See my disclaimer in chapter 1.
Chapter 2: Miss Aubrey arrives in London
The pair arrived in London shortly after dawn and Charlotte turned into a respectable inn to wait for a decent hour to arrive at her grandmother's lodgings in Clarges Street. A messenger was sent back to Avon Park with a well written note thanking their lordships for their hospitality and expressing an earnest desire to see them when they arrived in London. Charlotte arranged herself in a chair in a private parlor with a newspaper and waited. She did not know whether she would be able to keep still.
Since their separation at birth, the twins had never seen each other. Charlotte, raised by a handsome Naval Officer aboard his ships, and Fanny raised by their pretty mother under the aegis of the elder Mrs. Aubrey, whose husband had been a General and well received in the Ton. Charlotte knew of her sister only what she gleaned from her mother's letters to her father and from the few letters that Fanny herself had sent. These were short, asking after her health and describing something that had brought Charlotte to mind. Often she would ask about mutual acquaintances, the son of Lord Such-and-Such had been commissioned as a midshipman, had she met him? A dear Captain Wallingsford has asked after Charlotte's' health. He was quite handsome and what did Charlotte think of him? Charlotte had kept all of the letters in a leather-lined chest aboard the ship and had left them in her godfather's care until her eventual return.
Charlotte, with no more than a passing acquaintance with her sister had now been sent to approve the man Fanny wished to marry. Her father hadn't wished her to stay long, he liked to have his pretty daughter play hostess, but Bonden brought word that the he had been ordered to Brazil, and that it had already left. Charlotte, unsure of how properly to receive this news said nothing. It seemed that she would remain in London for the time being or, if her mother preferred, they might retire to her father's house in Portsmouth. But what a disappointment it would be to be separated from all her friends aboard the ship, and how lonely! Her first acquaintances in England had been kind, however, though Charlotte thought it very unlikely that she would see them again.
"Their lordships were friendly, eh lass?" Bonden said, correctly interpreting her thoughts. Charlotte nodded vaguely but then glanced sharply at him.
"What has that to do with anything?" Charlotte's voice was crisp and she hoped that he wouldn't sense her apprehension.
"Only that ye've got something you can look forward to with a surety now. And you can't say that you're completely friendless in London."
"I've always had friends in London Barrett." Charlotte said her voice firmer. "The Admiralty is in London, and if I've not friends there, I haven't any friends at all." Mr. Bonden frowned. Miss Charlotte's belief that the Navy acted as a large extended family constantly worried him. Miss Charlotte knew well that it wasn't always the case. He lowered his head and continued to darn an old calico jacket. Charlotte fell into abstraction for a moment and then looked at him. "You remember what my mother looks like, don't you?"
"Aye miss." He said, looking up at her through his lashes. She was staring abstractedly at the wallpaper on the opposite wall. "Though it's been a mite since I've seen her meself."
"Would I know her?" she asked after a moment. "If I saw her, would I know?" Bonden scratched his head and watched his mistress.
"I reckon so." He said. "Its blood, ain't it?" Charlotte smiled at the certainty of his voice and glanced back at her paper. "You could sleep a bit Miss Charlotte, you could." He suggested. She said nothing and when he glanced at her he saw that she was dozing. Bonden rose and took the paper from his mistresses' hand and went to the couch, where the landlady had laid a small blanket. He took it at draped it about the girl's sleeping figure.
He'd been serving Miss Aubrey since her birth. He looked at the large beautiful woman and was forcibly reminded of the pretty, blue eyed baby he'd helped deliver more than twenty years earlier. She'd been a child of the sea, that one. Not a wink of sleep could any of them get after she was born. She was ever fussing and crying until Bonden, in desperation, had sought out Dr. Maturin aboard the Admiral's ship for help. Bonden resumed his stitchery after a moment. Her father's daughter, that was for sure, he thought. No sooner had she been put aboard the barge but the lass had quieted and slept. When the doctor had finally looked at her, she had been smiling and giggling. She had enchanted her father from the first (just as she had enslaved Bonden, the grateful recipient of the infant's first pretty smile) and he insisted that if the child wanted to be on the water, she would stay there. The child loved to be on the sea and had convinced even the most hardened sailors to welcome her. Once she was old enough, she would help haul ammunition and powder to the gun crews, and they would cheer her arrival. Bonden smiled as he remembered the small girl, huffing and puffing to carry the heavy shot, the cheers of a gun crew and her delighted grin upon completion of her task. She would run down to the magazine to fetch another, always excited for the next adventure.
