take better care with this one if he wished to tear down her barriers. Swiftly, giving no indication that he sensed a change in Jane’s manner, he bid both ladies good-bye, again reassuring them as to their young relatives’ safety, and followed the children out the door.
Lady Elsbeth clasped her hands over her needlework and sat staring at Jane, her head cocked in a considering fashion.
Jane bristled, her mouth working as though she thought to say one thing or another and ended by discarding them all. Finally they saw the small party pass by the large window of the parlor, Royce tipping his hat toward them as he passed. "The man is certainly an odd fish. I wonder if we do trust the children in his company."
"Certainly we do," returned Elsbeth. "But if he means to pursue their company, I wonder at Serena’s reaction. "And to your own, though I’d not say that to you, Elsbeth thought. She picked up her needlework, pulling her needle free as she considered the pattern growing beneath her fingers. "At all events, our bucolic, peaceful existence here at Penwick will never be the same."
Jane had no response for that, for she feared Elsbeth to be right.
For the next several days it appeared Lady Elsbeth was wrong.
Though servants hastened to prepare Penwick Park for the expected guests, life for its residents settled back into a calm routine. Every afternoon the Earl of Royce took Jane’s nephews for long, rambling rides over the countryside. Arrangements for these rides were made between the earl and the boys the day before, consequently they were always dressed and standing by their saddled ponies when the earl arrived. There was no need, or opportunity, for the earl and Jane to meet again. Conversations that Jane and Lady Elsbeth had with the boys revealed they were getting along very well with the earl. Royce seemed to have assumed the role of mentor, giving the boys sage advice which they solemnly parroted, to the amusement of Lady Elsbeth and the consternation of Jane. Jane did not like owing the earl, but she feared she was in his debt. The children were displaying signs of respect, mannerliness, and maturity. It nettled Jane that the earl was successful where she and Elsbeth were not. She did not consider how unsuccessful the boys’ own parents had been.
She was aware, however, that their mischievous pranks had abated, but for the comparatively trivial matters of the handprint "paintings’’ on the hallway pier glass and the sliding down the newly polished banisters. Truthfully, though Jane hated to own it, life had become disgustingly boring. Consequently, she soon discovered herself looking forward with anticipation to the arrival of their heretofore unwanted guests.
The cavalcade began arriving on the fifth day.
They arrived later than Jane and Lady Elsbeth had anticipated, nearly driving those ladies to distraction with worry whether or not they would have to cancel the planned dinner and dancing for that evening. As it was, they’d already reordered their table setting due to the news of Mrs. Chitterdean’s succumbing to the grippe. Lady Elsbeth hastily prepared more of her decoction and sent Nurse Twinkleham to care for the invalided parson’s wife. It was agreed by all parties that Reverend Chitterdean must be kept well.
Consequently, it hadn’t helped Jane’s and Lady Elsbeth’s rapidly frazzling nerves that the boys were underfoot all afternoon, eagerly asking to help with the final preparations for the arriving guests. When an exasperated Jane had tried to send them out to the Folly with Becky to watch them, she was solemnly told they’d promised the earl they would stand ready to be of assistance. Somehow he’d impressed upon them a sense of responsibility. It was a sense of responsibility that Jane could have cheerfully done without; but she could hardly wound their honor by refusing their help and packing them off to the schoolroom.
Not since Lady Tipton and Millicent interfered with her life three years ago had she felt so helpless. Her one consoling thought was the righteousness of the ideas the earl instilled in the boys. It struck her as odd, even humorous, to consider the Devil’s Disciple instilling principals of good and evil, as well as manners and respect. It was unsettling and made her more wary of the man, for she wondered at his game. A leopard doesn’t change its spots nor a tiger its stripes. There had to be a motive to his strange behavior, but she could not see it. If