Page 88 of An Innocent Maid for the Duke
He caught Georgiana’s eye and nodded. She helped the woman beside her to her feet.
Once they were safely away from prying eyes, Jake took that woman by the arm and led her to Rose.
The woman, a neatly dressed lady with a tidy grey bun and the attire of a gentlewoman, hung back, tears forming in her eyes.
‘Rose, I want you to meet someone,’ Jacob said firmly.
His bride gave him a startled look. Perhaps he had spoken a little too firmly, but he needed her attention. ‘Rose, this lady is your long-lost mother.’
For a moment, he thought she might faint, her face went so pale, and her chest rose and fell so rapidly. He reached out to hold her by the elbow. ‘Rose, it is all right. Sit down for a moment.’
‘Mother?’ she said, looking at the modestly gowned woman. ‘You are my mother?’
The woman nodded. ‘I am.’
Rose sought his gaze. ‘You found her?’
‘I did. Rose, your mother did come to the orphanage to find you. She has the other half of your token. They told her you had died. Some sort of error in record keeping. Your mother was heartbroken when they gave her the news.’
Still the woman held back. ‘I should never have left you in that place.’
Rose lifted her chin. ‘Why did you?’
‘Your father died at sea. I had another child on the way and I had no way to feed either one. I had to work to support myself. I was a dressmaker before I married, but no one would hire me with a child. The people at the Foundling Hospital promised to care for you until I returned. Five years later, you were gone. Died, they said.’
Rose frowned. ‘I was there when I was eight. Did you not ask for me? Rose Nightingale?’
‘My married name is Fairclough. Your name was given as Fairclough.’
Understanding dawned on Rose’s face. ‘A girl around my age named Fairclough died of pleurisy.’
Jacob stemmed the fury rising in his veins all over again. ‘Someone made a bad mistake. Muddled the records. It was only my man’s digging around that discovered it. Rose, I am sorry.’
Rose stared at the small woman standing so hesitantly beside him, then opened her arms. ‘Mother,’ she said softly.
The two women clung together, weeping.
He felt awkward. He patted her back. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t find her before. It took time to get to the bottom of it.’ Perhaps she wouldn’t have wanted to marry him if she had known she had family who cared.
He stifled the thought, but Rose, as if she sensed his concern, raised her head and drew him into the circle with her mother. ‘Oh, Jake, you could not have given me a better gift on my wedding day. Surely, you could not.’
And as quick as that, all was right with his world.
‘Now then,’ Grandmama said, moving in like a tiger ready to defend her young. ‘You and your mother will have many weeks to spend together once you return from your honeymoon. Right now there is a congregation waiting to greet the Duke and his Duchess.’
Her mother stepped back. ‘Indeed, Rose. Indeed. You go on. I will be here when you return.’
‘You promise?’ Rose visibly choked back tears.
‘She will,’ Jacob said. ‘You can be sure of it.’ Fred and Oliver would make sure of it, he could see it on their faces.
Mrs Fairclough bobbed a curtsy and smiled. ‘No need, Your Grace. Never again will I be parted from my little girl.’
Rose dried her eyes on a handkerchief provided by Georgiana, and together they ran the gauntlet of the waiting congregation.
* * *
Sated and lax and lying in her husband’s arms later that evening Rose pressed a kiss to her husband’s raspy cheek. They had arrived without incident at Dover. Tomorrow they would take thepaquetto Calais and from there travel to Paris.