She didn't seem to have relished this one overmuch. He'd sensed more than seen her perturbation when her father asked to come to London. Bonden had resigned his naval commission some years earlier, still serving with the Admiral, but traveling with Miss Charlotte when she ventured ashore with Dr. Maturin. And very good that he had, he thought, since Miss Charlotte would need him here with her more than the Admiral would need him aboard. Someone scratched at the door to the parlor and Bonden rose silently to open it. The servant informed him that the Miss had a visitor and handed him a card. Bonden nearly jumped at the sight of it and told the maid to wait a moment while he woke his mistress.
Charlotte, a quick riser, was thus roused and told to make herself look smart. She turned bleary eyes towards Mr. Bonden and then glanced at the card he'd held out to her. She nearly threw herself out of her chair and rushed to the mirror to tidy her hair, which she quickly plaited down her back in the style commonly worn by sailors though not, as she had been told many times by her godfather, by ladies of birth. She had adopted this mode out of convenience; it kept her long golden hair out of her face without having to cut it. She laid the card on the mantelpiece and nodded quickly at Mr. Bonden, who told the maid to show My Lord the Admiral Keith into the parlor.
My Lord George Elphinstone, the first Baron Keith and Admiral of his Majesty's Navy was ushered into the room. He was a tall gentleman with genial, handsome face. This man, who had taken her father under his wing so many years ago, had come to visit. He was smiling at her.
"You must be one of Jack's daughters!" he proclaimed happily. Charlotte, being unpracticed in the curtsey, bowed. "I can see him in you, how are you my dear?" he held out his hand to her.
"Quite well, my lord, I thank you." Charlotte was pleased. Her father always spoke of Lord Keith well, and found herself inclined to like the gentleman.
"Don't bother with that now, I'm your godfather, and you'll call me Keith or nothing at all, lass. No need to ask which one you are, m'dear. This is a lass what's been raised by a sailor!" He said, laughing as he let Charlotte draw him to a sofa. "I've heard many things about you, m'dear. You're the toast of the Navy, lass. Aha! You wonder that I've heard of you at all!"
"Well, I would think that you must correspond with my father? He has spoken to me many times about you."
"A fine seaman, your father. But he writes to me very little about you, my dear. Very remiss he is. He sent no word that you'd be in town." He sounded disappointed, Charlotte laughed.
"You know what an intolerable correspondent my father is!" she said. "He begins his letter with one thing in mind, but will soon abandon it for something more interesting. I thank God that I've never had the need to receive a letter from him." My lord laughed delightedly and his shouts of laughter made Charlotte laugh as well.
"You are the living spit of your father my dear, truly." He glanced at Mr. Bonden. "And this man is a sailor if I ever saw one."
"This is Mr. Bonden, my lord. He's been caring for my since I was a child." Bonden, like most sailors had touched his forelock when the Admiral entered, but he did it again now as the Admiral's keen gaze surveyed him.
"Sir." He said. My lord looked pleased with what he saw.
"Very good. You've got an old hand keeping an eye on you." He turned his eyes back to Charlotte. "Why did you not come to me when you arrived?" he asked suddenly. Charlotte blinked at him.
"I don't know. We arrived only a few hours ago, and were waiting until it was a decent hour to wait upon my mother. May I ask how you discovered us?" she asked. My lord waved his hand dismissively and drew a small snuffbox from his coat.
"Your father asked his agent to send you a draft on his prize-money. Your father's agent and mine are acquainted. And it was from him, my dear and not from either you or your father that I heard of your arrival. I need not add that it was much to my displeasure, my dear girl." Charlotte cast down her eyes but my Lord's tone of voice indicated that his displeasure had faded away. "Come now child, I stood sponsor to you at your christening. I'm fairly sure it was you in any case. Little blond haired child. I remember you cried."
