Eleanor seemed to accept that and returned to toys. Violet grabbed her sleeve. “Ta!”
“She does that,” Isadora said. “She’s checking you’re staying.”
Eleanor looked at the hand on her sleeve with the serious consideration she applied to most things. “I’m staying,” she told Violet. “I’m going to be here the whole visit. For three whole days.”
Violet released the sleeve and chewed on her finger.
“She understood,” Eleanor said, her eyes lighting up.
“She understands most things,” Isadora said. “She simply cannot say them back yet.”
“I cannot say yet, too,” Thomas said from the window, with the air of someone contributing to a conversation he had technically been excluded from.
“That’s very wise, darling,” Cecily offered.
Thomas returned to his biscuit, satisfied.
Letitia sat up slightly, tucking her feet beneath her, and looked at Isadora with the expression that meant she had been waiting for the room to settle into something comfortable enough for a real conversation.
“Tell me about the county,” she demanded. “Have you met the neighbors? Are they dreadful? I want the full details.”
“They are mostly very kind,” Isadora answered. “The Ashfields, in particular.”
“Lady Eversleigh came over for dinner,” Cecily elaborated. “I heard from William, who heard from James.”
“What dinner?”
“Their first dinner as a married couple,” she said. “A small affair.”
Letitia looked at Isadora. “You hosted a dinner?”
“It was James’s?—”
“You hosted a dinner,” Letitia interrupted. “Three weeks in, and you’re hosting dinners.”
“It was only eight people.”
“You are very domesticated for someone who said last April that she would rather read every book in England than manage a household.”
“I said I would ratherreadthan attend a Season,” Isadora corrected. “That is different.”
“The implication is the same.”
“The implication is not?—”
“Lady Eversleigh said they suit each other,” Cecily said to no one in particular, looking at her tea.
Letitia turned to her with glittering eyes. “Did she?”
“Apparently.”
“And what did James say in response?”
“He said she was very kind.”
Letitia looked at Isadora.
Isadora looked at Violet.
