Chapter Forty-Eight

The Best Laid Plans…

"What did Lucius say? Can he help us again?" Carolyn asked the moment they were safely alone in their bedroom after dinner. "I mean, I don't wish for Harriet to be hurt, but Owen can't be trusted. The way he looked at me out on the island made me shiver."

Her husband crossed the room to put his arms around her as he kissed her temple. "Mitford is a boil that needs to be lanced once and for all. Lucius will find what he has hidden. There will be something he's overlooked in his arrogance and pomposity. He thinks himself well secure now and able to look where he should not."

Carolyn nestled her head into the broad sweep of his shoulder. "I hope so. But, for now, we have other issues we must have time to deal with. You need to take your driving test with Claymore and my parents can't find out."

She pulled back to look up at him with worried eyes. "Now my mother knows we're to have twins, she'll try and insist on staying here. Or worse, she will command Hazel to come and stay."

"Families…" Daniel drew her back into his arms, resting his chin on the top of her head. "As you so rightly said, I am lucky to only have Claymore. Or unlucky, which is more to my way of thinking."

Carolyn closed her fingers tightly on his jacket. "Yes, but what can we do? How can we possibly shift my mother on if she's determined to stay? It would take a miracle. But we couldn't keep our news from her any longer."

"We could make it untenable here for them?" Daniel offered with a rueful smile. "Things that go bump in the night. Ghostly visions or knockings that cannot be explained…"

Carolyn huffed a soft laugh. "No, sadly. If you do things like that my parents will insist on all of us leaving this house immediately. They would enlist the Muirs and there would be no stopping them, no matter what I said. We would be living back with them in Philadelphia until after the babies are born."

"Over my dead body! I've a good mind to appear to them in their bedroom right now and scare them so much they will never wish to set foot in this house again!"

Carolyn put a hand over his lips. "Shhhh… they'll hear you. As much as I love my parents, they do feel the need to smother and mother me."

She shook her head. "But I also cannot hurt them by asking them to leave too soon. Not when they've just got here and are so happy to see us. We can manage a few days. It was different with Harriet. She was just too set up in her own new life to see where she was going wrong. But my poor parents would never understand and we cannot explain."

"So we must endure?" Daniel questioned, shaking his head. "Boarded without hope of salvation."

He bent his head to kiss her slowly. "You drive a hard bargain, my love."

"Surely, if we can reassure her all is well, it will only be for a few days…"

"Yes, but days we may not have. Claymore will be busy dreaming of new ways to stymy our little venture. We need to strike while we still have his full attention. No doubt, soon enough, his devious mind will turn toward the potential profit he could make. Or how he can scupper our plans."

Both were silenced by the thought. Time ticked by on the bedside clock as they tried to see the way forward.

"Captain, Sir?" a disembodied voice suddenly asked. "I… Do I have your permission to come aboard, Sir? May I have a word with you and your pretty lady?"

"What's the problem now?" Daniel grimaced as he released his wife, keeping a secure arm across her back. "Permission granted, Applegate. You may come aboard. But make it sharpish!"

"Oh, yes, Sir! Thank you, Sir!"

With a lot of energetic huffing and puffing, Able Seaman Elroy Applegate slowly materialised before them. As always, he was dressed in his ill-fitting uniform of a nineteenth-century seaman, complete with its crumpled tasselled cap.

From long habit he immediately reached down to pull up the slack, striped sock on his right leg before snapping to quivering attention and saluting shakily. Beside him, Mr Peabody materialised to sit staring at them with his wide green eyes.

"So happy to be aboard again, Sir…" Applegate tried to reassure his captain with a worried smile. "Ready and willing to do or go wherever you say, Sir."

He smiled at Carolyn, touching two fingers to his temple. "My Captain's very pretty lady."

"Good evening, Elroy…" Carolyn couldn't help smiling at his comical re-appearance.

Daniel shook his head. "What do you need? Is there trouble out at the camp?"

"Oh no, Sir! No trouble! All is shipshape as you require it, Sir." Elroy dropped his arm. "I would never let you down, Sir…"

He turned to Carolyn with a tiny smile. "Ma'am, my Captain's pretty lady."

