Disclaimer for the next couple of chapters: You already know (I should hope!) that I don't own the characters from Eloise... well, SURPRISE! I don't own the characters from the movie Relative Values, either, and don't make any money from this bit of far-fetched Peter/Felicity fiction I've added into my Nanny/Wilkes story!
As soon as the sky began to lighten outside her window, Nanny dragged herself out of the bed. She had lain awake most of the night, reliving the memories of Wilkes' proposal and his wonderful kisses that had so changed her. She had cradled the hand with the ring next to her cheek and had cried a few tears of sheer happiness into her pillow. After choosing to wear the red dress for facing Kay and giving the younger woman the news Nanny feared would not be taken well, Nanny then decided that perhaps it would be best to wear the yellow eyelet lace dress, feeling that the red might be like waving a flag in front of her employer and thinking that if they were able to be married today, the yellow dress might be more fitting.
As she dressed, Nanny thought about her employer. Kay couldn't remember a time when Nanny had not been in her life, and she had always taken the older woman for granted... never more so than when she had borne a daughter and carelessly told Nanny that the child could be named anything Nanny wanted, since she herself had really wanted a son, not a daughter. Nanny had more or less raised Eloise single-handedly, loving her as she would have loved a daughter but unable to discipline her in the slightest without raising Kay's ire. Fortunately Eloise had a good heart, or the child could have been so much, much, much more difficult to deal with... and she already was not an easy child. Eloise possessed a quick mind and a fertile imagination, and because of the way Kay spoke and dealt with her, Eloise acted far older than her six years.
After applying her make up in the bathroom, Nanny emerged to find Wilkes waiting patiently to go in. He greeted her with his usual, "Good morning, Nanny!" then swept her into his arms and kissed her thoroughly. "I missed you so much last night," he murmured.
"Mmm, me too," Nanny breathed, hugging him tightly. "I still can 'ardly believe that you want to marry me, Wilkes!"
"Personally, I find it most difficult to believe that you are willing to marry me!" Wilkes commented.
"This ring is so, so, so beautiful!"
"I'd say the finger it's on is beautiful, not to mention the rest of your body. You look good enough to eat today, Nanny!" and he approvingly ran his eyes over her full figure. "In fact..." teasingly he brought his lips to her throat, nibbling at the freckled skin revealed by the wide v-neckline of the yellow dress with his lips while caressing her with his hands.
Nanny found herself giggling like a teenager, and she struggled out of his reach. "Wilkes! No... it's morning, for Lord's sake!"
"And...?" he asked. "Is that supposed to mean something?"
"People don't... you know, engage in, well, in hanky-panky in the morning, do they?" she asked, scandalized.
"Nanny, I am always ready to... you know, engage in hanky-panky with you any time of the day... or night! I love you!" Wilkes chuckled, his hand touching her cheek gently.
Nanny swallowed hard, yearning to throw herself at him, then she bit her lip. "Willy, per'aps we should eat breakfast and... and get moving, for Lord's sake, or we'll never get to London!"
"Perhaps you are right... as usual," he sighed.
"I'll put the kettle on for your tea, love," Nanny said, and disappeared into the kitchen before she grabbed him and pulled him into her bedroom. 'My sainted Aunt Fanny, what a scandal THAT could cause!' she thought wryly.
After breakfast and cleanup, they packed their suitcases. Nanny re-applied her lipstick, then donned her coat, hat and gloves as befitted a 'proper' woman, she informed Wilkes, although she was not very happy that she had to cover up her gorgeous ring. He, of course, could not resist kissing her lipstick off at that remark after declaring he much preferred her to be most improper. Nanny laughingly batted him away whilst re-applying it, then at last they were ready to leave.
They set off to walk to the car again, thankful that the sun was out once more. The car was right where they had left it, not surprisingly. Wilkes checked the engine and fiddled with a couple of different wires before having Nanny try to turn the motor. Then Nanny hung over the side of the car and peered into the motor as well, pointing out some more wires that looked loose. She took off her white gloves and shoved them in her coat pocket so they wouldn't get dirty. They were both somewhat the worse for wear with grease and dust on their coats when a large estate car drew up behind them. The passenger and driver both got out to see if they could help. The passenger, a man apparently in his late twenties or early thirties, studied Wilkes for a moment, then asked hesitantly, "Cousin Wilkes?"
