The following day, Lady Louisa spent her time under the warm sunshine as she prepared and planted the garden. She found it to be a most enjoyable task. She couldn’t believe how invigorating and enjoyable the country air could be.
Even more enjoyable was the fact that she wasn’t alone in her task. To her great surprise, when she announced that she planned to plant the garden that morning, Miss Mary had asked to join her.
Though neither one was prone to much speaking, it was an enjoyable day spent working alongside each other. “My father used to keep the garden,” Miss Mary said after a time. “Since he took ill a few years back, it just sat barren. It was such a sad sight to me.”
“I believe Bess told me some of that. I am very sorry for your loss," Lady Louisa responded.
"Did you ever spend time here with him then?” Lady Louisa continued, hoping to bring up happy memories for her cousin.
If she had learned one thing from the death of her father, it was that forgetting was not the remedy. So often when a loved one was lost, remaining family members would do all they could to forget the unhappy circumstances that lead to their death.
This would often result in the removal of anything that might remind one of the deceased person. In the end, all memories both happy and sad would be lost to them. Then all that would be left would be that empty sorrowful feeling of loss.
It was far better to suffer through the bad memories in order to hold on to the good. Only then could the pain lessen over time. Though Lady Louisa was sure that it would never go away completely, it certainly would be bearable.
“No. Mother never thought it quite proper for my sister or me to be out in the garden. She said it was servant work. I am actually a little surprised she didn’t object this morning.”
“Perhaps she changed her mind. Or perhaps she hoped to see the beauty of the gardens again as well.”
“I can’t imagine the latter. Mother would be so cross with Father when he was out here in gardens. She would always comment how anyone could see him and it was so unbecoming of a gentleman to do such work.”
“My father though,” Miss Mary said, rising and wiping her cheek with a dirty glove, “he would always say his father, and grandfather, and great-grandfather, all stood on this same spot and dug around the same lettuce. He would not break such a tradition.”
Lady Louisa smiled as Miss Mary recounted the memory. For a moment, she let her cousin drift off to another time before she shrugged and went back to the work of removing deep-rooted weeds.
“He sounds like a very determined man. I wish I could have been lucky enough to have met him,” Lady Louisa said before returning to her own particularly stubborn weed. “Would you tell me more about him?”
Miss Mary paused for just a second. “It’s funny; Mother barely liked the subject of him while he was with us. Since his departure from this world, I honestly thought she would be happier. She speaks of him even less, however, and seems even more sullen.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Lady Louisa said truthfully.
She had heard from her own mother that her aunt and uncle’s relationship was strained over time. It must have been a terrible thing for her aunt to choose love and then lose it in the end.
In truth, Lady Louisa wondered if it was her own aunt’s pride and jealousy that had not only severed the ties with her sister, but with her husband as well.
“I, however, would be more than happy to speak about him,” Miss Mary said with a little spunk.
The two ladies spent the remainder of the afternoon covered in dirt, swapping stories of both their now gone fathers. It was a most pleasant and therapeutic experience for the both of them.
“My word,” said a deep voice coming from around the house and walking along the white picket fence that encased the two garden plots.
Lady Louisa and Miss Mary turned to find Colonel Jasper watching them with a teasing gleam in his eyes.
“Lady Hendrickson informed me that I might find you two out in the garden. I had no idea she meant that you would be more covered in dirt than the last time we met,” he continued.
Both ladies quickly stood up, a little embarrassed at the current status of their stained hems. Miss Mary even had a smudge of dirt on her cheek from where she had wiped at it earlier.
“I can safely say, neither one of us was expecting company in our present condition,” Lady Louisa replied as she tipped back her sunbonnet and removed her gardening gloves.
Miss Mary was nervously doing the same. Though she did do her best to brush the dirt off of her apron, she still wasn’t aware of the offending smudge on her now rosy cheeks.
Though Miss Mary was no match for her older sister’s beauty, she was very pretty in her own way. Even with the heat of the day on her face and the strenuous work deflating the curls of her golden hair, she still outshined Louisa in looks.
“Well I do beg pardon for the intrusion,” Colonel Jasper said with a bow. “Rowland was most anxious to meet the family I spoke so highly of all night long upon my return. I dare say members here shared the same sentiment,” he added with a wink.
“I would be more than happy to introduce you two ladies, as well?”
