Chapter Seven
Oh, but you all are a sight for sore eyes!” Colin nearly gushed as he walked down the hall towards his four friends.
Duncan snorted. “You are never delighted to see us, Colin, so either you are terribly bored or things are far worse than your cryptic note said.”
Colin shrugged. “There wasn’t time for specifics, Duncan, and I know how you all love a mystery.” He sobered a bit as he looked at them all.
His four best friends, all married, starting with their families, and yet they all still came when he needed something. He’d have done the same for any of them, and had done, in some cases. They had each been in the country for the summer and he was surprised at just how much he had missed them. And how much it meant that they had come.
“Are your families well?” he asked, asking with more sincerity than he probably ever had.
Derek grinned at him. “You already know they are well, though Kate is very upset you did not come for Helena’s birth.”
Colin shuddered playfully and shook his head. “Your wife cannot stand me in usual company, Derek. To visit her when she is in the utmost pain and distress? I would be dead in five minutes.”
“Well, you did not come for Lizzy either,” Nathan reminded him. “And Moira is most disappointed in you.”
He clamped a hand to his chest and staggered back. “No, not Moira! I shall have to buy her a flower.”
His friends laughed and Colin turned to the last two. “Well, what about you lot? Do Mary and Annalise want to butcher me as well?”
Geoff smiled, his eyes crinkling. “Mary sends her regards and asks after the gossip.”
“And Annalise is actually rather fond of you, for some bewildering reason,” Duncan added with a rueful grin. “I suppose she has yet to know your true character.”
Colin smiled at that. While he truly adored all of the women his friends had married, Annalise would always be of special regard to him.
“So what was so important, Colin?” Geoff asked when Colin forgot to laugh.
He cleared his throat, suddenly a bit anxious about what he was about to tell them. He had been too hesitant to tell them via letter, this was something they needed to know in person. Now they were here, he had no idea how to begin.
How could he possibly tell them how drastically his life had changed in the course of a week? How his heart was somehow expanding, his empathy beginning to flower, and his ability to hear tears so incredibly heightened? His current plans had all been uprooted, his finances needed desperate rearranging, and he was more terrified of the future than ever before.
And that was just what he had felt the first day.
“Good heavens,” breathed Geoff suddenly.
Colin looked at his friend in surprise, but saw he was not looking at Colin, but behind him. He turned to see Rosie making her way towards them hesitantly. She bit her lip and looked up at him, silently asking permission.
He winked at her and held out a hand. “Come on, then. It’s all right, these are my friends.”
She raised a brow in surprise and he gave her a mock warning look, which made her smile. She took his hand and stood beside him, smiling at the men before her by way of greeting.
Only then did Colin turn back to face them himself.
They were all staring fixedly at Rosie, eyes wide. Duncan was openly gaping, Derek had staggered back a few paces, Geoff had a hand at his chest as if he were about to have a fit, and Nathan was pale as a ghost. Very telling of each of their natures, that.
“Go on,” Colin murmured, squeezing Rosie’s hand a little. “Tell them who you are.”
Rosie, who was no doubt spending too much time with Tibby, gave the horrified quartet a most perfect, if slightly dramatic, curtsey. “Pleasure to meet you. I’m Rosie.”
“Charmed, I’m sure,” Geoff replied faintly. He looked up at Colin. “If this is a joke, Colin…”
Colin shook his head. “No joke, but it is a bit funny, actually.”
“Still waiting for the funny part,” Nathan said unsteadily, running a shaking hand into his hair.
“Someone get me a drink,” Derek muttered, flagging down a sniggering maid in the hall.
“Explain,” Duncan growled, his eyes flitting between Colin and Rosie.
Colin straightened and smiled. “It’s quite simple really. Rosie should have said this, but she is my…”
There was a series of insistent knocks at the door at the same time the bell rang.
“Who could that be?” Colin wondered aloud as Bartlet moved around the group to answer it.
“You’re not this popular,” Rosie informed him, looking confused. “It’s probably for Kit.”
Geoff barked a laugh and smothered it quickly.
Colin looked down at his smart-mouthed sister with a frown. “I am far more popular than Kit, I will have you know.”
She shrugged. “So you say, but where is the proof?”
Now his friends were beginning to smile outright.
Bartlet opened the door to reveal four beautiful and very finely dressed women.
“Well, I didn’t expect that,” Rosie muttered under her breath.
“Hush,” he hissed, grinning himself now.
“Colin Gerrard, you have some serious explaining to do,” Moira, Lady Beverton, scolded loudly, her sapphire eyes flashing dangerously.
“Oh, no,” Nathan moaned, covering his eyes.
The other men echoed the sentiment as each of their wives entered the room and handed their things to the waiting servants.
“Good morning, darling,” Kate, Lady Whitlock, cooed in a rather offhand manner to her husband, patting his cheek. “Nice of you to tell us where you were going.”
“Good morning, love,” her husband dutifully replied, looking sheepish.