"Then why are you here, man?" Daniel demanded harshly. "What do you want?"

"Just a word, Sir. Mayhap a solution to your most immediate problem…" Elroy laid a forefinger alongside his nose. "If you'll allow me, Sir."

"Elroy…" Daniel fumed. "Have you been eavesdropping?"

Elroy squirmed. "Well, yes and no…"

"What do we have to lose?" Carolyn turned to him, looking up into his face beseechingly. "We will take any help we can get right now."

"That's right! And I can help!" Elroy pulled off his tasselled cap, screwing it between his hands. "We're so bored and lonely out at the camp with our lovely peoples all gone."

His eyes began to glisten with unshed tears. "I said to Mr Peabody does he think we might come in and just hang around here, for a little while?"

The cat mewed its reply. Then it lay down, seeming to fall asleep.

"See, he agreed!" Elroy beamed, wiping his cap across his eyes.

"Very well…" Daniel walked around him, looking his cringing crewman up and down. "What do you have to say for yourself, man?"

Elroy spun around to follow him, turning in a circle as Daniel walked back to Carolyn's side. "I heard them talking, you see…"

Elroy waved a hand at the wall between the bedrooms. "Before you all had your dinner." He nodded quickly, looking very pleased with himself.

"What did my parents say, Elroy?" Carolyn asked quickly before her husband could speak.

Elroy lowered his voice to a near-whisper, looking anxiously at the adjoining wall. "Oh, my Captain's pretty lady, it is as you so rightly said."

"Well… spit it out, man!" Daniel commanded in a harsh whisper. "What did you hear?"

"My Captain's pretty lady's mother does intend to stay." Elroy nodded. "For some weeks. She said so. Until the babies are born." His cheeks reddened. "She said that too."

He beamed with pride over his ability to spy. "And she said she will bring that Hazel woman to stay. To help out and make sure my Captain's pretty lady doesn't need to lift one finger from now on. I don't even like the other one."

"Blast!" Daniel shook his head. "That fact we have already worked out for ourselves…"

"What's to do? What's to do be done?" Elroy shook his head mournfully. "She also said, there'll be no more of that dreadful writing while she's here." His forehead wrinkled. "Don't know what that means, Sir."

"Thank you, Elroy." Daniel shook his head. "Go back to the camp and leave this mess to us. That's an order!"

"Oh, yes, Sir, my Captain, Sir!" Elroy snapped a jerky salute.

Mr Peabody sat up to mew his displeasure.

"All we need is peace…" Daniel muttered.

Carolyn turned to him, pushing her arms around his waist. "It will be all right." She shook her head. "I'll go and see them right now and tell my mother it's not for her to be making any plans for us without asking."

Daniel looked down at her. "You must do what you feel is best, my love. But Emily's hide is as thick as Harriet's. It would be easier to scare them out."

Carolyn shook her head slowly and with regret. "And have them call down every ghost hunter and spook caller in the state to come and cleanse the house after they've carried us all away? That I will never allow."

She went up on tiptoe to kiss him. "But I love you for it…" She kissed him again, cupping his cheek in her upraised palm. "I will go and tell my mother she won't be staying."

Elroy cleared his throat, looking rather crestfallen. "But do you not wish to hear my idea before I go, Sir?"

Daniel turned to him in bafflement. "You have an idea?"

"Why not me?" Elroy looked briefly offended. "I also heard what else my Captain's pretty lady's mother said."

"Go on…" Daniel breathed cautiously, lifting his frustrated gaze toward the ceiling. "Spit it out, man."

Carolyn laid a hand on his forearm. "Go on, Elroy," she encouraged. "What else did my mother say?"

Elroy tugged at his forelock. "When my Captain's pretty lady's father said she should not stay, her mother said she admits it's worrying. But she would consent to leave only if she could find someone to be here for you."

"I am here!" Daniel fumed. "Who else is she expecting? There's also Martha. This is ridiculous!"

"But you're a man…" Carolyn hugged his upper arm between her hands. "My mother doesn't see you as we know you. She would never dream you would wish to be so involved."

"But, you're having my children…" Daniel turned to her in bafflement. "How could I not be involved?"