Wilkes stared at him, then smiled. "Peter! Peter Ingleton! I didn't expect to see you down here!"
"I didn't expect to see you here, either – especially stranded on the side of the road with your poor wife... both of you looking rather shot to pieces!" Before either Nanny or Wilkes could react to that, Peter was bowing to Nanny, taking her left hand and kissing it, grease and all. She snatched it away from his and put behind her back, breathing quickly.
"This is Nanny," Wilkes began. "Nanny, my cousin..."
"My lady," Peter interrupted, smiling, "I'm the wastrel son of Wilkes' cousin Edward. Peter Ingleton, at your service and utterly enchanted to meet you. No one told me Cousin Wilkes had married. Of course, the family more or less disowned me, you know, when I took up with Mama's side of the family and moved to the next county to manage my late uncle's estate until the new Lord Marshwood finished university and his larking about and was ready to settle down. It seems he still hasn't settled."
"You are managing Marshwood now, Peter?" Wilkes raised his eyebrows.
"Alas and alack, yes." Peter grinned engagingly at Nanny who was still hyperventilating and hoping Wilkes wouldn't correct him about their marriage. She was worried about what might be said when it was discovered they had spent two nights at the castle alone. Wilkes' reputation would be ruined! She didn't really have a reputation herself, good or bad, but if she were to marry him and this came out, she would never be able to show her face in England again!
Peter continued speaking to Wilkes. "Nigel married Caroline three years ago, but still doesn't want the ghastly bother of running Marshwood. He was gracious enough, I suppose I should say, to allow me to stay in the gardener's cottage after his marriage, but I only sleep there. I spend my days around the estate and eat my meals with the family. Felicity insists on it and Nigel and Caroline put up with me to keep Felicity in good humour. Not that I mind, of course... I'm a rotten cook. Nigel might have settled down a bit since his marriage, but he hasn't grown up!"
"And you 'ave, I suppose?" Nanny said dryly, very much liking the pleasant young man.
"Dear lady, I feel quite ancient most days," he said, sighing dramatically. Then he looked critically over the car. "Looks like a bit of a ghastly mess, Cousin Wilkes."
"Quite right," Wilkes grumbled. "and just when we're in a bit of a hurry, too! Nanny, would you mind trying to start it one more time?"
Nanny climbed into the car and turned the key, but nothing happened. She got out. "I'm so, so, so sorry, Wilkes, but..."
"Tosh, tosh, tosh, Nanny, it's not your fault at all. It's my nephew who is behind it all, I wager, sending a mechanically unsound car on purpose!"
"Cecil's up to his old tricks, is he?" Peter grimaced. "He and Nigel are a right pair... You'd think they were related by blood! Well, there's nothing for it, you'll both come with me to Marshwood. I'm heading back as soon as I finish in town. Sorry I don't have time to take you where you want to go, but..."
"London?" Wilkes said wryly.
Peter grinned, then said, "We'll arrange to have a mechanic come out to pick up the car and take it to town to check it over... won't we, Frank?" and he turned to his driver.
"Yes, sir. Certainly, sir," the man replied obsequiously.
"After you, my lady," Peter said, indicating the car for Nanny.
"I... I'm just Nanny, Sir Peter," she murmured, suddenly very nervous again, now that she was actually meeting some of Wilkes' relatives for the first time!
He grinned at her. "And I'm just Peter, Nanny. Come along, Cousin Wilkes!"
"Wilkes, please," Wilkes said. "Especially if neither of you is using a title! I don't want to be any different!"
Peter nodded in agreement and, as the car drove further away from London, he continued to talk, explaining to Nanny that Marshwood was 'just down the way a piece', but if neither Nanny nor Wilkes minded overmuch, he would like to stop in town for about an hour to complete some business and to send a mechanic out for the car.
Wilkes looked very happy and said that he and Nanny had things to do in town as well. He then turned to say to Nanny, "The former Earl of Marshwood, besides being Peter's uncle, was my brother Reginald's friend, the one who, well, you know... the armour?"
"Aoww, I see," Nanny said, frowning slightly.