“I thank you,” Lady Louisa said quickly, remembering the promise to herself, to give her cousin space on this matter, “but I am sure another opportunity will arise. Hopefully, at that time I will be more properly dressed for it,” she added with a cool smile.
“Of course. Well, I am not offended by your hard work. Perhaps you wouldn’t mind showing me around the outside grounds while the others speak inside. It is far too fine of a day to waste it,” Colonel Jasper said.
Lady Louisa looked to Miss Mary waiting for her to respond. It didn’t seem that Miss Mary was used to making such decisions so, instead, Lady Louisa made it for the both of them.
“We would both be delighted to, though I will have to defer all leading and talking to my cousin as I know the land no better than yourself.”
Miss Mary was happy to lead them both around the grounds and show the various highlights. At first, she was very timid. Colonel Jasper would ask her little encouraging questions all the while, however, and soon Miss Mary needed no prompting in the discussion.
By the time the sun was starting to set in earnest, Lady Louisa couldn’t help but hold back from the party with a smile as the two in front of her engaged in conversation. Both were enthralled with the current discussion of prevalent wildflowers versus ones planted in gardens.
“I don’t think there is anything more wonderful than to walk down a path and come upon a meadow of freshly bloomed wildflowers," the Colonel debated.
“Although such a thing is a beautiful sight, I would have to argue that one can find more happiness in a bloom of their own doing. In fact, my father used to say that it was the toiling and hard labor put into a plant that made its fragrance so sweet.”
“What a lovely sentiment,” Colonel Jasper said with his eyes lowered down to Miss Mary. “One that is truly hard to argue with.”
Lady Louisa had never expected her cousin to have such an interest in the outdoors before this day’s interaction. Now she had a feeling that Miss Mary had a great many interests that she kept hidden away at Lady Hendrickson’s request.
“Pray tell, what lovely flowers will waft their wonderful aromas from your labors today?”
“None really,” Miss Mary confessed. “I have only planted lettuce and root vegetables. My cousin, Lady Louisa, was the one to plant the herbs and medicinal plants. I suspect they will create a much better sight to behold.”
Both pairs of eyes turned to Lady Louisa as if they had remembered her presence for the first time. Rather than being upset that she had been forgotten, Lady Louisa rather liked how well the two were getting along.
“I suppose the only fragrance of pleasure from the medicinal garden would be the lavender and rose hips,” Lady Louisa supplied to their questioning looks.
“Both lovely choices for growing and usage, I must say,” Colonel Jasper said, making sure to include her in the conversation again.
Lady Louisa couldn’t help but notice that there had to be almost twenty years separating her young cousin and the Colonel but the two seemed quite well-matched. She had never considered herself to be a matchmaker, but in this instance, she might make an exception. The two seemed to make a very handsome couple.
“Why did you two never come in?” Miss Hendrickson said that night over their family meal. “I expected that once Colonel Jasper had informed you of our guest, you would have come straight away to meet the Duke.”
“We were not presentable after a day of working in the garden,” Miss Mary stated, merely not wanting to say more on the matter.
“Then what were you two up to?” Lady Hendrickson said with a narrowing of her eyes.
“Colonel Jasper expressed a desire to know more of the area, so we took a turn with him around the gardens and property,” Lady Louisa responded.
“You two would rather walk around outside with an old man than meet the very eligible Duke of Rowland?” Miss Hendrickson scoffed. “You really are dull of mind, Mary. No matter, I had no problem keeping the Duke entertained all on my own,” she added with her head held high.
Even Lady Hendrickson beamed with pride at this. Though it was all meant as hurtful comments towards her and Miss Mary, Lady Louisa couldn’t help but be at least satisfied in doing what she suspected her aunt and cousin had wanted of her.
“Louisa,” Lady Hendrickson said. “I was wondering if you would be so kind as to help Bess tomorrow with the mending?”
“Of course, Lady Hendrickson,” Lady Louisa said.
“And then there are the new dresses that need to be tried and fitted before the mending. I am sure you are more than skilled in such work, it would be a shame not to make use of your expertise on the matter.”
“I would be happy to help.”
“Wonderful, dear,” Lady Hendrickson said in a dismissive tone.
Lady Louisa was beginning to feel that every day of her visit would be filled with such tasks from her aunt.