Bridget, to her credit, was not cowed. She lifted her chin.
“Do you know who I am?”
The butler wasn’t cowed either. He looked her up and down and pursed his lips.
“No, madam.”
“I am Lady Randall, Dowager Viscountess Randall. I am the duke’s aunt, and this here is Miss Randall, his cousin. We are here to visitfamily, if I were you, I’d change your attitude, my good sir.”
Pippa bit back a wince. Perhaps the butlerwasa little snobbish, but making an enemy of him wouldn’t make the family any more likely to like them.
The butler stared at them for a long moment, then heaved a sigh.
“Very well. You will be shown to a parlour while I ask their Graces if you’ll be received today.” He stepped back, and they both hurried inside before he could change his mind.
The butler shot them both a tired, disapproving stare. Pippa tried not to notice.
“Follow me, please.”
***
After two years of living in increasingly smaller cottages and finally a set of low-ceilinged, musty-smelling rooms, Pippa found herself a little unsettled in the vast hallways. The ceilings flew up away from them, cavernous and echoing. Portraits of serious-faced Willenshires stared down at them from the walls, interspersed with landscapes and works by the old masters.
Their footsteps echoed, the sound following them along the stone hallways. The butler strode ahead, leaving Bridget and Pippa to scurry along behind him.
My mother grew up in this house,Pippa thought, with a shiver.She was a Willenshire.
What was it like?
Bridget had never spoken much about her childhood, or about her brother. Aside from the brief, shining period when Pippa was brought to play with her cousin, Katherine, there’d been no connection between the family.
The butler gestured for them to step into a neat little parlour, mercifully smaller and cozier than the yawning hallways. She suspected it was an insultingly drab and small room, but could only feel relief at not being shown to some fine, huge space that was too large for them.
“Please remain here while I inform their Graces of your presence,” the butler said severely. “If they are not able to see you, you will have to leave.”
“I hope they’ll see us,” Pippa burst out, before she could stop herself. Bridget threw her an angry glance, and she felt colour rise to her cheeks. The butler was eyeing her curiously, and she smiled nervously. “I haven’t seen my cousins in such a long time. I haven’t even been able to congratulate them on their marriages.”
The butler’s expression softened. “If their Graces cannot see you today,” he said kindly, “I’m sure they will make time for you later. Please, make yourselves comfortable. Tea will be sent along soon.”
With that he withdrew, closing the door behind him. Bridget threw Pippa an annoyed stare.
“What on earth are you doing, trying to charm the butler?”
Pippa flushed. “Mama, I’m only trying to be pleasant. And he was much kinder to us after all. People only want to be treated kindly.”
Bridget snorted, tossing her head. She strode over to the window and stared out. Outside, a gentle rain began to fall, casting a dreary mist upon the windowpanes. The hired carriage with its newly fixed wheel was waiting as they’d asked, with their cases sitting hopefully on the top.
Pippa lowered herself onto a plush sofa, quietly marvelling at how fresh and soft it was, not even a little threadbare.
“I never asked, Mama,” she said, after a moment or two of silence, “but why did I spend time with Katherine? If there was such a breach between you and my uncle, why was I permitted to play with her when we were children?”
Bridget heaved a sigh, and for a long moment, Pippa thought she was not going to answer.
“My brother went abroad for business,” she said at last. “The Duchess – well, she’s the dowager duchess now, I suppose, but I called her Mary – wrote to me. You and Katherine might be friends, she thought. So, for a little while, we paid visits and you girls played together.”
“I see,” Pippa digested this. “And why did the visits stop?”
“My brother came home,” Bridget responded simply.
