After admiring the garden and the groundskeeper’s handiwork, Lewis and his sister inquired as to where they might find the home of the Kinseys. It was not far from the main house and belonged to a cluster of cottages at the edge of the formal grounds. A low wall led up to the nearest one. As the pair approached, two heads popped up from behind the wall.
“Who are you?” asked the head that seemed to belong to a taller body.
“Do you like hazelnuts?” asked the shorter head. Its owner clambered up onto the wall, perched cross-legged on its broad surface, and held out a rather grubby hand filled with the nuts in question.
“Er, no thank you,” said Lewis. “Is Miss Kinsey home?”
“Who’s asking?” demanded the first head before the lad it belonged to vaulted over the wall and planted himself in the path before them. “Did the Bradfords send you? She’s getting married tomorrow and no one is going to spoil it for her, so you can just clear off.” The threat was made so quietly and matter-of-factlythat Lewis did not for a moment doubt the lad’s intention to carry it through.
Penelope, on the other hand, apparently found it adorable. “Oh, Lewis, what a charming little bodyguard!” she cried, her fingers resting on her bosom. “So, this is where the real gentlemen have been hiding. No wonder I could not find a worthy husband in Munro. They have been in Ermenbrough all along.”
“Oy,” said the lad, taking a step back. “I’m only nine! I ain’t ready to be nobody’s husband.”
Penelope looked about ready to pinch the boy’s cheeks, and he hastily backed away a few more steps.
Lewis extended a hand. “You must be Jack. Jilly has told me all about you. I am Lewis Bradford, soon to be your brother-in-law. And this is Miss Penelope Bradford, my sister, and yours, too, from tomorrow.”
“Cor!” said the smaller boy through a mouthful of hazelnuts. “Our new sister is ever so pretty!” With that, he jumped down from the wall and came to slip his sticky, little hand into Penelope’s. “I’m Timothy,” he said. “But you can call me ‘Timmy’ because we’re going to be family.”
Penelope didn’t seem to mind the gooey fingers wrapped around hers in the least. “Then you shall call me ‘Pen,’ as Lewis does when he is fond of me.” She winked at both boys. “I hopeyoushall be fond of me.”
For Timmy, this seemed to be afait accompli. But Jack was decidedly less sure. He shook Penelope’s hand suspiciously. If it were going anywhere near his cheeks, he was clearly ready to run. He reclaimed his hand and stepped back to a safer position. “Follow me. I’ll take you to Jilly. She’s helping our mum in the kitchen. Sam is with Da’, but they’ll be home soon for some grub.”
The little assembly trooped after Jack as he pushed open the door to the cottage. They wiped their feet carefully with some straw placed outside for this very purpose to avoid traipsing mud onto the meticulously clean floor.
The room they entered was a good size, but it needed to be, as it served as sitting room, dining room, and kitchen combined. Jilly, her hair tucked under a cap, was just turning in their direction and straightening up with a hot bread tin in her dishcloth-protected hands. Her face, already pink with the heat of the oven, brightened even further at the sight of them.
“Oh!” she cried. “You’re here!” A quick dance followed as she wrapped the hot tin in the rag and placed it upon the table before trying to maneuver her mother away from the stove. “Leave the soup, Mum. You can spare a minute without it burning. Lewis is here!AndMiss Bradford!”
Mrs. Kinsey spun ’round, soup ladle raised and dripping, her face creasing into a smile remarkably like Jillian’s. Her daughter retrieved the ladle from her and dropped it back into the saucepan while Mrs. Kinsey wiped her hands upon her apron. They both stepped around the table, the mother bobbing a shy and unnecessary curtsey while Jilly flung herself into Lewis’s arms.
“I’ve missed you terribly!”
“And I you,” he murmured into her cap.
She leaned away from him a little to see Penelope. “I’m so glad you have come. I felt simply awful that Lewis would have no family here.” A thought struck her. “Would you like to see my dress?”
“I would love to,” answered Penelope, “but I must grant my brother a longer stay in your company, for he has sorely missed you. We shall talk of dresses when he has sated himself with your presence.”
“That will never happen,” Lewis declared, smitten fellow that he was.
Jack pulled a face. He sidestepped the small crowd and made his way with quiet determination to the steaming, fresh bread. He was stealthily unwrapping it when Timmy pointed a finger and announced, “Jack is at the bread again,” before beaming proudly up at Penelope for his traitor’s reward.
“Jack! That is our dinner!” his mother scolded before turning back to her guests. “He’s a growing boy, but I can’t keep up with his stomach. Soon, I will have to bake a second loaf just for him.”
“I will be tall and strong like Da’,” Jack retorted, his currently scrawny chest puffed out.
“I’ve no doubt you will,” his mother said, but a small pleat had formed upon her brow. “Though how I am to keep up with feeding ye when Jilly is not here to help me, I do not know.”
“Could you supplement your own cooking with the baker’s help?” asked Lewis.
Jilly gave him a little shake of her head and indicated with a surreptitiously empty-cupped hand the lack of funds for such a solution.
Lewis was not discouraged. “It would be only fair if I provided a stipend toward this purpose since I am stealing your helper away, ma’am. I shall make arrangements in town before we return to Munro. Would two loaves a day be sufficient? And maybe the odd meat pie to build up Jack’s strength? He can repay me by chopping wood and carrying buckets of water for his dear mother, who cares for him so well.”
“I do all that already,” grumbled Jack ungratefully.
“That is good to hear,” Lewis acknowledged with a nod. “Then I feel the stipend will be well spent. It will greatly reduce my guilt that your sister will not be here to see you grow into the excellent young man you will no doubt become.”
