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“You didn’t say goodnight?” Anne asked the two older children, and they both sighed in unison.
Margaret charged back down the hall, flung her arms around each of her parents individually and kissed them on the cheek, and then ran away again. Andre slowly plodded back to them and did the same as his sister, but did actually wish his parents a good night.
Anne looked apologetically at both of them, but there was no disappointment in her in their eyes. Anne’s spirits were slightly buoyed at that fact, as well as that they’d had such a pleasant meal, despite Lady Louisa’s foul mood.
It was surprisingly easy to get Amelie into bed. The poor thing was so tired that she basically flopped around the bed while Anne tried to change her into her bedclothes. When she could finally get everything on all right, Amelie was fast asleep with the covers tucked up under her chin within about three seconds.
Once they were upstairs, it turned out that Andre and Margaret were actually quite happy to have some quiet time in their beds.
“I don’t like Aunt Louisa,” Margaret said, being uncharacteristically negative. “She never has anything nice to say, and Mama always taught us that if you are that way, you shouldn’t say anything at all. It seems, however, that Aunt Louisa has the opposite problem.”
Anne allowed herself a quiet laugh, and Margaret laughed along with her.
“I agree with you, for once,” Andre called from the adjoining room. “Aunt Louisa is no fun at all to be around.”
Anne became concerned that the calling back and forth would rouse Amelie, but the little angel was so deeply asleep that Anne didn’t think she could have woken her with a stampede of horses through her room.
“I understand what both of you are saying,” Anne said, loudly enough that both children could hear her, “but we must remember that perhaps Lady Louisa has more going on than we know of. We must treat her with the same understanding that we give to everyone else.”
Margaret let out an exasperated sigh and lay back against her pillows. “Miss Annie, if there is ever anyone who enters this house that you don’t extend kindness and understanding to, then I think that I shall fall dead on the ground from shock!”
All three of them laughed, and Anne then said goodnight and reminded them to be on their best behaviour around their aunt. However, as she closed the door to their rooms behind her, she felt a bit guilty.
There I went telling those children that we have to understand that everyone is going through different trials in life, and yet I was not able to extend that kindness to Lady Louisa in my own mind today. I must try and give her another chance, for I do feel as though under that hard, rude exterior, there might just be a young woman who is rather desperate for some genuine love and affection.
Anne thought about this as she walked downstairs to her room. In fact, she was so caught up in her own thoughts that she hardly noticed the letter that had been placed upon her pillow when she got inside. As soon as she saw the writing, however, her heart stopped. Robert had written to her.
She tore the letter open with such vigour she was afraid that she might actually tear his words. But when she finally had it open and laid it out upon the bed, she was relieved that she had not damaged it in any way.
My Dearest, Anne, it began.
Anne had never been one to be moved by grammar, but the fact that Robert had put a comma between ‘Dearest’ and ‘Anne’ made her heart skip a beat. She’d never been referred to as such by anyone before, and she felt very happy that the first person to be doing it was her own Robert.
I have not been able to shake the immense guilt that I felt leaving you yesterday. I have too much to explain, so much to say to you, and yet I knew that I had to leave in order to assuage any further conflicts between myself, and potentially my half-brother, and my sister.
And so I am forced to tell you all in a simple letter, where I am unable to see your reactions to all that I am about to tell you, and I must anxiously await your reply. If you care for me at all, do me the service of writing me back quickly, no matter how you are feeling. It is a selfish request, but I know that I shall be unable to concentrate on much of anything until I hear from you.
I must also apologize for the unkempt manner in which I am writing this letter. I am scribing it while I am in the carriage on the way to my new temporary home, and no matter how many times I tell the horses to behave, they insist on finding all of the holes in the road and pushing us through them. Just like that one.
Anne giggled out loud as she saw Robert’s handwriting jump up and down in response to the carriage’s movement. She did not care, however. Robert had written to her right away, and all was about to be revealed to her.
As she read through the rest of the letter cherishing each messy stroke of the quill, all the questions she had surrounding Robert’s sudden appearance at the home were answered. She learned about everything from his father’s remarriage to his mother, his mother’s death, his father’s incredibly poor treatment of him, Lord George’s poor health when he was a young man and so on and so forth.
Anne could hardly believe how cruel Lady Louisa had been to him in setting him up to take the fall for her immense purchases, and how Lady Louisa had wished Lord George had died during childhood. She entirely understood why Robert had flown to Lord George’s estate: he had nowhere else in the world to go.
She still didn’t entirely agree with his decision to assume a false persona so that no word would get back to his family about his arrival at the house, but she knew that Robert only did it because he felt he had to.
This gave her a deeper respect for her employer and the man she was falling in love with. For Lord George, this was because he was so generous as to employ his half-brother at the drop of a hat as he needed a way to make his own money before he went out into the world. For Robert, this was because he didn’t simply expect his half-brother to take care of him; he expected to work for his money.
When Anne got to the part of the letter that detailed what Robert planned to do with the rest of his life once he acquired the money that his mother had left him, her heart swelled.
I hope that my invaluable skills that I have gained in my time working for George will have prepared me thoroughly enough for the task of undertaking my own bank. It may sound like an idle dream grown out of foolishness to some (perhaps yourself included), but I know that I can do it. I have always been an enterprising young man, and I believe that with my brother's support, and perhaps, if I am lucky, a remarkable young governess, I might be able to succeed.
Which brings me to my final, and most important point. My darling Anne, I need you to know that although it was ‘Freddie’ who first professed his affection for you, ‘Robert’s’ affection has been developing at the same pace, if not faster. To try and express how I feel for you through this bit of parchment and ink would do us both a disservice, and so I must make myself wait until we are together again to fully explain myself. But know this: I regret a great many actions I have taken since arriving at my brother’s house, but commencing a courtship with you was not one of them. I was not telling you falsehoods when I said that I intended to marry you when I returned because when I am with you, I feel as though I could conquer anything in the world. Anne I ... I must tell you how passionately I adore you.
By the time Anne reached this part of the letter, her vision was becoming blurry, her palms had begun sweating, and her hands were shaking so hard that it became even more difficult to read Robert’s poor handwriting. Of course, she wanted him to write the exact words that she so desperately craved to hear, but she knew that hearing him say them in person would be so much better. It would be nearly impossible for her to wait for him to get back, however, because she wanted to hear him say them right now!
She would have to subdue her fiery feelings of love for the time being and seeing Robert write that he seriously wished to marry her helped that a great deal.
Isn’t that funny? she thought. I would have thought that when I found the man I wanted to share the rest of my life with, hearing him say that he wished to marry me would be the pinnacle of romance. And yet, it is the admission of love that I am so desperately dying to hear, for what is a union without love?
When Anne got to the final line of the letter, she did not hesitate for one moment to reply to him. She ran over to her writing desk, pulled out her quill and ink, and wrote to the love of her life with all haste. She needed him to know how she felt too and prayed that the letter would reach him as quickly as it could.
