Page 58 of The Truth About Dukes
“Ivy appears to be in blooming good health.” Miss Abbott opened a satchel that could have doubled as a traveling valise. “She goes to market in Fendle Bridge every Wednesday with her uncle’s housekeeper and attends services regularly. She is being raised in the home of the Reverend Whitlock Shaw, her nominal uncle, where she appears to be well cared for.”
Appearances, as Robert knew, could be devilishly deceptive.
Miss Abbott withdrew a piece of paper from the depths of her satchel. “I thought you’d like to see this.” She passed over a sketch, a thorough likeness of a girl who might well have been a very young Constance Wentworth.
“Did her hair stay red?” Constance asked, handling the page as if it were a holy relic. “She was born with bright red hair.”
“Her hair is quite red.”
Something about Miss Abbott’s tone caught Robert’s ear. “You never did answer Lady Constance’s question: Is the child happy?”
The unfaltering Miss Abbott peered at her teacup. “She’s at a difficult age.”
“Iam at a difficult age,” Robert replied. “I’m at the age where I’d rather deal in plain speech and uncomfortable truths than endure polite dithering.”
“Just tell us,” Constance said. “If now is not the time to make myself known to her, I can be patient, but surely some funds, a finishing school, a governess, a competence—there must be something I can do.”
The girl portrayed in the sketch had a bleak expression. She was pretty enough, though she would be prettier in a few years’ time, and yet, her gaze suggested she did not look forward to whatever those years held.
“My agent chatted with the curate,” Miss Abbott said. “Curates tend to be more forthcoming than vicars, happier to pass the time. He said Ivy has been a trial to her uncle, who is not the vicar in Fendle Bridge. Mr. Shaw is preparing to emigrate to New South Wales, where he hopes to have a congregation in one of the settlement colonies. Ivy has run away twice in an effort to avoid joining her uncle on his travels, but he is the guardian the family has chosen for her, the oldest Shaw brother. She is bound to go with him.”
Constance pitched into Robert, her forehead against his shoulder. “Oh, God. New South Wales is full of felons, and she’s just a girl.”
Robert looped an arm around Constance’s shoulders. “Can the reverend be persuaded to place his niece with other parties here in England?”
Miss Abbott closed the snaps of the satchel and set it aside. “He’s the patriarch on that side of the family, which is how Ivy ended up with him. She is difficult, according to the curate, and her aunts and uncles were hoping Mr. Whitlock Shaw would be able to curb her headstrong tendencies.”
Constance made a sound of inarticulate misery.
“Can the reverend be bought?” Robert asked. “If a sponsor were to step forward offering to generously fund his mission, would he be willing to see reason where his niece is concerned?”
“I don’t know, Your Grace. His vocation is regarded as sincere, and he’s been planning this journey for years. He might well not need a sponsor.”
Constance wasn’t in tears, but Robert could feel the emotions reverberating through her. Tremendous relief that somebody she’d long loved was still hale and whole. He’d felt that same relief when Nathaniel had finally fetched him home to Rothhaven Hall.
Dismay, because the situation was so fraught.
Anger, that Ivy’s adoptive family should be a poor fit for her, at least at present.
“We must not despair,” Robert said, kissing Constance’s fingers. “You have never faltered in your determination to find your daughter, and now your persistence has been rewarded. Drink your tea before it gets cold.”
He issued that order in part to provoke a flash of resistance, but Constance saw through him. “Drink your own tea, Your Grace. Miss Abbott, does Ivy know of her origins?”
“I’m afraid she does.”
If Miss Abbott was afraid, matters were dire. “Please explain.” Robert did not admonish Miss Abbott to drink her tea, lest he suffer injury to his person.
“Ivy has apparently been told that the Wilsons took her in because her parents were not married and her mother was quite young. Mr. Shaw is concerned that those antecedents have resulted in a predisposition to bad judgment and wayward behavior.”
Constance sat up straight. “Must I kidnap her?”
“My love, she might not take kindly to being kidnapped. If all about her are consumed with telling her what to do, how to speak, what to think, how to walk, and when to pray, she might be averse to replacing one jailer with another.”Exceedingly averse.
“But she ismy daughter.” Constance rose and crossed to the window. “I can’t lose her to the wilds of Australia now, not when she’s a mere thirty miles from me and miserable. If she wanted to leave England, I could almost learn to live with that, but now? I want to order the grays put to so I can introduce myself to her before sundown.”
“I wouldn’t advise that, my lady,” Miss Abbott said, downing her tea. “Mr. Shaw is reported to be old-fashioned. Today is the Sabbath, and even calling upon him without a proper introduction could set you off on the wrong foot. I’ve heard nothing to suggest his departure is imminent, or that he’s an unreasonable man. You have time to consider today’s developments and confer with your family.”
Not much time, apparently.
