“Well, I can understand that, but there must be a relative with whom she could stay.It’s not that I’m unwilling, but will it not seem rather strange?”
“Not if we tell people you’re friends.After all, she is only a year or so younger than you, Eleanor.And no, there really isn’t anybody else.Aunt Hortense is in Town with her brood, but their house is bursting at the seams.”
Eleanor gave in.“Very well.I’ll be pleased to have the company.”Thought of her abandonment reminded her of her husband.“I will have to ask Nicholas, of course, but I doubt if he will object.”She doubted whether he cared in the slightest about anything she did.She quickly shook off the despondency before Middlethorpe could notice.“However,” she said dryly, “I do recollect you describing your sisters as a set of troublesome minxes.”
“Yes, well…” he grinned uneasily.“They’re none of ’em quiet, but there’s no vice in ’em, and I’ll be around if she gives you any trouble.But Amelia is a good ’un.No beauty, I’m afraid, but warmhearted.”
Two days later Lord Middlethorpe delivered his sister to Lauriston Street, where Eleanor awaited her guest.For once Nicholas was by her side.
As Lord Middlethorpe had said, Amelia was no beauty.Her hair was mousy and escaping from its pins, and her features could best be described as smudged.She moved with grace, however, had a good figure, and bubbled with joie de vivre.
“Mrs.Delaney,” she exclaimed, running over to grasp Eleanor’s hands.“Thank you, thank you!I promise you will not regret this.Francis has lectured me most sternly and threatened to beat me if I cause you a moment’s trouble.”
“Over my dead body,” declared Nicholas, and picked Amelia up to swing her squealing in a brotherly hug.“Amy.You’ve grown up!”
She chuckled.“Well, at least I’ve no pigtails to pull.”She studied him carefully.“My, but you’re brown.You look like a pirate, but it’s quite fetching.Perhaps I’ll take to walking in the sun without a hat.”
He grinned.“Odds are you’d freckle.”
“I know,” she said mournfully.“Mama has spent the family fortune on Denmark Lotion and throws a fit if I so much as step outdoors on a sunny day.How is it I have not set eyes on you these past weeks?I assure you, I’ve been at all the best crushes.”
“You know I always shirk my social duties, Amy,” he replied easily.“Eleanor is kind and does not bully me into attendance too often.”
Kind Eleanor observed this easy relationship as if from a distance, wondering what would happen if she tried to bully him into something.The friendly banter between Nicholas and Amelia hurt when their own dealings had become so formal.She suddenly looked around to see Lord Middlethorpe watching her.She hoped she hadn’t betrayed her feelings, but suspected she had.She handled the moment by taking Amelia off to the room that had been prepared for her.
“This is a very pretty house,” Amelia said as they climbed the stairs.“I much prefer it to Francis’s house, which is stuffy and grand.”
“But consider the disadvantages,” said Eleanor.“There’s no ballroom, for one.”
“That is true.It’s definitely an advantage to have a ball in one’s own home rather than have to hire a room.Once having been fired off, however, a simpler place is better, I think.How lucky you are to have married Nicholas.I used to be quite desperately in love with him, for he always treated me as if I were beautiful or as if I would be beautiful one day, which I wasn’t and never will be.But it was a precious idea when I was younger.”
Eleanor was touched by this, but she worried that there might still be a lingering attachment.It could be most embarrassing.“This feeling has passed?”she asked.
“Oh, yes,” said Amy.“Of course I am still very fond of him, and he is quite wonderful.But I am in love with someone else,” she confessed, blushing.
“I see,” said Eleanor, seeing another quagmire before her.“I do hope this is someone suitable, for I suppose he is the reason you were so anxious not to have to leave Town.”
“Did Francis not tell you?Perhaps he thought it would sound too romantical.He is still not quite used to the idea of his sister contemplating marriage.”
“I gather this is an approved connection, then,” said Eleanor with relief as she led Amelia into her room.At least no one was expecting her to countenance anything underhand.
“Oh, yes.Mama is delighted.We’ve known Peter forever.I used to think I loved him like a brother, just like Nicholas, but then I suddenly realized it was quite different.It was to have been announced shortly, but now we will have to wait because of the measles.The wedding is fixed for October.I hope,” she said anxiously, “you will have no objection to him calling on me here?”
“Of course not,” said Eleanor.Then, knowing her duty, she encouraged Amelia to expand at great length upon the perfections of Peter Lavering—his home, his family, his dogs, and his cleverest sayings—until they rejoined the gentlemen below.
She was envious of the younger woman’s freedom to extol her darling and profess her love.She couldn’t help doubting, however, that Peter Lavering was quite the godlike figure he appeared to be.She supposed that love, as usual, was blind.
As she presided over the tea tray Eleanor felt a great depression growing in her.Here was the Nicholas of the early days of their marriage—witty, generous, and lighthearted.It was also the Nicholas who occasionally performed for her in public, but here, for the first time in months, it was genuine.
It was all, however, for Amelia and Francis.Even in this relaxed mood, whenever he addressed his wife a certain formality crept into his manner.She found herself wondering again when would be a good occasion to tell him she was certain there would be a child, that she had consulted a doctor to be sure.
Soon he’d be able to tell just by looking at her.Perhaps he just assumed it to be the case, but she would like to tell him formally.They were never, however, alone, and it hardly seemed a matter to blurt out over a stranger’s dinner table or in a crowded box at the theater.He would probably think it news of no importance anyway, but she could not bear to tell him in public.
This thought led to another.“Nicholas, I think we should give a small entertainment now that Amelia is staying with us.When would be convenient, darling?”
She had developed this habit of throwing endearments at him in public.If he could put on an act, so could she.It was her only gesture of pique, and he never reacted.
“This coming Thursday would be best,” he replied politely.“If that fits in with your own engagements, my dear.”
