After dinner that evening, Patricia decided to retire for the night, leaving Stephen with the perfect chance to talk to Lewis alone. As he poured port wine into their glasses in his den, he glanced over at his friend who was shuffling the deck of cards.
“Do you mind if I ask you a question?” Stephen asked him.
Lewis let out an exasperated sigh. “This isn’t about children again, is it?”
Amused, Stephen chuckled. “No. I’m not going to keep trying to convince you that children are wonderful to have around. I wanted to ask you about Patricia.”
“By now, I think you know more about her than I do.”
Stephen brought their glasses over to the small table between him and Lewis. He sat across from his friend, and as his friend started dealing out their cards, he said, “I wanted to ask you about Patricia’s past. When you brought her here, you said something about a person who was trying to kill her.”
Lewis’ eyebrows rose in surprise. “You’re just now wondering about that?”
“At the time, I didn’t know her. She could have been deceiving you. Since then, I’ve come to realize she’s not like Eloise. She’s the type of person who tells the truth.”
“I told you she was trustworthy. Couldn’t you have taken my word for it?”
“Sure, I could have. Just like you could believe me when I say children are wonderful.”
“I never said children weren’t wonderful. I just don’t know what to do around them.”
Stephen picked up his cards. “All right, we’ll let the matter go. I want to talk about Patricia anyway. Who was trying to kill Patricia?”
“I told you it was someone named Symon. She was running from him when I met her. I never saw him. She was so scared, I did the only thing I could think of at the moment, and that was letting her into my carriage.” He shrugged. “I can’t really tell you more than that.”
“She didn’t explain why Symon was trying to kill her?”
“Well…she did, but the story can’t be true.”
“What is the story?”
Lewis sorted through his cards for a moment then took a sip of his wine. “Her mother did something to upset a gypsy, and the gypsy put her and her mother under a curse.”
“There’s no such thing as a gypsy’s curse.” He’d heard of tales of gypsy curses, but those were all make believe. None of them had any basis in reality.
“That’s what I told her, but she was adamant that this dark curse had been following her during her entire life while she lived in London. She said it killed everyone she cared about.”
“If the curse is an ‘it’, then where does Symon figure into all of this?”
“She thinks Symon is a young man who does the gypsy’s bidding. Honestly, I think it’s all in her head.”
“All in her head? Do you think she made Symon up because she was convinced this curse was real?”
“I don’t know what to think. All I know is that I never saw anyone coming after her, but she was terrified. If this was all in her imagination, she was convinced it was real. I haven’t been able to talk her out of the nonsense. Maybe you can.”
“How long was she seeing Symon?”
“She claimed he was with the gypsy when the gypsy cursed her mother. I think she said she was nine or ten at the time. I can’t remember the exact age, but she was young.”
Maybe that explained it. If there was a gypsy who spouted off some curse, a child might believe the curse had power behind it. If Patricia had been an adult, she would have been able to reason through the situation. She would have known the gypsy had only been trying to scare her. She would have blown the whole thing off. Children had many wonderful qualities, but they were also very trusting. Too trusting. A nine or ten-year-old girl could very easily fall for the notion of a gypsy’s curse.
“Sometimes I wonder if being with my brother only made things worse,” Lewis said after he drank more wine. “My brother was so odd. Ever since he almost died from an infection when he was thirteen, he hadn’t left his bedchamber. I blame part of that on my father. He was so scared my brother was going to die that he told my brother staying indoors was a good idea.”
Lewis cleared his throat and continued, “I don’t know how Patricia got with child. I’m surprised my brother let her anywhere near him. He wouldn’t even let the butler give him his meals. The butler had to leave everything outside his bedchamber door.”
Stephen was sure Patricia wouldn’t want Lewis to know how she’d managed to conceive Susanna, so he kept his mouth shut on the matter.
“Anyway,” Lewis began, “I’m sure it got lonely out there for Patricia while she was married to my brother. The butler and maid were never very friendly. They did a fine job of caring for the estate, but even I got creeped out from time to time out there. I only took her there because I thought she’d feel safe in such a remote place. And it worked. She did feel safe. But I couldn’t let her stay out there at the estate after Ichabod died. It didn’t seem right.”
“She was lonely out there,” Stephen said. “It’s a good thing you brought her here.”
“I thought it’d be good for both of you to be together. You never go to London, and there’s only so often I can make the trip to this place since you have me running from one investment to another.”
Catching the smile on Lewis’ face, Stephen replied, “Running around London to take care of our investments keeps you out of trouble. I don’t want to see you go back to gambling and getting drunk.”
“When I look back on it, I realize it wasn’t all that fun. I mean, it seemed to be at the time, but I don’t miss it. I get more enjoyment riding my horses, fox hunting, or playing honest games.” He held up the cards in his hand. “Like this one.”
“You don’t have to play for money to have a good time.”
“No. Thankfully, you don’t.”
