An Unlikely Father by Lynn Collum

the woods yet. They still had to face the gentleman’s reprimand after Jamie and Honoria were bathed and dressed. She only prayed the punishment would not be too severe.
    By nine-thirty she and Delia had the children, hair washed and neatly dressed, sitting in the Blue Drawing Room awaiting the meeting with their guardian. Emily had changed to a sedate grey merino wool morning gown, trimmed with black piping. Her hair was combed into a simple chignon at her neck. She hoped she looked wise and responsible enough to dispense advice .
    The ladies had brought down a game of Pachisi, a Hindustani board game, to distract the children from their worries about what their uncle would say about their little adventure. Honoria was fascinated with the painted shells used in the game, but Jamie listened carefully to the simple rules, determined to win.
    The game had barely begun when the sound of carriages arriving at the castle drew the ladies and children to the front windows. Two post chaises with an excess of luggage strapped to their backs had come to a halt on the driveway below. Within minutes, the postboys had opened the doors to each of the vehicles, and the travelers stepped to the ground.
    Emily and Delia could only gape at the sight of the four females descending from the carriages. There could be little doubt who and what the earl’s visitors were.
    A great deal of braying laughter and ribald comments about the postboys could be heard as the visitors inspected the castle. Due to the height of the drawing room windows, all the watchers could see of the females below were gaudy hats with an over-abundance of dyed feathers and garishly colored capes trimmed with swans - down, which were tied so as to expose a great deal of the callers’ feminine assets to the world.
    Delia’s hand fluttered to her mouth as she whispered, “Surely Bedows will not allow those creatures entry.” Emily suspected this might not be the first time the castle had been invaded by light-skirts, for that was clearly what they were. Hawksworth was a rake after all. Anger at the earl began to well up inside her. Did he care so little for his young relatives that he would expose them to such women? Or worse, had he intended to merely lock the children into the nursery during his debauched revels?
    She struggled to keep a rein on her growing ire. “No doubt they were invited to entertain his lordship’s guests.”
    Honoria tugged on Emily’s hand to get her attention. “How come you never wear such pretty feathers on your bonnets, Miss Collins?”
    Delia quickly replied, “Ladies of quality do not need such vulgarly ornate adornments, my dear.”
    Emily, realizing the children were watching the arrival avidly, said, “Delia, would you escort Honoria and Jamie upstairs until his lordship’s guests are sent on their way?”
    Emily was determined to see that happen before the afternoon was well advanced.
    “Are you not coming?” Delia asked in surprise.
    “Not at the moment.” Emily could not explain to her friend what she intended to do, for she wasn’t quite sure herself.
    Downstairs, Bedows’s eyes grew quite round when he opened the door and discovered four birds of paradise chattering like magpies about the elegance of Hawk’s Lair. The butler was well aware of the earl’s reputation with women, but over the course of the last ten years, there had never been such vulgar females housed at the castle. The old man knew from his lordship’s valet that Hawksworth as a rule did not dally with common actresses, preferring the willing ladies of Society.
    But then the male guests invited to the castle on this occasion, with the exception of Sir Ethan, had not been up to the earl’s usual standards either. Perhaps his lordship had intended these coarse creatures to entertain Mr. Bonham and Mr. Abbot.
    The old servant wondered if the earl had forgotten to uninvite these light-skirts after the arrival of his wards and the defection of his guests.