His brow was furrowed like a potato patch. “Would you like some tea, maybe, miss?”
“I am not in the mood for guessing games, Soames,” she said, hands on hips. “Which is why I am convinced you’re about to tell me exactly where my parents are, and what the story is about my father’s heart. I am not budging until you do.”
He looked around, obviously hating to have this conversation in the entryway. “Maybe they would like to tell you, miss. I can tell you where they both are.”
“That,” Pip said with immense patience, “would be lovely. And just to keep all the information straight, Soames. I am no longer a miss. I am a ladyship. Lady Drummond to be precise.”
Smiling, she held up her left hand to show him her ring. He gaped. There had been a lot of that around her lately. “Our heartiest congratulations, mi…er, milady.”
“And where can milady find her parents, Soames?”
“At Lord Drake’s, milady.”
Ah. Rake business.“My mother as well?” she asked. When he nodded, so did she. “I need a carriage, Soames,” she said and reached for the hat she had just handed to him. “Joyful, are you coming along?”
“Wouldn’t miss this f’r all the cotton in Georgia.”
16
Pip’s reunion with her family was chaotic to say the least. She had never been to Lord Drake’s house on Brook Street but found it to be mostly a dignified and unspectacular townhouse, its façade white, its un-porticoed door topped with a fanlight, its steps fronted by a black wrought iron fence that matched the flower boxes on the windows across three bays. Perfectly respectful, nothing to take note of.
Which was an ingenious place to hide one of the most devious minds in Britain. It made Pip smile. Well, until she was greeted by the ever-so-proper butler who would have exactly matched the house’s façade if not for the unusual cant to his nose and the disfiguration of his left ear. An ex-boxer, Pip would guess. Handy for discouraging the wrong kind of people from bothering a busy earl.
Pip was surprised when he took a good look at her and Joyful and then broke into a delighted smile. “I believe I must be addressing Lady Drummond,” the butler said with a formal bow. “Please come in. May I offer our congratulations.”
“Why, thank you. My parents are here?” she asked, stepping into a perfectly sensible entryway decorated in Wedgewood and Chippendale chairs. Not a lion paw in sight, or even a ceiling muraled with frisky cupids. There was, however, a pile of her mother’s luggage tucked over in the corner.
“They are,” Wilkins said with a bit of a sigh, closing the door. “Along with your brother and his fiancé, her sister andherfiancé, Lord Hawes andhisfiancé, and several young persons I have not yet identified. We have not seen such a to-do since the Prince Regent held a card party here.”
Pip was caught on mention of her brother. “Alex?” she asked, then catching up with the rest of that clause. “Fiancé?”
He gave a slight grimace. “It has been a rather busy morning.”
“I would imagine so. I would settle for my parents for the present, please…er…”
He gave a little bow. “Wilkins, milady.”
Joyful was sent off to the kitchens with one of the footmen as Wilkins guided Pip into a salon where, surely enough, her father and mother were sitting over a pot of tea in a lovely eggshell and pale green room as if they were having a normal morning call. Except that Pip could see that her father’s color was not good, and her mother had that preternaturally calm look she got when worrying over her husband. Pip was glad she had been forewarned about his new heart issue or she might have made their greeting uncomfortable. As it was her own heart seemed to shrink at this evidence of her papa’s mortality.
Lord Drake was nowhere in sight.
“Lady Drummond,” Wilkins announced behind her.
Both parents turned to her, offering matching smiles. Her mother even got to her feet, which put her at exactly the same height as Pip, although her mother had a pleasing matronly plumpness, mousy brown hair and soft brown eyes. Pip wanted to throw herself into her parents’ arms. It had been months since she had seen them. Instead, like a proper young woman, she waited for her parents to make the move.
“What are you doing here?” her mother demanded, wrapping her in a hug.
Pip comforted herself with a whiff of her mother’s neroli scent. It always made her feel safe. Especially reassuring after a greeting like that. “I was told you would be here. I went to the house first thinking I would be removing dust covers.”
Her mother pulled back, bemused. “But we were told you had finally married Drummond. And without us, I might add. I want to know what that was all about, young lady. I thought I taught you better than to trap a good man into marriage or I never would have left you behind.”
Don’t be silly, Pip wanted to say.You never once considered it.
“I didn’t….” She sighed. “It’s a long story. But yes, mother. I did marry him. Now, can I stay with you, please?”
“Are dust covers on in his house?”
“I have no idea. I have not been there. I came to see Papa first. Hullo, Papa.”