"Because my mother wouldn't see my confinement and giving birth as having anything to do with a man. Even my husband. All you're required to do is keep out of the way and wait to be told the happy news."

Carolyn shook her head. "That's how it was when I was born and how it was with both Candy and Jonathan. There was no place for my father or Bobby. They were sent out to go golfing or to visit their men's clubs."

"Positively medieval," Daniel marvelled. "How could they not stay?"

He looked around the room. "I was born at home as were all my family before me. A birth was a time for celebrating and gathering. There was lots of candlelight and soft-footed midwives. The expectant father would pace anxiously outside the bedroom door until his baby's first cry told him all was well."

He sighed. "I do still dislike the idea of taking you to a soulless hospital where all is noise and chaos. And leaving you there in the care of people I don't know. Even though I understand it must be so in this time and it's for the best."

"Some things do sound better in the nineteen century…" Carolyn shook her head. "But we must do the right and safe thing."

"I know. But no one has ever been born in this house," Daniel shook his head. "It would be fitting…" He shrugged.

"Yes, it would be…" Carolyn caressed his bearded cheek as she turned back to Elroy, who was watching them anxiously. "Go on, Elroy. What else did my mother say?"

"She didn't like your father saying no, she shouldn't stay." Elroy screwed his cap even tighter. "But she said she'd agree to leave if they could find someone to be trusted. Then they could leave you here and be happy you'll be well taken care of." He looked deeply unhappy.

"Which brings us right back to Hazel…" Carolyn sighed.

"Oh, no…" Elroy brightened. "Your mother phoned that other Harriet woman before they came upstairs this night. Other Harriet woman said, 'I'm far too busy helping Harriet with her new life, right now.'" He beamed with pride as he imitated Harriet's carping tone.

"Wonders will never cease…" Carolyn breathed, shaking her head.

"We finally have something to thank Mitford for," Daniel replied. "Distracting those two is a feat worthy of a medal. It's almost a shame we still have to deal with him."

"But without Hazel, my mother will stay," Carolyn pointed out. "My father won't be able to talk her out of it once her mind's been made up. But if she thinks she's going to stop me from writing..."

"Then we shall have to change her mind," Daniel replied.

"Right, Sir." Elroy knuckled his forehead. "Best way, Sir."

"What is it, Elroy?" Carolyn frowned at him. "Is there more?"

"A nurse…" Elroy beamed. "You need a nurse."

"Yes, but we can't bring a stranger into this house," Carolyn objected. "It wouldn't be possible."

"Not a stranger…" Elroy tapped the side of his nose again. "Not a ghost, either," he continued, beaming happily.

"Well?" Daniel encouraged with a rough sigh. "Who are you talking about now?"

"The only one who knows everything about everything." Elroy nodded happily. "Can be here right away, 'cause I already asked her." His beaming smile widened.

Daniel sighed. "I should just throttle him right now…"

"Let him speak…" Carolyn shook her head. "Who are you talking about, Elroy?"

Elroy looked from one to the other, his smile fading slightly. "Why, Madame Tibaldi, of course. Who else?"

They both stared at him. Daniel frowned as Carolyn opened her mouth to comment and then she too frowned in puzzlement.

"Would it work? Could it work?" she asked finally, in wonderment. "I mean, we would have to make up a story that would satisfy my mother. How do we know Madame Tibaldi?"

"I'm worried about inviting that woman beneath our roof, willingly…" Daniel replied slowly, huffing his chagrin. "I must be losing my mind. But yes, a suitable story good enough to fool your mother needs to be fabricated."

Elroy pressed his case. "Madame was a nurse before she found her right calling in life and joined the world of spirit mediums. She said she'd be very happy to help and she still knows how."

"You asked her without asking my permission first…" Daniel stared at him.

"I helped get rid of that Harriet woman when you asked me to," Elroy replied in an offended tone. "Needed me then, need me now."

"Thank you, Elroy…" Carolyn put out her hand toward him. "I think I can see how it might work…"

Elroy shrugged. "Madame said she could be here in the morning. She would clear her engagements since you have great need of her. You do need her, right?"

"I think we do, Elroy. I think this is the only solution we have that could work."

