The Duchess

'I must get downstairs as quickly as possible,' Allegra said. 'It will not do to have the guests without their hostess.'

'Yes, my lady,' Honor replied. 'I'll send an undermaid for your tea right away.'

***

When Allegra descended the stairs an hour later she found the house still quiet. She peeped into the ballroom as she came, and discovered it neat and empty. The beautiful wooden floors were swept clean. The chairs and the settees lining the walls were neatly covered. The great chandeliers had been done up again in dust cloths until the next ball. The tall pedestals were bare of their flowers, and the heavy gold satin draperies were drawn, allowing only slivers of afternoon sunlight to creep between their panels and streak across the floor. Entering the family drawing room she found Sirena sitting, sewing upon a tiny garment.

'You are awake. Crofts said you had not got to bed until alter seven o'clock,' Sirena said. 'You must be exhausted. It was a wonderful ball, cousin. I hope to come to others in this house when I am less encumbered by my belly.' She smiled at Allegra.

'I love him,' Allegra answered. She simply could not keep such news from her beloved Sirena.

'I know,' Sirena replied, looking up and smiling.

'How could you know when even I did not?' her cousin demanded. 'Do not be smug, Sirena, or I shall be very cross with you.'

Sirena laughed. 'Ocky and I both knew the day you married Quinton that you were in love with him. It was simply a matter of you coming to terms with it, facing the truth, and admitting it to yourself. Love is neither practical nor sensible, Allegra, but when it touches you, you are forever changed. We saw that change even before you could face it yourself. I am not being smug. I am relieved, and I am happy for you both. Now I know that everything will be all right.'

'I shall not change because I am in love with my husband,' Allegra protested.

'I do not care how you justify it, cousin,' Sirena said quietly. She held up a tiny gown she was working on. 'Isn't it sweet? It is so amazing to realize that in late March or early April I shall be putting this wee gown on my baby.' She set her sewing aside, and placed her hands upon her belly. 'I thought I felt something very much like a butterfly within me this morning, Allegra.'

Now Allegra smiled. 'Wouldn't it be wonderful if one day my daughter married your son? We must arrange the match one day.'

'Are we dressing for dinner?' Caroline Walworth entered the room now in the company of Eunice Bainbridge.

'No,' Allegra said. 'I shall ask Crofts to set up the highboard in the Great Hall tonight. We can amuse ourselves afterward, but since you are all leaving in the morning, I imagine you will want to make an early night of it.' She sighed. 'I shall miss you when you are gone.'

'Bain says we are going to spend part of the winter in London,' Eunice said.

'So are we,' Caroline squealed. 'I know that you don't like the city, Allegra, but the country is so dull in the winter months. You must come, and we shall all be together.'

'I can't come,' Sirena said sadly.

'No, you can't,' Caroline replied in a practical tone, 'but you were the first wed, and so it is only natural that you are the first of us to have a baby, Sirena. There will be another time for you, dearest, but if the rest of us aren't with child, or at least admitting to it, then we should go. If it snows this winter none of us shall be able to leave home. The snow does not seem to bother anyone in London.'

'Are we keeping city hours, madame?' Quinton Hunter demanded of his wife as he entered the drawing room with the other gentlemen. 'Where is the dinner, Duchess? We are all ravenous for a good supper.'

'Patience, prithee, I pray you, Duke,' Allegra said to him. 'I must ask Crofts to set the table in the Great Hall, but the food, I will wager, is ready, although when you slugabeds were going to join us was a mystery.' Then she curtsied to them all, and hurried from the room to find Crofts.

The dinner was served shortly thereafter, and the hall was filled with merry laughter as the eight friends ate and talked. Lady Caroline presented her plan that they should all meet in London in mid-January. The plan was heartily approved by all present except the viscount and his wife.

'I suppose you could go if you wanted to,' Sirena said forlornly, but they could all see she really didn't mean it.

'You wouldn't mind?' Ocky said hopefully, but then he looked about at the others, and noted their looks of disapproval. 'Of course you wouldn't mind for you are an angel, my darling,' Ocky quickly recovered himself, 'but I shall not leave you at Pickford with our heir so close to being born. What if there was a storm, and I couldn't return to be by your side? No, Sirena, we shall winter at Pickford together.'

'Ohh, Ocky, that is so sweet,' Sirena murmured happily.

After their meal the men decided to play at dice. The ladies insisted on being shown how to play.

'I am not certain that is a good idea,' the Earl of Aston said.

'Afraid of losing to a lady, Marcus?' his wife murmured.

'Damnit, Eunice, there are some things a lady doesn't do,' was the swift answer.

'Ladies play at gambling all the time,' Allegra responded. 'We play at cards, but this game you call Hazard looks like more fun.'

'I thought you didn't like to gamble,' Lord Walworth said.

'She doesn't, except among friends,' his wife replied. 'What is the harm, Adrian, in teaching us your little game?'

'Caroline!'

'Teach them,' the duke said.

'What?' the earl cried. 'You are encouraging this, Quint? You of all people?'

'I do not gamble for real stakes, and neither does my wife. I trust Allegra's good sense not to gamble with strangers, or for any real wager. I must assume that you trust your wives as well,' the duke said.

'Bravo!' Caroline cried, and her female companions clapped.

The Earl of Aston laughed, and held up his hands. 'I surrender, ladies. Very well, here is how you play the game. Hazard uses two dice. The caster who controls the dice throws until he, or she, scores five, six, seven, eight, or nine. Your first throw is called the main. Your second, which must equal the first cast, is called the chance. If your second throw equals your first then you have knicked it. If you throw crabs, which is a two, three, eleven, or twelve, you have thrown out, and lost. You must continue your play until you win or lose. It is simple enough.'

Soon the Great Hall of Hunter's Lair was filled with noisy laughter as they all played Hazard. They made wagers such as a kiss, or a sip of port, or a sugar wafer. When Allegra suddenly realized that the tall clock in the hall had struck ten she called a halt to their game, reminding them of the time.

'What a wonderful evening,' Caroline said enthusiastically. 'We shall have such a grand time in London this winter. We really don't need any other friends but one another. And on our way home in March we shall all come to Pickford to pay our respects to the new heir, Sirena.'