Chapters (57)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Chapter One
- Chapter Two
- Chapter Three
- Chapter Four
- Chapter Five
- Chapter Six
- Chapter Seven
- Chapter Eight
- Chapter Nine
- Chapter Ten
- Chapter Eleven
- Chapter Twelve
- Chapter Thirteen
- Chapter Fourteen
- Chapter Fifteen
- Chapter Sixteen
- Chapter Seventeen
- Chapter Eighteen
- Chapter Nineteen
- Chapter Twenty
- Chapter Twenty-One
- Chapter Twenty-Two
- Chapter Twenty-Three
- Chapter Twenty-Four
- Chapter Twenty-Five
- Chapter Twenty-Six
- Chapter Twenty-Seven
- Chapter Twenty-Eight
- Chapter Twenty-Nine
- Chapter Thirty
- Chapter Thirty-One
- Chapter Thirty-Two
- Chapter Thirty-Three
- Chapter Thirty-Four
- Chapter Thirty-Five
- Chapter Thirty-Six
- Chapter Thirty-Seven
- Chapter Thirty-Eight
- Chapter Thirty-Nine
- Chapter Forty
- Chapter Forty-One
- Chapter Forty-Two
- Chapter Forty-Three
- Chapter Forty-Four
- Acknowledgements
- About the Authors
- Also by Rosie Goodwin
- Welcome to the world of Rosie Goodwin!
- Letter from Author
- Meat and Potato Pie
- The Precious Stones series
- The Days of the Week Collection
- Mothering Sunday
- Victorian Tales from Memory Lane
- Memory Lane Club
Nancy shook her head. ‘No sir, she ain’t, but then neither am I an’ I’m copin’ well enough, ain’t I? An’ as you know she didn’t do a bad job wi’ the Temples’ two boys in London. If you’ll forgive me sayin’, I reckon it’d be nice for the babies to have someone younger to care for ’em. The older, trained nannies seem to be a lot stricter.’ Realising that she might be overstepping the mark, she became silent but at least she had planted the seed. Now all she could do was wait and see if it grew.
*
Much to Barnaby’s relief, Louisa’s parents left two days later and as the carriage pulled away the whole house and the staff inside seemed to give a sigh of relief. Once he had waved them off, he went straight to Louisa’s room and at sight of him his wife started to sob pitifully.
‘What do you want? You’ve scarcely been to see me while Mamma and Papa were here.’ She snuggled Tumble to her and pouted.
Barnaby could have said it was because whichever of them had been in the room with her had always made him feel so unwelcome, but he didn’t want to be unkind so instead he said simply, ‘I’m here now and wondered if there was anything you’d like?’
‘Oh yes there is,’ she said. ‘I’d like to rewind time so that those brats upstairs had never been born. I might not be dying if I hadn’t had them!’
Admittedly she had never shown any interest in the babies but it was the first time she had openly said how much she disliked them and as Barnaby stared down at her, he hardly recognised her. The woman he had fallen in love with had been beautiful, flirtatious and sweet. Now she was bitter and frail, as if she was fading away before his very eyes, and there wasn’t a thing he could do about it. But was he really to blame? he asked himself. He really had loved her when he married her and had been excited for the future and the thought of the children they would have together. But from the start it had become clear that she had never loved him in the way he had her. Had she returned his love, he would never have sought solace with other women.