Chapter Twenty
The ash bucketMeggy had dropped sent up a cloud of dust in the corridor. The girl shrieked and fled in the other direction, leaving the mess behind.
This recalled both of them to the idea that they were in an open corridor in a house full of people, including the duke. Or Rolly, as he was sometimes called.
While Winsome was assured of her father’s good humor, Manderbey thought he might have pushed that good humor rather far the night before and did not wish to push it further by mauling his daughter in his own house.
Manderbey unhanded her and they proceeded down the stairs hand in hand and laughing. The duke was asked for a private word. Winsome could not know what their conversation entailed beyond seeking the necessary approval, though Valor did assure her that she’d given the duke a full and detailed accounting of what she’d been forced to view that morning.
Whether the duke had been equally horrified by the description would never be known. If he was, it did not stop him from accepting Lord Manderbey as his next son-in-law.
A half hour and it was done. The two gentlemen came out of the library to find Winsome pacing the drawing room and Valor sitting arms crossed and glaring at her.
As the duke nodded in her direction to indicate his approval,Winsome had a great wish to fling herself into Manderbey’s arms again. She did not do so out of respect for her father, and they went into the breakfast room in a circumspect attitude. There would be time to be far less circumspect in future.
It came as no surprise to anybody that Valor trudged behind them deeply sighing and muttering to herself.
At table, Manderbey seemed to note Valor’s absolute disgust for him and his person. He said, “Lady Valor, I feel compelled to compliment you on being a worthy opponent, right from the beginning.”
Valor stared at him with rather dead eyes.
“I had a notion, though, that we might call a truce.”
“Why?” she said. “All I have left now is my dog. You are taking my last sister away.”
“Yes, I did think about that,” Manderbey said. “But then I thought if Lady Winsome is going, why not visit where she is going? When we return from the wedding trip we will settle in my house in Torquay. It has a terrific view of the sea. Why not come there for a few months?”
Valor appeared skeptical, though it was the most darling proposal ever made. And then of course, nobody would ever know that they’d been in Torquay all along.
“Do you go walking around there with no shirt on? Because I could not bear to see it a second time,” Valor said.
“Not in the corridors, at any rate,” Manderbey said.
“Can Sir Galahad come?”
“I would not dream of leaving him behind.”
Valor seemed to consider it. Winsome knew her well enough to know she desperately wished to say she would come. But she just as desperately wished to condemn everything about Lord Manderbey.
“I would also point out that my dowager lives there,” Manderbey said. “She would find it a real blessing, as everybody knows old people are particularly drawn to you.”
This happened to be one of Valor’s strong-held beliefs. She wasutterly convinced that she had the natural ability to cheer the elderly, despite pointing out to them that they were old, which Winsome was equally convinced they could not like. She could see that Valor wavered at the idea of an old person requiring her beneficial company.
“Val, I really believe it would do the dowager good to have you there,” Winsome said.
“Well, I cannot say I am eager to go, especially because of what I saw this morning,” Valor said, once more insulting Lord Manderbey for good measure. “But I wouldn’t want an old person to suffer because of my own feelings. I am, before anything, charitable and gracious.”
Winsome pressed her lips together to stop her laughter. She adored Valor, but the last two descriptives she would have come up with were charitable and gracious.
“There we go, Val,” the duke said with a snort, “it’s settled. Manderbey will send word that they’ve returned to Torquay and I’ll take you and the dowager there myself. I have an old friend with very good fishing not twenty miles off. Mrs. Right and the boys will have much needed time off in the Dales as the house will be empty. Everybody will be pleased.”
It was clear enough that Manderbey had arranged it all when he was behind closed doors with the duke, but Valor did not seem to apprehend it.
“What about Mr. Wicket?” Valor asked. “Where is he to go? He’s not to come to the Dales with us, is he?”
“Ah yes, that fellow,” the duke said. “I can’t think how he’s still hanging about the place. I was mightily surprised to see him last evening, as I imagined he must be long gone.”
Charlie cleared his throat from the sideboard. The duke turned. “Charlie, if you know something, out with it,” he said.
