“But you said—”
“Never mind. What are you going to do about the uneven numbers? We don’t know any more presentable gentlemen who can fill in at this short notice.”
“I’ll gladly take a tray in my room,” Eleanor volunteered. She hadn’t completely adjusted to the change in time zones, and jet lag was catching up with her. “I’m still rather tired after my journey.”
“And have everyone speculate on the absence of two guests?” Aunt Patience appeared horrified. “Especially after his marked attentions to you? Absolutely not.”
“Everything will be fine,” Deirdre said, remaining calm in the face of terrible disaster—uneven numbers at the table. “We will not be judged by London standards out here in the country. This is a simple family dinner with a few close friends in attendance.”
Aunt Patience sniffed. “Well, I intend to give Lord Shermont a piece of my mind if he joins the party later in the evening as that odious little man intimated he would.”
“Lord Shermont is our guest,” Deirdre said, issuing an unspoken restraining order that did not sit well with her aunt. She held the door open. “And it’s time to dress for dinner.”
Aunt Patience huffed her way out.
“You don’t seem to have a … loving relationship with your aunt,” Eleanor commented.
Deirdre folded her arms and set her mouth into a straight line. “Aunt Patience refuses to admit I’m grown up and perfectly capable of running this household.”
“She’s not really our aunt,” Mina explained. “Patience simply arrived with Teddy, her sister’s bastard …”
“Mina!”
“Well, it’s the truth. We eventually pieced together the story. Father met Teddy’s mother, Victorine, at Versailles while on his Grand Tour. She was beautiful and angelic. He was already engaged.”
“The proverbial star-crossed lovers.”
“Before he could make arrangements to break his commitment and marry Victorine, he was recalled to England because Grandfather was dying. Father sent word to her, but none of his letters were answered. Then, during the French Revolution, he lost hope and did as his father had wished. He married the girl he’d been engaged to—our mother.”
“I’m sure he must have cared for her, too,” Eleanor said.
“They were not an … emotional couple,” Deirdre said in a matter-of-fact voice. “But they were well-suited nonetheless. An arranged marriage.”
Eleanor told herself such was the custom of the day, but it seemed so calculated and cold.
“Father did finally hear from Victorine,” Mina said. “She’d had a child and feared for his life. He sent money for her to bring his son to safety in England. Even though he couldn’t marry her, he intended to acknowledge little four-year-old Teddy.
“Victorine died on the journey,” Deirdre said. “Her sister Patience brought Teddy the rest of the way here. Mother refused to receive either one, and it created an irreparable rift between our parents. She died several months later. I was three years old, and Mina was still an infant.”
“I wouldn’t know anything of Mother if it weren’t for the stories the older servants told us. She was sweet and kind and loved us very much.” Mina sniffled. “Father named Teddy his heir, and he was the proverbial apple of his eye.”
“We might as well have been invisible,” Deirdre added, sounding more candid than bitter.
“But your father took care of you in his will. The jewels. Your dowries. That must mean he loved you.”
“He probably did, in his own way. But as far as the inheritance went, he didn’t have a choice,” Deirdre said. “As heir, Teddy received the entailed property, but the bulk of the estate came from Mother’s family and was already designated for her offspring in the marriage contracts.”
“Much of the artwork, silver, household goods, and the money in the funds belonged to our mother, and she left detailed documents specifying how everything is to be divided between us. She didn’t want us to squabble over who got what and become estranged as had happened in her family.”
So Teddy got the title, the land, and the manor house, but the girls got the bulk of the money and almost all the stuff. “You should take a clue from your mother and be involved with your finances.”
Mina shook her head. “He may be in truth only a half-brother, but he has always taken good care of us. Why, after Father died, Teddy could have set us out of our very home if he’d wanted. Where would we have gone?”
“We trust Teddy,” Deirdre said. “On the other hand, we are a bit wary of Aunt Patience.”
“She takes things,” Mina said. “Like a magpie. Shiny baubles find their way into her room. We saw Mother’s dresser set in there, but she denied taking it. After that she started locking her door.”
“She has always placed Teddy’s interest over ours,” Deirdre said. “And he treats her like the mother he never knew. We have learned to be careful around her.”
Eleanor already knew Aunt Patience hadn’t done a good job chaperoning the girls, or one wouldn’t have gotten into trouble and precipitated a duel. Now that she knew she couldn’t depend on any backup, her job got more difficult.
Fortunately, she wouldn’t have to deal with Shermont at dinner. She refused to name her disappointment as anything other than relief.
Chapter Six
As they walked down the stairs to meet the rest of the party, Deirdre hooked her arm with Eleanor’s. “I’m sorry you will be paired with the rector as a dinner partner, but I really have no other option since you are the lowest ranking female guest.”
Walking behind them, Mina giggled. Deirdre shot a frown over her shoulder.
“I’m just happy it isn’t me,” the younger sister replied.
“I’ll make it up to you, I promise,” Deirdre said to Eleanor.
“I hope I don’t make a fool of myself by using the wrong fork or something.”
“Copy what Deirdre does,” Mina said. “That’s what I always do. And when in doubt, talk about the weather.”
Pausing at the parlor entrance, Deirdre turned to the butler standing at attention nearby. “You may ring the assembly gong, Tuttle.”
He bowed, and with an air of solemn ceremony he opened a tall case of darkest wood to the left of the front door, exposing a large brass circular plate with exotic engravings. He removed a batonlike device from a high shelf and struck the gong.
Eleanor resisted the urge to cover her ears.
“An ancestor of our mother’s brought it back on his return from the Second Crusade,” Deirdre said. “Come. Our guests will be arriving shortly.” The sound of the front door knocker followed their entry into the parlor. “Ah, that would the vicar and his rector. Always punctual.”
“Especially if it involves a free meal,” Mina whispered to Eleanor as she took her place beside her sister. “If I were you, I’d find an out of the way corner until other guests arrive, or you’ll be stuck talking to the rector all evening.”
Eleanor took Mina’s advice and sat in one of two chairs that faced the window. If she peeked around the high wingback, she could see nearly the entire room, but she was out of the traffic pattern.
As the first guest to arrive, the vicar positioned himself near the fireplace and watched the entrance with a welcoming smile. The rector took a post next to a table that held a bowl of sugar-coated nuts that Eleanor knew as Jordan almonds, her favorite movie theater treat. She’d once read on the back of the box that a honey-coated version of the confection dated back to the ancient Romans and that the sweet had been around in recognizable sugar-coated form since the fifteenth century. The rector put one candy in his mouth and another in his pocket. He repeated the process every time the vicar looked the other way.
Although the girls had not set up a formal receiving line, over the next fifteen minutes Deirdre greeted each newcomer, took the person by the arm, introduced the guest to someone, and provided a topic of conversation of mutual interest before moving back to the door to start the process over again. If Deirdre was busy, Mina smoothly
