“We are going to invite Aunt Jenny and Great-Aunt Kitty too,” Susan said, bouncing in her seat. “They are sure to want to come.”
“We will send you a written invitation to make it official,” Raymond offered. “Though we will have to do a bit of guessing about the wind when we choose a day. Do say you will come, Lady Philippa.”
“I may have to have a grandstand built to accommodate all ourguests,” Viscount Mayberry said cheerfully. “My own side of the family is to be invited too. They will be suitably thrilled. But this kite launch is sure to be a sight to behold, Lady Philippa. Something to tell your grandchildren about one day. We can only hope the contraption will be beheld in the sky and not languishing forlornly on the grass.”
“Please,pleasesay you will come,” Susan said. “I am going to paint it orange. And green and blue.”
“I will have to see if I am free that day,” Philippa said evasively. “But I do know the thrill of seeing a kite up in the sky. I remember once watching my brother Nicholas fly one while running along the crest of the hills at the edge of our property. His was homemade too. He made it with the help of Ben, our eldest brother. I was about your age at the time, Susan, and thought it about the most awe-inspiring sight I had ever seen.”
What had she done now? Philippa wondered as the barouche drove off toward the Serpentine for a toy boat and duck to sail upon and the marquess turned the curricle in the direction of the gates. She hoped those children were not counting upon her coming with their uncle to see them launch their new kite. It was simply not going to happen. But it was so difficult to disappoint children when they were excited about something that was very important to them. Perhaps if they really did send her a written invitation she would come here on foot. Stephanie would probably be happy to accompany her. They could keep their distance from the family spectators yet also make sure the children knew they were there.
Viscountess Mayberry, she thought with an inward sigh, had looked at her while they were being introduced in almost the exact way Mama had looked at her earlier. With pleased speculation, that was. And with a hopeful question in her eyes: Was there a romance in the wind?
There wasnot.Oh good heavens, there most decidedly was not. It was a horrible irony, though, that she liked every one of his family she had met so far. And they all seemed to like her.
“If your brother Devlin Ware is now the Earl of Stratton,” the marquess said as they were turning back onto the street beyond the park gates, “how is it, Lady Philippa, that your eldest brother isBen?”
“He was born before my father married my mother,” she explained. “His own mother died when he was three years old, and he grew up with us. Presumably his mother had no family or else they were unwilling to give him a home. Papa brought him to Ravenswood before I was born. His name is Ben Ellis. He is my half brother, but I have always loved him as dearly as I do my other brothers and my sister. He could not inherit the title, of course, for he was born out of wedlock. But he always knew that. So did Devlin. I do not believe it caused any hard feeling between them. They are the closest of friends.”
He said no more. They had both run out of conversation, it seemed. They rode home in silence.
—
Two mornings later a written note was delivered to Stratton House, inviting Philippa and Stephanie to take tea that afternoon with Lady Jennifer at Arden House. The letter to Philippa continued:
After I hoarded your company to myself for far too long at Aunt Kitty’s party, I hope you will not consider this invitation a dreadful imposition on yet more of your time. Perhaps you have another engagement. Perhaps you plan to go walking or driving somewhere pretty and rural since the weatherpromises to be unseasonably warm later. But if you can persuade yourself to do without the“spacious” part, then I can provide prettiness in the form of the garden behind the house here. We can sit outside and take tea at our leisure and talk to our hearts’ content.
I am twenty-three, but I remember just what it feels like to be sixteen and neither a child nor an adult, just someone living in a no-man’s-land between and filled to the eyebrows with dreams. Do please assure Lady Stephanie that she has not just been tacked onto this invitation because I felt obliged to include her. I will be more than delighted to make her acquaintance and perhaps coax her into sharing some of her dreams. Do come if you will.
With my best regards,
Jenny
If you will.Yet again it seemed to Philippa a cruel thing that the lady with whom she had felt most affinity of all those she had met since she came to London also happened to behissister. Going to Arden House would put her in danger of coming face-to-face with him again. Though, as he himself had pointed out in Hyde Park, that was bound to happen over and over again anyway during the Season. She must not start trying to avoid all the places where he might be. Staying shut up inside Stratton House until summer came and it was time to return to Ravenswood was neither sensible nor an option.
Besides, Stephanie was delighted by the invitation, and so was their mother, who professed herself quite ready for a quiet afternoon at home alone.
The garden behind Arden House was indeed pretty. It wasbordered on opposite ends by the house and the mews and on the sides by high rustic fences covered with ivy and other climbing plants, including roses, though they were not blooming yet, of course. But other flowers were. Flower beds were bright with spring blooms, and the grass, lovingly tended, was lush and very green. Sunshine poured down, and the sheltering walls and fences captured the heat and made it seem more like summer than spring.
Jenny, already seated in her wheeled chair, beamed happily at Philippa and held out both hands to her sister. “You must be Stephanie,” she said. “I amsopleased you have come with Pippa. And just look at yourhair.You are both blond, but you are all gold while she is all silver. Those braids about your head arethick.Your hair must reach below your waist when it is brushed out. How longisit?”
“Well, it covers my— It is very long,” Stephanie said, flushing. “Miss Field, my governess, and Mama’s maid keep trying to persuade me to have it cut, but I do not wish to.”
“Dismiss them immediately,” Jenny said, smiling brightly to indicate that she was not serious. “How dare they? Your hair is your own property. It is part of your person. You ought to be able to do with it whatever you like. And in your case it is almost literally your crowning glory. But now that I have incited you to insurrection—with your sister as a witness—let me invite you to sit down.”
Stephanie was beaming. Her heart had clearly been won. Soon the three of them were conversing with great animation on a wide variety of topics, and Philippa was enjoying herself, more than ever convinced that Jenny would remain her friend for a long time to come, even after they had both returned home to the country. Just like her mother and Lady Catherine Emmett a generation ago.
“Luc took me to call upon our sister this morning,” Jenny told them as she poured a second cup of tea for them all. “She is almost seven years older than I am, Stephanie. She and Sylvester have threechildren whom both Luc and I adore, though Sylvester declares they will surely turn his hair white before he turns forty if, indeed, they do not first render him bald. Susan insisted upon brushing out my hair even though my poor maid had spent almost half an hour styling it before I left here. My niece lamented the fact that her mama had not inherited the family hair color but is simply dark-haired, as my mother was. She was sad too thatshehas even lighter-colored hair, just like her papa.”
“Susan is a very pretty child,” Philippa said. “I have met her.”
“Of course she is,” Jenny said. “Have either of you heard about The Kite?” She widened her eyes and spoke the words as though they ought to be written with capital letters. “It has been constructed by my brother-in-law, though Susan and Timothy are ready to swear that he merely lent them the occasional helping hand. It is to be tested out soon in Hyde Park, and we have all been invited to witness it—Aunt Kitty, Luc, and I believe Sylvester’s relatives too.”
“Oh yes,” Philippa said. “I was given a verbal invitation when I met them in Hyde Park the day before yesterday and was promised a more formal written one when the time comes. They have probably forgotten, however. I am, after all, no more than a stranger to them.”
“Forgotten?”Jenny said, laughing. “A prospective witness to their genius? Never. You would not even suggest such a thing if you knew my niece and nephews better. You must come in the barouche with Aunt Kitty and me. Both of you. It will be fun, I daresay, though I will have all my fingers crossed that the kite does indeed take to the skies. Kites can be temperamental.”
“Oh, I would love to see it,” Stephanie said. “I will persuade Miss Field to let me go on the grounds that it is educational, that I am making a study of how birds fly.”
