turn our backs on you, not when you stood by me. Last night demonstrates that we have a duty to step in as grandparents, as clearly you are not coping. He says that Lucy needs guidance and a firm hand, which I can provide better than you can. I cannot take her now, you understand, but perhaps she can stay with us in the autumn, when I do not have as many obligations.”
“Thank you, Grandmother. Lucy is not bad or unkind, she simply…” What? The truth was, Cassandra had no idea what went on in Lucy’s mind.
“My Susan was lively too,” Her Grace said. “She was only sixteen when she ran away with Treyford. It was not a bad match but I…I told her I wanted nothing more to do with her, and so she never came back to tell me she was alive. And your father too…” She breathed in sharply through her nose. “Charles and I often argued, for he never wanted my counsel. Perhaps that is one of life’s tragedies: We are all doomed to make mistakes, regardless of the advice we receive, and we are all doomed to watch those we love ignore our advice in turn. I have regrets, Cassandra. One cannot reach my age without them. But life goes on, and we must carry on too.”
“And your…interests, Grandmother?”
Her look was sharp. “Sherbourne permits me to continue my work with Sir Arthur, if that is your meaning.”
“Lady Hardbury has acquired an interest in a publishing house,” Cassandra said. “Just now, she was telling me of her aspiration to publish Sir Arthur’s theories about his big old rocks, I mean, his belief that classical temples and statues were once painted.”
It was a rotten fib, of course, but only what Arabella deserved.
A gleam lit the duchess’s eye. “That would be greatly in the public interest. I shall mention it to Sir Arthur. I have some ideas for how he might best organize his thoughts.” Then, with a quick, pleasant smile, she was detaching herself and nodding her farewell. “Anyway, Cassandra, my dear, don’t let me keep you. I have a very full schedule, and I daresay you do too. I shall write you about the girl.”
No sooner were their grandparents out of earshot, than Lucy bounded over.
“Well?” Lucy demanded. “Am I to be transported to Botany Bay?”
“We did consider it,” Cassandra replied. “But as Governor Macquarie has only recently restored order to the colony, we hesitate to incite another rebellion by sending you. She may invite you somewhere in the autumn, and for now we must call this London trip a failure, for we did not get you a husband.”
“We got you one, though.”
For the briefest moment, Cassandra entertained the possibility that Lucy had devised this whole drama for the sole purpose of bringing Cassandra and Joshua together—and then dismissed it. Lucy lived from moment to moment, along with whatever demon was driving her, and knew little of strategy.
Besides, if that were her plan, she had failed as miserably as Cassandra had.
“I like Joshua,” Lucy went on. “So does Emily. Will he live with us at Sunne Park?”
“He will return to his life in Birmingham.”
Lucy’s mouth fell open in a melodramatic show of shock. “Mother Cassandra! Can you not do anything right?”
She flounced back to Isaac and Emily, leaving Cassandra alone to sigh.
“Apparently not,” she said to no one.
Then, finally taking her grandmother’s advice, she smiled and carried on.
Chapter 28
It was nearly two weeks before Joshua and Cassandra packed her sisters and cat into a carriage and, accompanied by Isaac, servants, and the contents of half the shops in London, started on the journey home.
During those two weeks, they shied away from society, leaving the gossips unsatisfied and Lucy’s would-be suitors heartbroken. Instead, they visited every place in London worth visiting and, Joshua had been pleased to note, Cassandra also insisted that her sisters spend time at orphanages, under instruction from Miss Sampson.
Despite his ongoing neglect of business, it struck Joshua that he ought to accompany them around town, and not only because he felt odd if Cassandra was not near.
“It would be irresponsible not to come with you,” he said. “Let Lucy run around London unattended and next thing we know, there’ll be another Great Fire or Revolution.”
Cassandra and Joshua dined with the physician who offered advice for helping Lady Charles, and with another physician who proposed the new and disparaged theory that disease was carried by water and that cleaner water in cities could save