A mere five hours later Amy sat in her drawing room, awaiting William’s arrival once again. He was escorting her to the book club gathering this evening. He had sent around a note to alert her that his mother had decided she wanted to go with them to the meeting.
Amy had laughed out loud when she read it. She could almost hear him saying the curt words, and the sound was not a pleasant one.
She started when the front door opened but was surprised to see Aunt Margaret sail through the drawing room doorway, removing her gloves. “Amy, dear! I am so glad to be home.”
“Aunt Margaret. I thought you were to be gone another three days.” Amy hurried to her aunt’s side and kissed her cheek.
“Yes. I was supposed to be gone longer, but the visit became, shall we say, troublesome?”
“Pray tell,” Amy said, taking her seat on the sofa again. Aunt Margaret sat down next to her.
“Devon and Mary Woods are a wonderful couple. How such wonderful, kind, thoughtful, caring, and loving people could produce such horrid children is beyond me.”
“Oh dear.” Amy smiled.
“Oh dear is correct. The little monsters put a snake—nonpoisonous, thank goodness—in my luggage. When I went to reach for my underthings, the creature snapped at me! I thought I would have a heart attack.”
“Did you tell Mary?”
“Not the first time.”
Amy’s brows rose in surprise. “There were others?”
“With the snake? Of course. Then the urchins spread rice on the wooden floor in the bedchamber I was assigned, and in the dark I didn’t see it until I slid and fell—quite hard, actually—on my bum.”
“Did you tell Mary about that?”
“No. Then the little darlings switched the sugar with salt. I didn’t have to tell Mary about that, because she also put salt into her tea.”
Amy smiled, not able to help imagining Aunt Margaret, who was not overly fond of little ones, in such a predicament. “That is why you left?”
“Oh no. That was just the beginning. I can’t even remember all the tricks they played on me.”
“You were only there for a couple of days! How many children does Mary have?”
She waved her hand. “Too many.” She sighed. “The last time I counted, I think there were four of them. Although there is a possibility that a couple of them were hiding.”
“So you took your leave?”
“Yes.” She grinned. “But not before I played my own trick on the devils.”
“Oh, good lord, Aunt, what did you do? I don’t like the look in your eyes.”
“Well, let’s see. Each morning they must be fully dressed before they go to the nursery for their breakfast. I helped with that by removing the tie strings from all their shoes. Then I might have put some lard on their doorknob to make it a bit difficult to open the bedroom door. And when the little dears pour honey on their porridge, they will soon learn that the honey jar might be part honey and part castor oil.”
“Aunt Margaret, you didn’t!”
She sighed. “Not the last one, although I had planned to do that. I really didn’t want to hurt them; just a bit of payback. They really are lovely children, but there are far too many of them, and I’d had enough to cut my visit short.”
Aunt Margaret leaned back and seemed to notice for the first time that Amy was dressed to go out. “Oh, it’s Thursday, isn’t it? Book club meeting night.”
“Yes. I am waiting for William to arrive.” Amy grinned. “By the way, Lady Wethington has taken up residence at William’s house.”
Aunt Margaret smiled. “Is that good news or bad news?”
“Both, apparently. She is a lovely woman, but her foot is planted firmly on William’s back. Pushing him toward the altar has become her goal in life.”
“Oh dear. How does William feel about that? I have always seen him as a confirmed bachelor. Although I guess with his title, he will have to marry one day.”