"Yes, my uncle would have been older than you by about ten years, would he not?" Peter asked.
"He was," Wikes said tightly.
"I'm absolutely certain by your tone and expression that you two never got along," grinned Peter. "Not sure anyone got along with him, to be sure. Did you ever meet Felicity?"
"Your aunt?"
"My uncle's widow," Peter corrected him, almost shortly.
That was rawther an odd way to word it, Nanny thought. If this Felicity was married to his uncle, she would be his aunt, would she not?
"Er, no, I never did meet her." Wilkes said.
"A shame, but that will be rectified shortly," Peter said. "She's a ravishing creature, actually. Now, Caroline, on the other hand, my cousin's wife... a different story! Why, do you know, even before she and Nigel were an item, I was forced to ask her if no one had yet told her that drinking a chap's champagne without invitation was tantamount to kissing him without his permission?"
"Shocking," Nanny said solemnly.
"Very," Wilkes agreed, equally solemnly.
"I thought it quite ghastly myself," Peter sighed.
Then all three burst into unrestrained laughter. Then Peter, who had been eying Nanny with a slightly puzzled look, asked, "Would I know you from somewhere, Nanny? You look very familiar, and I'm not quite certain as to why!"
"Only if you 'ave been in New York City at the Plaza 'otel in the last six years!" Nanny murmured, tensing up slightly.
"No, I haven't left England." He studied her for a little longer, then said, "I think it's something to do with the eyes... Well, it'll come to me later!"
Frank stopped in the centre of the small town and he and Peter disappeared in different directions, leaving Nanny and Wilkes to step into the small church, where the vicar Wilkes knew well greeted them heartily.
"I'd like to present my betrothed, Nanny. Nanny, our vicar who has been in this parish almost as long as *I* have been!"
The gentle-looking old man smiled mistily at Nanny. "I'm so very, very glad to meet you, and to know that Wilkes has found someone to love and with whom he might share his life. He's such a dear man..."
"He is, for sure, sure, sure," Nanny said, speaking carefully but with great feeling and love ringing through her voice.
"And when he speaks of you, Nanny, it is with such love in his voice that I just know your marriage will be wonderful. He told me about you when he was last home," the vicar said.
Nanny was astonished. Wilkes had spoken of her to the vicar, here? Why, that meant that he had been thinking of marriage back in March!
"Speaking of which... would there be any possibility at all of, you know, getting married... this morning?" Wilkes asked hesitantly.
"Wilkes! So soon?" Nanny stared at him, but the vicar was nodding.
"Certainly, Wilkes! If you have your passports and will sign the affidavit, I have the special licence here..." the vicar rummaged through a drawer in his desk and pulled a paper out triumphantly.
"Wilkes, 'ow...?" Nanny couldn't believe this was happening so quickly and with so little fuss.
"I can afford to bribe them," Wilkes whispered, and the vicar chuckled, having overheard.
"Pay no attention to his teasing, my dear Nanny. No, it is that Wilkes, here, has been so faithful in this parish, and has friends in high places – namely, the Archbishop of Canterbury. We were all quite hopeful that when he returned to America for you, and asked for your hand in marriage, that you would say yes. I am, as I said, so very delighted that you did agree to marry him. Now, we'll just run over to the vicarage and I'll call in my wife and the church caretaker for witnesses, shall I? Or do you have someone here?"
"Well, there is Peter..." Wilkes began, then he shook his head. "No, no, I think it best if we keep this to ourselves, don't you, Nanny?"
"Aoww, yes, yes, yes..." she agreed.
It seemed no time at all that Nanny and Wilkes had filled out the forms, signed the affidavit, and Nanny had been shown to a room where she could freshen up. Then the vicar put on his own gown, his wife picked a bouquet of flowers for Nanny from her own garden... and Nanny and Wilkes were standing together somewhat nervously in front of the kindly old vicar and being married.
O o O o O o
The car from Marshwood smoothly slid to a stop beside them as Nanny and Wilkes walked hand-in-hand down the street away from the vicarage.
"Care for a lift?" Peter's voice came to them. "I'm absolutely sure you won't be able to walk all the way back even to your car let alone your castle, cousin!"