The women stood on one side of the hall and the men on the other, females all righteous indignation as they looked at Colin, males as uncomfortable as anything he’d ever seen.
“What’s this about?” Duncan finally asked of the women.
His wife spared a brilliant smile for him. “Colin has a secret.”
“We know,” Geoff replied, absently pulling at his ear. “That is why we are here.”
“Yes, but we know what it is,” Mary retorted smartly, her eyes still on Colin.
“Start talking now, Colin, or I will lose my considerable patience,” Kate ordered, arms folded, tapping her foot against the marble floor in agitation.
He smiled in utter relief at the women. “Thank God you’re all here.”
“What?” his friends all cried out in unison, and with good reason. He had never claimed to enjoy seeing the women before, but now he had never been more grateful in his life. Had he been less controlled, he might have actually gotten emotional.
He wanted to hug them all. “I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you came. I assume Tibby told you?”
Annalise nodded, smiling fondly. “I had a letter from her last week.”
“Tibby did what?” Duncan asked, no doubt feeling more than a bit surprised.
Colin ignored him. “Just a moment.” He turned and cupped his hands around his mouth. “Molly!” he yelled up the stairs. “Bring them down, would you?”
Rosie shook her head in disapproval. “Shouting like that in your own house and before company? Such poor manners.”
“That is quite enough out of you, little tart,” he tossed back at her.
She shook her head and looked up at his friends. “I can’t see why you’re all friends with him, honestly, and I haven’t known him long.”
“Honestly, neither can I, at the moment,” Nathan replied.
Molly appeared at the top of the stairs with Ginny on one side and Bitty on the other, and they obediently made their way down the stairs. No one spoke, not even Rosie, though the women did gasp softly.
“Come on, come on,” Colin encouraged with a wave as they reached the bottom. He set Bitty next to Rosie, and Ginny next to her. Then he took up position on Ginny’s other side, and looked at his friends and their wives. He opened his arms to indicate the three, looked directly at the women, and said, simply, “Help.”
“Oh, please,” Rosie said with a snort, even as Bitty giggled to herself.
“Oh, my,” Moira murmured as she took in the girls.
Colin gave a helpless smile. “These fine girls you see before you are my sisters. Surprise.”
His friends nearly fell over as evident relief washed over them. The women were wide-eyed, but smiling.
“Present yourselves,” Colin murmured, nodding at Rosie.
She stepped forward and curtseyed. “Rose Marie Elizabeth Gerrard, age nine.” Her accent, mostly gone now, rang out proudly here.
Bitty tangled her fingers and curtseyed, a bit wobbly. “Louisa Amelie Claire Gerrard. Oh, and I’m six.” She, too, displayed her accent perfectly.
Colin saw Mary cover her mouth, but it did nothing to lessen her smile.
Ginny watched her two sisters, then looked at the people gathered, and tucked herself behind Colin, latching onto his leg and burying her face against him.
He smiled and reached behind to touch her head. “And Genevieve Sophia Anne Gerrard, age three.” He looked up and gestured to the girls in order. “Rosie, Bitty, and Ginny.”
No one spoke a word. They each looked from the girls to Colin, back to the girls, and occasionally at each other.
He quite understood.
“Who are they?” Bitty asked Colin in her best whispering tone.
He grinned and quickly made the introductions.
Ginny still kept herself tucked against him. He bent down and softly asked if she would meet his friends, but she shook her head and only clung closer.
“She’s very shy,” Bitty explained.
“That’s all right,” Mary replied, smiling at her. “I’m a bit shy as well.”
Annalise surprised Colin by coming forward and sinking down to Ginny’s level. “Pleased to meet you, Ginny,” she said softly with smile. “My name is Annie and I’m friends with your brother and with Tibby. I would very much like to be your friend as well.”
Colin looked at Ginny, but she would not move her face from his leg.
Annalise was not deterred. She smiled and reached out a hand. “Would you come and play with me, sweet? I don’t know my way around this house, and I could use a friend to help me.”
“I can help!” Bitty cried with a raised hand.
“Hush, Bitty,” Rosie hissed, watching her younger sister with interest.
Ginny turned her head and looked at the outstretched hand, then up into Annalise’s face.
“Go on, Ginny,” Colin murmured, his hand still soothing her hair. “You can do it. Don’t you want to see such a lovely person?”
Annalise looked up at him with a sardonic grin, then looked back at Ginny.
It seemed the entire room held their breath.
Ginny considered Annalise for a long moment, then detached a tiny hand from Colin’s leg and placed it into Annalise’s.
Bitty and Rosie gaped and Colin grinned, not bothering to hide the sigh of relief. Annalise closed her hand around Ginny’s and slowly led her towards the others, though Ginny looked back at Colin a great deal.
“It’s all right, Ginny,” he told her, still grinning. “I’m still here.”
“Like that’s a comfort,” Rosie muttered, even though she smiled.
“I think you are the best girl I know, Rosie Gerrard,” Derek announced with a grin at Colin.
