“Ah, Deirdre!I can fiiiind you,” called another female.
“Who’s out there with the girls?”he asked, pleased that his daughters were having fun.The first young woman whose laughter drew him was not the only one in the mayhem outside.
His mother leaned close, her conspiratorial expression also desperate.“Richard’s choice and her friend.”
He girded himself to greet the candidate to be the next marchioness of Ridgemont.She’d have beauty to match her money, no doubt about it.Richard would take no less.“I’m ready to meet them both.”
“Ah, here’s tea,” his mother announced as Fawkes the butler appeared from the main house with a tray.“I assume you’re starved.”
“I am,” he said with pleasure that he was about to eat.“Most especially for Cook’s lemon curd and raspberry tarts.”
“Cook,” said the elderly butler as he gingerly bent to place the tray on the table before Victor’s mother, “made them first thing this morning for you, sir.”
“I shall come down later to give her my thanks,” he said with a wink at the man he’d known all his life.
“She’ll appreciate that, sir.”The servant squinted through his rimless glasses, focusing on his duties to finish the tea presentation.“Will there be anything else, Your Grace?”
“No, Fawkes.”She lifted the glass dome over a plate of tea sandwiches and shortbread cookies.“I see you’ve given us the items the girls adore.”
“Cook likes to please them, too, ma’am.”The man excused himself and with careful steps, backed away.
After he closed the door behind him, Victor sat back while his mother poured for him.“Fawkes seems to suffer from failing vision.”
“He does,” his mother said and handed him his cup and saucer.“He won’t admit it.I’ve asked Doctor Weeks to look in on him whenever he comes to visit your father.Glasses help but do not solve the problems age creates.I use them now myself.”
“I do too.To read.”He sipped his tea and waited while his mother served herself.
“Oh?When did that become necessary?”
“A few months ago.Reading Mandarin calligraphy requires a sharp eye for the delicacy of the strokes.Miss one and you’ve misinterpreted so badly that you’ve insulted someone you wished to praise.”
“Poor dear.”
“Oh, Mama, thank all under heaven, not poor at all.”
“What you were meant to do there,” she said with pride, her chin high.
“Exactly.”
“How well have you done?Forgive my boldness to ask.Your father simply tells me you are your own man.‘Good fellow.Solid.’”
“I’m proud to say I’ve made a surprising fortune in Shanghai.I’ve enough to travel this year and next if I like.Profit enough to improve the house in Hanover Square for Viv, Deirdre and myself.”His Chinese laborers dubbed himtai-pan, though he was less wealthy by half than most foreigners in the international settlement.“My reading glasses damage only my vanity.”
She sniffed.“At thirty-one, you shouldn’t need spectacles.”
“Nor you, my dear, at fifty-one.”
“You flatter me.Keep doing that.”
“I know where my bread is buttered.”
“Rascal.”She drank her own tea.“I hope you sent up all your trunks from London.I need you to stay with us, Victor.For the girls’ sake, for your father and me.A ray of sunshine.”
“I have brought all our belongings with me.For an extended stay, yes.Hanover Square receives a fresh coat of paint and new upholstery in the public rooms.To tell you the truth, I relish the prospect of summer in the country.”Here, but most especially in the cottage near Brighton, quiet and secluded.“The girls, I know will be charmed by you and Father.They need you and that perspective on family, I believe.”
“And I’m thrilled to provide it.Your papa, even as ill-possessed of all his wits as he is, does too.”
Victor could see the strain apparent in the lines near her eyes.“But Richard worries you.”
