A short time later, Archibald Perkins breezed into the room where the Hakeswills sat waiting. Perkins was a tall, barrel-chested man with an officious manner, who had recently celebrated his sixtieth birthday.
"Uncle Archibald, it's wonderful to see you!" Anna greeted him, moving into the open arms of his embrace. "You're looking well."
"As are you," he replied, hugging her in welcome. "India no doubt agreed with you. My only regret is that Horace did not live to return home with you."
"I'm glad to be home," she said fervently. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to give more notice of our arrival, but we left India on such short notice that there wasn't time to send a letter ahead." Easing out of his embrace, she turned to where her husband sat with the children and said, "Uncle, allow me to introduce you to my husband, Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill and our children, Barabbas and Caroline Bridget."
Looking over Anna's shoulder, Perkins took his first long look at Obadiah Hakeswill. He frowned at the sight of the rawboned sergeant, as it was obvious to him that this man came from the very dregs of society. The angry-looking scar that ringed his neck was a dead giveaway; obviously, the man had survived a hanging at some point in his life.
When Percival Farquhar had returned from his unsuccessful mission to escort Anna home from India almost four years previously, the solicitor had told him that she had married a ranker, but had not gone into detail describing him, except to say that Anna was devoted to him. When Farquhar had given him the news, Perkins had assumed Anna's husband was a "gentleman ranker"; that is, a man of the middling sort who had fallen on hard times and had sought anonymity in the army. It had never occurred to him that she would marry a man from the gutters. At some point, he would take Anna aside and get the story from her of how she ended up with this man, as he could never imagine his brother giving permission for such a match.
But for now, he turned to reluctantly acknowledge Obadiah Hakeswill. "Pleased to meet you, Mr Perkins, sir," Hakeswill said in his best toadying sergeant's voice.
"That's Sir Archibald," Perkins corrected haughtily. "I am a baronet, after all." Hakeswill's gaffe only confirmed what he already thought about the man.
Moving in to distract the two men before Obadiah could reply, Anna nudged Barry forward, while she held Bridget up for her uncle to see. "Say hello to your Uncle Archibald, children."
Barry managed a quick "h'lo" before running back over to his father, but Bridget was having none of it. The toddler buried her head on her mother's shoulder and refused to even look at her great-uncle.
"I'm sorry Uncle, but they are exhausted from our travels, after all," Anna apologized. "We'll get better acquainted after they've had time to settle in."
"Yes, of course," he conceded, glad to have an excuse to end this awkward first meeting. "Cameron has arranged to have your belongings loaded on a wagon and sent to your new home right away. Your Aunt Catherine has already hired a cook and a maid and had the larder stocked. Word of your arrival has been sent to the servants and I expect there will be a meal waiting for you upon your arrival."
"Oh, do thank her for me," Anna said sincerely. "I look forward to seeing her."
"She is unfortunately indisposed at the current time, but she will expect you for tea some time in the coming week and will send word telling you what day to come."
"I look forward to seeing her," Anna said. "Do give her my best and tell her I hope she's feeling better."
"I shall certainly do so," Perkins responded.
At that moment, the butler entered the room and spoke quietly with Perkins for a moment.
Turning back to his niece, the older man said, "Cameron informs me that your carriage is ready to take you and your family to the Gatekeeper's Lodge."
"I hope to see you again, soon," Anna said formally as she followed Obadiah out of the room.
"We will have you to dinner some time in the near future," Perkins said vaguely.
A few moments later, as the Hakeswills were rattling down the lane that led to their new home, Anna said, sighing, "I'm sorry, Obadiah, that Uncle was so rude to you."
"Don't you worry none about that, missy," Obadiah said, patting her knee. "Buggers like me are used to such treatment from the posh types, see? And considerin' how those sorts of buggers usually treats us rankers, it wasn't so bad. He didn't throw me out, after all, or try to take you away from me. As long as he treats you and the little 'uns good and doesn't try to take my place as head of the family, there won't be no problem." Leaning forward to kiss her on the cheek, he added, "As long as I have you and the little 'uns, I'll be happy. I don't expects to spend much time with your uncle, 'cos I don't want to know him any more than he wants to know me."
