‘Yes, Mama?’
‘So, it is true! Hetty, have you truly come back to me?’
Before she had any time to answer this question, Etta found herself being almost crushed by the older woman. She didn’t think she’d ever been so earnestly hugged.
A sweet, fragrant smell of rosewater washed over her and suddenly she realised she was clinging back. She had never been hugged by a mother before. For so long it had just been her and Dad, and he’d not really been one for outward displays of affection.
As Lady Bainbridge pulled back to examine her, Etta noticed that both of them had tears in their eyes. As she became aware of her surroundings again, she noticed the ridiculously fluffy dog yapping at her ankles.
‘Hush, Hercules! It is only Hetty.’ Lady Bainbridge grasped Etta by the shoulders. ‘Hetty! Oh, Hetty. Look at you. Speak to me! Are you truly yourself again?’
Charlie interrupted. ‘Mama, she hasneverbeen herself.’
Etta glared at him, then turned back to her mother and racked her brain for a suitably banal, non-giveaway phrase. ‘Mama, I am perfectly well. Will you have some breakfast? The sausages … um, the sausages are very good.’
Etta quickly realised that she could have said pretty much anything at all and the woman still would have been delighted.
‘Oh, Henrietta. It is as though all my dreams have come true! To see you here, offering me breakfast as though it were just an ordinary day!’
Etta wasn’t sure how to respond to this. Luckily it seemedshe wouldn’t have to. Catching and visibly suppressing her tears with a beautifully delicate, lacy handkerchief, Lady Bainbridge drew herself together. Her face sealed itself back up into the very picture of mild good-humour, almost as though she were pressing the lid back onto her own personal Tupperware box of emotions. The transformation was remarkable.
‘And … and in time for the Season!’
If it were possible, Charlie looked even more startled.
‘Mama, surely not! You can’t … You can’t possibly mean to parade Hetty around as though she weren’t utterly dicked in the nob! Why, she’s – she’s a complete imbecile!’
Etta wasn’t having any of it. ‘No, Charlie,you’rean imbecile. Mama, he had me strapped into a chair in the cellar!’
Lady Bainbridge sank onto a seat at the end of the table, looking faint. ‘I— I must think. It is all too much.’
Etta racked her brain for more romance-novel info-gems. ‘Should I fetch you some smelling salts?’
‘Oh no, Hetty, how could you? Not that disgusting stuff. Even Great Aunt Matilda won’t touch them. No, but do pour me some tea, please.’
They went back to quietly eating their breakfast, all watching Lady Bainbridge carefully as she added sugar and milk to her tea and then sat thoughtfully at the other end of the long table, stroking her little dog.
Charlie eyed his mother impatiently and whispered, ‘I do wish she’d get rid of that awful bloody dog. I still can’t believe she called the little beast “Hercules”. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a ridiculous animal.’
Max looked over at Etta with mischief in his eyes. ‘I don’tthink he likes Hetty all that much. Is the feeling mutual, Hetty?’
Charlie interrupted. ‘Oh, they love one another to the ends of the earth. Always prancing around Hetty, he is. Probably because Nanny feeds him scraps up in the nursery. Not sure why he’s acting so off today. Stupid creature, I suppose.’
‘Etta,’ Etta said. ‘I’m not Hetty. I’m Etta.’
She saw Max watching her carefully, but Charlie pulled a bizarre face that simultaneously made him look stupid while indicating that he found her stance to be hoity toity. Together, they smiled at him, and Etta realised she was going to have trouble holding a grudge against Charlie.
‘Is that the face you plan to make when you present me in Society, Charles?’
He groaned. ‘Oh no. I can imagine it now. Escorting you around the park in front of theTon. I’ll believe that when I see it.’
‘Oh, you’ll see it,’ Etta whispered under her breath. She had finished her breakfast by this point and was trying to work out where she should take her plate.
Before she could decide, her mother finally spoke.
‘Henrietta, dear, you must wait for me in the Yellow Room. I must think.’
‘Yes, Mama. Remind me where it is, again?’
