Unchaining Alice

Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

James had been sitting in the drawing room for what felt like an eternity. Perhaps it had been an eternity. Some time ago, a footman had delivered a tray of sandwiches and a pitcher of wine but he hadn’t touched either of them. He wasn’t hungry and he refused to touch alcohol. Ever since he had first received Alice’s letter, he could see that he used it as a crutch to overcome his problems. He would no longer do so. He was determined to solve this problem without avoiding it.

He absently drummed his fingers on the arm of the settee while he waited for Annie to return to collect Amy. Amy sat on the opposite settee playing with her doll. It was a pretty, plush one that she had received from Emilia and Sebastian last Christmas. As far as he was aware, the little thing was called ‘Alalalina’. What else would a two year old girl name her doll? Her shoulder length, blonde hair was tied in pink ribbons and she wore a matching dress that finished at her knee to accommodate for the heat. Underneath she simply wore a pair of silk drawers. He wished it was socially acceptable for him to spend his day in his drawers but it wasn’t.

“Uncle Jamesie,” Amy said sweetly from her chair. Her big, brown eyes were looking at him quizzically. It was startling how much that look mirrored his sister’s.

“Yes, Ames?” His niece has randomly chosen that pet name for him so he’d picked one in return. He was glad ‘Jamesie’ hadn’t caught on. It was quite embarrassing. However, coming from the lips of his little niece, he didn’t mind.

“Mama says you’re in a bad mood,” she said innocently. “Mama says I have to make you happy.”

He raised an eyebrow. She had easily been sitting in that chair for two hours playing make believe with her doll. He didn’t expect her to cheer him up but she was doing an excellent job at it.

Amy abandoned Alalalina on the settee and she hopped down onto the floor. She bounce around the table between the two chairs and climbed up next to him. Once atop the settee, she crawled into his lap and looked up at him with a cheesy yet cute grin on her face.

“Hi,” she chirped.

“Hi, Ames,” he replied, feeling a smile tease his lips already. Children had a way of making things better even when one wanted to wallow. For a minute or two, he would put Alice out of his mind.

“Mama says you got your heart stomped on,” Amy smiled, not knowing what on earth she had just said.

“Mama needs to stop being a blabbering gossip,” James said light-heartedly so that she wouldn’t know that what he was saying was an insult. Clearly Annie and Joseph were having discussions about him at the dinner table.

“Do you want me to kiss it better?” Amy asked. “Whenever I get hurt Mama kisses it and it gets better.”

James chuckled. “Alright,” he agreed.

Amy paused. “Where is your heart?”

James tapped his cheek. “Right here.”

Amy stood up on his lap and planted a wet kiss on his cheek. “There,” she said, satisfied. “All better.”

James wrapped his arms around his little niece and hugged her tightly, holding her against his chest. “All better,” he repeated. And for a moment it was. Only a moment though as the next minute Annie entered the drawing room to collect Amy after running her errands – one of them being the messenger delivering the letter he’d written.

“Mama!” Amy cried happily.

“Hello, I missed you!” Annie replied with a wide smile on her face. She came over to them both and swing her little daughter up into her arms. Amy wrapped her arms around Annie’s neck and nuzzled her chest. Annie looked at James sadly and smiled meekly.