Wilkes grinned over at the younger man. He didn't mind what anyone said or what happened... this was his wedding day, and he was the happiest man in the world! He felt as if he could walk anywhere or do anything as long as Nanny was at his side as his wife! "Nanny?" He opened the car door for her and solicitously helped her into the car before walking rapidly around to get in the other side.
"Got everything done you were hoping to do, I trust?" Peter asked from his place in the front seat.
"Aoww, yes, yes, yes!" Nanny said softly, taking Wilkes' hand again and looking at him with such love in her gaze that Wilkes thought he would simply burst with his happiness.
Lifting her hand to his lips, Wilkes kissed it, wishing she wasn't wearing gloves as a 'proper' woman must when out in public. Then he realized Peter was staring back at them, somewhat enviously. "Er, sorry, Peter," Wilkes murmured. "The truth is, Nanny and I haven't been married very long, so sitting beside her and being able to kiss her hand is, you know, new to me!"
The envy seemed to deepen in Peter's gaze, then he averted his eyes and cleared his throat. "Yes, well... I feel as if I'm in the way in my own vehicle!"
"Aoww, Peter, no!" Nanny leaned forward and patted his shoulder. "Never in the way, for Lord's sake! Why, you're helping us! We might have been stranded on the side of the road all day if it hadn't been for you!"
"Speaking of which, Frank here arranged to have it towed back here to town, and the mechanic'll call Marshwood to let you know what's up with it, or bring it over when he has it fixed." Peter said.
"Thank you so much," Wilkes said appreciatively.
"You are very welcome," returned Peter. "So tell me, how recently WAS your wedding?"
Nanny and Wilkes exchanged glances and smiles, then Wilkes said, "VERY recently."
"Ah, so you're still on your honeymoon."
"Indeed!" Wilkes agreed, again kissing Nanny's hand he was holding.
It wasn't long before the car was pulling up in front of the beautiful mansion known as Marshwood. Nanny swallowed her trepidation and clenched her fingers around Wilkes' hand before releasing him so he could get out of the car. At least she was wearing a lovely new dress, so she wouldn't shame Wilkes in front of his relations. Peter opened the door for her and held out his hand to assist her. Nanny tried valiantly to suppress her wonder and awe at the beauty.
"You... live here?" she asked in a low voice.
"Well, I LIVE here, but I don't own it," Peter said, his eyes shadowed. "I suppose you could say I'm the estate manager."
Nanny eyed him speculatively, her interest in him superceding her discomfort at being thrust into Wilkes' world so suddenly. "The owner is your, er, your cousin, isn't that right? Or your aunt... your uncle's wife." she amended, just as Peter spoke similar words.
"Felicity is my late uncle's wife. And unfortunately I suppose I must say that my cousin Nigel is the present owner of Marshwood."
Finding it rawther strange that for the second time he would not allow them to even think of Felicity as his 'aunt', Nanny pushed her inward questions aside as she walked nervously to the front doors with Wilkes and Peter.
Opening the door, Peter walked in and a very correct older gentleman materialized instantly. "Lord Marshwood and his wife are entertaining in the salon, and I expect they would not be amused were you to interrupt them." He stared down Peter, then turned his gaze on Wilkes and Nanny.
"Oh, Crestwell, this is my cousin, Wilkes, and his wife, Nanny. SIR Wilkes and LADY Nanny, perhaps I should say. Is Nanny your name or a nickname? No matter!" Peter waved his hand languidly and turned back to the butler. "Doubtless you know of Wilkes' nephew, Lord Sandford? He's an Earl too."
"I do know him, indeed, sir," Crestwell said somewhat pompously, carefully enunciating his words. "The present Earl's father often came here to visit Lord Marshwood's father..."
"Yes, we ALL know that story. Tell me, Crestwell, where is Felicity?"
"The Countess is in the rose garden..."
"Come along, Wilkes... Nanny... the rose garden is through here." Ignoring Crestwell's attempt to steer them in another direction, Peter escorted Nanny and Wilkes down the hall.
Nanny walked almost blindly beside Wilkes, still frozen in shock at having been introduced as Lady Nanny. Oh my Lord, it had never occurred to her that once she married Sir Wilkes, she would be a lady for sure, sure, sure! She had thought Peter had just been teasing before, but now... yes, she WAS a lady! Panic threatened to overtake her.