"Did you truly?" Charlotte asked. "I know that Stephen, Dr. Maturin, was one, though he calls himself my godfather, but it never occurred to me to ask who my other sponsor was." My lord crinkled his eyes at her.
"He's a bloody Catholic isn't he? Goodness gracious." My lord looked as though that settled the matter. "I shall escort you to your mother's house. Does she, at least, know of your arrival?"
"My father was supposed to write her and inform her. But I took the liberty of sending her a note from Portsmouth when we arrived. Will you truly take us to Clarges Street? I'm not perfectly sure where it is, you see."
"No, and how could you be? You've never been to the metropolis before, have you?" Charlotte shook her head. "I thought not. You have a sister in London, tough."
"Fanny, sir. I believe she's been here quite some time." Charlotte said. My lord seemed to cast his mind about for her.
"Taking little thing. Looks like her mother." He said after a moment. "I remember now, I was away, of course, in Ireland, but I seem to recall something about her." He paused a moment, reached into his coat again and pulled out an elegant pocket watch. "Well, I'd best get you to your mama." He said. "Have you any luggage?"
"I sent it to Clarges Street when we arrived in England." Charlotte said as his Lordship rose.
"Very wise; demmed inconvenient to travel with baggage. How did you arrive?" Bonden opened the parlor door and Charlotte, arm-in-arm with my lord left through it.
"We rode sir. Our horses are in the stable-"
"Horses?" my lord looked astonished. "No-no, damme, it won't do! Brought my carriage, it'll do for all of us." He shook his head.
"Thank you." Charlotte said. She and Mr. Bonden were conveyed, in the most genial of company, to her grandmother's home on Clarges Street, where my lord helped her out of the carriage and to the door. He glanced at her before she knocked.
"Tell me truly now, child. Do you wish me to leave you?" his voice, before so genial and careless, now showed tints of gravity. Charlotte looked up at the man, surprised.
"Why should I wish that?" she asked impulsively. My lord's lips quivered and he shook his head. He knocked at the door. Charlotte touched the cuff of his coat with her hand. "Honestly, I've never been much in the way of women, sir. I don't know what to do with 'em." A footman opened the door and my lord handed him one of his elegant cards, adding that he was escorting Miss Aubrey home. The footman looked Charlotte over and handed them to the butler, who showed them into the drawing room.
"The ladies will be down shortly to see you." He bowed himself out of the room and immediately went to appraise that housekeeper of the arrival of Miss Charlotte. Charlotte looked around the elegantly appointed apartment and then at my lord, who was looking down at her.
"You know that I am ever in your service to command," He said and then winked at her. "God-daughter." Charlotte smiled at him and thanked him profusely. He patted her hand, which he noticed, was trembling slightly. The pretty brow was furrowed and he looked at Mr. Bonden, who was watching his mistress closely. He changed his pat to a squeeze.
He'd been warned that she'd be nervous. It had been nearly 25 years since he'd heard from the girl's other sponsor, but the note he received had been short, asking for his help when the girl reached London. Dr. Maturin had explained the circumstances and had been quite right when he said that she would need someone to advise her in England. Pleased to finally have been given an opportunity to further the interests of his old friend's daughter, my lord looked forward to shepherding the child into fashion, he almost chuckled at himself when he thought of how society would be overturned by his shy goddaughter.
The door of the parlor opened a bit and a pretty little creature peered in. She was small, petite and possessed of such a face that would enchant most men at a single glance. Delicate features were arranged on a small pale face with such enchanting blue eyes set under thin brows. Black hair curled freely over her shoulders. Her eyes travelled across the room to alight on Charlotte. She smiled and tripped into the room, right up to the taller girl.
"Charlotte!" she cried, catching Charlotte's free hand in hers and pressing it to her cheek. Charlotte looked astonished and flushed. They girl was so pretty and faerie-like! Charlotte couldn't imagine being even remotely related to such a lovely girl. My lord disengaged her hand from his arm and, in the process, nudged her. She seemed to come to her senses as her sister cast her arms about her neck and wept.
"Hell and damnation." was all she could say.