She shrugged. “You inhabit a world where gentlemen are expected to keep their emotions in check, but everyone is capable of emotional depth. You simply need to take time to explore your feelings.” She expelled a breath. “And while I’d be more than happy to assist you with that, we’ll have to schedule that in later. I left August Ryerson and Hannah Howe in charge of the children in the nursery. And while children are wonderful substitutes for a chaperone, I agreed to act as Hannah’s chaperone after her mother was unable to escort her daughter and August on an afternoon carriage ride.”
She smiled. “Poor August has been uncomfortable with all the attention he’s receiving after his gallant saving of my face during our tennis match. Frankly, he and Hannah were delighted when I mentioned the children were anxious to get started on Rat’s new home, and didn’t hesitate to abandon their plans of a carriage ride to come here and assist with the building. I believe Hannah has grown annoyed with all the notice being directed August’s way from the feminine set. But she has no need to worry about where his affections lie. The gentleman is clearly besotted. I expect an engagement to be announced soon, but it still wouldn’t be wise to leave them unchaperoned for too long. I’m sure they’re anxious to steal a few kisses, but I’m not going to allow that to happen on my watch.”
“Spoilsport.”
She laughed. “Perhaps, but besides watching after Catriona, I’ve sometimes stood in as chaperone for my sisters. I know the lengths an infatuated couple will go to find a way to be alone.”
Heading together up the narrow staircase that led to thethird floor, Walter followed Gwendolyn through the door of the nursery, coming up short when he discovered Oscar and Samuel standing in front of the closet door, Oscar peering through the keyhole.
“Where are August and Hannah?” Gwendolyn asked.
“In the closet,” Samuel said.
Gwendolyn’s forehead furrowed. “What are they ... Never mind. I don’t believe I need to ask that question.”
Oscar raked a hand through his hair, quite like Walter did when he was a little frazzled. “Priss is with them. We thought it would be fun to see if we could lock them in there, and then use the hairpin trick you showed us the other day.” He held up a hairpin. “Unfortunately, Samuel and I are finding picking a lock a little tricky.”
“Why don’t you just use the key?” Walter asked.
“Because Priss took the key in the closet, locked the door from the inside, and then dropped the key. They haven’t been able to find it because it’s dark in there.”
Gwendolyn plucked a hairpin from her hair. “During any other summer, this situation would sound beyond peculiar, but since I’ve experienced nothing but unusual circumstances since I’ve been in Newport, I don’t find this odd in the least.” She headed for the door. “But before someone else stumbles upon the almost isolated couple, and August and Hannah find themselves compelled to announce an engagement sooner than later, allow me to take over the picking of the lock. That will guarantee a speedy return to propriety for our happy couple, and also ensure I don’t become known, not as a proficient matchmaker, but as the worst chaperone ever.”
Twenty-Nine
“I don’t believe anyone would question your chaperoning skills,” Walter said as he and Gwendolyn advanced across the room. “It’s not as if August and Hannah are actually alone together.”
“They’re locked in a closet,” Gwendolyn argued. “Reputations have been ruined for less.”
“True, but it’s difficult to suffer irreparable harm when a couple is in the company of a five-year child,” Walter pointed out, right as someone began knocking on the other side of the closet door.
“Still haven’t found the key,” August called. “Priscilla wants everyone to know she’s scared of the dark, so if someone could find another key, that would be most appreciated.”
“I’ll ring for Benson,” Walter said, changing direction and moving for the enunciator on the wall by the nursery fireplace.
“Please,” Gwendolyn said with a wave of her hairpin. “I’ll have the door open before Benson can find another one.” Gwendolyn shooed Oscar and Samuel out of the way before she knelt and stuck her hairpin in the lock, giving it a few jiggles as Samuel and Oscar took to peering over her shoulder.
“How do you know when it’s about to get unlocked?” Oscar asked. “That’s what I was having difficulty figuring out.”
“You feel it. It’ll click and then...” Gwendolyn smiled as a click sounded. “There you go.” She twisted the knob and pulled the door open, revealing August and Hannah standing remarkably close together, Hannah’s hair looking ever so slightly mussed, although that might have been because she was holding Priscilla and his daughter had her arms wrapped tightly around Hannah’s neck, her eyes squeezed shut.
“You can open your eyes now, Priscilla,” Gwendolyn said, taking Priscilla from Hannah the second his daughter opened her eyes and reached her arms out to Gwendolyn.
Priscilla gave a bit of a shudder. “It was awfully dark in there, Miss Brinley. I lost the key.”
“One shouldn’t take a key into a dark closet, dear.”
“We wanted to practice locking and unlocking. Besides, I didn’t trust Oscar and Samuel. They might’ve decided to lock us in there for fun.”
“Probably a wise decision,” Gwendolyn said. “But how did you know the closet door could be locked from the inside?”
“Samuel likes to lock himself in there,” Oscar said. “One of our footmen put a new lock on that door after Samuel told him he didn’t like when the governesses were always scaring him half to death by barging into his special space with no warning.”
Walter rubbed a hand over his face, the unwelcome thought striking that he’d had no idea his son liked to lock himself in closets. “Why do you lock yourself in the closet, Samuel?” he asked.
Samuel sent him a look that almost exactly matched the looks of disdain Oscar frequently sent him. “Sometimes Priss is annoying.”
“My brothers said the same thing about my sisters,” Gwendolyn said before she tousled Samuel’s hair and then arched a brow August’s way. He was still sporting two magnificentlyblackened eyes, but it appeared his physician had been successful with resetting his nose since it wasn’t crooked. “I would think you’d have balked at the idea of allowing yourself to be locked in a closet with Hannah.”
