An Innocent Affair

XXV

"I will send out an army to find you
In the middle of the darkest night
It's true, I will rescue you." Lauren Daigle, Rescue

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XXV.

"In my defence, I did not actually think that she would put pins on the boy's chair."

Grace had arrived at the same time that Jem's post had done, but his sister's angry mood had seemed a little more pressing than the small stack of letters that now sat idly on his small dining table.

Grace folded her arms across her chest and looked at him in the way that only mothers could. She possessed that same disappointed, 'you ought to have known better' glare that Mrs Denham had mastered in Jem's youth. Considering Jem stood more than a foot taller than his eldest sister, Grace knew how to hold herself to make him feel every one of the eleven years between them.

Despite this, however, Jem could not help but find amusement in the situation. And it felt oddly nice to find amusement.

"Perrie is an impressionable child!" Grace protested. "The only reason she did not get the cane is because of who her father is!"

Jem could only imagine how filthy that nemesis boy of Perrie's would be after that! Perrie put pins on his chair and then escaped punishment because she was the child of a duke. She was a marked young lady, for certain. Jem wondered what his revenge would be.

"Grace, if it makes you feel any better, Perrie asked me for helpful hints on how to drown the boy. I would wager you would much prefer this than your nine-year-old being carted off to the gallows for murder, don't you?"

It clearly did not make Grace feel any better. Her blue eyes narrowed. "I'm furious, Jem," she snapped. "I've got her sweeping the kitchens for Mrs Hayes, but she enjoys every bit of the attention she gets from the servants who think her boisterousness is darling. Why did you not tell me any of this? Why did she not?"

"I imagine Perrie did not disclose it as she knew you would have stopped her. I did not say anything because I had meant it as a joke. How was I to know she would actually go through with it? Perrie is just a little bit mad." Quietly though, Jem was proud of his niece. He hoped the boy who called Perrie the 'Little Imp' had a sore rear as well as a bruised ego.

Grace sighed with exasperation, before she murmured, "She reminds me of you, you know."

"Of me?"

"Of how you were when you were a child. Of how you were ... up until a few years ago, really."

"Before I grew up."

"Before you grew up." The anger in Grace's voice seemed to shift as she realised that she was treading on terrain that had not been disturbed in a very long while. They both knew that it was not time that had resulted in Jem's change, in his sudden maturity.

"Then that should give you hope for Perrie."

It was not change, but heartbreak. And Jem could see in his sister's eyes that she did not want that for her daughter.

"Are you alright living out here by yourself, Jem?" Grace's question was entirely loaded with nuances, and she was treading as carefully as she could. She was the first of their family members to do so in a long time.

Jem took a breath and almost retorted, "I'm not alone. I have Mrs Edwards," referencing the housekeeper and cook that kept him alive. He had not meant to sound so defensive.

Grace laughed awkwardly. "Of course. But I do wonder ... might you ever feel the inclination to have a female presence who is not your housekeeper?"