Page 28 of One Night to Remember
Chapter 6
Most important rule, the lads had told her.Arrive early.
Felicity alighted from a hackney cab in front of Giles Langford’s smithy at a quarter to three the following afternoon. Today, they would be equals. Two colleagues; the best at what they did.
Her skin tingled with excitement. She was just as eager for this as she had been for her debut in high society. The only way today could be better was if she could have burst inside wearing breeches and a work shirt instead of a patched-up day dress with hidden pantalettes.
She straightened her shoulders and marched in through the open doors. He wouldn’t regret their partnership. She would prove to him she was worthy. He—
The smithy was empty.
Felicity frowned as she turned in a slow, disbelieving circle. No master coach smith. No children.
Perhaps Langford had been called away unexpectedly and shut down the shop. She tried to mask her disappointment at the idea. Should she stay, in case he returned soon? Should she go, and await a new invitation?
Would there be another invitation if she left?
Felicity wasn’t certain why working with Langford felt so important to her. As though their partnership might cease being one of her brother’s many edicts, and could actually become… real.
At first, she thought these feelings were because Langford’s shop reminded her so much of the old smithy where she and Cole had worked as children. But the two places couldn’t be more different.
Langford’s place was wide, airy, clean, well-stocked,safe. The children came of their own free will. They had gloves and aprons to wear. Refreshments to eat and drink.
Environments like this were exactly what her future foundation and committees like Lord Raymore’s were fightingfor. Children were not slaves or indentured servants, disposable tools to be worked until they fell apart and then discarded. They were people, and deserved to be treated like it.
The first year that she and her brother had lived in the grand town house on Grosvenor Square, Cole had wanted them both to put the past behind them. His sister was a lady now. She had to learn to dress like one, act like one, talk like one. Cole wanted to give Felicity every possible opportunity that their new position afforded. Even though it meant denying who they used to be.
When she made her debut in society, Felicity was wise enough not to mention her past, but nor could she forget it. She didn’t wish to. Those years had made her who she was. Forged her, cold and hard as iron, strong and unbreakable come what may.
When Cole had left one month to inspect the duchy’s country estate, she had traveled back to the old smithy in secret, carrying a heavy purse on her lap. Her childhood friends would be shocked to discover Little Felix was now Lady Felicity, but she hoped a handful of coins for each one would buy a little forgiveness for abandoning them.
Except they weren’t there. While she was off in London taking dancing lessons and shopping for ball gowns, they were at the forge day and night, working themselves sick. One was buried in an unmarked grave. Several had returned to the streets or worse. And the rest… Felicity would never know what had happened to them. The smithy was full of new children with gaunt faces and no more dreams.
She had sworn in that moment that she would do everything in her power to save them. To save all of them. Every child in every workhouse, every chimneysweep, every barefoot angel with big eyes and an empty belly and no one to fight for them.Felicitywould fight.
After returning home, she and Cole arranged a more reputable master for the old smithy, but it was one of a thousand. There was endless work to do. Cole dedicated every spare moment and penny, but he was one person. If Felicity married the right man, she could do more than double the donations. Once she’d convinced a powerful, titled husband to support the cause, his peers would follow suit.
With Lord Raymore’s position and influence to back her, Felicity could convince the ton that children were worth fighting for. Or at least talk them into opening their pocketbooks. Raymore could use his position in the House of Lords to make change at a national level, and Felicity’s charitable foundation would change lives at a personal level.
If realizing this dream meant she had to give up her love of working on carriages to accomplish this, so be it. If honoring her vow meant she had to give up love altogether, so be it. Children’s lives were worth the sacrifice.
In the meantime, she would enjoy every minute of freedom while she still had it. There was no telling when—
The rear door swung open and she whirled to face it.
Giles Langford stepped out into the smithy carrying a wooden tea tray, as if it were the most normal thing in the world to be doing so.
“Three o’clock is tea time,” he reminded her as he placed the tray on the small table where the lads’ repast had stood the day before. “Milk and sugar?”
“Thank you,” she said faintly.
“Hats on hooks,” he said as he lifted the pot and expertly began pouring the tea.
She yanked the ribbon loose from her chin and placed her bonnet on the nail she was already coming to think of as hers. It wasn’t. She knew it wasn’t. Yet part of her wished every tea time could be right here in this smithy.
As she accepted a cup of fresh, steaming tea, Felicity couldn’t help but admit that the only predictable thing about Giles Langford was that he was impossible to predict.
“No lemon tarts?” she asked over the rim of her teacup.