"But you'll like my Aunt Catherine, I just know you will," Anna predicted. "She was so good to me after my mother died and is almost like a second mother to me. Aunt Catherine has never been able to have children of her own, so I'm the daughter she never had."
"She'll probably not think I'm good enough for you, she won't," he said.
"Oh, no, I don't think she will think that," Anna confided in him. "You see, she's Uncle's second wife and she's the daughter of a minister, from a middling family at best. Uncle's first wife died giving birth to their third son, so he was free to marry strictly for love the second time. I was just a little girl when they married, but I know that the family greatly disapproved when he married her, though, not quite so much as they would have had he not already had an heir. Still, the family treated her rather shabbily for years and I don't imagine she's still completely accepted by them."
"She kind of knows what it's like then, she does," Obadiah said. "But being a minister's daughter ain't exactly like where I came from."
"Just give her a chance," Anna said. "That's all I ask. You may be pleasantly surprised."
"All right, missy," he said, chuckling.
A moment later the carriage went around a bend to reveal the Gatekeeper's Lodge, the Hakeswills' new home.
Leaning back to address Obadiah as he brought the carriage to a halt, the carriage driver said, "There it is, mate. Yer new home, it is."
Though a far cry from the mansion they had just left, Obadiah was suitably impressed with the two-storey brick home that stood before them. The arched entryway was a small tower; a turret. Never in all his life would he have ever expected to live in a home this grand. As he helped Anna and the children to alight, he knew this house would be plenty big enough for all of them with room to spare.
"Let's give it a good look around, missy," he said, taking Anna's hand as the carriage drove away. Walking around the structure, they saw it was longer than it was wide, with what appeared to be servants' quarters at the rear of the house near the kitchen. A small stable stood some distance at the rear of the property, with a chicken coop nearby. Obadiah looked inside the stable to find a milk cow, placidly standing inside her stall as she chewed her cud. A second stall stood empty, just waiting for the horse that the army would issue him to assist in the performance of his duties as recruiting sergeant.
"Oh, it will be wonderful to have fresh milk and eggs again," Anna said, enthused, as she stood just outside the stable. Gesturing around the clover-covered lawn bordered by large shade trees, she said, "And the children will have plenty of room to play and won't have to stay inside cooped up all day." Taking Obadiah's arm as they walked back around to enter the house from the front, she concluded, "I think we're going to be very happy here."
As they herded the children inside the arched doorway a moment later, Obadiah noticed that the belongings they'd brought from India, including the cradle, were piled neatly to the left of the entryway. They found themselves in a good-sized room, which contained a large commodious sofa and several comfortable chairs. Filled bookcases lined the walls with a fireplace to the left.
"Oh, my," Anna said as she surveyed the bookcases. "There's enough here to keep me reading for a few years!" Looking more closely, she added, "There are even children's books here! That will make teaching the children how to read so much easier."
"And you'll be a good teacher, too," Obadiah told her. "Even my own reading has got better since we've been together, it has."
"You read perfectly well when we first met," Anna assured him. "You've just had a chance to read more than army related documents since then, is all."
At that moment, a petite young woman appeared through a doorway in the rear of the room. Bobbing briefly in an abbreviated curtsey, she said, "You must be the Hakeswills. I'm yer new maid, Bessie." With a slight gesture behind her, she added, "And Mrs Harris, yer new cook, is in the kitchen making your dinner, which should be ready in about an hour, Mrs Hakeswill."
Smiling at the nervous young woman - barely more than a girl, actually, Anna said, "Thank you, Bessie. You've done a fine job making the house tidy for our arrival. You may continue with what you were doing, as Sergeant Hakeswill and I will spend the time before dinner inspecting the house."
"Yes, Ma'am," the servant acknowledged deferentially. She was startled by the appearance of Obadiah Hakeswill. He looked to be a rough sort and it was obvious to her that the new mistress of the house had married beneath her. She couldn't wait to get back to the kitchen to tell Mrs Harris about their new employers.
Going through another doorway to the left of the entrance, a staircase appeared to their right, with a door to another room on their left, with another door on the right just past the staircase. Obadiah opened the door to the left to find a room furnished with heavy, masculine furniture: another sofa and two chairs, along with a round table, perfect for playing cards. A heavy desk made of a dark wood with a comfortable chair behind it was flanked by two more bookcases.
