Notorious Pleasures (Maiden Lane #2)(16)

Winter turned and clattered down the stairs. She didn’t know how he found such energy when he not only helped run the home, but also taught in a day school for boys.

Silence sighed and followed more slowly, careful of her footing on the rickety stairs. The Home for Unfortunate Infants and Foundling Children had once been housed in an aging but sturdy building, but that had been before it had burned at the beginning of the year. Now, thanks to the generosity of the home’s patronesses, the elder Lady Caire and Lady Hero, a beautiful new home was being built. It would have plenty of rooms, a big kitchen, and a garden for the children to take fresh air in. Unfortunately, the new home wasn’t yet built.

In the interim, Winter, Silence, the home’s three servants, Soot the cat, and all the home’s children—save for two infants boarded out with wet nurses—lived in one too-small, dilapidated building in St. Giles. Silence could have lived in the rooms she shared with her husband, William, but William was the captain of the merchant ship Finch and was away most of the time at sea. It had seemed silly to live by herself in the rooms in Wapping and then travel every day all the way to the home in St. Giles.

And there had been Mary Darling.

Silence kissed the little girl’s soft cheek as she descended the stairs. Mary Darling had been left on her doorstep nearly seven months ago. It had been a hard time for Silence—William had been at sea, and their parting had been chilly. Mary Darling had been like the first rays of a bright new day. She’d warmed Silence’s life, and Silence had hated to part with her, even for as short a time as a night at the home. Silence heard the voices of the children even before she and Mary Darling reached the main floor. A dark, crooked passage led back to the home’s kitchen—a big room with blackened beams in the ceiling. Two long trestle tables took up the middle of the room, one for the boys, one for the girls. Mary Darling began bouncing at the sight of the other children.

“All right, sweetheart.” Silence picked up a bowl of porridge and a spoon and slid into a space at the girls’ table with Mary Darling on her lap. “Good morning, everyone.”

“Good morning, Mrs. Hollingbrook!” the girls—and some of the boys—chorused. Even Soot glanced up, chin dripping, from his morning saucer of milk by the fire.

Mary Evening, the girl sitting next to them, leaned close. “Good morning, Mary Darling.”

Mary Darling, mouth full of porridge, waved her spoon in greeting, nearly hitting Mary Evening’s nose.

“Be careful, Mary Evening,” Nell Jones said as she draped a big cloth across Silence’s lap and front.

Nell was a merry-faced blond woman, the most senior of the servants and a former actress in a traveling theater. She might be only a bit over thirty years of age, but she knew how to wield an iron hand, and Silence had come to rely on her good sense since taking over the home’s management.

“Thank you, Nell,” Silence said. Eating breakfast with a baby in one’s lap could be a very messy task—as she’d found out in the last months.

“You’re welcome, ma’am. And you”—Nell bent and mock-scowled into the baby’s eyes—“careful with that great big spoon.”

Mary Darling laughed up into Nell’s face, splattering porridge down the front of her chemise. Silence sighed and wiped at the spill, taking a spoonful of porridge herself. Breakfast was almost over, and if she didn’t eat now, she’d not have another chance until luncheon.

Hurriedly, she ate the thick porridge, taking sips of the hot tea that Nell thrust in front of her. In between her own bites, she fed spoonfuls to Mary Darling, keeping both the hot teacup and the tempting bowl of porridge out of the baby’s reach. Mary Darling was old enough to feed herself with her spoon, but the result tended to be incredibly messy.

Around them the children ate cheerfully, aided by Nell and the other maidservant, Alice. The home also employed a manservant, Tommy, who helped with the heavier tasks and ran errands.

Nell suddenly clapped her hands. “Time to clean up, children. We have a busy day ahead of us, for we have a very important visitor coming today.”

Silence nearly choked on her last spoonful of porridge. Oh, dear Lord! She’d completely forgotten. Lady Hero was to tour the home today—and not only was Lady Hero their patroness, but she was also the daughter of a duke. Silence pushed her bowl away, feeling slightly queasy. Would she ever be comfortable in her position as manageress of the home?

HERO STEPPED GINGERLY from her carriage that afternoon—gingerly because she’d learned very quickly to watch where she placed her feet in the St. Giles streets. To the side, a man lay in the gutter. Hero made a wide circle around him, her nose wrinkling as she caught the stink of gin. Here was yet another victim of that terrible drink, sadly not that uncommon a sight. What misery would be relieved in London if only gin could be eradicated!

Once past the drunkard, Hero made her way down a little lane to where the Home for Unfortunate Infants and Foundling Children was housed temporarily in a rather ramshackle building. Hero sighed silently. As the patroness of the home, she felt guilty whenever she saw the wretched condition of the house the children lived in.

Mrs. Hollingbrook, the home’s manageress, bobbed a nervous curtsy as she neared. “Good afternoon, Lady Hero.”

Hero nodded, smiling—she hoped—graciously. The fact was that she’d originally become a patroness of the home when Temperance Dews, now the younger Lady Caire, was in charge. Hero had felt an instant friendship with the then Mrs. Dews and had rather enjoyed her interactions with the woman. She’d not found the same rapport with Mrs. Hollingbrook—at least not yet.