Chapter Eleven
Patience leapt up and very quietly but quickly went up the stairs to Felicity’s bedchamber. She slipped in and found her eldest sister reposed in her bed, the baby sleeping in a bassinet next to her.
She tiptoed over and peeked in. Valor was right, she would be very pretty once she moved past this somewhat awkward stage of life. Just now her face looked a bit scrunched. However, she was a chubby little thing and Mrs. Right always said that was a good sign in a baby.
“No need to be absolutely silent, Patience,” Felicity said. “Miss Isabelle Stratton seems to be a sound sleeper, once she decides to do it.”
“Isabelle! That’s lovely.”
Felicity nodded. “I was determined not to name her after a virtue, aswe’veall been saddled with. She can be any which way she wishes without her name hanging over her head like the Sword of Damocles.”
Patience sat on the bed. “I imagine she will appreciate that. Are you well, Felicity?”
Felicity smiled. “Well, tired, happy, and relieved. I am glad the whole thing is over—I was dreading it.”
Patience nodded, as she supposed anybody would dread it. “Was it awful?” Patience asked.
“I cannot deny it was, I thought it would never end. It did end though, and I must think it well worth the effort.”
Patience sometimes wondered how men could be the stronger sex and yet nature left this most difficult and life-threatening task to women. For all that, though, she wished to have her own children. She just would not think too much about the actual birth. Or the chances of death. It was what took their own mother, after all.
“Percy has been a brick,” Felicity said. “He’s poked his head in constantly since the baby arrived and I think he drives the nursemaid positively mad.”
“Papa has been trying to tell him how to raise daughters and I do not think he’s heard a word of it. He just keeps looking up at the ceiling and saying she’s perfect.”
Felicity laughed. “I’d like to think he speaks about me, but he is entirely besotted with his daughter. Now, how do you get on with Lord Stanford?”
“Oh I do not think I should burden you with my problems at such a time as this.”
“Please do,” Felicity said. “It will distract me, as I am rather sore and my feelings fly up and down like a swooping bird for no reason whatsoever, though I understand that will pass in a few days. In any case, I would like to take my mind off me for a moment.”
Patience nodded and laid out all that had happened since the dinner. When she had finished, she said, “I just do not understand why Lord Stanford has gone off and bought a fan for Lady Alice. And then he was a hero to the rescue when she was taken ill. He practically launched out of his chair like a horse taking a high fence.”
“Hmm. Perhaps you will not get answers to that from Lord Stanford. Perhaps you might approach Lady Alice when she is on the mend.”
“I already did, she went out of her way to say the fan had become a favorite.”
“Well, if you are set on him, I would not give up just yet. After all, many a slip between the cup and the lip. Things may come to nothing with Lady Alice.”
“I hope I am not to be some sort of second choice.”
“No, I do not think so. I think perhaps Lord Stanford merely needs to understand his own inclinations.”
That was of course what Patience was hoping for. “You did mention you thought Lord Stanford might need prompting. I do not know if it would help or not, but how would one go about it?”
Felicity drummed her fingers on her chin. “I do not know Lord Stanford very well, so it is difficult to say. Has he given you any opportunity to hint of your feelings?”
“I do not think so,” Patience said. “He’s a little… reserved. I do not think it is his true nature, meaning the one he was born with. I think he is reserved because he was not born into a very pleasant household. In fact, I know his household was unpleasant. He said it was chaotic.”
“Oh dear,” Felicity said chewing her lower lip. “Goodness, Percy and I have had a few conversations about what our children will experience. They come with their own temperament and then it is shaped by our decisions. Just think, Patience, what my temper would have been if Papa were not so kind.”
Patience nodded, as everybody knew the duke had been sympathetic to Felicity’s boil-overs, especially when she’d been younger and could not control it as well as she did these days.
“I think Lord Stanford is attracted to me but gravitating to Lady Alice because, to him, she represents a dullness and staidness that feels like what he thinks he wants. But he’s wrong and I do not know how to show him he is wrong.”
“Perhaps if you cannot show him, you will have to come right out and tell him.”
“Tell him? Say it? No, I couldn’t! What if he were to look upon me as if I were mad? What if he were disgusted by it? What if he felt bad and worked to let me down gently? Or what if he felt trapped? I should positively die.”
