The luncheon at Lady Louisa’s went smoothly for Lady Abigail. Luckily, she wasn't the only one to have a few stitches to finish while they talked, and no other lady had as much done as the duchess.
“How is Colton doing?" Isabella asked with concern.
“I am deeply worried about him,” Lady Louisa confessed. “He has not left the house once since the ball. He is very short tempered and even snapped at Mother once. She has taken his changed appearance very badly. One evening at dinner, he told her that if she found him so grotesque, he would no longer join us for dinner.”
“Since then, he has taken all his meals in Father’s office. I fear he plans to stay locked up in that office forever.”
Isabella was visibly concerned to hear such a report on the Earl of Gilchrist. She wished there was something she could do to help him, as Lady Louisa did.
Lady Abigail, on the other hand, preferred not to think of Lord Gilchrist at all, and felt that the mood was soured by the talk of him.
“Perhaps if he was given a cause to help him forget his problems,” Lady Fortuna suggested, always willing to help one in need.
“I have thought the same thing, but I fear he will do nothing that will require him to leave the house. He refuses to be seen by society at all,” Lady Louisa replied.
“There must be something he can do in the safety of his home. Then, once he is feeling comfortable with himself again, he might be more willing to venture outwards,” Lady Fortuna said, deep in thought.
“I know,” she finally said after a moment's contemplation. “Many of the boys at the Foundling Hospital are prepared for life as military men. Perhaps when we go today, we could ask the headmaster if there are any questions they might have for a returned war hero. Lord Gilchrist could spend the week writing his advice and answers and return them with us.”
“It would be nice to have an escort as well,” the duchess chimed in. “I know His Grace would be much relieved to hear that we did not go alone each week.”
It was not exactly the best part of the city that the ladies would be traveling to. Lady Abigail was aware of this fact but she also didn’t like the idea of having to sit in a carriage with Lord Gilchrist each week.
She was far more offended by his manner and speech than by his scars.
“I am not entirely sure he would even leave the house for this,” Lady Louisa stated frankly.
“It wouldn’t hurt to ask, though,” Lady Fortuna cooed.
It was finally settled that, for that day, the ladies would go on their own. Lady Fortuna would discuss the idea with the headmaster of the boy's portion of the school. If he found it a favorable idea, the ladies would return that night with letters to be delivered to the earl.
All the party, except for Lady Abigail, hoped that the earl would feel inspired by the task and accompany them next week. For this reason, it was decided that, from that moment on, each meeting would be at Lady Louisa’s for the comfort of the earl.
Lady Abigail was not without compassion. She fully understood that the trial Lord Gilchrist had experienced over the last year was likely more than she could imagine. The fact that he had just barely told the duke only the circumstances around his injury told Lady Abigail that it was still a very sensitive subject to him.
Compounding that with the normal stresses of war was much for a single man to carry. Lady Abigail knew this all with the logical side of her brain. The rest of her, however, couldn’t seem to forgive the blatant slight he had given her or his coarse behavior to even those who cared for him and tried to help, like the duke, duchess, and his family.
Fortunately for Lady Abigail, the rest of luncheon and the carriage ride conversations turned away from the earl.
Lady Abigail was happy that her cousin insisted they all go to give out their projects. In the girl's school, there were just under forty children ranging from five to thirteen. The same was true for the other part of the school that was designated for the boys, although they ranged up to the age of sixteen.
Whereas most of the girls were apprenticed out to seamstresses and the like at the earliest age possible, the boys who chose the military life stayed behind until they were of age to join.
Luckily, Lady Abigail's bed covering went to a small boy who had just joined the Foundling Hospital. Although all of the children there were accepted at infancy, they were sent away to be fostered until school age.
The boy who received the linen had just recently been removed from his foster home with nothing but the clothes on his back. He was so happy to have the luxury of a soft blanket, he cared very little for the unevenness of stitching or the simplicity of the pattern on top.
