They were interrupted by a knock on the bedchamber door. Seconds later, Victoria’s twin sister, Georgiana stuck her head round the door. Jennifer beckoned her to come in. ‘You’ve heard then?’
George nodded, seating herself on the other side of the bed. ‘Anthony said you could come and stay with us, but your father wasn’t havin’ none of it.’ She gave a sudden grin. ‘I told Tony I reckoned you’d rather be adventurin’ in Scotland than stuck in the middle of nowhere with me in the family way.’
‘With child, George,’ Jennifer corrected her with a chuckle. Having been dragged up in the slums of Exeter, Georgiana Shackleford was finally learning to speak in the manner befitting her station, but she still had a long way to go.
‘That’s what I said,’ George answered, waving her hand in awhatevergesture.
‘How are you feeling sweet?’ Victoria asked, taking her twin sister’s hand.
‘Fit as a butcher’s dog,’ George answered with a wink. ‘So, I don’t need a nursemaid.’
‘I don’t object to indulging you,’ Victoria protested.
‘You’re not coming to Bovey just to run around after the likes of me,’ George retorted.
‘London is going to be intolerably dull without all of you in it,’ Mercy sighed. ‘I shall be glad to be spending the summer in Cottesmore Hall.’
‘How are Aunt Chastity and the twins?’
‘Oh, Olivia and Catherine are growing like weeds. They’re nearly ten now and poor Kit has no respite from them at all. The last time I saw her, Stepmama was looking particularly fatigued.’
‘Poor Chastity, the twins are a bit of a handful,’ Victoria commiserated.
Mercy laughed. ‘Rather pity my poor father. I don’t think he knows what’s hit him.’
‘Cottesmore’s not that far from Bovey. Why don’t you all come and visit. Anthony would love it.’
Mercy gave a chuckle. ‘Oh, I’m certain he’d be over the moon,’ she commented drily.
‘We can spend the time in the garden,’ George declared, excitedly. ‘Now it’s been cleared, there’s a delightful … err, thingumajig … that’s perfect for reading.’
‘Arbour,’ supplied Victoria. ‘Howisyour reading coming along?’
‘I finishedFrankensteinlast week,’ Georgiana confessed. ‘I know it’s considered unsuitable forladies, but Prudence lent it to me.’
‘Frankenstein– isn’t that about some kind of hideous monster?’ Jennifer raised her eyebrows. ‘It does sound typical of Aunt Prudence.’
‘Scared me half to death,’ George admitted cheerfully. ‘I’m sure Pru will allow me to lend it to you.’ She threw Jennifer a mischievous look before adding, ‘Scotland’s a long way to travel without something to take your mind off your arse…’
∞∞∞
‘The thing is Percy lad, I’m not as young as I used to be. Getting up the steps to the pulpit is beginning to take me longer than actually reading the deuced sermon.’
Percy made the appropriate sympathetic noises. In truth, Reverend Shackleford hadn’t actually read a sermon since accidentally stepping on his eyeglasses the Christmas before.
The two men were seated in the Reverend’s study enjoying a memorial glass of brandy. The Reverend had declared it only right and proper since they’d just conducted old Willie’s funeral. Unfortunately nobody could remember Willie’s last name orhow old he was – that knowledge had long been lost to the annals of time. Much like the date of his last wash. On the plus side it had been decided to conduct the service with a closed casket…
But as the Reverend declared solemnly, old Willy had been living in Blackmore since before Nelson cut his first tooth, and the least they could do was drink him on his way upstairs. At least Reverend Shackleford hoped that was the direction the old tatterdemalion was headed.
‘I think I could do with a change of scenery, Percy,’ Augustus Shackleford was musing. ‘What do you think Agnes would say to a spot of missionary work in West Africa?’
Percy, who’d been taking a sip of his brandy at the time, promptly spat it out over Flossy’s head. The little dog had been snoozing on the curate’s knee but as a bead of brandy dripped onto her nose, she enthusiastically licked it off and wagged her tail.
‘Oh you can’t take Agnes away from civilisation, Sir. She wouldn’t last three months. You know how she is. She’d likely kill someone with one of her potions and end up being the main course in the funeral banquet.’
The Reverend hmphed, still obviously deep in thought.
‘And who would look after Flossy?’ Percy added desperately. While he and Agnes hadn’t always seen eye to eye, he didn’t relish the thought of her ending up in somebody’s pot.
