“We’ve a letter from Father!” Loveday burst into the yellow damask parlor, waving a sealed paper about.
A letter, at long last?
Juliet looked up from her embroidery as the children stopped playing with Hobbes and a tangle of yarn at her feet. Securing her needle in the tambour frame, she turned toward Loveday, who all but collapsed onto a sofa, already immersed in the post.
“Read it aloud, please,” Juliet said with a bite of aggravation brought on by a near sleepless night. Leith hadn’t come home, and she’d worn herself down worrying.
“Father is coming! In fact, he and Zipporah are already on their way as of this letter!”
Juliet sat back and took Bella onto her lap. “I wonder if they’ll weigh anchor here or elsewhere?”
“‘We should arrive in spring, a shorter sailing since we dock at Port Glasgow. Once we’ve visited with you, we will then go on to London as Zipporah is anxious to return home. After suffering a bout of ill health, I would like to continue on to Bath. The waters should do me good.’” Loveday put the letter down to produce a tiny pocket calendar. “A month? They should arrive any minute! Such glad news. And they’ll stay here with us before moving on to England.”
Bath.Juliet remembered Leith discussing some investment he had there. The Royal Crescent, he’d called it. “Perhaps you should make a Bath debut too, though Father’s health concerns me.” To say nothing of his pocketbook.
“Poor Father.” Loveday’s elation faded. “I do wonder if his gout has returned. Bath is said to be the best curative anywhere, and I’ve no remedy to help. Perhaps a visit to the Glasgow apothecary is in order. I confess to feeling at sixes and sevens without my stillroom.”
She picked up the letter and read more, though Father was notoriously short-winded by post. Their honeymoon, he penned, had been fine. They were increasingly concerned about the political situation and that radicals like Patrick Henry would plunge them into a world war. Both of them had decided Britain was their true home.
Loveday passed the letter to Juliet, but Bella grabbed it with one fat fist. They laughed as Cole came to investigate, never wanting to be deprived of anything his sister might have.
“’Tis a letter, not a toy or sweetmeat,” Juliet told them, taking the letter back and pocketing it. “Shall we have tea?”
Both children nodded, and soon the four of them were seated by the window, where sunlight streamed in like yellow ribbons. Ruby brought a miniature tea service, made to fit small hands, and Juliet presided.
“When you’re a little older you shall pour your own tea. For now, ’tis too hot,” she cautioned as Loveday passed sugar and milk. “Cook has fashioned some tiny biscuits for you with lemon cheese too. We must remember to thank her. But first, your bibs and a ‘please.’”
“Peas,” Bella said prettily while Cole just stared at the tray as if debating whether to grab it like Bella had the letter.
“Master Cole, can you say ‘please,’ please?” Loveday cajoled.
“Nae,” he replied as firmly as his father might have done.
“Let’s say grace and thank our heavenly Father.” Juliet folded her hands and bowed her head, touched as the twins did the same. Had someone taught them prior to this? “Lord, we give Thee endless thanks for all Thy bounty. Bless especially these little hands and hearts. Amen.”
Bibs aside, soon Bella had more lemon cheese on the tablecloth than in her mouth, and Cole seemed more interested in his shiny silver spoon than anything else. While Bella chewed her biscuit carefully with wee white teeth, Cole snuck more sugar from the sugar bowl, toppling the lid and sending it to the carpet, and Hobbes leapt to the sofa to avoid a collision. Both sisters worked hard to hide their amusement.
At a masculine voice outside, Loveday’s attention strayed to the window and the sunny street. “I’ve nearly forgotten ’tis time for callers.”
“And I’m to meet with the servants while the twins take a nap.” Juliet looked to the mantel clock as it chimed two o’clock, in time with the grander timepiece that resounded like cannon fire in the echoing entrance hall. “Then I may take a walk, as the weather is fair.”
“We shall both be busy, then.” Loveday put a hand to her hair. “I suppose I must change.”
“You look lovely—and your suitors will no doubt think the same.”
Flushing, she made a face. “I do confess I’m surprised at the number. Some come out of curiosity, I’m sure. I’m an American, after all. And then there’s Mr. Buchanan’s generous dowry, which is partly your doing, of course. And while I’m thankful, I do wonder if these gentlemen are seeing bank notes all the while as they converse with me.”
“Then marry a man who doesn’t need them,” Juliet said.
Loveday laughed. “That narrows the field considerably, Sister.”
“Once I thought debt a cruel gaoler, but now I’m beginning to see money might be the harsher taskmaster.”
“Peas,” Bella said, reaching for another biscuit while Cole swallowed a spoonful of sugar meant for his cup.
“Oh my, you are one for sweets,” Juliet said, pouring him more tea and pushing the sugar bowl toward Loveday. “Did you know your father is going to get you a pony?”
“Da?” Cole looked up at her with the same intent expression Leith wore. “Ride a pony?”
