to her new life. I do not intend to leave her behind.”
He shook his head. “Margaret, you are about to enter into society. It is one thing to do so with a charity case that people will acknowledge shows your kind heart. It is another to come onto the scene with the child actually hanging on to your skirts.”
“It’s not as though she will be going to balls with me or out in public,” Margaret said dismissively, starting towards the carriage. “But I want to see her every night when I come home, and I want to make sure she’s happy with her lessons.”
“Lessons? She’s too young for lessons.” He followed after her, clearly frustrated at this turn of events.
“You’re only saying that because she’s a girl and you know I can’t teach her embroidery yet,” Margaret answered coyly. She paused at the step of the carriage and turned around, lowering her voice. “But she’s very bright and intelligent and has picked up the alphabet and her numbers quite well. I wish to give her a head-start for her later studies.”
“Yes, I’m sure that will be very helpful for her career as an astronomer or a philosopher,” he said sarcastically, clearly implying that there was no need to educate a woman – a peasant woman at that – in the sciences. Margaret lost the will to fight him on this subject. She had been forced to pursue her own academic interests in books and snippets of conversation on her own. Poppy would not have to endure the same.
“I really do not understand what it is to you,” she said quietly. “If you do not wish to discuss mathematics with a four-year-old then, by all means, turn your conversation to matters of the weather or her favourite outdoor games.”
“I do not like your tone,” he said quietly, but there was no more argument in Poppy’s presence when they at last climbed into the carriage and set off for London.
The little girl did remarkably well with the long journey, and Margaret found herself secretly proud of her charge. Poppy sat quietly for some time gazing seriously out the window in silence, her little hands folded in her lap. After the connection she and Margaret had shared on the night of the storm, there had been a softening between the two of them that warmed more and more every day.
Margaret especially saw progress in the stolen moments when Poppy could call her Aunt Maggie and hear her own name in response. Many nights now she crept into Margaret’s room and asked for stories, falling asleep only to the sound of Margaret’s voice. It opened a warm and devoted corner in Margaret’s heart that she hadn’t even known existed.
Today, the girl was dressed in one of the pieces Margaret had bought for her from the local tailor, a loose but well-fitting child’s dress that left room for movement around the shins and had a pretty petticoat emerging from beneath. Her hair was clean – she submitted to baths now as long as Margaret was present and willing to get splashed in the process – and curled to her shoulders.
She looked like a respectable little girl, and though Margaret was proud of her she was also a little sad. Lord Somerville had driven the wild, free heart out of Margaret long ago, and Margaret wanted to be certain not to do the same to Poppy.
On the last day [D2]of their journey, Poppy was relaxed enough to sleep most of the way. And when they arrived after dark, Margaret directed a footman to carry her upstairs.
Poppy woke in fright at the touch of someone she didn’t know, but Margaret drew near and put a cool hand on her forehead. “It’s all right, my love,” she said with a soothing tone. “Carrie will go with you. You are to stay in the room adjoining mine, and if you wake with fright in the night, you may come into my chambers as you do back home.”
The next morning, Margaret had already scheduled an appointment to prepare for the first official ball of the season with Lady Amanda Hayton-Smythe, a society woman who was in every way the kind of young influence that Lord Somerville had always wanted Margaret to have in her life.
Early on, he would meet stories of Nigel and Molly with encouragement regarding Amanda – “What about that sweet girl that we met at the ice cream social? I’ll arrange for us to see her family