Lord Easton was, not unexpectedly, a very jolly great-uncle. He regularly slipped marzipan wrapped in paper under their pillows and could be counted on for a wink when Lady Easton became too stern.

As for Caroline’s own parents, Lady Dunn liked Lord Bertridge well enough, but then she generally liked everybody as she was too distracted by her overflow of children to spend any time disliking a person.

Baron Dunn, much to Caroline’s delight, hit it off famously with her new husband. The baron found his son-in-law rational, careful, and well-equipped to take good care of his eldest daughter. In truth, the baron considered that Caroline had made a far more sensible choice than he would have thought.

Bemmy did indeed marry Jimmy and they made a great success of their cheesemaking operation. Such was the renown of their blue that Lord Bertridge even invited the couple to Hertfordshire for a week to discuss his own efforts. He gave them a charming cottage on the grounds to stay in and what with Bemmy admiring the place so much and Jimmy impressed with the size of the cheesemaking concern, one thing led to another. Before the week was out, Jimmy had handed over his father’s farm to his brother to manage and had taken over Lord Bertridge’s much larger operation.

As the couple were paid generously, Bemmy became known in the neighborhood for her unique style in dress, generally favoring elaborate bonnets with large feather plumes or overlayed netting dripping with colored glass. She was also admired for her interesting ways of working round situations, though whether they be wise or ill-advised was always up for debate.

Bemmy became a great favorite with the children, as they liked to visit her cottage for a confidential cup of tea. Caroline thought it best, for her own peace of mind, not to dwell on any naughtiness Bemmy most likely encouraged them to. Caroline may have buttoned up, but Bemmy’s buttons remained just where they were.

Richard, himself, foundvarious methods of easing himself through all sorts of mishaps and his railing at the sky and lecturing of fenceposts dwindled.

He often found it helpful to just stare at his wife when things were going too far awry. Caroline nearly always could put things to right, or if not, at least convince him that she had.

He also found that if he imagined the worst each day, then if the worst happened it did not sneak up on him and if the worst didnothappen he was pleasantly surprised. Though most would find always imagining the worst not particularly cheerful, it cheered Lord Bertridge quite a bit. Lady Bertridge found the habit amusing, as her lord would often take her arm into dinner and say, “Well, my darling, I suppose this could be the night Cook finally kills us off.” Having survived dinner, he was sanguine for the rest of the night.

Lady Bertridge did button up a bit, less because her lord would like it and more because she’d made some unbuttoned mistakes and they’d stuck with her. Throughout her life, she never did lose her admiration for her lord’s care of her and her children. She heard, from time to time, the results of a lady having made an unwise choice of husband, whether it be financial ruin, emotional cruelty, or worse. She had made no such mistake.

She did not button up too far though, and if the children wished for something they ought not have, or had done something which they must confess, they went straight to their mama, tiptoeing past their father’s library.

It was just as well that Lord Bertridge remained in the dark about some things. He need not know why two of his girls were determined to wear their bonnets in the house for a full six months, as the hair they’d cut eventually grew back and the bonnets came off.

Nor was it necessary for Lord Bertridge to contemplate why a certain governess decamped, she being an unpleasant woman and the boys deciding to haunt her dreams by awful scratchings in the night. Or that on the final night she was in residence, that they’d tied a string round a chair leg in her room and then when the moon was full had eerily dragged it across the floor.

He certainly would not like knowing that there had been for quite some time a fox living in the nursery. It seemed the kit had been abandoned, its vixen likely killed by a hunter. It had wandered out of its den and forlornly cried. Well, young Caro hearing it, what could be done? Of course it must be brought inside and fed drops of milk and wrapped in a warm blanket in front of the nursery fire.

The new governess reported the creature to Lady Bertridge immediately, but her mistress said to let it be, the fox would leave when it reached a certain age and heard the calls of another. Miss Jenkin was not at all approving, but the fox did not cause much trouble in those early days. As it got older though…

As Lady Bertridge had predicted, the creature did leave eventually, and not quietly either, racing round the house and looking for a way out one early evening. Lord Bertridge, upon viewing the sight of a fox running past his library’s doorway, was left with the impression that the fox had somehow got in, not that it had been in all along and now attempted to get out.

Fortunately, Lady Bertridge ordered all the doors open and forbid her lord from getting his gun as she would not have gunfire in the house. The fox shot out into the moonless night and was never seen again, though Lord Bertridge never understood why his children all called out from the nursery windows.

“Bye, Scruffs!”

“Good luck, Scruffs!”

“Cheerio, Scruffs!”

For all the chaos that her lord hid from in the house, it turned out he was not opposed to some chaos in the bedchamber. Caroline could not fathom how he’d ever thought he ought to marry a demure lady. The wild beating heart and ungovernable nature that she’d hoped for on that very first night at Portland Place had been there all along. It only turned out to be aprivatewild and beating heart, meant for her alone.

It was rather wonderful to observe the buttoned-up face he showed to the world and know what he wasreallylike.

Some weeks afterthey returned from Venice for their wedding trip, Lady Easton wrote Richard some interesting news. Lady Redfield had daringly crossed Lord Skeffington and demanded to take charge of his ward for the season.

Lady Arabella Beresford, who had so far been confined to an estate in Cornwall, would arrive any day. The Society of Sponsoring Ladies were already making arrangements for her launch, and they would pull together as they always did.

This news seemed almost incredible. Not the news that a certain Lady Arabella would arrive, but that Lady Redfield had been daring and crossed somebody.

Upon hearing of it, Caroline only hoped Lady Arabella was sensible and would bring with her a sensible maid. For the sake of that marvelous group of matrons.

After all, hope does spring eternal.

The End