"This is your office, Obadiah," Anna said, surveying the room carefully. "I do hope there will be a sewing room for me."
"An office, just for me," Obadiah marvelled, pleased with the well-appointed room. "If ol' Sharpie could just see me now!"
"He'd be green with envy, I'm sure," Anna said, squeezing his arm affectionately.
"Mother would have been glad to see me come up in the world," he said in a quieter voice, twitching. "I just wish I could be bringin' her here to live with us, I do."
"I know you do, love," she said, giving him a gentle kiss on the cheek.
"Let's see the rest of the house," he said abruptly, moving out of the office,
Opening the door on the opposite side of the hall, they found a dining room, with the table already set for dinner. Going through the door on the opposite end of the room, they entered a much smaller room, with a small, round table and chairs by a bay window.
"A breakfast nook," Anna explained to Obadiah. "Much less formal than the room we just left, which is meant for when we have guests for dinner."
"Seems kind of daft to have two rooms just for eatin'," he observed, shaking his head in wonderment.
Going through the door to the right, they found the kitchen and their two servants busily working on dinner. A smaller table and two chairs were against one wall, which was where the two women ate their meals.
The cook, Mrs Harris, was a stout, redheaded woman in her fifties. She turned from her work to greet the Hakeswills as they came into the room.
"You must be Mrs Harris," Anna said before the older woman could speak. "Everything smells so good.""Thank you, Mrs Hakeswill," Mrs Harris replied. "I'll have a hearty meal ready for you and the Sergeant in just a little while. And the wee ones, too, of course."
"I look forward to it," Anna said. "Give me a day or two to settle in and I'll go over meal planning with you."
"Yes, Ma'am," the older woman said. "You'll find the pantry fully stocked and I can get anything else you might require."
As the two women chatted, Obadiah looked around the room, opening three doors that led to the pantry, outside, and to two tiny rooms, which were the servants' quarters.
"We'll leave you to it, then," Anna said, as they headed to a fourth door that led back to the front room.
"I wonder how many bedrooms we got?" Obadiah asked as they traipsed up the stairs.
"I'm sure there are enough for us all and then some," Anna predicted. "We won't be crowded at all in this house."
It was so. Both she and Obadiah opened doors along the corridor to find four bedrooms. Anna opened a fifth door to find a room much smaller than the others.
"I have my sewing room!" she said happily.
"Never mind that for now, missy," he said, a lopsided grin on his face. "Let's go look at our bedroom. I has to see if the bed will be sturdy enough."
"All right, Obadiah," she said, laughing. "I know what you're thinking about, but you'll have to wait until we've eaten and I've put the children to bed."
"What a lovely room," Anna said a moment later as she inspected their room. A large comfortable bed dominated the room, which also contained two wardrobes and a nightstand on either side of the bed. A large window overlooked the carriage lane where Anna could see the gate leading out of the estate grounds.
"It'll do," Obadiah said a moment later as he sat down on the bed, bouncing a bit to test its strength. "Comfortable, it is."
Leaving the window, Anna entered the small, circular tower room, which was to the left when one entered the bedroom from the hall. It had three narrow windows and an upholstered circular settee built into the wall. "Oh, what a cozy, little room! This will be a nice quiet place to read and I can probably use it as a dressing room as well."
"I can think of something else we can use it for," Obadiah said, coming up behind her in the little round room, leaning over to nibble at her neck, as his arms went around her.
With an almost girlish giggle, she said as she turned to kiss him, "I don't think I've ever met anyone as single-minded as you are, Obadiah."
"I can't help it," he rumbled. "I just loves you, Anna."
"And I love you, Obadiah," she murmured. Reluctantly breaking away, she said, "I suppose we'd best go down to dinner before we start something we can't properly finish now."
"I am hungry," he conceded. "Let's eat. The bed will still be here when we get back."
"Me, too," she agreed as they left the bedroom to collect the children for dinner. "I'm so glad to be home at last."
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Author's Note: To see photos of the Gatekeeper's Lodge, the Hakeswills' new home, visit my blog which can be accessed through my profile.