Leona choked on a muffin crumb. “N-no doubt,” she managed.
“Leona, do you feel quite the thing? Your eyes look funny.”
“Do they? I didn’t sleep well last night. Perhaps that’s why,” she lied weakly.
“Oh dear, and here I was teasing you dreadfully about being late. I’m sorry.”
Leona shook her head and waved her apology aside. “You couldn’t know.”
“Well, you must see that you get some rest today. Though most of the people who will stay here for the ball will not arrive until tomorrow, Nigel says we are to receive some special guests late this afternoon. He won’t say who they are. He’s terribly secretive about it.”
Leona mumbled some response, but Lucy did not pay attention. She was already thinking of other issues. “Mrs. Hatcher has written to say that a gouty foot must keep her from my betrothal dinner and ball. But she shall be sure to come to the wedding even if it must be in a sedan chair. She is the dearest soul. But the upshot is that we shall have an empty place at the table, so Mother has decided to let Chrissy come to the dinner. Isn’t that wonderful! I can’t wait to tell her. She shall wear the beautiful little dress we had made up for her last Christmas. It will be perfect, but I think we will probably need to change the ribbons. What do you say we steal her away from that dragon governess of hers and take her into the village to buy ribbons and perhaps, new stockings and gloves as well?”
“That will be delightful,” Leona said softly.
“Good, then while you finish, I shall tell her.”
Leona watched her leave, then sighed, wondering how she was going to get through the day. She turned back toward her plate to discover Maria watching her.
“Are you taking sick again, Leona?”
“No! No! Not at all. I’m just tired.”
“Humph.So I heard you tell Lady Lucy, but I’ve been around you longer than she has, and I know something is the matter.”
“It is nothing, really.”
“Leona Clymene Leonard, you never could lie worth a ha’penny.”
“Especially not to you,” Leona countered with a smile, hoping to divert her friend.
She failed.
“Just so, now what is it?”
“Oui, ma pauvre.What has you so pinched-looking?”
Lady Nevin came around the table to feel Leona’s brow with a cool, delicate touch. “It may be more than thirty years since I was a physician’s wife, but there are things one does not forget or stop.” With gentle fingers she tilted Leona’s head up and looked into her face. “Oh, what is this? You are not sick. You have been crying. Why is this? You are unhappy?”
“Yes—No! It is nothing. Missish nonsense,” Leona assured her, summoning up her best smile.
Lady Nevin eyed her shrewdly. “Me, I do not think you have ever been missish, eh, Maria?”
“Not to my memory,” Maria affirmed grimly.
“Please, do not make much of it, I beg of you,” Leona said. “I just do not want to talk about it at present.”
The dowager countess’s lips compressed into a firm line. Then she nodded abruptly. “All right. We shall not plague you now. But this cannot last. If you would like to talk. . .”
“Yes, I know, and I appreciate your concern.” Leona gulped down the rest of her coffee, anxious to be out of the room.
Lady Nevin slowly walked back to her seat. Before she sat down, she turned again to Leona. “If you do not feel the thing, do not let my daughter and granddaughter plague you. Stay here and rest.”
“They don’t plague me. I enjoy them too much,” she assured her as she rose to leave, anxious to get away from kind, all-seeing eyes.
“Well, Maria, what do you think? Could those tears be for that scapegrace son of mine? I own I would be happy if they were.”
Maria Sprockett shook her head. “I don’t know. This is not like Leona.”
