Isabelle’s fingers fumbled beneath the bed before she brushed against something that felt soft enough to be silk.
With a triumphant smile, she pulled out the slipper and brandished it in the air. “You do not know how long I have been searching for this slipper. I had already given up packing my dresses several times in the hope that the slipper would magically crawl out from beneath the bed on its own.”
There was another knock at the door and Lady Victoria stood, opening it to take a tray of tea and biscuits from the maid in the hallway.
She turned and walked across the room, setting the tray down upon the little breakfast table by the window. “I thought that you might need a cup of tea after all that you have endured today.”
“You do not wish to condemn me as the dowager does?”
“Mama does not condemn you. I have known her for my entire life and while she may be a hard woman to understand, at her core she is protective.”
“If she is protective, then why was it I who was berated and not Lord Townshendfor standing to the side, or the thief for taking the comb?”
Lady Victoria poured two cups of tea. “Because you are the person Mama cares about. The others do not matter to her. She would have been worried for your safety.”
“I still should return home. The more time I spend in theton, the less I am convinced England is ever going to be my home.” Isabelle bit the inside of her cheek as she took the cup of tea from Lady Victoria and sat down across from her.
“You have me here, and while we are discussing matters of the household, I insist that you call me Victoria and I shall call you Isabelle. Lady Victoria and Miss Alden are far too proper for people who are going to be the closest of friends.”
“The Dowager Duchess would not approve.” She gave Victoria a small smile over the edge of her teacup.
“Mama approves of very little on some days and quite more than you would think on others, which is yet another reason why you must stay. I promise that she is doing everything she can to be agood hostess to you, although you know you are quite a difficult person at times.”
“I know that I can be.” Isabelle sighed and slumped in her chair, crossing one leg over the other.
She picked up a biscuit and dunked it into her tea. Victoria smiled and shook her head, taking her hair down from its pins and letting it fall loose around her shoulders.
“I understand this must feel like a foreign world to you.” Victoria took a biscuit of her own. “I would be lost if I had to move to another country and spend time with a family I did not know. Especially if I was expected to find a husband when I did not desire one. Why do you not want a husband?”
“I have my reasons, and I shall share them with you one day, I suspect, but I do not wish to delve into my past right now. Not when I am thinking about returning to it.”
“You do not have to go. You have not yet seen London. There is still much to do. Your view of England cannot be my brother’s destitute duchy.”
Isabelle hummed her agreement. Perhaps it would be wise to stay, if only for a little while longer. Victoria was proving to be a great friend. She could use a few more of those.
Because of everything that had happened back home, she had lost most of her friends.
“I will stay for a little while longer, if only to see how nice London can be beyond the dreary gray sky and river.”
Victoria laughed. “I know that it seems that way at times, but I promise you it is actually quite different from the duchy.”
“Why is the duchy in such a state of disrepair? His Grace seems like a proud man who would not allow his estate to suffer.”
“My brother has a good head on his shoulders. He makes wise decisions with his money, and he cares about the people who live on his land. My father, well, Papa cared about money, but only what lined his pockets or funded his amusement.”
“He allowed his people to go broke?”
The other woman nodded, looking down at the tea in her cup. “He did. He thought gambling and betting on horses would be a better use of his money. I cannot remember a week when I was a child that he did not come home on a Sunday only to tell Mama that he had lost more money.”
“He was gambling on a Sunday?” Isabelle’s eyes climbed higher up her head. “Your father sounds as if he also had very little interest in protecting you and your siblings if he was willing to spend family funds on gambling.”
“It grew worse when he got sick. Felix would try to argue with Papa. He hoped that he could convince Papa that it would be better to spend money on the duchy, but there was nothing hecould say that Papa would listen to. He was too set on having a good life until the day he died.”
“And did he?”
Isabelle took another biscuit and dipped it into the last sip of her tea. She waited patiently as Victoria struggled to pull herself together.
Victoria looked up at her with tears in her eyes. “Felix came home one day to argue with Papa, but he was gone. He took the last of the money in the family funds and he spent the rest of his life traveling Europe.”
