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Chapter 18
A few days later, Lady Louisa’s suitor arrived at the house. He was a tall, good-looking man, and when Anne walked past him with the children, she felt a pang of guilt for him. He did not look at all like the type of person who could keep up with Louisa; Anne thought she would eat him alive if given the chance. He had a gentle, sensitive face with kind eyes and soft blond curls coiled off his head. He smiled at Anne as she passed, and she desperately wanted to whisper a warning to him.
However, Amelie was pulling on her arm so hard that she thought it might fall off, so she knew that she had to keep following the children. They were now mere days away from their recital, and so they had to practice twice as hard as they had been previously.
It seemed that Andre was the most nervous of all the children. “Margaret, don’t you understand how serious this is? We are going to be performing for Mama and Papa’s friends, and if we do not make a good impression, it shall reflect poorly on them!”
He looked at his sister in great distress, but Margaret did not seem to care. “Andre, I am not the one who continuously forgets the most difficult part of the song. I think that if you are giving anyone some advice, it should be yourself!”
They were seated in the music room, and Anne knew that she had to break up their discussion before one of them used their instrument as a weapon against the other. “Now, now. Let us not get caught up in thinking about the performance. We should focus on the music and how we are connecting with it. If we do that, then everyone in attendance will understand just how hard we have worked to present this for them.”
Margaret and Andre eyed each other suspiciously but said nothing more. When Anne gave the cue, they took up their instruments once more and continued practicing.
That was, however, until Anne heard a great commotion coming from down the hall. Anne signalled to the children to pause their playing so that she could hear, but that unfortunately also encouraged the children to listen at the same time. They all leaned their ears in the direction of the sound, but they did not have to strain too much at all to hear. Whoever it was was being very loud.
Anne first heard a booming man’s voice that she did not recognize. “I don’t care if Lord Williams is here; I need to know what gave you the right to think that you could keep something like this from me, George!”
The governess started getting concerned at the sound of this. She looked to the children, who all seemed to have the same worried look on their faces as she did on hers. “Come with me,” she said to them sharply, and not one of them questioned what they were telling her.
Anne took the children down the hall in the other direction to the room where they played with their toys in the evening. “How about the three of you take a little break and continue planning that performance that you wanted to show your mother and father? You were developing the most wonderful story, and I would love to see where it goes.”
Margaret and Anne shared a look that Margaret understood immediately. “Come along, Andre, Amelie. I do believe that I have thought of a solution to the problem we were having in our plot.”
Anne smiled gratefully at the little girl, and then the three children assembled themselves on the carpet and began talking through the rest of their play. Anne shut the door gently behind her, knowing they would be safe. She was only walking down the hall, but she had needed to ensure that the children were distracted by something very engaging first so that they did not just try to eavesdrop on whatever was happening in the other room the whole time.
Anne tip-toed back down the hall. She could now hear Lord George speaking calmly in return to whoever it was who was speaking.
“Papa, I know that you are upset, but I must remind you that Louisa needs to try and make a good impression with this suitor. She is not getting any younger, and if she is to find her own happiness …”
“Do not remind me of what I already know!” the voice boomed.
So this is Lord Graham, Anne thought to herself. He sounds a great deal like Lady Louisa when he is upset!
“I would have avoided this kind of confrontation if I thought it was possible, but you don’t seem to understand the direness of the situation, George,” Lord Graham growled. Anne was now only about one door down from the room where all of this was going on, so she decided to stay where she was. She pressed herself against the outside of the door so that she was largely hidden in the doorway and continued listening.
“You are absolutely correct, Father,” George responded with the same level-headedness that he always exhibited. “I do not understand any part of this situation because you made the first error in throwing Robert from the house. The only reason why he came here was that he had nowhere else to turn. How could you think of doing that to your own son?”
“Do not question my intentions, boy!” Lord Graham roared. “You know very well why I pushed Robert from home; he is a bad seed. And if I continued to let him root at my estate, he was going to poison everything that I worked so hard for.”
Anne could have sworn that she heard Lord George laughing ever so softly, and then he said, “Worked so hard for? Papa, we both know that all of the money you accumulated throughout your life was only because of your title and our family. You have seldom done a day of work in your life, unlike Robert!”
The governess was thoroughly impressed. She knew that Lord George was a masterful conversationalist and a steadfast man, but she didn’t comprehend the full extent of that until now. He was defending his brother so fiercely that it moved Anne almost to the point of tears.
“Are you LAUGHING AT ME?” Lord Graham shouted at his son. “I had better be mistaken; otherwise, I believe that I might be inclined to disinherit you altogether! Then where would you be?!”
“I am not worried about that, Papa,” Lord George said happily, “for I know that if ever you were to enact some cruelty against me, I could turn to my dear brother Robert and …”
“WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK YOU ARE DOING?!” came Louisa’s voice suddenly. Anne hadn’t heard her enter the room, but she was undeniably there now. “YOU ARE RUINING MY MEETING WITH LORD WILLIAMS, AND IF I LOSE HIM BECAUSE YOU ARE SHOUTING …”
“Which you yourself are also currently engaging in,” Lord George reminded his sister.
Then, there was silence for a few moments. Anne thought that perhaps the family was just speaking more quietly now, but she heard absolutely nothing when she strained to hear. Then, she heard Louisa howl in frustration and stomp in the direction of the door. Anne pressed herself as tightly as she could to her door so that Louisa would not catch her eavesdropping as she had the last time. She couldn’t have that happen again.
“Louisa,” came Lord George’s voice finally, “I believe that while we are already on a topic that I would rather not be discussing, there is something that I should tell Papa about you.”
Anne heard Louisa growl at her brother but heard no more steps towards the door, so she knew she had decided to stay in the room. “I cannot imagine anything that you would have to reveal about me, brother. Especially nothing that you could prove.”
She heard Lord George laugh again. “Oh, is that right? Then how do you explain this record of purchase from the seller where you bought all of those books that ‘Robert’ bought?”
