Page 34 of Trouble

‘Oh look, it’sAmy! Well, perhaps I’ll become a governess, seeing as they are letting just anybodydo it these days.’

She swung towards Emily for what was likely going to be an unfriendly pat on the shoulder, unbalanced and did finally fall; Captain Edwards did not attempt to catch her. His hair was mussed and he had sand down the front of his shirt; he looked like a man who desperately wanted to swear, but was just about keeping himself in check.

‘Aster—’

‘If you are going to tell me to get up,’ Aster said loftily, ‘I cannot.’

She closed her eyes, apparently quite content to stay on the beach until the tide bore her away.

Captain Edwards put his hands on his hips and stared down at his elder child. Emily expected him to start shouting in earnest, but he instead looked as if he were trying to solve a particularly depressing puzzle.

‘I’ll carry her,’ he said to Emily eventually, rolling up his sleeves. ‘Just .?.?. put the lamp down and help me get her up.’

It was not quite that simple, but between them they did eventually manage to pull Aster to her feet. From there, Captain Edwards paused and took a thin breath in and out through his nose, as if he could not quite believe that his life had come to this. Then he lifted Aster up into his arms as if she were no more than a baby.

It could not have been easy. Aster was not small, so a considerable amount of muscle must have been required. Emily thought fleetingly of what Akia had said about the captain and shirtlessness, then banished the image immediately.

The journey up the crumbling path was complicated enough for Emily with her lantern; it must have been downright treacherous for Captain Edwards, with no hands at all available to break his fall. Emily stayed close, thinking that she would have to rush to his aid if he stumbled, or at least make a show of trying to catch Aster if he dropped her, but it only meant that she heard his breathing become ragged with labour, and the very soft curses he let slip under his breath as they approached the top.

‘I would not have drowned,’ Aster said, once they were on flatter ground. Emily had thought her unconscious; she had not opened her eyes. ‘I would have been back before you knew it.’

‘No, Aster, you would not,’ the captain said, his voice strained. ‘I don’t know what the hell you think you were doing—’

‘Ah,’ said Aster. ‘Well. You .?.?. You keep your secrets, and I will keep mine.’

Back at the house, it seemed that Grace had gone to fetch Meera; she and Joe were waiting in the entrance hall, Meera twisting her skirt into pulp and Joe so red he seemed to be glowing. Captain Edwards handed Aster over to them without a word. Emily noticed that despite his fury he did it with great care, cradling her head so that it did not droop, watching closely to ensure that Joe had his arms firmly around her before he finally let go.

‘Everybody to bed,’ he said. Emily made to leave. ‘Notyou.’

Emily wasn’t sure, for a moment, if it was her that he had been addressing, but this was cleared up when she caught his eye and saw that he was glaring directly at her. He strode away into the drawing room, and Emily followed, trying to keep her nerves in check. She wouldnotlet him see her apprehension. After all, unlike Aster, she genuinelyhaddone nothing wrong.

His shirt was ruined, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and his chest was still heaving with effort. Emily could not quite bring herself to look at him; she focused determinedly at a spot on the wall behind his head instead.

‘Miss Laurence,’ he said, ‘you were given charge of my children. That is your role here, is it not?’

‘Yes,’ said Emily, when he seemed to expect an answer.

‘Then do explain to mewhywe have just had to climb down into acaveto retrieve my elder daughter, in the middle of the night, drunk and in peril—’

‘I certainly did not put her in a cave,’ said Emily. ‘I didn’t even know therewasa cave.’

There was a dangerous silence.

‘She is underyourprotection,’ said Captain Edwards. ‘Her well-being should be your most pressing concern, above all else. How could this have escaped your notice?’

‘How could it have escaped yours?’ Emily retorted, feeling hot and indignant and stupid. ‘You live here, just as I do. They areyourchildren – not that you seem to want to know them at all. Aster has made it clear from the moment I arrived that she thinks me as low as vermin, not fit to set foot in this house. How could you expect me to know the warning signs that she is about to dash off to a cave when I have barely seen her at all?’

‘Don’t youdarespeak to me that way about my children,’ Captain Edwards shouted, the anger that had been simmering finally coming to a head. He took a deep breath and then let it out slowly, scrubbing a hand across his face as he composed himself. ‘What do you mean, you have barely seen her? You have been teaching her, have you not?’

‘No,’ said Emily, her voice still hard and brittle. ‘She refuses to be taught.’

‘A sixteen-year-old’s refusal?’ scoffed the captain. ‘Find a way. This cannot be allowed to continue – there will be no more disobedience, no more ruinous behaviour. This is your one task, and if you are not able to complete it, you are of no use to me, to this house or to my children.’

‘If it’s so easy to overrule her refusal, why not do it yourself?’ said Emily.

‘Because that is why Ihired you,’ said Captain Edwards. ‘Go to bed, Miss Laurence.’

‘But—’