“Maybe he broke his neck,” Valor said in a gruesomely hopeful tone.
The rest of her sisters agreed with that sentiment and nodded. Sisterly loyalty could really be very touching.
The family eventually made their way into the drawing room and Mrs. Right joined them after supervising below stairs. They played lottery tickets for a while and then lapsed into desultory conversation.
They were all mightily surprised when they heard the door knocker smartly rapped.
Chapter Nineteen
Felicity, and everybodyreally, stared toward the drawing room doors. Charlie, having grown relaxed leaning on the doorframe, almost fell over from the surprise knocks coming from outside. He regained his balance and ran for the door.
“If it’s my sister come to complain about something, don’t let her in,” the duke shouted after Charlie.
In a moment, Charlie was back and looking exceedingly perplexed. “It is a letter delivered. For Lady Valor,” he said.
“What, ho?” the duke said, laughing. “Has my youngest been keeping secret liaisons I know nothing about?”
Valor looked very concerned to hear of the letter, and then more concerned over her father’s joking. “What is a liaison, Papa?”
“Never mind it,” the duke said jovially. “Let us see who this letter is from and what it says.”
Valor, having received the first letter of her life, looked at it, marveling. She broke the seal and unfolded the paper.
The paper was written in a close hand and entirely filled.
“Why is there so much writing?” Valor asked. “It’s like a whole book!”
“Who is it from, though?” Grace asked.
Of course, Felicity wished desperately to know too. Who else could it be from but Mr. Stratton? She did not say so, though, as she was in the midst of pretending he meant nothing to her.
Valor peered down at the paper and ran her finger down to the end. “It is from Mr. Stratton. I am afraid he is not as ashamed as he should be, or he would not have written us back.”
“Written us back?” Felicity blurted out.
“I told you that me and Mrs. Wendover would write him a scolding letter,” Valor said.
“I know you said…” Felicity trailed off.
“But none of us thought you would do it,” Winsome said.
The duke filled the room with laughter. “You didn’t think she’d do it, but she did do it. Eh, Valor, you went and gave Mr. Stratton the what-for!”
“Mrs. Wendover and I were very stern and told him he was mean.”
The duke guffawed, though Felicity felt her cheeks burn. It was giving something away for Valor to tell Mr. Stratton he was mean. It gave away that she’d been injured, which she did not wish for.
“Give me the letter, Valor,” Felicity said. “It is too long for you to read and if there is anything in it that anybody needs to know I will tell you.”
Though Valor had been honored to receive her first letter, she was equally willing to give over the task of reading such a long missive.
Felicity took that opportunity to flee to her room with it. She would trust Mrs. Right to stop any sisters who had a notion of following her.
*
Percy was beginningto think his father’s house in Town was somehow beset by bad luck. The doctor had been to see the viscount and confirmed that both a forefinger and a big toe were broken. There was not much to be done about it other than wrapthem and allow them to heal. After the doctor left, the viscount had added brandy into the prescription. He’d been sipping it all day.
Naturally, no person arrived to claim the chains. Percy was not certain what to do with them. Eventually, he had the grooms straighten them out and run them along the side of the house so the horses going in and out of the mews could get by them.
