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A footman hurried to right the table and see to Carlyle while the room dissolved into laughter and a few titters of disapproval.
“However, did you manage to do that with such perfect timing?” Sir John wondered aloud, unable to resist laughing along with the rest at the poor young man’s plight.
“Charlotte did you trip him?” Asked Keegain.
“Ruddy! Perish the thought! You know, I do not need to trip Carlyle,ortime anything,” laughed Charlotte. “He blunders about so often that the odds were decidedly in my favor.”
“I am glad he saved the Meissen. I like that statue,” the dowager said petulantly.
“Carlyle, you ought to know better than to badger Charlotte,” Helen put in, patting their cousin’s arm sympathetically.
“I forgive you, Carlyle.” Charlotte said sweetly to her cousin. “One should never take familial teasing to seriously.”
“That is why it is so irresistible to tease you.” Carlyle replied. One of these days Iwillget the better of you, Charlotte Keening.”
“You can try,” Keegain said shaking his head.
“Perhaps, if you stumble and I do not manage to get out of the way in time,” Charlotte agreed, with a smile.
The company laughed again and Carlyle blushed to be the butt of their jokes. He was only a few years older than Charlotte and had not attended many balls, but his gracelessness was already a matter of note.
Charlotte thought at first, Sir John seemed uncomfortable with the boisterousness of her family. She could understand that. Their words seemed to fall over one another as the many relations talked without ceasing and sometimes it was hard to follow a conversation, but as Charlotte interpreted, he seemed to warm to the homey atmosphere and teasing comradery. He was starting to relax, which might have been the casual atmosphere, or the excellent free flowing brandy.
Just then, Lady Sophia arrived with her husband and children. Charlotte hugged her eldest sister and cooed over her young niece and nephews. Usually, Sophia came to adult events without her children, but she and Mr. Gibbon were planning to stay several nights and so the children came too. The dowager fussed over her grandchildren and commented on how they had grown. She spoke to them each in turn and promised them a trip to Kennett Park and spoke of mornings at the stables with Uncle Randolph.
“Are you volunteering me for things?” Keegain asked, after he greeted his eldest sister.
“You love volunteering,” Sophia said, handing her youngest, a swaddled bundle to the nurse as Ruddy ruffled the little boy’s hair.
“But can’t we listen to even one song?” her oldest, a little girl of only four years, protested stomping her tiny slippered foot.
“You know what I told you. Not when there is company. Now, off with you.”
“I hate company,” the little girl groused dragging her feet as she followed her nanny upstairs.
“We do not hate your grandmother’s guests,” Sophia admonished. “Ladies do not act so.”
“I don’t want to be a lady,” the little girl said promptly, much to her mother’s dismay.
“Remind you of anyone?” Lord Keegain asked Charlotte, who opened her mouth and closed it again in dismay.
“I never,” she said, but Sir John laughed at the comparison and Charlotte couldn’t help but smile.
Lady Sophia sighed once the children were safely upstairs with their nanny. She took a glass of wine from a footman’s tray and sipped a rather larger than normal swallow.
“I do love them,” she said shaking her head. “But sometimes Elsie is so headstrong.
“This age is easy,” the dowager said. “Wait until she has her debut.”
“I was hoping one of her aunts might take that chore,” Sophia said looking at Charlotte.
“Don’t look at me,” Charlotte said laying a hand on her chest. “Perhaps Jane.”
They all laughed and Charlotte realized that Sir John had drifted backward. “I know we are a boisterous bunch to become acquainted with. I think my brother may have been hasty with his invitation. We have thrown you in the deep end, as it were,” Charlotte joked.
“No truly. I am enjoying myself,” he said, a look of wistful longing on his face as he glanced about the room. “Your family is just how I would have imagined one should be.” Charlotte felt a pang of compassion for the man who had no close family of his own. She squeezed his hand in sympathy. She was now most glad she was able to share her relations with him. When their hands touched, she was struck once again by the pang of desire that flowed through her. Her breath caught. She was certain Sir John felt it too as he gazed down at her.
“So Sir John,” the dowager interrupted, when she noticed how closely John and Charlotte stood. “You are still interested in the company of my willful daughter?”
