“You cannot toss her into an orphanage surely?” Anthony said.
“Or send her away to a school,” Jamie added.
“Hell no,” Toby said. “Our school life was enough to cure me of sending any child associated with me to one.”
“Hello!”
They turned at the greeting to find Anthony’s three aunts on the opposite side of the road.
“We could make a run for it. We’re faster than them,” Anthony said.
“But we all know that they’d make us pay,” Jamie said.
“True,” Anthony added. “But talking to them will take precious time away from the discussion we need to have over food.”
“You’ve done nothing to deserve food like Toby and me,” Jamie protested.
“I can’t believe you’re talking about food after what I’ve just learned,” Toby said.
“It will be all right, Toby,” Anthony said.
“How?”
“Anthony!” one of his aunts called.
“We can’t discuss this with your aunts or anyone yet,” Toby said quickly. “I want to keep it quiet until… Christ I have no idea what I’m saying. It’s like throwing a lamb among the wolves handing a child into my care. How is it my cousin never realized this could be a possibility?”
“Or he did, and believed you a good man who was more than up to the task of raising his child,” Anthony said solemnly as they crossed the street.
“Ladies, how wonderful to see you,” Jamie said.
Toby, Jamie, and Anthony owed these three women a great deal, because it had been they who saved the three boys from the hell they’d been living, and they would never forget that. For now, he would put his impending guardianship to one side and force down the panic. Later he would allow it back out.
“I do believe that you get more handsome every time I see you,Tobias,” Lady Petunia said, patting his cheek. “Although I do believe you look a little tight around the eyes today. Is something amiss, dear?”
Toby thought of her as the leader of the three sisters. Lavender was her color, and she always spoke the loudest. “I stayed up too late last night and have not had enough sleep,” he lied.
Next came Agatha, whose dresses were always apricot. Lastly was Lavinia, who favored the colors of green.
Older now, they had silver hair, and soft paper-thin skin, and smelled of a potpourri of scents that were as familiar to Toby as any others in his life. They were to Jamie and him the aunts they’d never had, and he loved them very much.
“And you ladies just get more beautiful,” Jamie said, dragging the conversation away from Toby. “Where are you off to?”
“To the lending library. We have book club tomorrow and the selection is ours, so we are going to try to agree on something,” Agatha said.
“I didn’t know you belonged to a book club.” Anthony frowned. “How is it I have never been told this?”
“We don’t tell you everything, nephew,” Lavinia said fussing with the lapels on Anthony’s jacket. “It’s quite fun.”
“Who is hosting this book club?” Anthony demanded.
“It will be at our place this time,” Petunia said.
“And who is in attendance?”
“Well,” Agatha said. “There is Lady Sowter, and Miss Hamner. The Duchess of Talbot and her daughter Lady Liberty. Plus, Miss Williams. Have I missed anyone?” she then asked her sisters.
“No,” Lavinia said. “Although sometimes Mrs. Little comes with her niece, but only if she has the time.”
