Page 87 of The Gentlewoman Companion

Chapter Twenty

Aspare room had been cleared to make way for a nursery where a child-sized table for tea-taking, two tiny beds, and a few books and toys filled the space. James watched Susan toddle after the kitchen cat she’d taken a fancy to. The cat evaded her attempts to catch it, but Susan was undeterred. Her little tongue poked from the side of her mouth, and each time she got close enough to touch the animal, she giggled. Taxing as the previous night had been, he felt useful and connected to Susan for the first time. She deserved to be with her brother, safe in a home with two parents who loved her.

Having made the mistake of telling his staff that Margaret was a relation of his vicar, Mr. and Mrs. Kent were on his mind. He wrote them, a childless couple, and asked if they would be interested in fostering Susan and Tom. There had not been sufficient time to receive a response, so he fretted and wondered if he ought to hire someone to care for Susan and Samuel. How would it be to have a wife—one with clever ideas and mischievous eyes—to shoulder this burden?

“Watch!” Samuel said from the floor where he spun a top. “It’ll go for an hour.”

“You have the knack of it.” For all the trouble they caused, he never questioned his decision to seek out and provide for Margaret and Samuel.

They were a joy.

The thought stunned him, even as pride swelled for Margaret’s strength and resourcefulness in caring for herself and their brother, or when Samuel’s clammy little hand slipped into his.

“I am back.” Margaret stepped into the room. She had left him there to return with a basket of mending.

James offered her the only full-sized chair in the room. When she refused, he sat next to her on the floor.

“I’ve been thinking,” he told her.

“What plan have you now? Buy us a cottage and send us a monthly stipend?” She laughed as though the idea were preposterous.

“Would you allow it?”

“Of course not.” She had explained her need to provide for herself, but he still did not understand it.

“We are family, Margaret. Our father owes you a life as free from worry as possible.”

“That is a droll fancy. If I waited to receive everything owed me, I’d be starving in a ditch. We can keep ourselves and live among people of our own class.”

“And risk Samuel getting ill again? He has a bright mind and requires an education you cannot afford. You may refuse my help, but would you deny your brother? You may resume your role as a housemaid, if you wish—I am sure we can come up with a story—but Samuel must go to school.”

“I don’t want to be a housemaid!” She brought her fist to the floor, eyes flashing. The children stopped their play and watched with fleeting interest.

What was he missing? “Not a housemaid, then. What?”

“I enjoyed my position as a seamstress.”

“I watched you hunch over a single, dim candle stitching and stitching with Samuel coughing in the other room. I cannot send you, my own sister, back to that.”

“Sister?”

Had her voice quavered? She was so stoic, he couldn’t be certain. “Sister,” he said firmly. “I am not your father and have no jurisdiction over you.” He thought of Louisa and the ill-begotten plan her father had hatched for her marriage. “Even if I had, I could never claim to know what is best for you. Tell me, Margaret, how can I help you?”

“Meg.” She lifted her chin and arched her head away from him. Allowing him to call her a nickname was no meaningless gesture, however nonchalantly she chose to treat it.

“Meg.” He paused to give the nickname proper weight. “Samuel has been better for some time. Why have you stayed?”

Her glance was sharp. “Curiosity, I suppose. I knew little of my father, nothing about his life. And once I was here, I became interested in my older brother.” Older brother. How those words struck his soul. She squared her shoulders. “But I am not here for money.”

James glanced around the nursery, a place he’d never imagined he would be. He was with his brother and sister, connections he’d never dreamed of having. Yet, they gave him more purpose than anything he’d done before. “I value our relationship and am determined to remain connected to you and Samuel all my life. I beg you to understand I have enough resources for whatever life you aspire to. Make a request. Nothing you ask would be too much.”

She took in a deep breath. “I want to be a mantua maker.”

“A dressmaker?”

“Yes, with my own shop one day.”

“Then you shall have it.”