Her father hadn’t liked oatmeal, either, and it had become a loving jest around their house.If you don’t finish weeding the garden today, Veronica, you’ll have porridge for supper.Her mother used the threat against her father:If your father isn’t done with his writings in an hour, I shall give him a porridge instead of this lovely stew.
She didn’t share that story with her aunt. Neither Aunt Lilly nor Uncle Bertrand liked to speak of her parents, as if not mentioning them would somehow erase them from her mind.
Montgomery, seated on the other side of the breakfast table from her uncle, glanced at her. She didn’t need any sort of Gift to know what he was thinking. Her relatives annoyed him.
At least he was there, at breakfast, preventing her from having to suffer through a meal with her family alone, a gesture for which she was exceedingly grateful.
“I’m sorry you don’t find anything to your satisfaction, Aunt Lilly,” she said. “Perhaps if you would let me know what you’d prefer, I’ll inform Cook. Tomorrow morning, we’ll be better prepared for you.”
Dear God, how long were they staying?
“A good hostess is prepared for all contingencies, my dear,” Aunt Lilly said, returning to the table. For someone who hadn’t found anything palatable, she’d certainly filled her plate.
“Why, exactly, have you decided to grace us with a visit?” Montgomery asked.
She glanced at Montgomery, then Aunt Lilly. If she’d made that remark, she’d have been chastised for the effrontery of it. With so many people at the table ready to castigate her for one gaffe or another, it was a miracle food hadn’t curdled in her stomach.
Aunt Lilly only smiled at Montgomery.
“We are not simply visitors, my dear boy. We’re family. I didn’t realize we required an invitation to feel welcome in your home.” She smiled again. “But then, we didn’t know that you would be engaged in ...” Her hands fluttered in the air as her words trailed away.
Her family had been shocked to see the balloon, so much so that they’d stared at Montgomery all during dinner as if he were some sort of winged creature invited into the drawing room. Breakfast didn’t look to be any better.
Of the two episodes—flying in Montgomery’s balloon and welcoming her family to Doncaster Hall—she much preferred flying.
She stood before Aunt Lilly could say anything further.
“Of course you’re welcome at Doncaster Hall, Aunt Lilly,” she said, signaling Montgomery with a glance. She then did something she’d never had the courage to do in London.
She left the room.
Montgomery met her outside the family dining room.
“How could they simply appear?” she asked. “Am I to hear her criticisms until they leave? And when are they leaving?”
“Since they’re your relatives, I couldn’t venture to guess,” he said. “Have you considered asking them?”
“She’ll just pat me on the head, tell me not to worry, then proceed to order the kitchen staff about. The only reason breakfast was halfway bearable was because my cousins decided to take a tray in their rooms. Five trays, Montgomery. We don’t have an infinite number of staff. Every maid was pressed into service this morning. Even Mrs. Brody was ferrying trays up and down the steps.”
“You had no idea they were coming?”
“I hadnoidea they were coming. And if we don’t do something now, Montgomery, they will continue to come. Every few months. And stay.”
The look on his face mirrored her inward horror. Emigrating to America was almost preferable to endless visits from Uncle Bertrand and his family.
“Can you imagine a repeat of dinner for the next two weeks?”
Dinner the night before had been a higgledy-piggledy affair, with Mrs. Brody’s careful menu thrown out due to the unexpected arrival of seven relatives and their three servants. They’d cobbled together a meat course, a fish course, a vegetable course, and pudding, but Uncle Bertrand and Aunt Lilly hadnot ceased complaining, along with Adam, Amanda, Alice, and Anne, about the paucity of the food and its quality. The only person who hadn’t ventured a negative opinion was Algernon, because he was feeling ill and had remained in a hastily prepared guest chamber.
“Perhaps if I was exceptionally rude,” Montgomery said, “they’d leave earlier.”
She shook her head, feeling panic rush in. “On the contrary. Aunt Lilly would take it upon herself to instruct you on proper manners. She’d stay longer.”
They looked at each other. For the first time in their married life, they had a shared goal as well as a common enemy.
“You could come and help me with the balloon,” he said.
“Are you asking because you’re feeling sorry for me? Or because you genuinely wish my assistance?”
