Page 22 of Weave me a Rope
Chapter Nine
When Cordelia toldUncle Josh what had happened at Deercroft, Uncle Josh shrugged. “Well, lass. Ye did reach high. But if the marquess won’t have it, then that’s that.”
Cordelia shook her head. “Lord Spenhurst will marry me, Uncle Josh. His father will not prevent him, even if we have to wait until he has turned twenty-one.”
Uncle Josh raised his eyebrows. “And if I won’t have it?”
Cordelia’s heart sank but she lifted her chin and said, proudly, “Then we will have to wait until I am twenty-one.”
“No, lass,” Uncle Josh assured her. “I’ll not deny ye. If the lad proves true, I’ll stand his friend.”
“He has been beaten and remains true. He is locked up and is being starved and remains true. We have to help him, Uncle Josh.” Cordelia went on to tell her uncle about leaving her servants in the village, with instructions to learn what they could and help Spen as much as possible.
“Uncle Josh, what do you know about the marquess? Is there anything we could use to make him let Spen go? And to stop him from hurting you, Uncle Josh? For he threatened to ruin you for imagining I might aspire to be Spen’s wife.”
Uncle Josh looked thoughtful. “Did he, now? As if he could! Well, if he tries it, he shall find out Josiah Milton is not helpless. Perhaps I should dig around a bit, at that.”
Uncle Josh was not sanguine about keeping John from his legal guardian. Cordelia pointed out the marquess did not care about John and had mistreated him, but Uncle Josh insisted it didn’t change the legal position. John would have to go back either to Deercroft or to the school.
John declared he would take his chances on the streets of London rather than go back to the marquess.
Uncle Josh peered at him and must have decided he was serious. “The streets of London are dangerous, young lord. No soft beds or full bellies, and many bound and determined to take the shirt off yer back.”
John met Uncle Josh’s eyes. “A master at the school broke my arm, Mr. Milton. I’ve gone to bed cold and hungry many a time. Going back to the school is dangerous. The marquess even more so.”
Uncle Josh narrowed his eyes. “Dee-Dee, take yerself off and let me talk to Lord John. See about a tea tray for us, will ye?”
Cordelia assumed Uncle Josh thought the story was not fit for her female ears, and perhaps he was correct, for by the time she returned with the tea tray, he was talking about hiring a tutor for John.
“I’m staying and I’m to be John Milton,” the boy reported. “Your uncle is going to introduce me as distant cousin, Cordelia.”
“If I understand ye, Dee-Dee, my sister hasna met John here.” He shook his head. “What sort of chaperone be she, when she doesna see what’s happening under her nose?”
Cordelia didn’t answer that. She and Spen had enjoyed Aunt Eliza’s incompetence as a chaperone, but she’d rather not tell Uncle Josh that.
Uncle Josh sighed. “It’s for the best, mind. Lizzie never could keep a secret. That there marquess won’t be asking me for the boy if he doesna know John is here.”
“She will know John is not a cousin,” Cordelia objected. One thing Aunt Eliza was sharp about was the names of every relative and all of their descendants.
Uncle Josh grinned. “She won’t ask questions, Dee. She won’t want the answers.”
Cordelia didn’t understand why Uncle Josh should think that, but Aunt Eliza herself gave the clue when she came downstairs for dinner, and Uncle Josh brought John over for an introduction.
“Lizzie, this be John Milton. John will be living with us. Yes, and dining with us when it is just family.”
Aunt Eliza peered at John as she took his hand in both of hers and smiled up at him. “Then you are very welcome, John, but I do not precisely understand the relationship. Who is your father, dear?”
John cast a panicked look at Uncle Josh, who immediately said, “Now, then, Lizzie. Don’t ye go fussing the boy.” He clapped John on the back and added, “Not for female ears, Lizzie, and not the boy’s fault, that’s for certain.”
Aunt Eliza’s bright blush and flustered cascade of words about what might be for dinner and how inclement the weather was for this time of year showed she had jumped to the conclusion Uncle Josh had been reluctant to tell his maiden niece. Cordelia swallowed a gulp of laughter. So, John was to be her uncle’s unacknowledged son, was he? Poor Aunt Eliza. It was unfair to embarrass her so.
*
The fourth dayafter Cordelia and John left started well and ended badly.
Charles and Andrew brought a letter from Cordelia in the morning, which confirmed she and John had reached London safely.
We all arrived this afternoon and will be staying in London for the moment. My traveling companions are well, though my aunt has taken to her bed with another headache, poor dear. My uncle is delighted to have us all under his wing.
