Page 109 of The Gentlewoman Companion

But the boys were already huddled around the box, digging through dirt to find worms and beetles.

“Did you know there are so many sorts?” Tom asked. “I thought ants and roaches and flies were all God made.”

“Tom!” Mrs. Kent spoke sternly but quietly as Susan napped on her lap.

“Pardon me, ma’am.” Tom made a deep, clumsy bow toward Lord Halverton. “How do you do, my lord?” Before James could respond, he and Samuel were out the door.

“He seems happier every week,” Halverton said.

“They are a joy,” said Mr. Kent.

“They are noise and laughter and happiness,” said his wife. “It is the music I’ve longed for. Thank you, my lord, for thinking of us.” She pressed her cheek to Susan’s.

“Not at all,” James said. Though not without difficulties, Tom and Susan were beginning to blossom under the love and order that ruled the vicarage. “It’s a fine, warm day. Would you mind if I take the boys to the pond for the afternoon?”

“Tom is a blessing, but I daresay no one will complain if he’s out of the house a good while,” the vicar said, smiling at his wife.

James followed the boyish racket around the side of the house and ushered the boys to the donkey carriage. Thinking of Louisa, he allowed Samuel and Tom to take turns with the reins and listened to them chatter about the differences between London and the country.

At the pond, James helped them prepare their fishing rods. “Stick the worm straight through the hook,” he told the boys.

They cast their lines and waited on a fallen log.

“Now we must be quiet so as not to scare the fish,” he said.

Tom leaned forward and opened his mouth, then closed it and sat back. Perhaps it was cruel to force silence on these boys who were so eager to be together. But he did not dismiss them. There was a lesson in stillness, a strength that came with sitting in one’s mind. Beside him, the boys broke into stifled laughter.

If Louisa were with them, she would know how to join in their fun and pull him into it. Without her, he was too serious.

The boys were poking each other and trying not to giggle. James swallowed a reprimand. When they’d arrived at Lundbrooke, it had been winter. Spring in the country was a foreign experience for children who had been raised in a city made of bricks. How would Louisa make this outing more diverting?

“Have you ever skipped rocks?” James asked them.

“Shhh! We are fishing,” Tom said.

Samuel burst into laughter as bright as sunlight.

“Do you want to fish?” James asked.

“Not if we have to be quiet,” Samuel said. “We have a lot to say.”

“Come, I’ll show you something else.” They abandoned their poles and blinked up at James. “A ball bounces on the floor, but did you know that rocks bounce on water?”

“That’s foolishness.” Tom waved him away.

James found a flat rock and a rounder one. “Which will bounce better?” He placed the rocks in their hands.

“They’ll sink.” Samuel handed the stones back.

“Eventually.” James sent the round rock skipping over the pond.

“It jumped!”

“But only twice. Count the bounces.” He threw the flat rock.

“Seven!”

The boys were hopping around him, begging to be shown the trick. In a few minutes, their stones were leaping across the water.