Once Upon a Maiden Lane (Maiden Lane #12.5)(5)

“We enjoyed having you both,” Lady Caire replied.

The duchess kissed both Annalise and Toby good-bye before leaving.

“Mama,” Annalise said imperiously as soon as her aunt was out the door, “I should like a pearl tiara.”

Her mother raised an eyebrow. “Would you really?”

Annalise, possibly realizing that her mother was about to deny her, knit her small brow and drew in a deep breath.

Mary Whitsun recognized the signs of an impending storm. “Annalise,” she said hastily, “I believe it’s time for you to wash and dress for bed. I’m sure Mary Thames must be waiting for you in your room.”

“Oh, pooh,” was Annalise’s succinct comment on the matter, but she got up and, holding Lord Sneaky draped boneless and purring over her arms, swanned out of the room.

“Sometimes I wonder if that child is truly mine,” Lady Caire said thoughtfully, staring after her daughter. “I’m sure I was never that elegant as a little girl.” She turned to Mary. “Did you have a nice day off?”

“It was quite enjoyable, my lady, thank you for asking,” Mary replied. She crossed to a high table and poured water from a jug into a basin and began to wash Toby’s sticky little hands.

“Did you find a book you liked?”

“Not today, I’m afraid.” Mary hesitated, keeping her eyes on her charge. Toby was apt to splash in the water if given any chance. “My lady?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you remember when I was found at the orphanage as a baby?”

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Lady Caire straighten and stare at her. “No,” the other woman said slowly. “I don’t…Let me see…I would have been newly wed to my first husband. I didn’t work at the home very much back then.”

Mary nodded, trying to hold back her disappointment.

“Why do you ask?” Lady Caire enquired gently.

“Oh,” Mary said, “I just…I thought about it today and I suddenly wondered…” She glanced up and smiled at Lady Caire. “It isn’t important.”

“Well, Mrs. Brown, my eldest sister, might remember,” Lady Caire said. “I don’t think Mr. Makepeace would recollect when you came to the home, because he wasn’t there very often at that time. He would’ve only been…good Lord, fourteen. And of course my father is no longer with us.” She cleared her throat. “He would’ve been the one with the most information.”

“Thank you, my lady, but it hardly matters,” Mary said evenly.

“Are you sure?” Lady Caire asked with a concerned look.

“Yes.” Mary gave her a quick smile. “It was but a passing fancy.”

And it was. She’d long since made peace with the mystery of her birth and where she’d come from. Those aristocrats had been playing a game at her expense at the bookshop today. And that was just as well.

She liked her life the way it was.

“If you’ll excuse me, my lady,” she said, “I’ll put the children to bed.”

She curtsied and left to do just that.



It was a sunny day the next afternoon when Mary Whitsun strolled along with her two charges on their daily walk with Freddy the footman. They were making slow progress. Toby—who was still in leading strings—had started the walk as he usually did by charging out the front door of Caire House. Hence the leading strings. Forty-five minutes of trotting around the nearby green and keeping an eye out for all the “horseys!” and Toby was much less energetic.

“Nearly home now,” Mary said in a bright voice. “Shall we have bread and butter for our tea or some lovely coddled eggs on toast?”

“Seed’ake,” Toby muttered, dragging his little feet.

Cook had made seedcake for dessert the night before, and Toby had been obsessed with the sweet ever since.

“I did see some yellow cheese in the pantry as well,” Mary said in an even tone. “Perhaps we could have that with some of the early apples Cook bought.”

“I love apples,” Annalise singsonged as she skipped along. Even a walk couldn’t wear her out. “I want apples and cheese and butter and bread.”

“Then that’s what we shall have,” Mary said, smiling down at her.

For a moment Toby’s mouth opened and he looked a bit wobbly, as if he was debating whether to demand his seedcake again.

Fortunately Annalise intervened. “Look, Toby. There’s a great carriage in front of the house with four horseys. Oh, and another standing, saddled. That makes five horseys.”

Mary blinked at the sight of the glossy chestnut shaking her head at the stable boy. She was a gorgeous horse, and Toby perked up at the sight of his favorite animal. Of course Lady Caire had many friends, and, too, Lord Caire’s sister and her family were still in London. Perhaps it was simply someone visiting.

But as the little group tramped inside Caire House, Lady Caire herself met them in the entrance hall. “Hello, darlings,” she said to her children, her wide eyes all the while signaling to Mary. “Mary Thames has a lovely tea already laid for you in the nursery. Go on up with Freddy, won’t you?”

Annalise, ever alert to intrigue, looked suspiciously at her mother. “Why can’t Mary Whitsun have tea with us?”