“And when do I meet a duke?”
Joanna closed her eyes. “I don’t know. I don’t haveallthe answers.” Her eyes snapped open. “I don’t even know what questions to ask togetthe answers. But I do know that without Mother’s ring, and the money we’ll make by selling it, we will be huddling together for warmth come winter. It is our best—andonly—option.”
Evie sobered. “If Grandmother’s theory about who had the ring stolen is correct, then finding the ring will mean finding your…that is to say, your…er…”
“Birth father?” Joanna had come up with the term last night as she’d restlessly tossed beneath her sheets. She needed to call himsomething, and it seemed as good as anything else. “I understand that. I think…” She plucked at a loose thread on the corner of the pillowcase. “I think that is why Grandmother wants me to go to England more than anything else. To search out that side of me. To find out who, and where, half of me comes from.”
“You come from here,” Claire said with shocking fierceness. “You come fromus.” Her newly fashioned braid whipped through the air as she leapt off the bed and spun in a half-circle. “Going to another country and finding out who your—who yourbirth fatheris isn’t going to change that. You’reoursister. You’re Mother and Father’s eldest daughter. You were born right here, in Somerville.That’swho you are.That’swhere you came from.”
Evie whistled under her breath. “Look at you, little duck,” she said, referring to a nickname they’d given Claire when she was a toddler and waddled when she walked. “I’ve not seen you this riled up since Georgie Pin pinched your arm at the village fair when you were six. Do you remember how red her face turned, Jo?”
“I remember.”
Claire flushed. “I don’t understand what came over me. Joanna, you’re the one who should be upset, not me. I just…I just know I haven’t the courage to travel across an ocean. I could hardly make it to Boston! And I know I’ll worry about you every second that you’re gone.” She gazed beseechingly at Joanna. “Please promise that you…that you won’t forget me.”
“Forgetyou?” Aghast at the very idea, Joanna jumped to her feet and flung her arms around Claire in a hug that left them both breathless. Clasping her sister by the shoulders, she rocked back on her heels and said sternly, “Don’t be ridiculous. If Evie and I go to England, it will bebecauseof you. And even though you won’t be there in person, you’ll still be with us every step of the way.”
Evie gave a long, loud sigh. “You mean when.Whenwe go to England. I’m so sorry,” she murmured, and it took Joanna a moment to realize she was talking to her gown. “I will never forget you.”
Had she not known how very much Evie’s dresses meant to her, Joanna might have been tempted to laugh. As it stood, she needed all of her facial muscles not to smile. “Are you certain?” she asked. “I don’t want to force you to do something you don’t want to do.”
“I’m certain,” Evie said firmly. “It’s only fabric, after all. And this…this is family.”
A burst of unexpected excitement flared within Joanna’s chest. Four days ago, she’d been turning down yet another lackluster engagement proposal. Now, she was on the brink of setting sail on a grand adventure that had the potential to change her past, her present…and her future.
“I’m going to England.” She whispered the words, then shouted them. “I’m going to England!”
“We’regoing to England,” Evie corrected. “Where I will marry a duke, become a duchess, and live happily-ever-after in a grand palace with swans.”
“What color swans?” Claire wondered.
“Two of each color.” Evie tapped her chin. “And a herd of peacocks for good measure. Or is it a peck? A peck of peacocks.”
“A pride, I believe,” said Claire.
“Aprideof peacocks?” Evie shook her head. “That doesn’t sound right.”
Joanna held up her hand. “Mother’s ring first, dukes and birds second.”
“But what if I meet a duke before we—oh, all right,” Evie grumbled when Joanna stared at her. “But I cannot be expected to waitforever. A woman has to have her priorities straight.”
“As soon as we find the ring, you can hunt tree dukes and pick out your peck of peacocks to your heart’s desire.”
“I really think it’s a pride,” Claire said hesitantly.
Joanna pinched the bridge of her nose. “Peck or pride, it doesn’t matter. We are going to England. And we aregoingto get our ring back.”
Chapter Five
London, England
August 19, 1870
Mrs. Privet’s Boarding House for Young, Unaccompanied Women
“He agreed tohelp!” Joanna shouted triumphantly as she let herself into the small, dimly lit bedroom she and Evie were renting for $3 a week. The cost of rent included a single candle, and the proprietor of the boarding house, a stern, heavyset woman by the name of Mrs. Privet, had made it clear that no more candles would be forthcoming if they squandered the one they’d been given.
“Who did?” Evie asked from the bed, her voice muffled from the blanket over her head. It was better, she claimed, to look at nothing than to see the hideous green and yellow wall hangings that covered every inch of their room.
