AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 14
Lucas and the others arrivedback at Alderwood around four o’clock, dusty and tired, but Lucas wanted to find Lavinia straightaway and let her know what they’d learned. A more detailed meeting with Finch could wait until tomorrow, but he knew Lavinia would not want to wait until tomorrow to hear the news, nor did he want her to wait.
He was also anxious to know how his “betrothed” had coped with his family during his absence.
As they dismounted and handed their horses over to the grooms, they could hear shrieks and squeals coming from somewhere nearby.
“What is that infernal noise?” Thomas asked. “Has someone set the pigs loose?”
“I do believe they’re children, Thomas,” Isaac said. “Ours, no doubt.”
Finch bid them farewell and returned to his office, leaving the three brothers to investigate.
As they rounded the corner of the house, Lucas spied six children of varying age and size prancing about beneath the large oak tree not far from the house, laughing and playing—with Delia and Artie, of all people. He blinked to make sure he was seeing things correctly. Seated on blankets in the shade nearby were Clara and Lavinia, who were clapping and laughing along with the children. Hannah was shooing one little scamp who’d strayed from the group back toward the other children, and Lucas’s mother stood nearby watching the spectacle. She spotted them and walked toward them.
“Where is Mrs. Wynn?” Thomas asked in a demanding tone. “And what in heaven’s name do you callthat?” He pointed toward the raucous group.
“I call it perfectly acceptable childlike behavior, Thomas,” their mother replied. “You were a child once yourself, you may recall. We decided to give Wynn an hour to herself; heaven knows the poor woman has earned it the past few days. Lavinia offered to play with them all, and her elderly cousins were more than thrilled to join in the fun.”
She glanced over her shoulder, drawing Lucas’s and the others’ attention back toward the children. Artie was dancing in a most awkward fashion to the song Delia was singing, though it was barely audible over the shrieks of laughter the children were making as they watched Artie and mimicked him.
“I must say, Lucas, your Lavinia’s cousins are a singular pair,” Mama said. “I’m not quite certain what I make of them. Despite the fact that the children are being highly entertained, there is something unnerving about seeing an elderly man down on his hands and knees, braying like a donkey.”
Thomas’s eyes looked as though they might pop from his skull at their mother’s comment. Isaac snorted and covered his mouth with his hand to avoid laughing outright.
“Braying like a donkey?” Lucas managed to ask with a nearly straight face.
“Yes. He reenacted a fable about a man and a boy and a donkey. I believe your Edmund portrayed the man in the story, Thomas. Isaac Junior was to have played the boy, but Mary felt it unfair that all the parts were being played by males, so we adapted.”
“Edmund didwhat? Did Isobel agree to this?”
“Now, Thomas, don’t be so stuffy. Sometimes I think Wynn can be overly strict. Children need to play.”
“Play, yes, Mother. Some vigorous exercise, especially for boys, is an important part of a child’s daily regimen, but in an orderly fashion, with other children, not with decrepit old men who pretend they are donkeys.”
“Well, yes, that was somewhat of a shock, but he wasn’t actuallyplayingwith Artie, Thomas. It wasa play—not so dissimilar as doing charades with one’s friends for an evening’s entertainment. I recollect plenty of instances during your own childhood when you were a pirate king or a musketeer or some such—you and Martha and James were always coming up with escapades of that sort. Delia and some of the girls were fairies at one point this afternoon, and she made a most wonderful witch, too—just scary enough to delight the children. Lavinia herself played the good fairy that rescued little Annabel from the witch. Annabel thought it great fun and asked to be rescued again.”
“Is that right, Annabel?” Isaac said, reaching down to pick up the little girl who’d wandered over when she’d seen her papa. “You were rescued from the witch by a good fairy?”
The rosy-cheeked cherub pointed at Delia and grinned. “Bad witch. Funny.”
Lucas looked at Annabel in wonder—his niece. Samuel was the baby in leading strings, and the young girl who looked so much like Clara must be Mary, with Isaac Junior standing next to her. Isaac and Clara’s children.
Isaac, only four years Lucas’s senior, had four children already. Four. And another on the way.
The boy with light-brown hair, who was plucking grass and tossing it at everyone, must be Edmund, then, and sitting next to Lavinia was his little sister, Sarah.
Thomas and Isobel’s children.
Little golden-haired Sarah looked exactly like Isobel had at that age. Lucas was flooded with bittersweet memories. Sneaking into the stable with Isobel to play with newborn kittens. Pulling off their shoes and stockings to splash about in the lake that lay between their parents’ properties and ending up completely soaked. Hiding from Isaac and Susan—and Simon, who was three years their junior. A shared first kiss.
He and the others walked over to the oak tree to join the happy little group. Artie’s comical dancing had ceased, and another story was underway.
“And so the beautiful little princess grew and became even lovelier with each passing day,” Lavinia said, narrating. Delia—the beautiful princess in question—swished her skirt and picked daisies, humming softly.
“But one day, while her parents were busy, the princess decided to explore the castle. In a small room she’d never noticed before, she spied an old woman spinning wool. ‘How delightful!’ the young princess exclaimed—” Delia clasped her hands to her bosom at Lavinia’s words—“‘May I try?’
“‘Of course, dearie.’ The woman cackled.” Lavinia’s own voice cackled as she spoke the words. “No sooner had the princess reached for the spindle, but she pricked her finger on it and immediately fell into a deep sleep, as did everyone else in the castle.” Delia’s outreached hand jerked, and then she collapsed into a heap on the ground.
