“Good,” Mrs Thornhill gave her hand one last squeeze and let it go. “And your hands really are getting too coarse. I’ll pick out a balm for you to try.”
Chapter Three
Nobody could talk about anything but the upcoming Lanwood soiree. Only the Thornhills had been invited to stay for a few days, on Lucy’s particular request, and there was no shortage of jealousy.
For the first time, Felicity wished she was a little more active in the gossip circles. She learned, with a measure of surprise, that the new earl was shockingly reclusive. Nobody had been to the house since the funeral, and even Lucy did not invite people over.
I hope they are taking care of her,Felicity thought, with a shiver. Lucy was so softly spoken, so kind, and it hurt to imagine her surrounded by cold strangers.
Daniel had tried to find out what Mrs Thornhill had said, but Felicity had neatly avoided the questions as best she could. She didn’t particularly want to repeat what her mother had said, especially about Lucy’s fate.
What would happen to me if Papa died?Felicity wondered, more than once. She’d assumed that she would simply receive her portion, as she would if she was married, but now she had doubts. What legal safeguards were in place? What would the executor of her father’s will decide?
Perhaps I’d just end up poor, with a tremendous fortune just beyond my reach, a mere wedding ring’s width between us.
That was not a particularly pleasant thought.
They waited in the carriage for Mrs Thornhill to join, Felicity and her father sitting in companionable silence. Daniel was travelling to Lanwood House separately.
“I hear your mama had a word with you earlier,” Mr Thornhill said, after a long pause.
Felicity swallowed. “She said if I didn’t apply myself to proper behaviour and find a betrothed, she will take my books and my gardens away from me.”
Mr Thornhill sighed. “It seemed extreme to me, but your mother generally knows best about this sort of thing, you know.”
Felicity pointedly said nothing. Her father shifted uncomfortably, and she found herself wondering whether this meeting had been set up deliberately, so that she could know that her father was united with her mother, and that there would be no appeal and no escape if Felicity did not oblige.
“Marriage is the best thing for a woman, you know,” Mr Thornhill said, looking more and more uncomfortable with each passing minute. “You’re twenty-three, and soon enough gentlemen won’t be interested in you. Younger girls are coming out every year, pretty, naïve young debutantes, some with fortunes of their own. The world isn’t designed for ladies, my dear.”
Another silence.
“The medicine worked, by the way.” Felicity said, and her father frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean the tea I made up for Susanna, who gets such awful megrims. I spent weeks researching it. I tried it on myself half a dozen times, but I don’t really get enough headaches to test it properly. I gave it to Susanna just the other week, and she told me that it worked. Within half an hour, her megrim was gone. It tastes vile, she says, but it worked. She asked me to make up some more, a dried mixture, so she can make it herself next time she has a megrim. Cook asked for some, too. It works, Papa.”
Mr Thornhill seemed to get even more uncomfortable.
“Well, well, very nicely done. If only you were a boy, my dear, you could become a doctor or an apothecary.”
“Yes,” Felicity murmured. “If only.”
Then Mrs Thornhill appeared, trailing silk and strings of pearls, sailing out of the front door, down the steps, and across the gravel towards the waiting carriage.
“Here I am, here I am,” she breathed, clambering up into the seat beside Felicity. “Come, Felicity, sit up straight. That pink satin becomes you very well, I must say. Now, I expect you to try your best to get gentlemen to dance with you.”
“How am I to do that? Should I ask them?”
“Don’t be silly. You mustapplyyourself, Felicity. I shall be watching,” she added, in a cool tone.
Felicity swallowed.
***
Lanwood Manor was much the same as it had always been. Felicity noticed a few changes as they rolled up the drive. The garden was less manicured than before, for one, morenatural. She liked it better that way.
Then the carriage lurched to a halt and it was time to get out. She did so, pointedly not looking at the hedges at one side of the carriage, in case she saw an interesting plant.