Then a door opened just as they reached it, and an irritated-looking man about Peter's age came out, carefully closing the door behind himself. "Peter, for God's sake, where have you been? We expected you home two hours ago!"
"I've been rounding up some visitors for your mother, Nigel... rescued your father's friend's brother, Sir Wilkes, on the road," Peter said.
"My brother was Lord Sandford, Lord Marshwood," Wilkes said very correctly, recognizing Nigel immediately. Then, thrilling to the opportunity to say the words that almost made him burst with pride, he added, "This is my wife, Lady Anne. We call her Nanny."
Nanny still was not accustomed to thinking of herself as a lady OR as Anne, not to mention as the wife of Sir Wilkes. And this young man was an earl, for Lord's sake! "'ow d'you do?" she said, quaking at the supercilious look on Nigel's face. Nigel looked down his nose at her, and Nanny felt about as high as a beetle. Why had she had to drop her 'h' in this moment of stress?
"Nanny? Really? Hmmm... well, charmed, I'm sure," Nigel drawled. He turned back to Peter. "Mother's in the garden, but..."
"We're just heading out there. You and Caroline have fun with your company... Felicity and I will have fun with ours..." and Peter escaped, pulling Nanny's hand so that she had to follow him quickly. Wilkes followed closely behind.
Hurrying through the kitchen and out the back door, Peter looked around a while before heading off to the right. Nanny and Wilkes followed not far behind, hand in hand again, Nanny's face glowing as she looked around at the lovely gardens.
Then they heard a woman's voice, "Ohhhhh... BOTHER!"
Peter peered around a flowering shrub and said, "Dear girl, you look shot to pieces! Everything all right?"
"No, everything is not all right!" the irritated voice came again. "Everything is quite, quite ghastly, if you must know!"
"Oh dear..." Peter sounded properly sympathetic, but he glanced back at Wilkes and winked. "Precisely how ghastly?"
Now the woman's voice became petulant. "This morning has been rather a strain. If I hear one more carping comment about you living here... I think I'll scream!"
"Well, that IS ghastly!" Peter agreed, but his voice sounded cheerful. "However, it is hardly a screaming matter. I'm living here, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Except you, of course, darling. Now, dear girl, we have company."
"Company? WE do? As in, you and I, or as in..."
"Definitely as in 'you and I', darling," Peter drawled.
The woman came around the bush then, brushing something from her red skirt and dusting her hands. She looked startled when she saw Nanny and Wilkes. "Oh, I must apologize! I rather thought Peter was teasing me!"
"Felicity, dear girl, might I introduce you to my cousin, Sir Wilkes of Sandford, and his wife, Lady Anne?"
"Sandford?" Felicity said, staring at Wilkes. "Oh! You must be Reginald's younger brother!"
Wilkes bowed and opened his mouth to reply, but Felicity was already smiling at Nanny. "Forgive me, Lady Anne... I've never met your husband, but if you married him and you both still look so happy, he must be nothing like Reginald was!"
Taken aback by the fact that Felicity thought she and Wilkes looked 'happy', Nanny could say nothing.
Chuckling, Wilkes said dryly, "No, I am not at all like my brother, Countess."
"Please, call me Felicity. And might I call you Anne and Wilkes?"
"Please call me Nanny. I'm rawther more used to it," Nanny said, this time enunciating very carefully.
"Was Crestwell impeccably correct and formal with you when he let you in?" Felicity asked, her vivid blue eyes dancing. Nanny felt rawther... strange, looking at the lovely woman, and wasn't sure why. Could it be because she was a countess? Something was niggling her, and she found it hard to look away. What in the world...?
Peter rolled his eyes. "He tried to be, dear girl, but we managed to defeat him." He turned to Nanny and Wilkes and confided, "Crestwell's just putting on an accent, to sound very upper-class, but really he sounds just like a regular man... like the rest of the common people from this area!"
"Per'aps he really sounds common like me?" Nanny whispered to Wilkes.
Felicity's thoughts had already veered off on a tangent. She was staring at Nanny almost fixedly, then finally she looked at Peter. "Peter, dear, I wonder... It's almost undeniable, I must say! Do you see it? The resemblance?"