From there, the friends fell into a comfortable silence.
***
Stephen didn’t know whether or not he should ask Patricia about the gypsy curse. She hadn’t mentioned anything about it to him, and it was obvious she was happy with Susanna. It almost seemed like he’d be doing her a disservice by asking her about the past. He, after all, didn’t want to go into his past. He’d like to forget his past had ever happened. Maybe Patricia felt the same way.
She had mentioned how she didn’t want to be lonely anymore. He figured she wasn’t lonely with Susanna, but she also wanted to include him in her life. Even if Susanna was taking a nap, Patricia spent time with him.
A month passed, and during that time, they fell into a comfortable routine. They spent the significant amount of time inside. Not only was it getting colder, but it was best for her if she didn’t push herself too hard when they went for walks. He taught her to play his favorite card games—Whist, Cribbage, and Speculation.
Though he wasn’t a big enthusiast for chess, he taught her how to play it because she asked about it when she saw the chessboard in his den that was collecting dust. It turned out she enjoyed chess, so he obliged her by playing it whenever she wanted.
On one such afternoon when it was too cold to go for a walk, she asked to play chess. He didn’t mind playing the game since it allowed him an excuse to take turns holding Susanna. With cards, it was more difficult to hold the child, and while he couldn’t recall any gentleman ever admitting it, he enjoyed each and every moment he got to spend with children. Susanna was a happy baby. She rarely ever fussed. She mostly babbled and watched everything going on around her. She had quickly become an important part of his world.
The same was true with Patricia as well. In fact, one might say that, besides Lewis, Patricia was quickly becoming one of his favorite people to spend time with. Except she was more fun to look at. Stephen liked how dark her hair was, and he especially liked it when she wore it so that it fell in soft waves over her shoulders. She probably did that because, despite the fireplaces and her heavy gowns, it was still a bit chilly in the rooms.
“It’ll be nice when the weather gets warmer,” Patricia said at one point during the game. “I’m looking forward to taking longer walks. I miss going through the maze.”
“You do?” Holding Susanna securely in his arm, he leaned forward and moved his knight.
“It’s a nice walk, and the fountain in the center is pretty.”
“Yes. I think any lady would like the fountain. I once tried to talk Loretta into going through it, but she said she had no interest in mazes.” Susanna let out a sound as if she couldn’t believe Loretta would miss the opportunity to go through the maze, so he told the girl, “I know. I don’t understand my sister, either.”
Patricia chuckled. “Did you tell Loretta there’s a beautiful fountain in the middle?”
“That would ruin the surprise.”
“But it’d give her a reason to go.”
“Maybe, but I like the element of surprise. It was fun watching your face when you saw it. You were enchanted with it. Loretta would be, too.”
“When the weather’s nice and she’s here, I’ll mention going through the maze. I’ll tell her it’s worth the walk. Rosamond would like the fountain.”
“I’m sure she would.” After a moment, he continued, “If you’re getting restless by spending all this time inside, we could take the carriage around the grounds. I’d recommend riding horses, but I don’t think you’re quite ready for that yet.”
“No, I’m not. I’m almost back to normal, but I still need to take things easy.”
That was to be expected. He was sure recovering from childbirth wasn’t easy on any lady. “Even with all you’ve gone through after giving birth to Susanna, would you say it’s worth it?”
She moved a pawn. “Yes. If you had asked me while I was having her, I probably would have said no. At the time, all I could think about getting the pain to stop. As soon as I saw her, I didn’t even think about the pain. I was just happy she was all right. I’d definitely go through it all over again to have her.” She paused and smiled at Susanna. “My marriage to Ichabod wasn’t anything memorable, but because of him, she’s here, and that made the two years I was with him worth going through. My mother used to tell me there isn’t anything a mother wouldn’t do for her child. I didn’t understand what she meant until Susanna was born.”
“There’s something about having a child that brings out the best in a person, isn’t there?”
“There is. Maybe it’s because you know you’re responsible for another person. I can’t blame Lewis for being afraid of having children. It’s a lot to dedicate yourself to.”
“The things that matter most in life are those you have to dedicate yourself to,” Stephen said. “Having something you’re willing to give everything for gives a person meaning.”
And that’s what he felt with Patricia and Susanna. He now had a purpose. He wasn’t drifting from one day into another anymore, just wandering through life until he could finally die and have his miserable existence come to an end. Now his life had meaning. It was no longer about him and what he wanted. It was about doing everything to make Patricia and Susanna safe and happy.
Unable to make eye contact with Patricia, he moved one of his pawns then said, “You and Susanna do that for me. You two are the best things that have happened to me.”
“I can tell Susanna’s happy here, and I am, too. I’m glad Lewis brought me here.”
His gaze went back to hers. “You are?”
She nodded. “I’m happy with you.”
Despite the pleasant heat that rose up to his face, he smiled at her.
She returned his smile then moved her chess piece across the board.