Seeing the children there, many in clothes or shoes that were too small or worn out, gave Lady Abigail the desire to take this project more seriously. If that meant giving up some engagements and invitations, she would be willing to do so. It would be well worth it to see even more children with smiles on their faces.
Along with their baskets of linens, the ladies had also stopped along the way at a bakery to pick up currant rolls with icing for each child.
In that way, even if a child didn’t receive a gift of clothing or bedding, they would still have the joy of a sweet, warm roll in their stomachs.
By the looks on their faces when the basket of bread was presented, Lady Abigail guessed that treats such as this were few and far between.
The ride home in the carriage was a quiet one as each lady seemed to contemplate the vast blessings of their own situation. In Lady Louisa’s hand sat a stack of letters written by the boys of the school.
The headmaster had found the idea a marvelous one. He hoped that the Earl of Gilchrist would come in person to give his own presentation, as some finer points were necessary for the preparation to join the military.
Lady Louisa promised nothing more than the returned correspondence and hoped to be pleasantly surprised when the idea was place before her bother.
That night, as the duke and duchess sat before the drawing-room fire of their London home with Lady Abigail, conversation seemed to turn again to the status of the earl.
“I just worry for him so much,” the duchess said to her husband after giving a detailed account of Lady Louisa’s report on the earl's health and situation.
“Honestly, I don’t blame him. I am certain that if I were in Gilchrist's situation, I would shut myself up as well.”
"That is not helpful, my dear,” Isabella said to the duke. “I need to find a way to help him out of this sour mood he is in.”
“It’s quite a sour mood,” Lady Abigail said under her breath as she worked on the first, of what she hoped would be many, pinafores.
Much to the duchess’ disappointment, and Lady Abigail's satisfaction, they had been instructed that all clothes should be made per uniform requirements, void of any embellishments. It was disappointing for the duchess not to give each girl a unique touch to her outfit as she had hoped.
For Lady Abigail, it meant simpler patterns and not worrying about a disappointed little girl who got her much less ornate work compared to the abilities of the others.
“He was not always like this,” the duchess tried to insist to Lady Abigail. “He used to be so much fun. Such a tease too.” She smiled at the memory.
“Perhaps the injury has affected his head as much as his body, for the man you described to me seems irreconcilable with the one I met.”
“I hope not,” the duchess said as she wondered if it could be true.
“War can do a great many things to a man. Some of the mental strains are irreversible. I knew an admiral who refused ever to step foot on the bow of the ship. One time, in his past, he was thrown overboard in a storm and taken captive by the Spanish. He always associated his horrible ordeal with that portion of the deck and refused to ever set foot on it again, come rain or sunshine.”
“But it didn’t make him so quick to temper,” Lady Abigail continued. “Lord Gilchrist was so rude at the ball, I could scarcely believe it. You can't possibly tell me that his disposition is due to an association of social events to battles?”
“I was just giving one example. The results of battle are just as varied as the men who experience them. I think Gilchrist is not only wracked with the scars, but also by the realization that who he is now is seen as vastly different than who he once was.”
Lady Abigail tried her best to feel compassion for the man. He had suffered a lot; she knew that. But, for some reason, all the logic in the world that told her to give him a chance to grow into a better man seemed to fly straight out of her head as soon as it came in.
“I think if we invite Colton and the rest of his family over for dinner it might help him. Maybe starting with smaller crowds, with people he knows that love and care about him, he will be able to begin the process of becoming whole again,” Isabella suggested.
“I am more than happy to get behind that idea,” the duke said to his wife. “But please be aware that the Colton you know now may be the one he is to be always. Some things are too hard to ever fully recover from. No amount of feminine meddling can change that,” he added with a teasing gleam in his eyes.
The duchess frowned at her husband for being called meddling. It was, however, precisely what she planned to do. She knew that Louisa, too, would do anything and everything in her power to help heal what had damaged Colton on the inside.