‘You’d better become accustomed to the attention. Mother had five sisters. I believe we have upward of fifty relatives attending our luncheon party today,’ Sebastian said.
‘Good lord!’
Sebastian cleared his throat. ‘Ladies? If you are ready to leave, my barouche is outside.’
Peggy dabbed at her eyes and blew her nose loudly on a sturdy handkerchief.
‘Oh my. This is all too much, my lord. Who’d have thought it? Such a lovely girl.’ She squeezed Connie’s hand again and turned to her mother, saying loudly, ‘Come along, mother. His lordship has his carriage for us.’
Matt helped both ladies, dressed in their Sunday finery, into the carriage for the drive back to the hall. Peggy, seeing some of her neighbours in the street, waved and bowed her head. Sebastian smiled. He had it in mind to offer to move his grandmother and aunt up to the hall where they could have rooms of their own in the east wing, but that was a surprise he would keep for another day.
The guests began arriving by mid-morning. Aunts, uncles, and cousins of all ages poured into the grounds of the hall.
With some reluctance, Sebastian had enlisted Fanny’s aid and had to admit that when it came to organising social events, she had a rare talent. A long table had been set up underneath the largest oak tree in the garden, and Fanny had the footmen organising games of quoits, and shuttlecock and battledore as well as a game with hoops and mallets. Jugglers and acrobats had appeared, along with a small orchestra.
Fanny, showing unusual tact, wandered among the entertainment ensuring all was in order, but in all other respects, keeping a respectful distance. Of Freddy there was, mercifully, no sign. Isabel, at Sebastian’s insistence that she would not be intruding, joined the party.
A comfortable chair with cushions had been arranged for his grandmother, and she sat like a queen in the shade of a tree, following the lively games and the interaction of her extended family with what eyesight she had left. She smiled beatifically at the happy noise around her.
Sebastian stood with one hand on the back of his grandmother’s chair, watching Matt engaged in a rowdy game of blind man’s bluff with some of the younger cousins. Connie sat on a stool at her grandmother’s feet, holding the old woman’s hand and listening with earnest attention to her grandmother’sstories about her lost daughter, the mother Connie had never known.
Isabel, eschewing her usual dowdy black, had dressed in a gown of dove grey trimmed with lilac ribbons. Holding an elegant lace parasol she wandered across to Sebastian. He inclined his head, and she acknowledged the gesture with a smile. She had done something different with her hair. Little curls framed her face, and he liked the effect.
‘Walk with me?’ she offered.
Excusing himself from his grandmother, he crooked his elbow, and she slipped a hand around his arm. They circled the party, stopping to speak to guests. He led her up to the terrace, where they sat side by side on the wall, watching the festivities.
‘I never imagined what it could be like to be part of a large family,’ Sebastian said at last.
‘Your grandfather, the Reverend Parker, cast a dark shadow over them all. If he were still alive, this,’ Isabel waved a hand at the noisy party, ‘would never be permitted.’
‘My stepfather was a clergyman too,’ Sebastian reminded her, ‘but he loved life and felt it should be celebrated at every opportunity.’
She cast a sideways glance at him. ‘And so it should. I think I would have liked your stepfather.’
‘Everyone did,’ Sebastian agreed.
‘Lord Somerton, Lord Somerton...’ Aunt Peggy came hurrying towards them. ‘Oh, my lord, I am quite breathless. May I join you for a few minutes?’
‘Of course, aunt. Sit by me.’
Sebastian indicated the wall, and Peggy lowered herself down beside him, fanning herself with her hand. Isabel excused herself to see that luncheon was ready to be served.
Peggy gave a deep, happy sigh.
‘This is lovely, dear. The only time we were ever invited up to the hall was when the old lord used to throw a Christmas party for the village.’
‘Then it is a miracle my parents even met,’ Sebastian observed.
Peggy smiled. ‘Young love does have its ways, my lord.’ She shuddered. ‘Oh, the row when they declared their love. I thought your grandfather would have a turn.’
‘Surely it would have been a good match, at least from the good Reverend’s point of view?’
‘Aye, you’d think so, but your grandfather would not tolerate disobedience in anyone, however good the cause. He forbade Marjory’s name to ever be mentioned in his presence.’
Sebastian sighed and his gaze strayed to Connie, now caught up in the game of blind man’s buff. It occurred to him that he had put his sister in a very vulnerable position. The sister of a viscount with a dowry, she would be an attractive catch for any charlatan. Life had seemed much simpler when they were penniless.
‘Now, I’m not one to gossip,’ Aunt Peggy began. Sebastian smiled, Aunt Peggy was, he imagined, a veritable store of village gossip. ‘But your cousin, Anthony, was not a good man.’
