he lied. “Children wait here with Mrs. Marler… also, please don’t do anything to make her wish to leave us.”
“But we want to go!” Charlotte said.
Winn looked at her sternly. “I know you do, poppet. And another time, I will take you so that you may see it and so that you may offer some sweets or some other gifts to the children there. But today, we must hurry, so you will wait here. All right?”
She popped her thumb into her mouth, but nodded. “You pwomise?”
“I better than promise,” he said. “I swear it on my honor.”
Charlotte nodded and settled back onto the seat once more. She clutched her doll and leaned against her brother who tolerated the contact reasonably well. It would likely not last in such a manner though the whole of the journey, but at least for the moment, they were not at one another’s throats.
Winn hopped down from the carriage and then reached in to help Miss St. James disembark. His hands closed over the narrow span of her waist. When her feet touched the pavement, he didn’t release her immediately. Instead, he stood there for just a moment, looking into her eyes. “We will get this sorted out,” he said. “One way or another.”
She looked up at him, her eyes clouded with worry. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
“Then this promise is one I’ll make to you right now, Calliope St. James. I will do whatever it takes to see you safe.” And to make you mine. The latter part he didn’t dare utter. Not yet. She wasn’t ready to hear such things and she was far too vulnerable to be bombarded with such. It was also a vow to himself as much as it was to her. For a man who’d lived his life not believing in love at all and thinking marriage was fine for other people, he’d certainly done an abrupt about-face on the subject. “Now, let’s get inside.”
They walked toward the heavy wooden gate set with iron bars and manned by two guards. It looked more like a prison than a place for the poor, he thought. Beside him, he felt her tense, felt the heavy weight of her past settling over her. Uncaring of who might see or what anyone might think, he reached for her hand. Taking it in his, he held it, feeling the coldness of her skin even through her gloves. He also noted the slight tremor.
“I swore I’d never return here,” she said.
“This will be the last time,” he vowed.
The small door in the gate opened and a man’s face appeared behind the iron bars there. “What you want?”
“We need to speak to the superintendent of this place,” Winn stated.
“Oh, well, he ain’t got time for that!”
“I am the Earl of Montgomery, sir, and he will make time,” Winn replied, his tone brooking no argument. “And you will keep a civil tongue in your head or be seeking a new situation before the clock strikes noon.”
The man, apparently chastened, closed the small door and the gate groaned as it opened. Stepping inside, into the yard, Winn was struck with how very crowded it was. People were everywhere. Young children, women, all of them stooped over needlework.
“You get paid per the piece but only if it’s good quality,” Calliope explained. “And working outside, even in the cold, you get better light to make sure your stitches are even. But if you’re not careful, someone will steal your completed work.”
He allowed his gaze to follow where she pointed, to a woman who was reaching down into a basket at another woman’s feet and pilfering her work. “Should we not warn her?”
“The last thing you do in a place like this is draw attention to yourself, my lord,” Calliope answered. “The two of them will sort it out in the dormitories later when there are no guards about. If they fight in the yard here, they’ll be out on the street.”
“This way, m’lord,” the sour-faced man from the gate said, and led them toward the imposing brick building. They didn’t enter through the main doors, but were led to a staircase off to one side that carried them up to the second level. The guard knocked. “A gentleman to see you, sir. The Earl of Montgomery!”
Several locks and bolts could be heard disengaging inside and then the door opened to reveal a slight man with a tuft of white hair and spectacles perched on the end of his nose.