Viscount Hadleigh accepted this with good grace. Miss Atherton pressed her lips together. Lucien looked briefly satisfied.
Margaret watched without appearing to watch as Linthorpe looked up from his coffee.
He glanced at Corinna.
Then at Mr. Atherton.
Then he returned his attention to his coffee, very deliberately, as though the cup required his full attention.
Margaret reached for the marmalade.
With a burst of energy that no one should possess at that early an hour, Harriet Upwell strode into the breakfast room, her traveling cloak flowing behind her. “We are finally arrived,” she announced.
Lord Upwell followed in her wake, looking as though he had not long been out of bed, which did not appear to trouble him in the slightest." They see that, dear."
"Yes, yes, yes.” Harriet swept through the room, her assessing gaze taking stock of the guests as she did so. “Good morning to you all. James darling, you look well. Hythe, Margaret." She kissed Margaret's cheek and then accepted an empty chair a footman held out for her at the far end of the table. "We made excellent time from Thirsk. The roads were better than I feared."
"Aunt Harriet." Linthorpe set down his cup. "You look well."
"I am perfectly well," Harriet said, arranging herself and accepting a bit of coffee. "Upwell, sit down, you are making the room nervous."
Upwell sat, dutifully, as he did most things.
Harriet glanced around the table again, her gaze moving rather obviously between Corinna and Linthorpe and back. She did not possess a subtle bone in her body. "Miss Corinna. How lovely to see you again."
"And you, Lady Upwell," Corinna said, with genuine warmth.
Beside Margaret, Hythe turned a page in his gazette.
"We ought to have left yesterday," Harriet said to Upwell, in what she must have believed was sotto voce. It was not. "I said so at the time."
"You did," Upwell agreed, as he gestured for a footman to bring him a plate.
"We have clearly missed a great deal,” Harriet complained to her husband.
"We clearly have," Upwell agreed once more.
From the head of the table, Linthorpe went still and eyed his aunt with what appeared to be annoyance. He was, after all, not a man who was oblivious to his surroundings. And Harriet was far from subtle.
"Linthorpe," Hythe said, from behind his gazette, "have you given any more thought to the north field? I’m happy to make an introduction to Pemberton, if you’d like."
“Perhaps.” Linthorpe nodded. "I mean to walk the boundary this morning. After breakfast. I’ll know more then.”
"Ah, yes.” Hythe returned to his gazette. “You said as much.”
Harriet, who had been mid-sip, set her coffee cup down with great care and looked at Margaret.
Margaret looked at the marmalade.
"After breakfast," Harriet said, to no one in particular.
The conversation moved on. Upwell made an observation about the roads from Thirsk. Miss Atherton asked a question about the castle gardens which was answered by Mr. Atherton, who had apparently explored them the previous afternoon. Lucien mentioned that the moors looked particularly bleak this year, which Viscount Hadleigh disagreed with as he’d developed a fondness for them on the previous afternoon's ride.
"I maintain they are bleak," Lucien said. "They match my disposition, it seems."
"Your disposition is not bleak," Corinna told him.
"It's grey in the very least."
