Best of all, instead of a dingy old storeroom, I’m to have a new workshop with good light and a safe that doesn’t require a handful of keys and the memory of an elephant. Hurrah!
Our neighbors are another bright spot, for I’ve enjoyed meeting them all. They seem a lively and attentive set, no less effusive in their welcome of me than in their hopes for my new regime. On visiting, few have hesitated to broach the subject of the previous duchess’s unsociable habits, nor hint at their satisfaction in finding me her reverse. And none left without securing our attendance at their forthcoming dinner party, dance, or card game.
Of course, this left us bound to return the hospitality, and we did so last night, gathering nearly twenty couples between our neighbors and guests for a New Year’s Eve ball. I delivered the invitations in person, along with anxious warnings and advance apologies for the present deficiency of our household.
But despite dire predictions, my ball was a triumph—in no small part due to my very clever (and totally unwitting) strategy of lowering everybody’s expectations! For it allowed everybody to find our style of entertaining rather better than anticipated, and by that token, discover me to be a capital hostess and charming addition to the neighborhood. I am an instant success!
But alas, nearly four pages I’ve filled and not a word of it to the purpose! I’ve yet even to mention the striking episode which prompted this writing. Horsefeathers, what a jumble I am at present!
I blame my husband and his infernal interruptions. Even now he calls out to me from the bedroom! But I shall not answer him. Tempted though I may be, I shall brook no further distractions.
3 o’clock. — Very well, that was the final distraction.
And I cannot be faulted for giving in, I’ll have you know! Jonathan has learned how to order me about in that gravelly way he has, and if it weren’t for his being the very soul of compassion, I should be properly afraid of his wielding such power. (Also if I didn’t enjoy it so much.)
At any rate, I am now back at my writing desk and determined not to move until I have finished. Jonathan and his tricks be hanged!
The story begins with Christmas dinner—with the plum pudding, to be exact. Our old family recipe calls for little silver charms to be baked into the pudding, which are said to confer special blessings upon whoever should discover them. And this year’s distribution of charms was auspicious indeed! It went as follows:
Found by me: the ship, conferring safe harbor
Found by Jonathan: the wishbone, conferring good luck
Found by Lady Caroline: the ring, conferring a forthcoming marriage
Found by Elizabeth: the coin, conferring a fortune in the offing
Found by Mr. Nathaniel Chase: the thimble, conferring a life of blessedness
Now, to understand the pertinence of all the charms will require some further explanation.
The first two we may dispense with in rapid fashion, for obviously, I’ve at last found (1) safe harbor in the arms of my beloved. Meanwhile, Jonathan has had the great (2) good luck to win his bride after such a series of misfortunes and misunderstandings kept us apart.
Huzzah for love!
Now on to the next. Sometime following the final gift’s unwrapping, a little cache of unopened parcels was discovered—all addressed to Lady Caroline! It was at that point we realized she had never returned to the drawing room, and nor had her champion, Captain Talbot. After Rachael volunteered to go up and knock on the Opal Room’s door, she returned not with a heartened Caroline, but with a note hastily scrawled in her hand. When it was read aloud, we all got a shock: Caroline and Captain Talbot had eloped! (3) A forthcoming marriage!
Nobody looked more shocked than Elizabeth, and after Noah galloped off to alert the would-be-bride’s father, I contrived to see Elizabeth alone and offer consolation. Though the captain is a rogue who everyone knows to be drowning in debt—and though in truth I am thrilled he was stolen from under Elizabeth’s nose—still I felt she deserved compassion for suffering such a disappointment.
But as it turns out, Elizabeth wasn’t disappointed—for it was she who did the disappointing!
When she’d spent Christmas Eve acting withdrawn and preoccupied (which I had noticed, and now feel guilty for having been too wrapped up in my own affairs to address) it was because she’d been contemplating an elopement of her own!
During their ramble that day at the Bignor Villa, Captain Talbot had opened his heart to her, and, citing his modest means as an obstacle to obtaining her brother’s blessing, begged her to run away with him. Believing herself sincerely attached, and with Mary Harris whispering in her ear what a wonderful adventure it should be for Elizabeth (rather, in my estimation, what an entertaining scandal it should be for Mary), my sister needed the better part of a day to make up her mind. But in the end good sense prevailed, and she realized the captain’s charms were not worth the gamble of losing her family’s good opinion, to say nothing of her reputation and all her fortune into the bargain!
For even love-addled Elizabeth couldn’t help seeing what the captain was. To be attempting an elopement—let alone two of them!—the poor fool had to be in truly dire straits. Such a desperate step bespeaks a crisis of the sort one can only hope to escape by securing some impressionable lady’s dowry. Had he got his hands on Elizabeth’s money, most of it would have gone straight to his creditors, with any leavings soon to follow. My poor sister would have been destitute.
But—thank heaven!—that shan’t come to pass. Elizabeth and her future are safe. From the very brink of ruin, she is now restored to every prospect of—prepare yourself for a thunderbolt—(4) a fortune in the offing!
Do you see? The fortune Elizabeth has obtained is her own, rescued from the clutches of a swindler!
Is that not tied with a bow?
I do feel for Lady Caroline, however. Though her father led a party out in pursuit of the fugitives, they managed to evade capture and are in all probability married by now. One can only hope that her fortune—which, as the sole heiress of her father’s estate, is sure to be enormous—combined with her domineering streak, will be enough to either fund or quash her husband’s follies. If anyone could take him on, I’m convinced it is Caroline!
Of the fifth and final prophecy—a blessed life for my cousin Mr. Chase—I’ll admit I stood in doubt. Especially given what happened the morning after my wedding.
We were all at breakfast, after which the guests were to depart, when Mr. Evans stormed into the dining parlor. In a manner permitting no argument, he bid Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel Chase to come with him, and that was that! They left the castle, and we’ve heard nothing from the pair since.
