Page 75 of Indecently Employed
Charlotte turned, her eyes narrowing. “My father. Has he put you up to quitting as my governess? Or to marrying him in the first place?” She looked back to the horizon with a perturbed exhale, her jaw set, her back ramrod straight in the saddle.
Susanna was suddenly flooded with emotion. So that was the reason for Charlotte’s recent demeanor. She wasn’t opposed to Susanna joining the family, nor was she terribly upset about her not continuing as her governess. But she needed to know that Susanna was not being forced into this new circumstance, that her father truly was a changed man. That she would have safety and stability with her new family.
After a long minute, Susanna gathered herself and summoned her most authoritative governess voice, with perhaps a little more bite than she intended. “No. He has not put me up to anything. Everything that has happened between us has happened because I wanted it to. Believe it or not, I am still determined to live by my own inclinations.”
The faintest shadow of a grin teased at the corner of Charlotte’s mouth, and Susanna could see it in her eyes as well, if only just.
“Then I am glad of it.”
Ajax Sedley stood at the window of his solar, watching for his wife and daughter’s return. A surge of joy washed over him as he waited, and he shook his head in disbelief.
His life was in order. He was happy.
He couldn’t fathom how those two things had happened to him, of all people, but he accepted it. He allowed himself to feel the joy, and to accept that perhaps he even deserved it. He wasn’t racing off to London to sit at his elder brother’s side, but they’d arrived at a measure of peace between the two of them, even if Tiberius wasn’t cognizant enough to realize it. Just as now, though, Ajax had felt it, this warmth and contentment, at that last dinner of theirs together.
No longer did his circuitous and repetitive thoughts of self-loathing keep him awake in the small hours of the morning; instead, he made love to his brilliant and vibrant wife. Hiswife. He could still hardly believe it.
He smiled at his faint reflection in the glass and raised a drink to his lips. Susanna had finished reading the final pages of his new story the previous evening, providing him with her thoughts and edits in between his demonstrations of gratitude. He absolutely cherished her.
And though he had yet to broach the subject with Susanna, the odd little thought of another child had wormed its way into his heart and blossomed into a genuine desire. For he finally seemed to be getting on with Charlotte. Perhaps he could do this, be a decent father. No, agoodfather. And thus the notion of expanding his family had taken hold. His very own family, filled with a love and warmth that he’d never known outside of his mother’s brief presence in his life.
Then he saw movement, far in the distance along the path to the house, and he smiled. But as he squinted and leaned forward, he saw that it was a carriage, not two riders onhorseback. An uneasy feeling ran through him as he watched its lengthy approach.
When the carriage finally reached the front door below, it halted, and Ajax watched a nondescript looking man step out and look about, surveying the imposing manor before him. There was something familiar about the man, but Ajax could not place him. Suddenly he wished that Susanna and Charlotte had already returned, that they were safely back with him inside the confines of the castle.
Ajax pulled back from the window and set his tumbler down on the table, then ran a hand through his hair. He went to the door, paused, and took a deep breath. Then he exhaled, long and slow, opened the door, and headed downstairs to see just what this was all about.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Mr. Samuel Jutton resembledhis deceased sister only superficially, with his dark eyes and fine brown hair. But whereas Nancy’s hair had been healthy, shiny, and always arranged in a loose but flattering style, her brother’s was appallingly combed over his balding head as if he were desperate for the scant warmth it might provide, for that could be the only excuse for such a horrifying display. The vibrant lust for life, that which had lit Nancy from within and given her the ability to draw the attention of everyone in her presence, was sorely lacking. On the contrary, he sat indifferently, and damn near invisibly, in the front parlor as if he didn’t really care if anyone noticed him. He was the kind of bland, inconsequential man who only got his hackles up if he somehow didn’t make it home in time to have his boiled egg with his cloyingly sweet tea every evening. Even now, the man dropped another three sugar lumps into his cup, in addition to the four that had gone before.
Ajax hated him.
“And how long have you lived in, er, Shilbottle?”
Samuel Jutton blinked and paused mid-stir, looking at Ajax as if he only barely tolerated him. “I was born there.”
“Ah,” Ajax said, wishing now more than ever that he had never written the man. “For some reason I thought Nancy…” He paused, then rephrased it. “I always assumed the Juttons were Welsh. She never mentioned.”
Mr. Jutton slurped his tea, not bothering to glance up from the rim. “No, I don’t suppose you ever asked,” he said, with more than a hint of disdain.
Ajax felt that; these shameful truths from his past still gutted him to his core. He looked out the window, willing Charlotte and Susanna to appear up the drive. They still had not returned.
“I suppose I didn’t,” he admitted, feeling a bit steadier but still chagrined.
“All coal mining, our family,” Mr. Jutton added perfunctorily. “Until myself.”
“And Nancy,” Ajax added, only to be met with a hard stare from Mr. Jutton. It seemed he hadn’t lied in his letter; the man’s sister had been well and truly dead to him even before she’d left this earth.
Mr. Jutton set his cup in its saucer on the side table next to him, then cleared his throat. “Mr. Sedley. My sister left home at sixteen to pursue the stage. It was the opinion of our family—both mine and my wife’s—that the less said on the matter, the better.” He glared at Ajax with a look of severe censure. “I understand you have no great feelings on respectability, but we are a God-fearing household, sir.” He ended with a sniff, daring Ajax to challenge him.
Ajax laughed, holding his hands up in surrender. “Oh, it’s quite the contrary, in fact. I have plenty of feelings on respectability.” He ran a thumb over his mustache before adding, with a sly grin, “They simply run entirely counter to yours.”
The man stared at him as Ajax’s words settled slowly upon him, prompting the color in his waxy face to rise.
Ajax allowed himself to feel the smallest of victories as he smiled as charmingly as he could at the horrid man. The horrid man who obviously held nothing but contempt for him.And rightly so, he conceded privately. But he still hated him for rejecting both Nancy and their beautiful, strange, and bold daughter. He again chastised himself for having ever appealed to this clod.
For there was no doubt in his mind. Despite his prior refusal, Samuel Jutton had come to take Charlotte away.
