It seemed there was to be a reprieve of a sennight before he spoke to Gardiner.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Thanks to expresses Gardiner sent to the London papers, a notice appeared on Tuesday, the day before he, Maddie, and Lilly were to arrive back at Gracechurch Street.
As was his wont, Holder read theTimes of Londonafter the walk or ride they took each morning. This day, it had been a ride. Jamey had ridden his new stallion while the girls had ridden their ponies. For Jane’s twelfth birthday, Holder would present her with a mare.
He read while he sipped his coffee. The first two pages had not had anything surprising. However, when he got to the third page, he froze, his cup in his hand, halfway between the saucer and his mouth. The question he did not want answered was being asked in the paper. He lowered the cup and placed it absentmindedly on the table.
Have you seen my wards?
Did you notice three children on their own in Hyde Park on the 5th or 6th of April 1792?
If you have any information on this subject, please contact Mr E Gardiner at Gardiner and Associates in Cheapside.
A reward is offered if you have genuine information.
Holder sat staring at the notice in the paper. How could it be that Gardiner had never mentioned he had three missing wards? If he was their guardian, where was the father?
Then, he realised that in his interactions with Gardiner, when he established the dowry account, he had never mentioned his daughters’ names or how many there were, as it was irrelevant information. All of his interactions with Gardiner had been professional, so it was little wonder Gardiner had never mentioned the subject.
As much as he wanted to protect Edith from this knowledge, he knew he would be doing her a disservice if he hid it from her now. Hearing the pianoforte, he headed for the music room. He stood at the door admiring his family, trying not to think about the possible, or probable, changes on the horizon. Jamey was seated on a sofa between his two older sisters while Edith sat next to Mrs Healy on the settee, watching Mary displaying her prodigious talent.
Lady Edith sensed her husband at the door and turned to him, shooting him a loving smile. He smiled back, but it did not reach his eyes. Something was wrong. She stood, smoothed her skirts, and stood next to her husband. She looked into his eyes questioningly. Paul cocked his head towards his study, so she walked there with him.
“Paul, you have me concerned. What is it? Do you have an appointment with Mr Gardiner?” Edith asked concernedly as soon as the door was closed.
“It has to do with Gardiner, and I will need to see him as soon as he returns to London. He is away from Town but based on what I read in the broadsheet this morning, I would wager he will soon be home.” Holder picked up the newspaper, folded to the notice so it would be seen easily. “Please sit with me, my darling wife, and then I will hand this to you.”
With her concerns greatly heightened, Edith sat as Paul had requested.
“Prepare yourself, Edith,” Holder stated as he handed his wife the paper. Seeing her pain, the short notice engendered almost ripped his heart from his chest. His wife was sobbing. He sat next to her and pulled her into a warm hug and waited for her to finish crying in her own time.
“I…cannot…I…will not…give my…daughters…up,” Edith managed between sobs.
“My darling wife, I do not want to see Jane, Lizzy, and Mary leave us any more than you do,” Holder assured his wife. “Are you not putting the cart before the horse? We are the only parents they have ever known. It would be cruel to rip them away, and Gardiner is not a man I believe to be cruel.”
“What are you going to do?” Edith asked as she took her husband’s offered handkerchief and dried her eyes and cheeks.
“For now, I will dispatch a note to Gardiner inviting him to call here as soon as he arrives back in London. I will tell him it is connected to the notice he published in the papers. That way, our discussion will not be a complete shock to him,” Holder replied. “I have to believe he will want what is best for the girls, and as long as we all keep that in mind, everything will be well.”
“I suppose I should not try to purchase trouble before we know what will happen.” Edith paused. “Especially if our daughters are from Meryton in Hertfordshire, as long as the woman who abandoned them is not present, there is even more reason to purchase Netherfield Park.”
“You will not hear an argument from me, my love,” Holder responded.
Once she was calm and any trace she had been crying gone, Edith headed back to the music room. As a thought struck her, she stopped and changed direction to her study. She needed to write to Elaine and Anne, who were at Snowhaven for Christmastide. They loved her daughters as if they were nieces by blood, so she could not allow them to hear the potential news from anyone but her.
Holder dashed off a note to Gardiner. He instructed the man who would deliver it to Gardiner and Associates to suggest the manager send it to Mr Gardiner’s house as it was critical he see the message as soon as he arrived home.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The Gardiners reached their house in Gracechurch Street just as dusk began to settle over London on Wednesday, the first day of January 1800. They had travelled as fast as was safe, changing horses as often as needed. No sooner had they walked into their house than the housekeeper handed Gardiner a note, one she said the manager of the business had conveyed was urgent in the extreme.
Gardiner looked at the direction and saw it was from Lord Holder, sent from his house on Park Lane. He could not imagine what was so urgent from one of his investors, but he knew enough about the earl to know that if he said it was time sensitive, it was.
Before he washed and changed from the road, Gardiner entered his office and broke the Holder seal. He began to read, and the words caused him to fall back into his chair.
31 December 1799
