Chapter Four
Valor stopped inher tracks. The afternoon had gone by so joyfully. Three of her youngest nieces and nephews had come for a visit. Serenity’s girl Daisy, Verity’s boy Henry, and Winsome’s boy Leland had made happy chaos in the drawing room.
Valor had heard all about them in letters of course, but what jolly little people they were. At least, mostly. Young Henry Foster could not be mistaken for anybody’s son other than Lord Wembly, as he came with a shock of red hair. While Verity assured her that Henry could be in a temper on occasion, he’d spent the hour very creditably by laughing at everything that caught his notice and Sir Galahad in particular. Isabelle had more wildly swinging emotions, so was sometimes laughing and sometimes red in the face. Leland was really still a baby and spent most of the time examining how the other two were up on their feet and trying to accomplish the same.
Now this evening was to be a family party and she would see all her sisters and her dear nieces and nephews after a long parting. She’d just risen to go above stairs to change her dress when the duke had said, “By the by, did I mention that Tramondeley is coming?”
“Tramondeley?” Valor asked, turning round. “Your heir? The terrible fellow who might make me a governess to his children if I end a spinster?”
“Ah yes, as to that, perhaps I outlined the worst case. Perhaps he’s not as bad as that. In any event, he is living just across the square.Seemed like it wouldn’t be the thing to ignore him. We’ll take him as we find him, I suppose.”
Her father’s heir. They’d never laid eyes on him. All Valor knew about him was that the duke and Tramondeley’s father had never seen eye to eye. His father had been a very serious sort of person and the duke…was not. His father thought the winds of fate had been blowing in the wrong direction to have made her papa the heir and not himself.
They’d had a final falling out about something or other and never spoke again.
“Cheer up, remember that all my grandchildren are coming too. We’ll see them before dinner and then they will be entertained by the housemaids below stairs. That is the end of the good news, I’m afraid,” the duke said. “We will also see your aunt. Apparently, Lady Misery has got her claws into Tramondeley, though I do not know how she even discovered he was in Town. She’s sent me a note that she was coming whether I liked it or not.”
Goodness, Tramondeley was coming and so was Lady Marchfield. It was not to be the carefree dinner she’d imagined.
Valor hurried out of the room and up the stairs. She was relieved to find Mrs. Right already waiting for her. She examined the rather simple dress that lay on the bed.
“I think I will wear something different,” she said. “I thought this dinner was to be just my sisters and their husbands, but did you know that Lord Tramondeley is coming?”
“Tramondeley?” Mrs. Right said in evident surprise. “The duke’s heir? I thought he was holed up in Cornwall somewhere.”
“Now he’s here and living just across the square,” Valor said. “And Lady Marchfield comes too.”
“Does she now?” Mrs. Right said. “I suppose she’ll want to have a look at how Mr. Huberville gets on.”
“Howdoeshe get on?” Valor asked. “Every time I see him he looks as if he’s seen a ghost.”
“Aye, that’s his natural condition. He is nervous and apologetic and falling down every time a person turns round.”
“Goodness.”
“Goodness is one word for it. Now, what do you think about that dark-blue silk with the velvet edging on the bodice and cuffs?”
Valor nodded, as it was a very good choice. Just then, the door was flung open and her oldest sister, Felicity, burst into the room with a case under her arm. “There you are, Val. Gracious, you have grown into a proper lady!”
“Felicity!” Valor said, flinging herself into her sister’s arms.
“Now, I do not arrive so early for no reason,” Felicity said, laying the case on the bed. “I have conducted a sisterly conference of sorts about what we ought to do about your jewelry, or lack of it.”
Valor had long been aware that she’d got the short end of the stick regarding her mother’s jewelry. Their father had allowed them to take what pieces they liked, but Valor had been far too young for the task. She’d picked out the worst sort of paste and anything loud and colorful that had caught her eye. For years, she’d been dogged about wearing a particularly awful, enameled parrot pin.
“We’ve all contributed pieces that we thought would suit,” Felicity said, opening the case.
Inside were all manner of necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and even a tiara.
“We all pitched in for the tiara as nobody could be convinced to give up their own,” Felicity said, laughing. “Poor Stratton was taken aback to get a bill from Rundell & Bridge for one-sixth of a tiara. He wished to know what I planned to do about the other five-sixths.”
“I could wear it tonight, even though I am not engaged,” Valor said, marveling at the platinum and diamond piece. “Papa will not mind it.”
Mrs. Right had fetched the dark-blue silk. Felicity looked it over and said, “Perhaps add the delicate diamond necklace, that came fromGrace and will suit the dress very well—it’s not too showy.”
Her sisters were very dear to compose a jewelry case for her. She really had not known what she was to do about that.
“Felicity, did you know Lord Tramondeley was coming tonight?”