"See it?" Peter looked at Nanny, then at Felicity, back at Nanny and his face lit up. "NANNY! You remind me of FELICITY! Look, Wilkes... they have the same eyes!"
Nanny couldn't help but stare at Peter as if he had grown two heads. The same eyes as a countess, for Lord's sake? Especially a countess younger and so much more elegant than she could ever dream of being? How could she, Nanny, remind anyone of someone like Countess Felicity?
Wilkes, however, looked first at Felicity then back at his wife, and finally at Peter. "By George, they do! The eyes and... and more...""
"Now, dear girl, you don't mean to say you think Nanny is...?" Peter began, speaking to Felicity.
Felicity interrupted him. "But we've been looking for her for longer than I've been alive! You've heard the story, haven't you, Peter? I can hardly believe it! Nanny, forgive me for being so impertinent, but I must know... when were you born?"
"Er, in 1888..." Nanny stammered, bewildered by the questions and the half sentences. "S-September 30, 1888."
Looking at Peter, Felicity said intensely, "It STILL could be! That's only a day out!" Peter shrugged, seeming to wash his hands of Felicity's intentions. The Countess continued, "Nanny, please, humour me. Where were you born? Who were your parents?"
Now Nanny looked very uncomfortable again, and Wilkes reached for her hand to give her comfort. Nanny chewed her lip indecisively, not wanting to shame Wilkes further by revealing her inferior origins. At last, looking down, she admitted quietly, "I don't know any of that for sure. I was found as a baby on the steps of a foundling 'ome in London, mid-October 1888. The authorities thought I was about two weeks old so they gave me a birthdate of September 30 and the official name Anne although I was called Nanny. They never found any relatives... although I doubt they looked very 'ard. I was a good worker with the younger children even by the time I was three." She looked up bleakly at Wilkes and added softly, "I'm sorry, love. I shouldn't 'ave married you, you not knowing I am even more of a nobody than just Eloise's nanny..."
"Nanny," Wilkes said softly, putting his arm around her and speaking only to her, "You were never 'just' Eloise's nanny, and you're not Eloise's nanny. Not any more. You're MY Nanny... and I love you... whoever you were when you were born!" Then he turned back to Felicity. "Do please tell us why you are asking these questions, Felicity."
Then Felicity began to relate an astonishing story, one that had been all but forgotten since her parents' deaths. It appeared that eleven years before she had been born, she had had an older sister, born the first of October in 1888, who had been kidnapped from her cradle just two days after her birth... before she had even been named.
"KIDNAPPED?" Wilkes and Peter questioned together.
"Kidnapped?" Nanny echoed faintly.
Felicity explained that there had been a rash of kidnappings from 1887 to 1889 and no babies or bodies had ever been found in the surrounding towns. It had been assumed that the babies had either been given to other families in other counties or had been 'discarded' in London, which is what she suspected might have happened to Nanny. Then she said, "I can't believe there is anyone alive who can prove or disprove my theory. After all, it has been almost seventy years! Therefore, based on our resemblance, on when Nanny thinks she is born and on what I know of my sister's story, I'm just going to assume, Nanny, that you are my long-lost sister! You don't mind, do you?"
Nanny was quite overwhelmed and couldn't think of what to say. Staring at Felicity, a woman who seemed to epitomize the height of elegance for Nanny, it seemed inconceivable that the Countess wanted to assume that she was related! And then to be asked if she, Nanny, minded? Nanny opened and closed her mouth wordlessly a couple of times, then looked at Wilkes helplessly.
Felicity rushed into speech again, saying that she had no other siblings and she had always wanted a sister! She held her face close to Nanny's and demanded of Wilkes and Peter, "You two men DO see the likeness, do you not?" and both men agreed.
Overcome as she already was, Wilkes almost pushed Nanny over the edge of reason by mentioning in an undertone to her that, since Felicity's father had been an Earl, Lord Edwards, "you are now at the same social level as I am... the child of an Earl... so you can no longer say you're from a lower 'station' in life... You and I are of equal standing!"
"Aoww, my sainted Aunt Fanny!" was Nanny's feeble response. She might be the daughter of an Earl? No, no, no! But... what if she was, for Lord's sake?
O o O o O o to be continued