“It’s your own fault your ears and heart suffered because you’re the one who chose to creep into my room, even though I’d told you there’s a chance that a known criminal boss, one Victor Malvado to be exact, may be after me or Lottie—we’re not exactly certain who his target is. However, because of that threat hanging over me, Owen and I are on high alert. You’re lucky one of us didn’t shoot you.”
“And you’re lucky I didn’t expire on the spot because of heart palpitations. As I already said, I’m elderly and need to be treated with the utmost care.”
“If that’s your way of suggesting I stop pressing you about why you’re so determined to get that apple pie recipe to me by one underhanded means or another, I’m not buying it. So ... what’s the significance of the recipe, and don’t tell me it’s just a list of ingredients to make a pie.”
“You’re a bright girl. I’m sure you can figure that out on your own.”
“Perhaps I’m not that bright, unless...” Camilla took a second to watch a bird fly by before she frowned. “The recipe isn’t some type of love charm or something of that nature, is it, where the recipient finds themselves an involuntary member of the Chesterfield family after taking possession of it?”
“See? You are bright after all.”
“Bright enough to know that even if you manage to get that recipe into my possession, I won’t soon find myself married to your grandson.”
“We here in West Virginia believe in the power of what I’m sure you’d consider superstitions, but our traditions shouldn’t be takenlightly. I’ll have you know that anyone who’s earned the privilege of obtaining the list of ingredients for the Chesterfield apple pie has, indeed, become a Chesterfield.”
“May I assume you gave the recipe to your husband?”
“Thoney, my late husband, being the Chesterfield in that particular case, slipped it into my pocket a few days after I saw him standing in town, covered in coal dust from a mine he’d just begun to build. He took one look at me, I took one look at him, and it was love at first sight.”
“Thoney’s not a name I’ve heard before,” Camilla said.
“He ended up with that name because his mama didn’t know how to read or write much,” Beulah said. “The story has it that she was aiming to name him Thomas but had written Thoney in the family Bible. After someone pointed that out, Thoney’s mama decided the name had a nice ring to it and everyone called him Thoney from that point forward.”
“And did Thoney’s mama approve of him slipping that recipe to you?”
“’Course she did. Round these parts, love at first sight isn’t taken lightly either, but in all honesty, I didn’t even need to gain access to the recipe, given how much I adored Thoney. Nevertheless, I was thankful to have it in my possession all the same as I decided it was best not to take any chances with the Chesterfield tradition.”
“Your grandson doesn’t seem to believe in love at first sight since he’s still arguing with me about my belief that Lottie and Edward have succumbed to that delightful happenstance.”
“Owen believes in love at first sight. He just enjoys annoying you.”
“Because...?”
“I’m not completely sure, but it might be his unusual way of earning your affections.”
“Or a death wish,” Camilla muttered.
Beulah released a cackle. “I do appreciate your fondness forfrequently wanting to inflict bodily harm on Owen, which I’m sure, being a matchmaker and all, you already realize is a direct result of your emotions becoming engaged, and—” She suddenly leaned forward. “Duck!”
Thinking it was an odd time for Beulah to point out a duck since she’d been in the midst of getting ready to dispense what she’d undoubtedly consider sage advice, Camilla glanced upward right before leaves suddenly obscured her vision as the wagon barreled underneath a low-hanging limb—one that was responsible for knocking her straight out of the wagon.
Landing on the ground, an “oomph” escaping her a second later, a noise that had, oddly enough, escaped her often of late, Camilla pushed herself up on her elbows right as Nems, Owen’s one-legged carriage driver, steered his carriage to the side of the road. Before it came to a complete stop, Luella leapt from it, landed on the ground without a hint of a stumble, then set her sights on Camilla and broke into a run.
“Good heavens, Camilla, are you alright?” she demanded, kneeling down beside her.
“I think I’m fine, but where did you learn how to do that?”
Luella frowned. “Do what?”
“Leap from a moving carriage and land on your feet.”
“Luella’s always been graceful,” Beulah said, hurrying up to join them. “People just never notice because of her unconventional attitude.”
Camilla smiled. “I can work with graceful.”
“I’d rather you work with the fact you’re a member of the Four Hundred and get everyone in Wheeling to simply accept me because of that rather than going through the bother of refining me,” Luella grumbled.
“Nice try, but no, and also know that you’ll be accepted much more easily if you don’t take to grumbling when you’re conversing with anyone at the ball.”
