Page 7 of Discovering Grace

“You shall have a whole trunk of nothing but presents upon your return.” Grace chuckled and settled back against her seat. Her sister had a most generous spirit, for all her wildness. “Will you write all your adventures down while you are away so I might read of them later?” she asked, wistfully.

“I wish you could come and take part in everything with me.” Hope turned enough to look around the edge of her bonnet, meeting Grace’s eyes. That sparkle of life had not dimmed since the day she learned she would be on an adventure, nor had she stopped smiling. “I will write everything down in great detail. I will use the diary Mama gave me on our last birthday. I have left it woefully empty all this time.”

Grace laughed. “If you could not keep one at home, where there is so little to distract you, how do you intend to keep a diary when you are facing new exploits every day?”

Adjusting herself to sit more jauntily, Hope answered with a decided air. “I wrote nothing at home because there was nothing but the dullness of everyday life to write down. My days will soon be full of such delight that I shall want nothing more than to record every moment so I can remember it. And share it with you.” She nudged Grace with her shoulder.

The pair laughed, and for the first time Grace did not feel so abandoned by her sister. “I am glad it is you and not I who will go,” she confessed. “I cannot imagine being away from all I know for so long.”

“I would be such a dull creature if you left me behind.” Hope shook her head, her eyebrows furrowing. “Forever imagining all that you must be doing while I was left here to my embroidery.”

“Your embroidery, and your sewing club for the orphans, and your Sunday school for the little girls in the village,” Grace said, easily listing the activities they worked on together.

Hope clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth and affected a shocked expression. “However will you get along without me? Will you busy yourself with all my responsibilities?”

Her sister’s cheeky response gave Grace leave to playfully nudge Hope’s shoulder. “Oh, come now. You know everyone thinks those were your ideas. They might well fall apart when you have gone. I can plan and organize all the day long, but it is you who makes things happen. You make people excited to be part of your plans.”

Hope put a hand to her chest, rather dramatically. “I am the fine actress upon the stage and you are in the orchestra, and behind the curtain, and painting the sets, and making certain I know my lines.” She fixed Grace with a serious frown at last. “Perhaps this will be good for you. It is not right that you do so much of the work and I receive the accolades.”

While it was true that Grace often planned what she and Hope would do, she did not mind her sister accepting the praise and compliments on behalf of them both. What did it matter which sister people attributed the work to, so long as Hope and Grace knew the truth of the matter?

“I haven’t any use for accolades. I only want to see the success. I needn’t be credited with it. You know the attention makes me terribly uncomfortable. I am quite grateful you relieve me from that burden.” Grace adjusted the ribbons of her bonnet when a breeze tried to lift the hat away, her attention drifting to the lane about to converge with theirs. “Oh, look. It is Lord Neil and Lady Olivia.” That ought to change the subject.

Hope groaned and gave the reins a quick shake. “I had rather not greet them, if we can avoid it. They were most rude on our visit yesterday.”

“I do not think expressing their opinions of ocean voyages necessarily rude.” Grace did not argue with the desire to avoid speaking to them, however. Lady Olivia and her brother were not the most pleasant people, though they exuded a strange sort of charm that apparently made them popular in Town.

“Lady Olivia suggesting that a gentlewoman who wished to protect her virtue would never sail was certainly not polite,” Hope muttered, urging their ponies a little faster.

Their neighbors had seen them and hurried their own animals along in order to meet where the lane turned into the larger road. Lady Olivia drove, her phaeton a similar style to the Everlys’ and made particularly for the use of women. Lord Neil sat next to his sister, his lopsided smile lazy and his eyelids half closed.

Lady Olivia hailed them, her voice raised and bright. “Good afternoon, Miss Everly. Miss Grace.” She had adopted something of a lisp recently, and without explanation.

Hope’s expression changed into a grimace and her eyes did not leave the road, so Grace took it upon herself to answer for both of them. “Good afternoon, Lady Olivia and Lord Neil.”

The noblewoman was soon alongside them, handling her reins most expertly. “Are you still making your visits? Goodness me, I would have thought it would not take so long to visit the principal members of the neighborhood. There could not be above seven families worth visiting.”

Grace sensed her sister growing tense beside her. She hurried to answer before Hope’s impatience made her tongue sharp. “Hope has a great many friends and we could not think of her leaving without saying goodbye to all of them.”

“Miss Everly is not so discerning as you in her choice of companions,” Lord Neil said to his sister, his words slow and tone lazy. “Or perhaps people merely like her better.” He met Grace’s eye and offered a wink with those words.

His sister’s hands flicked the reins and she pursed her lips. “Really, Neil.” Her ponies stepped faster with her handling of them.

Hope smirked and flicked her reins as well, keeping pace with them. “Come, Lady Olivia, it is not as though friendships are a competition.” Hope and Grace’s phaeton pulled slightly ahead of the other. “Some have many acquaintances, others few.”

Grace reached out and put her hand on her sister’s arm, a quick and light touch, hoping to bring attention to their increasing speed. Though the ponies might never win a race against a horse of regular size, they could certainly go faster than Grace wished.

Lifting her nose in the air, Lady Olivia continued speaking as though she had not heard Hope. “I suppose when one puts herself forward constantly, she is bound to be known far and wide by such a reputation.”

It took a great deal of control for Grace to keep her mouth shut over a retort on her twin’s behalf. Unfortunately, Hope did not exercise the same restraint.

“Better my reputation than yours, Lady Olivia. Everyone knows you are a snob and make the very dullest conversation.”

Lady Olivia’s face flamed and she sped her ponies up faster. They were at a trot now, and soon would be at full gallop if someone did not put a stop to the competitive display.

Instead of coming to his sister’s defense, Lord Neil started laughing and sat up straighter. “Touché, Miss Everly. What have you to say to that, sister? You are something of a bore.”

“I say I have no desire to converse any further with such rude and ridiculous women.” Lady Olivia had forgotten to use her affected lisp. Her eyes flashed as she sent a glare in their direction. Her nose wrinkled and her lips curled back in disgust. “In second-rate carriages with fly-infested nags.” Then she fairly whipped her ponies, forcing them into a run.