Dara dusted breadcrumbs from her hands after sampling one of the sandwiches. “We’ll be fine. We will have you make an appearance here and there. Those rumors will disappear.”
“Besides,” Gwendolyn said, “the Season is all but over what with the closing of Parliament this week. The last important ball of the Season is Lord and Lady Woolfolk’s and then everyone will be off to the country.”
“The Woolfolk ball is being called ‘the last chance’ for those young women who didn’t make a match this Season,” Tweedie added. “Surprisingly, you and Gwendolyn are of that number.”
Elise glanced at her sister. Elise had been focused on Michael, her anger, and Lady Whitby’s salon. Her lack of interest had turned away many suitors. However, Gwendolyn had received several offers, and she’d turned them down. Elise didn’t know if Tweedie or Dara knew that. Gwendolyn could be quite secretive when she wished. Elise knew because she’d overheard the rejected complain. They had all been men of good standing. She wondered what Gwendolyn wanted?
“It will be your time to shine,” Dara predicted. “Although a certain viscount has been very attentive to Gwendolyn.”
Gwendolyn blushed a response and shook her head. “Not Morley.”
“Why not?” Dara asked. “He is very respectable.”
Elise met Gwendolyn’s eye. They both knew that when Dara was busy managing, she oftenforgot details such as whether a sister was attracted to the gentleman.
But there was no sense arguing. Especially since Dara had turned her attention back to Elise.
“You have some sun on your skin. We shall have to do what we can to lighten it.”
Elise didn’t wish to worry about the paleness of her complexion. And she wasn’t interested in the last ball of the Season. She was waiting for Kit. He would come. She knew it.
A new thought struck her, something that in the excitement of Kit being attacked and the mad race to London she had pushed out of her mind. But something that was very important to all of them. She set her sherry on the side table. “I have important news—Papa is alive.”
They stared at her as if they hadn’t heard her correctly. Elise reiterated, “He is not dead. I spoke to him. He lives in a village called Moorcock.”
“Father?” Dara questioned. Gwendolyn was shaking her head.
“If he was alive,” Tweedie said, “why didn’t he come and toss Richard and his nagging wife, Caroline, out on their ears?”
Elise picked up her sherry before giving the answer. “Apparently, Wiltham wasn’t that important to him.” She paused a moment and then said, “He has another family.”
There was a moment of stunned silence.
Gwendolyn broke it. “He’s alive? And he’s remarried?”
“In a way.”
“Whatdoes that mean?” Dara asked. “And I’m still trying to understand that he is alive... and we didn’t know? He didn’t want us to know?”
“Something like that,” Elise confessed and then shared meeting the houseful of boys, one close in age to her and Dara.
“I still don’t understand,” Gwendolyn said.
“He might have been married totwowomen at the same time,” Tweedie answered, going right to the heart of the matter. “More than once I told my sister—your grandmother—I thought him a tomcat, so this doesn’t truly surprise me. Although when they handed Wiltham to Richard, I did think John was dead.”
“What was Gram’s reply when you told her my father might have other interests?” Gwendolyn asked.
Elise sniffed her thoughts. “Gwendolyn, you are so kind. ‘Other interests’? He had a whole separate family and a good house. It wasn’t as grand as Wiltham; however, it was close to Moorcock, and you know gambling has always been his first love.”
“So Moorcock is a place for gamblers?” Dara asked.
“And other unsavory activities,” Elise answered.
“What were you doing there?”
Elise sidestepped that question by looking at Tweedie and asking, “What would Gram say?”
“She’d shrug and say, what can you do? Andshe was right. Anything we did would have upset you girls. You adored him.”
