“What happened to his parents?”
Miss Blake hesitated. “It is very sad, really. I don’t normally speak of it, but as you are Kate’s family now, I suppose it is all right to tell you.” She lowered her voice. “Mr. Harrison’s mother was not married. His father was supposedly a gentleman, but he could not be brought round to do his duty, apparently. It was a terrible scandal. Her parents were mortified. Her father lost his curacy over it, and refused to receive her or support her. Poor Mr. Harrison was born in a poorhouse—but don’t tell Mrs. Overtree—I don’t think she knows that detail, and it will not help his cause with Kate. Such as it is.”
Sophie was filled with sorrow and empathy for these people she’d never met. “What became of his mother?”
Miss Blake sighed. “She died of consumption eventually. Alone and in poverty. It breaks my heart to think of it.”
Sophie was surprised to see tears brighten Miss Blake’s eyes. Sophie felt tears sting her own eyes, and whispered, “Mine too.”
When they returned to the house, Captain Overtree was just coming down the stairs. “There you are,” he said to Sophie. “Good walk?” When she nodded and removed her bonnet, he said, “Would you mind coming with me? There is someone I would like you to meet.”
“Of course.”
“Let me guess,” Kate said. “Miss Whitney.”
“Yes.” He turned to Sophie and added, “Our old nurse.”
“Horrors.” Miss Blake shuddered. “Don’t let the old thing frighten you, Sophie. Or tell your fortune.”
Kate playfully smacked her arm. “Angela, don’t say such things. Winnie is an old dear, and you know it.”
Miss Blake shook her head. “I beg to disagree. That’s not how I recall her, especially when we were younger. Always seemed to know what we were up to, and caught us misbehaving, as if she could read our minds....” She shivered theatrically.
“You exaggerate.”
“I cannot believe your mother puts up with her.”
“Hush. Don’t give her any ideas. She wouldn’t hesitate to put her out if Stephen were not so insistent.”
“Why he is, I shall never understand.”
“She still lives here in the house?” Sophie asked in surprise.
“Yes,” Kate replied. “Tell her I shall be up to see her tomorrow.”
“That makes one of us,” Miss Blake said. “In fact, you may refrain from mentioning me altogether,” she added, and bid them all good-day.
As Sophie and Captain Overtree crossed the hall together, Sophie said, “I am surprised she still lives here. Kate is too old for a governess, let alone a nurse.”
“I know. But Kate and I have always been fond of Miss Whitney. We have kept her on as a retainer. She had nowhere else to go, and her age and... health... make finding another position unlikely. It took some doing to convince Mamma to let her remain in the house, but in the end, Kate and I prevailed.”
Captain Overtree led her up one flight of stairs after another, toward the top floor. Sophie thought of the window curtain she had seen flutter closed. Might it have been this Miss Whitney? Was she the reason the captain went up these stairs last night, and not to visit a housemaid as she’d feared?
“Mamma rarely ventures up here,” he said. “None of the family do, save Kate and me.”
They reached the landing at the top of the stairs, and he knocked on the first door.
A female voice called from within, “Just a minute!”
“Winnie? It’s me. Stephen.”
With a reassuring smile at Sophie, he pushed open the door and gestured her inside.
A slight woman beside a wardrobe whirled toward them. “I said, just a minute!” She looked flushed and guilty, as if caught half-dressed or doing something wrong.
“Oh. It’s you, Master Stephen.” She pressed a hand to her chest. “You gave me a start.”
She wore a blue gown with a white lace collar. Fair, silvery hair pulled back in a loose coil framed a well-shaped face and cornflower blue eyes. She had been handsome once, Sophie thought. And still was in her way.