Bitty pouted. “What about me?” she asked with a serious look at the powerful marquess.
He chuckled and put his hands on his hips. “Except for you, of course, Miss Louisa.” He bowed very deeply to her.
She giggled and looked at Rosie triumphantly.
“What’s all this?”
Colin glanced up the stairs to see Kit descending.
“Oh, it’s you lot,” he said, answering himself. “Thank heavens, we are in desperate need of reinforcements.” He bowed to them all and took a second look at Ginny as she stood with the women, being fussed over. He looked at Colin in surprise, but he could only shrug in response. How else could he explain their youngest sister’s miraculous actions?
“They’ve come to meet the girls, Kit,” Colin said with a pat on his brother’s shoulder. “Nice of them, eh?”
“Very nice,” Kit replied, nodding at his friends, and smiling, which Kit so rarely did that it surprised them all. “We really are most grateful.”
Mary smiled back a bit wryly. “As if we would have missed this?” She scooped up Ginny, who let out a surprised giggle that nearly floored Colin.
“Colin, Kit,” Moira said suddenly, completely forgoing propriety by calling his brother Kit when she’d never been encouraged to do so, and it made Kit twitch slightly. “Would we be able to take your adorable sisters into another room and get to know them?”
Colin looked at Nathan in bewilderment, then back at Moira. “When do you ever ask permission, Moira?”
“When, indeed,” Kit murmured, looking interested.
Rosie was not impressed by their lack of answer. “Well, she just did! Now can we go with the ladies or not?”
Kit smiled at her, and chuckled. “Of course, little tyrant. Go off and learn proper manners, if you can. Lady Whitlock, please…”
Kate grinned rather deviously. “Oh, I think not, Mr. Gerrard. I like this one just as she is.”
Colin and Kit groaned as Derek laughed out loud.
“Go on, Bitty,” Colin sighed, waving a hand. “The ladies want to play and the boys need to have a talk.”
Bitty did as she was told and skipped along with her sisters and new friends.
“God help us if they turn out like them,” Colin muttered.
“Which set of females are you talking about?” his twin replied.
“I’m not entirely sure.” Colin sighed and gestured down the hall. “Let’s go, there’s a lot of details we’ll need to fill in for you.”
“This might be the best story yet,” Derek mused aloud as they followed.
Colin smiled, but held his tongue. There was a good story here, it was true. And yet, at the heart of it all, Colin found himself wanting to reveal another secret with them entirely.
He shook his head. No. Not only was he not prepared to discuss her, but he was not prepared to talk about what it meant for him.
Mostly because he did not know.
No, for now he would simply have to focus on the girls. That was his most pressing matter, at any rate. Rosie needed some more time to adjust to being here, but she would also need structure. A schedule of some sort. Perhaps a nursemaid, a tutor, a governess…
He knew someone who could be a governess.
“No,” he muttered, shaking his head fiercely. “Absolutely not.”
“Pardon?” Kit asked as he walked beside him.
Colin only shook his head again.
“Are you going to tell them about…?”
He shook his head firmly.
“You should.”
“Not yet,” Colin hissed.
Kit gave him a hard look, but shrugged one shoulder. Disapproval flashed in his eyes, but he wouldn’t say anything Colin did not want him to. That was Kit’s way. He might not have agreed with Colin, but he would respect this decision.
For now, at least.
He could not tell them about Susannah. Not yet.
“So, Colin… Kit…” Duncan drawled as he took a seat. “I think there are a few things that we need to discuss.”
“Yes, quite,” Kit replied smoothly, giving Colin a brief flash of a warning glance before taking his own seat. “It has been… an eventful few days.”
Colin snorted, reverting back into character. “That is one way to put it, yes.”
“I need to hear all of this from the beginning, if you don’t mind,” Geoff laughed with a raised hand.
“Oh, of course you do,” Derek scoffed as he sat down. “You’d never figure it out unless they spelled it out for you all specifically like that.”
Colin snickered helplessly at Geoff’s outrage. It was bizarre for Kit to be here for the antics of his friends, but he was glad for it. He ought to be part of them, now more than ever.
“Yes, but first I have a question.” Nathan looked between the brothers carefully, his dark eyes serious. “About Rosie.”
Colin exchanged looks with Kit, then turned back to his friend. “Go on.”
Nathan settled his gaze on Colin. “Are you sure she’s not yours?”
The others laughed in agreement. Kit looked rather smug and folded his arms, raising a brow at Colin.
Colin smiled and tried to be his old, relaxed self, but it was not possible. “Quite sure, but I would claim her in an instant.”
“Absolutely,” Kit murmured softly, his eyes suddenly distant.
The others were silent, until Duncan suddenly cleared his throat.
“All right, you two,” he began, his tone warm, but serious, “you cannot go warm and fuzzy like that without sharing. So tell us. What happened and what can we do?”
Colin smiled, but looked at Kit and gestured for him to tell it. Kit looked surprised, but pleased, and began the tale of their rather unorthodox beginning to guardianship.