“Oh no, ma’am. I help the mistress every morning, don’t I, ma’am?” she asked, boldly looking at Regan.
Regan didn’t say a word. She’d met so many people in the last few weeks.
Margo grabbed the bandages. “Get out of here, you little slut! And be careful I don’t have Travis turn your indenture papers over to me.”
After one wild look of fear, the maid left the room.
Margo sat down beside Regan on the couch. “Now let me see your hand. This is really a bad burn. You must have held that kettle quite some time. I do hope you tell Travis about the house servants. He lets them do as they please, and as a result they think they own the place. And Wes is certainly no better. That’s why Travis has been planning for so long to get a wife. He needs someone strong who can take care of the duties of a plantation this size.”
All the time she was talking, she was tenderly bandaging Regan’s hand. When she was finished, the man, Charles, entered the room bearing a tray large enough to hold a pony. On it was an exquisite Georgian silver tea service, a crystal decanter of sherry with two glasses, and an astonishing array of tiny cakes and sandwiches.
“Not Malvina’s best,” Margo said, looking down her nose at the tray. “Perhaps she doesn’t consider me a guest any longer. Tell her,” she said, glancing at Charles, “that I’ll speak to her before I leave.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Charles bobbed before he left the room.
“Now,” Margo said, smiling at Regan. “I shall, of course, pour since you have that dreadful hand.”
With the greatest of ease, Margo poured tea, added a good dose of sherry, and chose a cake for Regan.
“I really came to apologize,” Margo began as she poured herself sherry, forgetting the tea. “I can’t imagine what you must have thought of my unforgivable rudeness last week. I was really too embarrassed to return and ask you to receive me after what happened.”
Regan was pleased at this regal woman’s humility. “I…you should have come,” she said quietly.
Margo looked away and continued, “You see, Travis and I have been sweethearts since we were children, and everyone assumed we would someday marry. So, of course, it was a shock when he introduced someone else as his wife.” She looked back at Regan, her eyes soft and pleading. “You do understand, don’t you?”
“Of course,” Regan whispered. How alike Margo and Travis were, so sure of themselves, so confident. They were the rulers of the world.
“My father died two years ago,” Margo said, and there was such pain in her voice that Regan winced. “And since then I’ve run my plantation alone. Of course, it is nowhere near the size of Travis’s place, but it is adequate.”
Regan felt that here was a woman who could run an entire plantation alone, while she couldn’t even prepare a cup of tea. At least there was one thing she could do correctly. Lowering her head and smiling, she said, “Travis hopes our children will help him work the plantation. Of course, that will take time, but this one has a good start already.”
When Margo was silent, Regan looked up and saw fire in the larger woman’s eyes.
“So that’s why Travis married you!” she said in a voice that came from deep inside her.
A wave of shock ran through Regan.
“Forgive me again!” Margo said, putting her hand on Regan’s wrist. “I never seem to say the right thing. It’s just that I had wondered why, since we were practically engaged. Travis is so honorable that, of course, he’d feel he had to marry a woman who was carrying his child. You know,” she laughed, “I should have thought of that. Perhaps if I’d, well, you know, and gotten myself pregnant, he would have married me.
“Oh my!” Margo said. “I seem to be doing it again. I wasn’t by any means insinuating that you were enceinte before Travis married you. Of course you weren’t.”
She rose, and Regan stood beside her. “I really must go,” Margo said. “I can’t seem to say anything right today.” She patted Regan’s hand. “I’m sure Travis fell in love with you, and that’s why he chose you. This isn’t the Middle Ages. Men marry women of their own choosing and not because they’re going to have babies. Of course, Travis always said he’d like to have children but without a bossy wife to put up with. Of course, you, dear sweet child, could never be bossy. Now I really must go. I hope we will become the closest of friends. Perhaps I can help you with learning about Travis’s likes and dislikes. After all, we’ve been very close all our lives.”
She kissed the air beside Regan’s cheek before turning to leave. “I’ll leave word for the tray to be removed,” she smiled. “So you don’t have to worry your sweet little head about it. You just go and rest and take care of that baby Travis wants so much.”
With that she left the room, and Regan collapsed onto the couch, feeling as if she’d just left a storm. It was a few minutes before she began to think about Margo’s words. Choice? Travis did not choose her; she ran into him. He would gladly have released her, but she wouldn’t tell him her uncle’s name. Honor! Travis’s honor forbade him releasing her into the streets of London, and later his honor made him marry her. What had he said at their wedding? He always married the mother of his children.
Had she forced him to marry her? Obviously their marriage had nothing to do with love. How could a man like Travis love a child who couldn’t even make tea without practically crippling herself?
The days began to pass, and with each one she seemed to fall farther behind in work. The household staff seemed to take delight in changing daily. When Regan spoke to them they were insolent, and at last she found herself rarely leaving her room.
Travis came home, swept her into his arms, tossed her above his head, and tickled her until the sadness left her face. Constantly, he asked her what was wrong. He invited her to tour the plantation with him, and she went, ashamed at how much she wanted his protection. She could never admit how much of a stranger she felt in this country.
Travis never complained about her lack of authority, and no one dared be insolent with him, but he did notice that certain areas of the plantation were not being supervised properly. One day she heard him shouting at the dairymen, asking why they were slack in their job.
Twice Margo visited, and each time she talked softly to Regan before setting into the house staff for their negligence of the gracious house. After she left Regan felt drained and worse than useless.
She never let Travis know of her problems with the staff or of her hundreds of thousands of tears during the day.