A Wager Of The Heart

3. The head servant and house keeper

:::Charity:::

I sighed discontentedly as I looked once more out of the window of the coach where a storm raged. I'd been kept indoors much of the last two weeks since Geri received her good news. I did not leave my room that night and in the morning the mark from Kesler's abuse appeared to be gone. I looked at Geri and winced, I didn't like lying to my sister but I didn't want to mar her good mood. The Countess and family had left the following morning at Geri's insistence.

The rest of my time was consumed with preparing the house and my family for an extended departure. Bastion had used the last of his available funds to outfit all of us in new, fashionable clothes. My new wardrobe was not as grand as Geri's or my father's but that had been at my insistence, not Bastions. There was no point, I reasoned, Geri was on the hunt for a husband, not me. But Bastion had insisted, nay demanded, I at least get some clothes that weren't in tatters. I had relented and spend more time being measure, poked, moved and generally man handled than I cared to admit.

I'd spent many nights being lecture, in a good natured way, about the correct manners with which to address these great people. Preston, as I continued to call him in my mind, was an old acquaintance of Bastion's and his son was quite a catch so we had to be on our best behavior. In short I'd been cramped, confined, detained and in virtual prison for the last fortnight, so I regarded the downpour with longing. Raining as it was, I'd be soaked through in a matter of minutes but I didn't care. Freedom was freedom, even if it came in the wet form. I sighed again.

"It's only been three days, Chari." Geri laughed.

I smiled but didn't join the conversation. Bastion watched us in a knowing way. His smile was full of understanding. "Your sister is like a caged bird, Cricket, even three days is long enough to feel the cramp in her wing or the call of the Sky Father. Charity'll not quiet until she can take her shoes off and sink her hands into the earth." Bastion looked away, out of the window.

Geri laughed and squeezed her hands into her now voluminous skirt. "Charity will be free here, won't she?"

"In a manner of speaking," he said not facing us. "She'll no longer have run of the house to occupy her mind." His tone was regretful but I fancied it was because he had to make me run the house at all. "And there's the agreement she forced out of us, to keep her secret."

I smiled but stuck firm in my belief. "It is best and you know it too or you would not have agreed, no matter how I pestered you."

"I still do not think it best." Geri pouted. "If they cannot accept you than I don't wish to have them in my life." She said this such gusto that I was certain she was referring to her mother's family.

"When you've made him well and truly love you, then we can reveal everything." I said kindly. "If this is to be your true love than I would be the evil sister that causes your happy ending to slip through your fingers."

"You said that you've known the Earl for over twenty five years, doesn't that mean he would already know?" Geri asked, pleading with our father.

Bastion shifted uncomfortably in his seat and faced us, his face was haunted. "It is possible that he knows, but we lost touch of each other after Violet died and the case between your grandfather and I was kept private as unless Ivan has told him it is unlikely Preston knows the true root of my disgrace." I felt a pang of guilt at the fallen expression on my father's face.

"Besides," I said quickly to cover my own pain, "this isn't about me. It's about you." Geri still looked resolutely determined so I reached across the small space to get her hand. "Nothing else has to change, I promise."

This reassurance alone quieted Geri's protests and silence fell among us. Bastion fell asleep shortly after and Geri jumped across to the other seat to sit next to me. She took a moment to readjust her skirts and then she laid her head in my lap. I absently ran my fingers through her curly hair. "Do you really think he'll love me?"