d to bring that porcelain hand to my mouth, but I settled for a handshake instead.
Chapter 13
Quinn
* * *
That night while the children and Lord Barnes ate upstairs in the dining room, I huddled with Lizzie and Merry at the square table in the kitchen. We’d already eaten the most delectable chicken potpie and were now drinking mugs of coffee mixed with thick cream and sugar. I’d never been in a more modern kitchen. They had a boiler and gas range and the largest sink I’d ever seen. Black-and-white-checkered flooring shone under the lights.
“I have to ask. What happened to the children’s mother?” I asked, leaning forward conspiratorially.
Lizzie spoke just above a whisper. “She just walked out into the snow in the middle of the night wearing nothing but her nightdress and curled up and froze to death.”
“Theo found her,” Merry said, tears welling in her eyes.
“He was only six,” Lizzie said.
“He’s never been the same,” Merry said.
“How awful.” His sweet little face swam before me.
“She’d always been strange,” Lizzie said. “When he brought her here from back east, we had no warning until a few days before they showed up. The Lord and Jasper had gone east for business. One day we got a letter from Jasper that Lord Barnes had married and was bringing his bride home. He was always the spontaneous sort, so we weren’t terribly surprised. He makes decisions from his heart, not his head. That’s what brought him to America in the first place—this desire for adventure and freedom. He couldn’t stomach the idea of doing what his father and father before him had done. He wanted to make his own way. It’s highly unusual to give up his rightful inheritance to a younger brother.”
“Did you know him then?” I asked.
“Oh yes. Jasper and I worked for the family in England. His family have employed both our families for as long as anyone can remember. He sent for me after the house was built, but Jasper had been with him since he left.”
“Were you homesick?” I asked.
“Terrible at first,” Lizzie said. “I missed my mum and sister. We all worked together in the big kitchen back home. But Jasper was here, so I wanted to be where he was.” She flushed and glanced at Merry. “Oh dear.”
Merry leaned closer. “Lizzie loves Jasper.”
“Always have,” Lizzie said. “Since we were in knickers.”
“But he doesn’t want to marry,” Merry said. “He’s old-fashioned and doesn’t think he could be married and still be the butler and valet to Lord Barnes.”
I nodded. These class distinctions were lost on Americans, but I knew they were very real for our friends overseas.
“At least this way I can be in the same house with him,” Lizzie said.
How awful it must be for her to want what she could never have. Would the same thing happen to me if I stayed too long in this house? I’d want to be Lord Barnes’s wife and the children’s mother. None of whom belonged to me.
“Never mind all that,” Lizzie said, obviously wanting to change the subject. “Lady Ida was strange from the start—mood swings and a terrible temper. For weeks she’d be in bed and then up for days at a time, wandering the house. She wanted nothing to do with the children. That’s why they’re so close to their father. He was mother and father to them. Jasper wanted him to hire more servants, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He resented being raised by a team of governesses when he was a child. Children saw their parents only a few minutes each day. He swore to all of us that it would not be that way in his house. His American house.”
“Which would’ve been fine except for her,” Merry said.
“Then she had Fiona and went completely mad,” Lizzie said. “The lord found her with a knife over the baby.”
I gasped. “No.”
“Yes. He saved the wee one just in time.” Lizzie’s eyes reddened. “When I think of our little Fiona and what might’ve happened…” She fanned her eyes with one hand. “May God save her soul. I’m not sure any of us will ever forget that awful night.”
“The nanny had to lock herself and the children in the nursery,” Lizzie said. “She was so frightened she left the next day for Chicago.”
“It’s been one nanny after the other since then,” Merry said.
“We’re sure the children conspire together to run them off,” Lizzie said. “They put a frog in the bed of the one we had before Nanny Foster.”