“Is this a man you know?” Daisy asked cautiously. Mary shook her head. “Then maybe he will be very nice.”
She smiled brightly, hoping to make the Lady of the house feel better. In a way, this news affected her and the rest of the staff too. If the home was not owned by a member of the Roberts family, would they still have jobs?
“Maybe it is someone that you will fall very much in love with. Your father must have chosen him for a very good reason. Perhaps this will all turn out fine.”
Mary pondered this. She had not even thought about it in this way. It terrified her to think about falling in love and getting married, but maybe there was a chance. It was possible ... was it not?
Chapter 2
Edmund’s eyes widened in surprise when the butler of his grand household handed him a letter. He did not often get personal mail, which left him utterly bewildered as to who might be writing to him now.
“Do you not intend to open that?” his mother, Iris Smith, asked him innocently as she took a sip of her tea.
Edmund looked up at her, almost as if he had forgotten she was there. In her soft cotton night dress, which she did not usually wear to morning breakfast, she looked very different than usual. Edmund was much more used to seeing her in her finery, with silk or satin dresses over the tightest corsets and dressiest petticoats. Her dark hair that matched his perfectly was usually styled into a very complicated chignon, decorated with enough jewels to show off the family wealth. Her face was always painted with make-up. Bare, it appeared very strange. Her green eyes, also exactly the same as Edmund’s, sparkled, but the rest of her seemed slightly dull.
In his stark black trousers, his crisp suit, and finest cufflinks, Edmund appeared ready for a day of business. Even if he did not intend to work, he always preferred to look the part. It was better to be prepared for any occasion.
“Why are you not dressed yet, Mother?” he asked, maybe a little too curtly.
He wanted the focus off of him, which was why he acted in such a way. Edmund never usually spoke to the woman he loved more than anyone else in the world like that. It was not right.
Luckily, she knew him well enough not to be offended. “I shall get dressed when I see fit. I do not see why I always have to follow the unwritten rules inside my own home. Not if there is no one to see me.”
“I can see you.” Iris gave Edmund a shrug and a smile. She felt too old to worry about silly little things anymore. “Or do I not count?”
“Oh, you count.” She picked up her tea again and took a sip. This time, her eyes slid closed as she enjoyed the sensation of the warm liquid running down her throat. “I have just been thinking a lot about the things I do just because I think I must. Such as getting dressed for breakfast.”
“Why is that?”
Edmund tried to lose himself in what his mother was saying, but the constant distraction of the unopened letter was never far from his mind. It burned his fingertips as if it was on fire, sparking his curiosity deeply. If he were alone, he would have torn it open already.
“Your father passed away fifteen years ago. Since then, I have not had any marriage offers.” For a moment, Edmund felt certain he could see some sadness reflected in his mother’s gaze, but it passed before he could comment on it. “Not that I want any, really. I shall never find a man who I love as much as I did him.”
Edmund had heard the story many times. He could not remember his father well, but his mother kept him alive with her constant stories. His parents held on to a love story like nothing he had ever seen with anyone else. It was the very reason he had not hunted out marriage for himself. He did not wish to settle for someone he did not love just because the woman had the right title. He wanted his very own love story to cherish.
“So, now that I am not looking for marriage, why do I need to behave in a certain way?”
“Because that is how polite society behaves,” Edmund commented idly. “It is simply the way that things are done.”
“In public, yes,” Iris agreed. “But I am not in public now, so I do not see any reason not to do exactly as I please.”
Edmund chuckled as a self-satisfied smile spread across his mother’s cheeks. Her fiery nature always made him feel happier. There was no one like his mother, and that was what he liked best about her. She inspired him to be better himself.
“Well?” Iris nodded back towards Edmund’s hand, reminding him once more of the letter he held. “Do you ever intend to open that?”
He glanced down at it with his heart beating wildly. Edmund knew now that his mother would not let it go. He would never be granted the privacy he so desperately required.
“I suppose so,” he mused quietly. “It is written on rather fine stationery, do you not think? Who could have written it?”
“You will not find out unless you open it.” Iris could feel herself growing impatient. She could not understand how her son had left it unopened for so long. “Let us see now before I drive myself crazy.”
Finally, Edmund could find no more excuses, so he tucked the letter opener into the envelope, and he tore it apart.
“Oh!” His eyes grew wider as he scanned the words. Of all the things he had been expecting – not that he really had any idea what it might be – this was not it. “How very strange.”
“What is it?” Iris could barely contain herself. “Who is it from?”
“A man named Walter Thompson.”
“Walter Thomson?” Iris narrowed her eyes in confusion. “I do not know that name.”
As if simply to frustrate her further, Edmund ran his eyes up and down the page a few times. There had to be something about the information that made him need to continually reread it. It had to be something very exciting ... or utterly terrible.
“He is writing on behalf of William Roberts, which is a name you might recognise?” Edmund peered over the top of the page. Judging by his mother’s confused expression, she still did not know what was happening. “I trained with him once after I finished school. He is the one who taught me all that I know about business.”
“So we have him to thank him for that.” Iris smiled widely. She knew that her son worked with many men during his career in finance, but she did not know the details of any of them. If her husband were still alive, that would have been his job. “That is good to know. What does William Roberts want with you now?”
“William Roberts passed away years ago. We went to his funeral. Do you not remember?”
Iris felt bad, but she did not like to pay too much attention to any funeral these days. Especially as they became increasingly regular with each passing year. Her husband’s funeral was the worst day of her entire life, and she did not like to be reminded of it by the passing of others.
Not that she could explain that to Edmund. He did not have such an emotional view of the world.
“Of course, I am sorry. So please tell me what the letter says.”