When The Rain Falls

Chapter Thirteen

"Did you actually put a brush through your hair before we left, Nathaniel?" Mother asked, leaning forward in her seat to flatten my hair.

"Yes," I said, brushing her hand away, "I even tried pomade, but it didn't make a difference."

Beside me, Alice snorted, but managed to disguise it as a cough before anyone else noticed. She was the only one who knew that I had woken up from a nap fifteen minutes before we were due to leave for supper with the Marlow family. I had not tried to pomade my hair and had only just managed to get a brush through it before George had summoned me to the carriage. Had Alice not woken me up, I would have been in far more trouble.

I had not intended to squander most of my day by sleeping and my plan had been to stop by Rebecca's room as it had been a day or so since I had last seen her. However, I did not want to approach her again without having a plan in mind about how to deal with the situation. Father had given me just two weeks to find out all I could about her, and I did not intend to waste them. I had to work out the best way to talk to her if I wanted her to reveal any pieces of information and so I spent most of the morning trying to create the plan.

No matter how hard I tried, I could not think of the best way to approach Rebecca in order to obtain the information I needed. There were so many ways in which it could go wrong, and I didn't want her to clam up and not talk to me at all. In the end, I thought sleeping for an hour might help me come up with a solution. That hour ended up being four and, before I knew it, Alice was threatening to pour water over me.

"Let us hope Mrs Marlow doesn't notice. You look as though you could have a small nest of birds in your hair and that is not the impression we wish to be making," Mother said. She readjusted her skirts as the carriage continued to bump along the road.

"At least it would be an accurate one," I muttered.

Father looked at me from across the carriage. "Remember what I said, Nate, and this goes for you too, Alice, no mention of Miss Edwards whilst we are here."

"Yes, Father," Alice said.

"Surely one of us could have stayed behind with her. It doesn't seem right that she's been left with the servants, especially as she hardly knows any of them."

"Miss Edwards will be fine. Only the female servants will see to her, as they have been since her arrival, and George is in charge of the household until our return. If anything happens, I am sure he will find a way to reach us." The bumping of the carriage stopped as the carriage came to a standstill. "I expect you to be on your best behaviour whilst we are here. Both of you."

"Yes, Father."

"Yes, sir."

Father nodded at the two of us as the carriage door swung open. He wasted no time in exiting the carriage, with Mother and Alice following. I scrambled out of the carriage last, jumping onto the gravel that covered the driveway and led up to the house. The Marlow residence sat at the end of the driveway. It was a large, imposing stone building that in the early evening light cast a dark shadow across the entire area. There was something intimidating about the building.

All I could think of as I followed Mother and Father up to the door was Rebecca and how she must have been feeling on her own. I had promised her I would look after her and I could not do that from the Marlow residence. If I had just told Father I had a head cold and felt a little under the weather, then I would have been able to stay behind. Even though the idea had played on my mind in my fifteen-minute scramble to get ready, I knew how disappointed Father would be in me if I didn't attend the supper. With our relationship showing signs of repair, I didn't want to damage it by lying to him. Rebecca would be fine for one night, or at least I hoped she would be.