"I think, sometimes, Elroy I may have underestimated you," Daniel admitted, in a driven tone. "Sometimes…"

"Oh, thank you, my Captain, Sir!" Elroy saluted happily. "Seaman Fourth Class Elroy Applegate has never let you down!"

His brow furrowed. "Well, not intentionally, Sir."

"The fact that I am, once again, beholden to Elroy Applegate…" Daniel turned to his wife, drawing her back into his embrace and kissing her temple. "There are some times when this world of yours doesn't seem to make any sense…"

※※※※※

The next morning, Emily frowned at her daughter across the breakfast table. "You've already made arrangements for some nurse to attend to you? Without consulting me first?"

She shook her head. "I really do think you should make use of someone in the family. Your father and I have agreed I should be the one to stay and look after you. You'll see it's for the best. Lots of bed rest and relaxation. No exertion of any kind."

"And I love you for wanting to stay…" Carolyn covered her hand with her own. "But you have your lives back in Philadelphia. That's where you need to be. You have your church and all your good works to attend to."

She smiled. "And you did say that dear Hazel couldn't come and stay. And Harriet is far too busy with Owen to be here."

"I must say, Carolyn does have a point," Bradford inserted mildly, from behind his morning newspaper.

"But, I'm her mother," Emily argued. "It's my place to stay here."

"I know, but truly I'll be fine, Mother," Carolyn ploughed on. "I have Daniel and Martha."

"But neither of them has had babies before." Emily defended her position.

"I can learn," Daniel inserted grimly. "I'm a quick study. The children are mine, after all."

"Yes, but you're also just a man…" Emily dismissed him with a quelling look.

"Well, I've looked after any number of babies in my time," Martha added, carrying the coffee pot to the table and thumping it down. "I think I know what's to do."

"Perhaps…" Emily turned her head to frown at the children playing happily in the front garden with their dog. "But you're not family…"

"Well, I—" Martha began, her cheeks flushing with discontent.

"Martha…" Carolyn put a restraining hand on the housekeeper's arm, shaking her head. "My mother is right…"

"Then I guess I'll just clear the dishes…" Martha muttered, pushing the used plates and cutlery together. "Seems that's all I'm good for."

Bradford folded aside his newspaper with a long sigh. "You say this Tibaldi woman is a trained nurse, Carolyn. And a midwife."

"Yes…" Carolyn crossed her fingers beneath the cover of the tablecloth. "She was recommended by the town's new doctor. I know she's very competent. You won't have any concerns."

"I shall be the judge of that…" Emily sniffed, watching a car pull up at the front gate. "It seems she's arrived."

"And not a moment too soon…" Daniel shoved his chair back and stood up.

He headed for the front door, opening it to see Madame Tibaldi getting out of her car. He stopped, frowning at the medium.

She was no longer wearing her trademark lavender dress and wide-brimmed hat. Instead, she was now habited in white, looking very businesslike and clinical. The children had climbed up onto the front wall and were chatting to her.

"Candy and Jonathan seem to already know the woman," Emily observed, getting up to watch the scene through the kitchen window. "How odd."

"Oh, she's already been to the house. She came with Dr Ferguson when he first visited me some months ago," Carolyn returned airily, waving one hand. "Didn't I tell you that?"

"No, you didn't. There seems to be quite a lot of things you haven't told me," her mother replied worriedly. "I really do wish you would reconsider, Carolyn. I don't like this."

She watched the older woman open the gate and walk toward the house, trailed by the children and their dog. "I certainly don't like servants being too familiar with the families they serve."

She glanced at Martha and shook her head. "It never pays to get attached."

Carolyn shook her head slowly. "I'm sure we'll be all right with Madame… I mean, Nurse Tibaldi. She will leave when we ask her to."

"If you think so, dear…" Her mother regarded her sceptically. "But you have always been far too soft-hearted." She frowned as Madame Tibaldi swept into the kitchen, looking at each of them with a bright smile.

"It's so nice of you to invite me back again, Mrs Gregg," the former medium commented with a broad wink. "And this is such a darling, little house. It has such atmosphere and stories to tell me. Why, I really feel quite at home, already."

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